I took Luigi outside this morning for a few minutes to practice heeling.  I am thinking of entering him in a trial in December to pursue his CD.

I noticed as I’ve been training him, I’ve been treating him too often.  I treat him for everything he does right, even if he does something wrong first.  I will ask him to correct it, and when he does, I treat.  But that’s putting all the responsibility on me for both sides of the team.  Plus, it’s not giving him enough information to get his part right either.  It’s a tricky balance.

One of our rituals includes the halt.  I stop heeling and he sits fairly close, but a lot of times, his rear end sticks out, at which point I tell him to get his butt in and he obliges.  I normally treat him for doing that, but now, I praise and pet him.  I see the wheels turning, “But where’s my treat?”  Where?  Well, when he gets it right the first time, I give him pork.  In the few minutes we were doing the routine, he was getting the message.  Now it’s his responsibility to figure out where to plant himself on the halt.

It’s a little bit hard on me not to treat him every time he does something I ask, but I know we’ll make a better team with a little bit of resolve on both our parts.