I purchased some pictures from the photographer who was at the dock diving competition on Saturday, so I figured I should save them here for posterity. Saturday was the crummy day that rained most of the day, so I was happy to have any shots that turned out. I really love the shot of Jedi swimming with the bumper. The head-on shot of him launching off the dock is my next favorite. In addition to thinking pre-trial rest days (or "save your energy" days) are a load of crap, Jedi also doesn't believe in post-trial quiet days. Nope, he was totally raring to go yesterday. Sleeping is for suckers.
Tonight I opted for some impulse control games worked into our play time. I've introduced the idea of leaving a toy on the ground and asking Jedi to do something before he's released to it, but it's been a while since I've asked him to do this. In the few times I did give this a go it was a struggle for Jedi and we didn't get very far. I'm happy to say we made a lot of progress tonight! It wasn't instant success, that's for sure, but we worked our way through it and I think it really clicked for Jedi. I think impulse control is hugely important for a dog with as much "drive" as Jedi, but I always want there to be a balance and don't want to squash any of his enthusiasm. I think that would be hard to do in Jedi's case, but I'm still mindful of it.
The first challenge was simply to get Jedi to walk away from the toy on the ground. We were playing with the Holee Roller tonight, so this was very, very hard. I had to lead him away by the collar a few times to get him further than two feet away. I asked for a simple behavior like sit and immediately released him to the toy. He started to figure the game out pretty quickly. We worked up to leaving the toy at the end of 3 hoops/standards, walking to the first obstacle, sitting, and then releasing to the toy. Jedi was very proud of himself and took a great number of victory laps upon retrieving his prize.
Once Jedi was able to walk with me away from the toy to set up at the other end, I moved to setting the toy lateral to him and having him go up 3 obstacles and then down the middle back to his toy (I have 3 rows of 3 hoops/standards set in the yard right now | | | ). We did this in all directions and with me standing in the middle for a post turn and with me on the outside for a rear cross. I was feeling a little crazy, so I decided to finish with a full on sequence of up the line, down the middle, up the other side (so, a big S). We left the toy in the upper left and walked to the lower right to start. Jedi went super wide on that first turn and started to run to his toy, but he came back, only missing the top center jump standards, and finished the sequence before flying to his toy. He did it even better the next time and got all 9 "jumps" in the sequence! We had a big party and ended there. That is a phenomenal level of control for a puppy Jedi's age and with his insane love of toys. It was fun to watch him make that dive for the toy -- he'll be one who really flies down that last line of jumps on a course. :o)
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