Just had a great little late night training session. I had been having a problem with Viljo with the weave poles. His entrances and first few poles have consistently been good but then he would look to me while in the poles and mess up what had started really well. As my instructor said, it was because I was carrying his reward (which has not been an issue with Owl or Nexus). So I started putting the food in a treat pouch and throwing it past the end of the weaves while he was in them. But that did not help because then he was looking to me to throw it! I tried using a target for him to hit after the weaves. Results with that were poor. I have been thinking that I might have to get one of those remote Ready Treat things. But this week I thought that it might work for me to just lay the treat pouch on the floor at the end of the weaves. It has rabbit fur on the outside (!) and I put the reward inside and Viljo loves to pounce on it and shake it very hard. So I was skeptical that I could leave it on the floor like that and Viljo would leave it alone until completing the weaves. But it has worked beautifully! It took just two times of me dropping it on the floor, Viljo rushing to grab it, and me explaining to him that he must do the weaves first and then he can have it. He understood so quickly! In this past week, he has gone from 8 poles often done shabbily to 12 poles consistently done well. Besides accurate completion, finally getting the focus off me has increased his rhythm and speed significantly. Yaaay!!
