Well, we've been busy, busy and busier! We've been doing tonnes of training. I am now attempting to train Kez out of her herding habit completely and building tonnes of confidence at the same time. I must say, changing a lot of my training techniques has improved her so much already. I dont let her off now when I know she will just run off straight away and herd Ernie. And when I do let her off instead of letting her run I get a treat and get her heeling. The speed of the improvements has been AMAZING. Yes, she still herds, but not constantly like she used too. It was actually stressing Ernie out, hence why I decided it was time to take action. When she does herd I stop, call her and as soon as she comes back tonnes of treats, some heeling and lots of playing.
As a side product of all this heeling her confidence and trust in me is improving massively. Where heeling is forcing her to look at me constantly without looking around it is improving her focus and trust so much. She is now not looking around so much when doing tricks, if at all, and we are now getting some real agility training in down the woods without her constantly looking around. She's still very nervous of other dogs, but there is a clear huge improvement. Yesterday we had a little chihuahua thing with no recall following us. Kez was barking, growling with teeth showing. She was petrified. As soon as the dog was put on the lead she completely forgot about it. Which is quite interesting. She is a lot better at dogs from a distance too. Shes no longer barking at them or running away. I treat her lots everytime we pass one at a distance and shes so much more confident. Yeah, Im proud of my little girl :). Of course, we still have a huge way to go, even bigger if people keep on not controlling there dogs, but we'll keep going :).
On Sunday we had flyball training. I didn't do anything with Indi, and I think he enjoyed it a lot more without it. That makes me happy :). Instead we did a heck of a lot of agility training. We used a fence as a jump and did some go go go training. Lots of cap training too, oh and weave training. At the end someone set up a set of 12 weave poles. With dogs all around I sent Indi through off-lead and he did perfect! There were all these BC's speeding through and then Indi, showing them all that Spaniels are just as great! Hehe, good boy Indi :).
We did some flyball training with Kez. She enjoyed it lots, and as long as she keeps enjoying it I shall keep doing it with her and maybe enter some starters comps this year. She sure is fast, and loves it!
Oh and one last thing, I might be starting volunteering in a rescue! Something I've always wanted to do, but never really had a rescue close. Then I realised there was one 15 mins drive away, and applied. Hopefully nothing will go wrong, Im so excited for it!
For now, some photos of Sherman at 5 months and some absolutely stunning photos of Kez heeling. Yes, she is a heeling genius! :)
