Articles

My latest issue of Front & Finish has finally been read cover-to-cover (CONGRATULATIONS Laurie on being the #1 Obedience dog!).
One item really caught my interest and that was Laura's article on scent discrimination. She is of the theory in teaching articles that "silence means you are right", which sounded pretty interesting. Since Moto is soft and worries about being right I felt this teaching may be appropriate for him. And since I haven't been at teaching articles for awhile it might not be too late to start over.
So yesterday we gave it a try.
I backchained alll the way back to just having one article out and grinning broadly when he picked it up. Once he presents the article we have a big release, praise and treats. He really enjoyed the game.
My problem is I got too greedy and progressed too far too fast and ran into a snag when I reintroduced the leather article. So I just made sure he knew to get it and bring it back and called it a day. We'll go back at it today, starting with leather. I like this theory and will stick with it - given Moto's temperament this should work out great.
We also had a fun match on Sunday and my goal was to ask for attention. In Open we did the"A" pattern since we aren't yet into the conditioning phase and it was a bit of a struggle, particularly during the figure 8. It was a loud and noisy sho n go - perfect for getting him used to a real show. The highlight of the run was when the "judge" (who owns a BC) said "Wow! A Sheltie who runs out AND back to retrieve the dumbbell! I've never seen that!" We hung out for Novice and it was a lot quieter so I had much better attention. It wasn't picture-perfect, not near show-ready, but then again we haven't been able to get out due to the weather. When will this winter EVER end?