Proofing

Between a missed entry, lack of money, and conflicting plans, Lance's last obedience trial of the year was apparently our October trial.

So I've been working quite a bit on proofing all his exercises lately.  Trying to be creative and just having fun with testing his understanding.

Some proofs that Lance still needs a bit of work on are:

Winter is here :(

1. Hidden glove, but visible distraction.  Lance easily knows to go to the glove I direct vs veering off for a distraction.  Also knows to take a line even if he can't see the glove (behind a pole or tucked near up against a gate).  But being told to go in the direction of a food bowl, towards a glove he can't see, blew his mind.  Especially if an easily visible glove was an option!

2. Go outs with a "maze" of closer gates.  If I stagger some ring gates so they're at different distances, especially if not far off his "path" than Lance can sometimes be fooled to stop early and whack a closer gate.  Overall Lance is pretty good at this but is more likely to fail if the closer gates have a mat hanging on them or a cone next to it.

3. Drop on recalls while I throw a dumbbell on the drop cue.  Lance is pretty good at ignoring dropped food or toys, but his dumbbell he apparently doesn't think is a trick.

4. Long line of articles, going away from him.  Not so much failing on this one, just some confidence building needed.  Lance is best when the article is placed midway or at the end.  If it's towards the beginning he is slow to come all the way back to check for it (as usually he blasts past the first 2-3 articles before actually searching).

Vito has hardly worked any obedience these last several weeks.  But I worked him at the club earlier this week and he was SO happy and eager to engage with me.  Took no time at all to choose to start work and we needed to address forging/bumping/crowding issues!