[Grhyno]

This is where I am right now…I have a seven month old Border Collie who is high energy and soooooo happy to be in the world. I am doing exercises in the house and in the yard as far as walking behind me/beside me, eye contact, recall…but once we are out of the fence, it’s nose to the ground and full speed ahead. What I’m wondering is, should I extend my exercises out the gate, down the driveway and part way onto the street…further and further each time.. so that he sees the exercises were are doing inside/in the yard are supposed to alter his behavior on the walk. If I do the exercises only in the yard or house, does he only associate their meaning to those areas? Or is it a combination of his age and that we just haven’t done enough work/repetitions yet?

And yes, he does get lots of exercise otherwise, on the treadmill and we jog. It’s the walk…oh the walk. I’ve just started watching the videos here, and am working on leash manners, but this is my first week.

Gail

[Grhyno]

I just finished with this command, and it was the end result of an exercise to teach good eye contact. I hold a treat to the side of my dogs head, when he looks at me, and not at the treat, I give it to him. Repeat many times. When he/she gets good at that, I move the treat to a different location. When he looks I treat. Then I gradually start asking for more eye contact before he gets the treat. Then I move to putting it on my knee (I’m kneeling in front of him), now when I do this part I say ‘leave it’. Then when he gives me eye contact I say ‘take it’. Once I was done with this exercise many times I saw that I could say ‘leave it’ with toys, the cat, objects around the house and garbage we pass on the street. Hope that helps!

Gail