Simon is under the weather today. So we did a little under the weather training. Nothing big, but not up to his lively, energetic self. We make a practice of individually training all the dogs before work in the morning. (Unless we’re working on a group exercise, of course.) The dogs who aren’t training are in their crates in the area. They can watch while they relax. I didn’t want Simon to feel left out, so I had to decide what I wanted to work on that wouldn’t overtax or over-stimulate him.
Why train today?
You might ask why bother to have a training session with Simon at all when he’s not feeling up to par. For one thing, he enjoys it, and it might help him feel a little better. And we’ve found that dogs love consistency. They love routine. If Simon sees his “brothers” training and he doesn’t get a turn, he’s perfectly capable of throwing a tantrum. Or he’ll mope. And a sick, mopey dog is worse than just a sick dog.
Of course, if Simon were severely ill, more than just a little under the weather, we would have been preparing to go to the veterinarian, and not training. We’ve lived with enough dogs to recognize a little bug versus something worse.
So, what did we do?
I didn’t ask for anything new. We worked on positions – the “Get in,” Sit, Down, and we worked on Stay. Simon will be competing in Obedience, so these are important. We did a little bit of heeling – that precise almost-walking that we do in competition Obedience. But not too much. And a little, tiny bit of focus forward – Simon holds his stay when he really wants that toy thrown in front of him.
We didn’t work on anything new – I wanted to keep the session stress-free for Simon. So we worked on reinforcing and perfecting behaviors that he already knew. Learning new things, no matter how much fun the session might be, brings a little stress.
How long?
2-minutes, of course!