As Darcy started fitting at 7 months I have suddenly got all apprehensive! I know I have no reason to be concerned - but I still have that nagging feeling. I am sure it will pass.

Ellie is going through a naughty phase. I think she has chewed her way through Scott's entire dinosaur collection! She has started picking the fake coals out of the fireplace and mashing them into the carpet. She has also started to intimidate Darcy into giving up his food bowl (which is not good considering he has his medication in his food). I am hopeful that she has just hit the doggy equivalent of the "terrible twos"! When I am training her, she gets quite cross if I don't respond in the way she would like - then she barks at me!

I find it quite a challenge that Ellie is still so small. I hadn't expected her to be so petite. I am sure that she will grow another inch or two but she is never going to be be tall. George calls her "half-pint". It means that I am having to get used to a whole new heelwork position. All my other dogs have been tall (with ear almost reaching to hip height). Ellie's ear is only a few inches above my knee! I have been a bit worried about being so dithery about her position. She needs clear guidance from me, not all this mucking around!

We have made good progress on our distance control(DC). She is doing all the positions nicely but she had been adding the bark to go with them. So, I taught her to speak on command and then taught her all the positions with a speak command so that I could isolate the "speak" part. Also, calming the exercise down helped. We now have a reasonably reliable and quiet DC.

We have done quite a bit of work on our stays. As a dog who is not keen on staying still (she is dancing around most of the time) it is vital that we crack the stays early on. I think we have made good progress but we now need to start proofing and generalising the exercise to get it really solid.

Our front presents are a bit boisterous. Ellie tends to slam into the position rather than place herself carefully. This means that she is very "front ended" and as a good front present entails the dog placing its back end accurately, we need to get Ellie to focus more on where and how she is placing her bottom. This exercise causes some frustration and needs a bit more work.

Ellie's sendaway is quite strong. She is quite determined to target the Alley Oop and will do several runs for one reward (I sometimes have to insist that she actually touch the target as she can anticipate the "click" and head back before touching it). I have no introduced front markers and this does not seem to cause any problem.

So, we have plenty to work on - the problem is finding enough hours in the day to train. Ellie hates me training Darcy and barks the whole time. He does the same when I train Ellie. I feel for the neighbours...

This page was updated on 5th June 2004