One more week of the following posts, then I need to re-evaluate. Five is a bit much for readers to keep up with, really. (Also, taking pictures daily? Sometimes I just want to enjoy my dog! :D) Can I for example both review and plan in the same post? I must think about this.

• Journals and reviews of training on Wednesday and Saturday.
• Planning Sundays.
• People-skills in a separate Folks on Friday post.
• And if something calls on me – Topic Tuesdays for the other stuff that comes up.

Remembering the notes-to-self:

1. Do not train in the mornings.
2. Count out the treats. 5-10 repetitions to a training session.

And then the weekly overview:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Weekend
Grooming and Handling. Chin. Old stuff: Mat, Zen	‘On the Road’; Look at Me, pivots, mat People	New stuff: Pivot to heel, FWS to Tucked Sit, BWS	Old stuff: Paw Agility and Zen People	New stuff: BWS, LM, Pivot to heel	Fun stuff: Tricks, Rally-signs. People

Grooming and handling – continue with choice-based grooming. Using a closed (but loose) cloth muzzle and treating him inside it.

Chin rests – Adding distractions. Moving my hand towards his nose.

Paw – try marking slightly earlier, to get faster turn.

Mat – Game of Thrones ep 5 on Monday night. Continue working to mark for actually relaxing behaviours – dipped head, etc.

Zen and Agility – look at bowl 2-4 seconds. Continue using cavalletti and small jumps.

Rally – ‘on the Road’. Work on ‘Look at Me’ on walks, Pivots out in the garden. Mat in the wild; calm areas first.

Signs at home… 90 and 180 degree turns to the right. These are the easiest, since Fenris will be on the outside, and he tends to go faster than me.

The long term plan is to pretty up these with the pivot and heeling based behaviours down the line.

Pivot – in to heel, each side. First steps here; I move my leg closer and closer to the pivot, preferably moving up to having my ankle next to it, and then start on the ‘rubber-band’ pivots (toss a treat away, dog comes back in position, toss away, dog comes back). He is familiar enough with the concept that we can move quite fast, although the new stand is new and softer so the picture is slightly different for him. Thus the directional confusion in the video.

FWS (Forward Weight Shift) – high and low nose targets for him to stretch towards. Using the bathmat to encourage him to pick his feet up and under him. If it starts to look like the Tucked Sit – excellent.

BWS (Backward Weight Shift) – up to target, down to treat. Practice, practice, practice. Super treats, like cheese. Looking for bent knees.

LM (Lateral movement) – how can I translate this from doing it beside me to general? Maybe start by solidifying into something I can put a cue on? Maybe if I start on the mat and click as he steps on next to me? I’ll give it one week – and if I see no independent progress, I’ll put it on the back burner, for now.

People – trainer recommended at least two walks per week in areas with a guaranteed 4-5 encounters. Always treating for refocusing back on us. This is slow going, I hope we will get to the point where we don’t have to prompt him.

Tricks, such as Middle, introducing Weaving, or Left/Right Spins.