I decided to try and film myself today. Not an easy task but I did it…

The first video is of Kestrel practicing heeling with my wheelchair. She is basically off leash but dragging her long line which I keep running over!

You will she she does fairly well. She really strives to find heel position especially when I stop. She will try to properly reposition herself without me saying or doing anything. The one time she gets very out of position and instead of clicking and treating her for getting back to heel position, I make her work for it by doing a shake, down, sit, and nose touch before rolling forward again and THEN clicking and treating for heeling nicely…

Then we practiced some stays and recalls from a very short distance. I was trying to stay in the frame…

She did well except two issues. One was when she decided she was thirsty and wanted to drink from the puddle. Ick.. The other was she was so distracted by all that was going around her she she couldn’t manage to get into a stand stay as well as she normally does, and then she broke it at the last second. Not bad considering there were men working right behind her and making lots of noise and there was another dog in the park next door. Still needs work but she IS only 11 months old!

In this next video we practice her retrieve. She is just beginning this training so she isn’t the great yet. Some things she likes to try and chew a little before she brings them to me. I am sure she will grow out of it with time!

The next video is of Kestrel touching a nose target that is sunk into the grass. Right now she is trying to determine whether I want her to touch it with her feet or her nose. I am just encouraging her to interact with in in any way and will try and shape for just the nose touch as we move along.

Once she really has this down I will be able to place it in the grass at a good distance and have her run to it and touch it and run back. Fun and good exercise!

And last but not least, Kestrel fetching the ball in the park. I like to let her really stretch her legs each morning because our backyard isn’t ‘that’ big. So fetching with my little Chuckit and the small ball (which she prefers for some reason) with her long line on ‘just in case’ is fun for her!