Dogs Are Problem Solvers

Gosh, wish I'd thought of that title myself, but it's trainer Connie Cleveland who says and teaches this method. After talking with my friend and brilliant trainer Laurie, I think this will be Moto's creed. After spending time with him tracking (the dog is amazing) and remembering how quickly he learned the weave poles, she helped me come to the conclusion that this dog prefers to think rather than be shown that to do. In other words, he's too darned smart! Of course there are some things he will need to be shown the mechanics of but I need to change my training program to be a series of puzzles and problems for him to solve. If he can think it through he will be far more interested than me simply saying "this is the way to do it, now do it". I knew he would be challenging me but now I'm really being challenged!
Saturday morning we all got up and I was going to take the dogs out to train. I took one look at Blitz and knew immediately he was going on another downhill slide. Nothing drastic, but it was the look in his eyes, the earset and tailset that said that wonderful joy of feeling great was gone. We've gone through this for almost 2 years now and you would think I would be stronger, but it breaks my heart every single time. I want to hug him and cry, but I don't want him to feel my sadness. So I smile, take a deep breath, swallow the lump in my throat and we move through our day. Clearly he's not well enough to train so will go back to just enjoying his life and making him comfortable. Just writing this puts tears in my eyes.
On a happier note, I was thrilled my friend Kathy called to say her new puppy earned a 200 in OPEN! Her other dog got a 199.5. How amazing is THAT???
That was how my Sunday night ended. Hearing her weekend report puts the fire in my belly and with a new method of training to think about, we begin our week.
Onward and forward - all five dogs are here and I'm grateful for them all!