I had grand plans today of working on distractions in a real world walk at a local reservoir. I haven't been taking Peaches to this location much as I'm pretty sure it's the location they used to film Watership Down (filled with rabbits). I noticed the rabbit activity had died down as it's winter and thought I'd see if I could transfer some of the work I'd done with Sheep to Rabbits. I had a good walk here the other day, and even got an automatic recall from a rabbit at distance, but today was a little more challenging. Looking back I didn't set her up for success. I moved in too close to where I knew the rabbits hung out and one bolted across the green. It's moments like that I realise just how powerful a 60kg dog can be. Lucky for me I'm a big bloke 🤣. Lessons learned and we reconvene tomorrow a little more humble 💪. No video (thank God 🤣)

Well, finally I have a bag of kibble. I ordered some and paid extra for it to come on Wednesday morning. Then I got a notification to say it was delivered on Tuesday - except it wasn't. Turns out the driver didn't bother to put a card through and my neighbours been hanging onto it for a few days waiting for me to come around to collect it 🤦‍♂️ I like to use the kibble for training because it means I can just use their breakfast and I don't have to grab anything extra. Plus, the kibble is a good size so I can get loads of reps into a session. Today fueled by my recent hatred of positions, I had a re-think. I went onto Dave Kroyer's academy and watched his position tutorials, and with @Charmaine Willis 's comments in my mind - I thought screw it. Screw the fancy shit I've been trying to employ. Screw teaching the three together. I'm going back to basics, pure lure and reward, then fading the lure - no equipment or gimmicks and I'll just focus on Down today. It's too early to say but it felt productive and way more in my comfort zone. I'll do some more of this and we'll see how we go but I'm feeling optimistic. As a bonus it's a beautiful clear blue sky today which makes training outdoors a bit more pleasant.

We started the day tracking this morning and she was relatively good until around half way and spun in a circle and then back on track. I followed the same track with Tank and he also lost the track in the same area. He could have been following Rogue's track or it could have been a slightly less dense spot of scent or maybe the smell of a mole as there were some mole hills but I'm guessing at this stage. I know you aren't meant to let dogs go on another track but there isn't enough space and I won't compete with Tank. It's just because he enjoys it. Rogue's stand out of motion is relatively good. I just need to start creating space I think now. The down out of motion is relatively good and is still an active down without getting sloppy so happy with these at the moment. Heelwork was a bit trickier at keeping her attention as took her down to the field tonight while the rugby team was practicing. Which she still managed to disengage once I caught her attention. Positive day today I think. 😊

It wasn't a big day today but did some article indication which is slowly improving which is good as we seemed to go backwards slightly so taking a different approach and standing over her instead of in front as she was conflicted because how I've been training downs in obedience. Then just doing some hind end awareness as she has been coming in skew to front present.

We've had an influx of new members and many of you won't know each other so I thought it would be fun to share some photos. What's the photo you show people when they ask to see your dog? Here are mine; Lupe, Onyx, Louis, Pablo.