Zane has had two lessons with his training wheels for carting. First lesson was just to get him comfortable with the contraption, walking between the shafts, and seeing the whole thing move while I pulled it. This morning he learned to accept the shafts moving and the whole thing moving as he walked between the shafts.
A group of us get together as many Friday evenings as possible to help each other prepare for the obedience ring. We do a lot of proofing and distraction work. Last night was great. While Bella did her retrieves, a friend threw a stick of string cheese just past the dumbbell. Could she bring the dumbbell back without grabbing the cheese? The first time I had to stop her from going to the cheese (a verbal stop). The second time she got the dumbbell, veered toward the cheese, but turned and came back. The third time, clean pickup and turn and return. Perfect!
We didn't get to that point overnight, nor is it something I would expect her to succeed at without foundation work to get her there. First we started with hand touches through distractions. I held food in one hand and asked for a touch to the other. So she had to turn away from the cheese to touch the other hand in order to get the cheese. Very Zen. Then I did the same thing with a dumbbell. The key is, she doesn't get food unless I release her to it. But "take it" always means retrieve something and bring it back. It does not mean get the food. So simple baby steps leading up to an impressive result.
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