Phase One

Things just got serious.

I have been working consistently with Abby for just over a year. We have come a long way in that year. We have had a few set backs but we have had far more rewards. And while we have worked hard together, we have not had a real training plan. We have gone to agility class, then on to agility trials, and now we are doing rally class, and hopefully will trial soon. Even with all this training, I have not thought farther ahead then next weeks class. I haven't thought weeks, months, years, into the future because I never really believed that Abby could do well. However, a few weeks ago I actually realized how far she could go if I put the effort into her that I plan on putting into my next dog. Once that clicked, I knew that I had to put more effort into her training.

The end goal with this new training regiment is to have Abby comfortable doing her obedience in a new and public place . . . but we are going to do it in phases because this is Abby and nothing is ever straight forward.

Phase One: Take Abby to as many new places as possible. Abby goes a lot of places but it's rare that she goes anywhere new anymore. My main goal for phase one is to have her be comfortable (hopefully happy) and able to pay attention to me. I think that phase one is going to be a long one - and possibly a never ending one considering her history.

Phase Two: practice basic obedience in comfortable environments. This will eventually go on in conjunction with phase one. Since I can't take her somewhere new every day, we will often go back to places that she is comfortable with and work on basic training there.

Phase Three: ??? I am not entirely sure what phase three will be, but we'll figure that out once we get to phase two.

So, how did day one of phase one go? Not too bad. We went for a walk on a new trail and I got some attention from her. I didn't ask much from her, but did ask her to check in with me from time to time. She did better at the beginning of the walk when there was less distraction. Once the horse walked by she was constantly wondering what kind of bizarre creature would jump out from around the next bend! The weather was crappy so she had to wear a coat! We were lucky though, because as soon as we got back in the car, it started to rain!