Well, I took Betty to the park today and worked on some of her commands. She's doing pretty well. We decided to work on her Stay, Wait, and Come commands. I wanted to see how far I could get from her, without her coming to me. It was about 25-30 yards. So we started there. We did this for an hour, and I got farther and farther, praising her lots and good treats. When I was further away, I started using the hand signal for Come instead of having to yell it. I got to about 75 long paces from her, and she was doing it almost every time. A couple times I did have to repeat the hand signal and yell Come, but for the most part, that's the line where we can start working on hand signal only. This is just over 50 yards away. When I mean long paces, I don't mean regular walking paces, but long strides. So I'm guessing anywhere between 50-60 yards, possibly a little farther. So that's a great sign.
After we were done, we started our slow walk back towards the car, as she was beat. Then we could see the people walking down by the river on the trail with their dogs, and Betty saw them, and started running towards them. Then I said, Betty, Come, she instantly turned around and came back to me. Another good sign. I think the Come training I've been working on for the last 2 weeks or so is starting to pay off. Before, when she started running like that, I would have to scream at her to come, and she would stop but not come back until I started walking towards her, then she would walk back like she did something wrong. And other times, she would go about 50 yards before turning back, with me calling and screaming, lol. So that's going pretty well.
Then, when we were getting closer to the car, I decided we would stay a little longer and just play around. Guess who showed up? The min pin that we haven't seen for a couple weeks came out in their yard, and Betty heard him, and raced to him. They sniffed, then began to play. Then the min pin would bark, and then race up the fenceline, and Betty would race along with him, then they would sniff again. Then he would play bow, and take off, and Betty would race along with him. They had a blast. I let this go for another 30 minutes or so, then when I needed to get back to the car, I called Betty, Betty, Come. And she instantly came, and we went to the car. I didn't have to leash her to get her away like I did the last time. So, I think it's beginning to pay off. She would have never done this before.
Well, tomorrow is school again. Will see what we are going to work on. She loves going there for class. Will let you know how things go, and what we work on.....