Elton graduated from his puppy class last night...knowing less than when he started lol. He appears to have forgotten what down means....he knew it and was doing it really well, then this last week or two I really am not sure he knows what it means....I don't know what the matter with him is! Must be adolescence...

So next week Solei moves up to the next class, and Elton will be taking a break for a while...at the moment I don't feel he'd gain enough from going on to the next class, I need to work with him at home a bit longer and refine a few things...his stay is still incredibly ropy and as I say, his knowledge of the word down has left him! Once he is doing reliable 10 second (at least) stays and responds to 99% of requests to lie down as he does to sit, then I'll be happy to take him back! Might take him to the odd class in the mean time, if I feel like it. Hopefully it won't take too long anyway!

Then this morning Elton and I had our first session of box play! "The box" is something I gave up with with Solei - he's such a sensitive dog, which extends to anything which he feels might hurt him...I wouldn't call him nervous, more wary? He's so sensitive to any kind of sudden noise..etc. So when Solei and I tried to play with the box I put a piece of high value food in the middle of the box....Solei would go right up to it, lean his head as far forward as possible and stick his tongue out to try and grab it...but there's absolutely NO WAY he's even going to think about putting a paw on it :-P

I've been wanting a wobble board for ages, but haven't yet found one I'm happy with...I think I'm going to end up making my own, but I need to work out how would be best!

Yes, anyway. So then I put Solei away and got Elton out...wow, he's everything his dad isn't lol. Though I do wonder; I think if I'd been able to put into Solei what I have into Elton (Solei was 3 days off 3 years old when I got him) he'd be quite different...though I don't think he'd ever have been quite like Elton! So there's Elton on the floor with this fairly large cardboard box, with very little encouragement he puts his front paws on it :-) Gets suitably rewarded, thinks this is good so stays there...I get him off, he puts paws back up - excellent! Then I turned it upside down and he was jumping in and out of it, turned it back the other way and he was jumping on and off it and doing sits and downs on the box :-D Couldn't ask for more! He was confident, enthuasiastic and it was just a very positive session. Now I just need to find a small basket or bucket of a suitable height because I want to teach him to walk round it with his back legs, whilst keeping his front legs on it....this box is too big really, but it was the only thing I had of a suitable height.

I think that's about all...we've still been working on trotting nicely in the ring, but last weekend we had a show and he actually felt like his daddy (Solei outmoves just about every Pap around atm and feels incredible on the move) when I moved him, so that was very positive! He's a lot more settled on the move at the moment, but we're now having issues with tablework! Elton is quite a submissive dog and he's not keen on anyone picking him up, nor is he keen on people putting their hands round him in a certain way. I realised part of the problem was he didn't like judges approaching him from the front, so I started standing in front of him instead of to the side (he backs away, was even doing it with me to start with) and now the problem is hands coming towards his front....so that's what we're working on now! When I feed him I usually give him half as a training session on the floor (sits, downs, targeting, spins...etc) and then half on the table, so I'm still doing that but instead of just making him stand on the table and then giving him the bowl I'm handfeeding some of it whilst my hands come at him from the front and touch him. We seem to be making progress :-) There's a full month between his last show and his next, so plenty of time to work on it.

There was a bit of a blow yesterday when I found out there's no chance of any agility before May. I miss it so much and I've been dying to get back. I was hopeful that as soon as the weather cleared up we'd be able to start again, so to find I'm looking at at least three more months is just...meh.

Our garden is completely unsuitable, but I reckon my grandfather's is big enough and flat enough to set up a few jumps...so I'm going to buy a few cones & poles and a rigid tunnel and see if I can set something up there so at least I'm doing something.