Here are the sessions of Lyra that I taped a few days ago – I strung them all together in one long 11 minute video.

I push her pretty hard here, which is unusual.  You’ll hear No Reward Markers (NRM’s) as we work on some heeling details.  I do this because 1) she’s in a good mood, and 2) she’s been very good at these lately, so I believe if she tries harder she can win.  As a general rule, I would not allow a dog to fail as much as I did here without making changes somewhere.

All of the work in the firs several minutes is designed to improve her left turns since she tends to forge and keep her rear end out.

I cut out the directed jumping because it was mostly off camera:(.

I use play to keep her in the game.  She does not like working for food, and it’s very easy to lose her speed and attitude if I’m not careful.

I work on precision fronts, followed by precision fronts with a dumbbell.  And finally, I try to combine those with a quiet dumbbell retrieve, with mixed success.

This is a very hard and boring session for Lyra.  She’s working for food and the emphasis is on precision behaviors.  Not much to recommend that, so I try to incorporate some play sessions to keep her cheerful.

Our next couple of training sessions should probably emphasize more movement and the fun stuff.  Simultaneously, I’ll  go back to doing some specific precision work in the house where she is more comfortable working for food.