Able is now 17 weeks old. Last week he went for his “real” off-lead walk, with no long line.
We’ve been “walking” at Knottingley for several weeks now. These are not really “walks” in the exercise sense of the word – at this age he can get all the exercise he needs in the back yard. They are chances for the puppy to explore new things, and for me to work on his recall in new, very distracting locations. We don’t go very far on these walks – under a kilometre – and after every 60-90 seconds of exploration, I call Able and we play together. We usually do our first little bit of walking alone, and then I get my older dog Rik out of the car to join us.
The first time I called Able while he was eating sheep poo, he ignored me so I walked up to him, took him by the collar and removed him from the sheep poo. I got him to do a hand target, then I let him go back to his sheep poo.
The second time I called Able while he was eating sheep poo, he tried to trot off with it in his mouth. I stopped him (gently) with the lead after one stride. The poo fell out of his mouth and he couldn’t reach it. I waited calmly and quietly through a little puppy meltdown, until he decided to come to me so we could have a game.
The third time I called Able while he was eating sheep poo … I was running out of daylight and the zen-ness required to train a puppy, but he didn’t want to get back in the car. I picked him up and popped him into his crate and we drove off.
