Review

We have kept with the go-out plan that I mentioned before. The focus and comprehension of this exercise is improving with each day. Sunday morning we went out for 20 minutes. Every single go-out he did was perfect and at 30ft. I only had to 'mark' him to a spot once, and he went straight out and sat when I told him. That wonderful glimmer of hope made my day.

This evening we went to the busy play ground again and did some more go-outs in the field behind it. Not quite the repeat performance from Sunday since he stopped short twice, but pretty close. I was most impressed with the fact that he didn't even bat an eye when I sent him on a path that included surface changes (grass to blacktop/sidewalk, grass to blacktop to grass again, etc). Of course the kids didn't bother him at all - that is one thing that isn't a very good distraction any more.

I am very pleased with him. We just have 10 more feet to add on, and then we are back to marrying the go-outs with the directed jumping again.
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This is the video from last weekend's trail (the one where he threw HIT away to lay down during sit stays.....)
Since then we have done 1098341230984 sit stays and we have about 20394820983 more to do. :) I can tell we have put off this sit-stay work for way to long because the amount of times I am having to go back and reposition him.

On the bright side of things, I am really really pleased with the rest of Rugby's performance. He gave me a steadiness and fell into a very nice working "mode" where he has previously never given that to me. Had he qualified, this would have been his highest score yet in Open. Since the scores are steadily increasing, it is reassurance that we are on the right track! There are some things to work on still, but he is definitely improving!

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I was so distracted by Rugby's NQ last weekend that I forgot to mention that Lilly, the golden retriever, got her third novice leg and a 3rd place in Novice B!!! YEAH Lilly!