| Step 3
Now try some fun exercises.
Wake up the dog and waggle his
favourite toy. Wake him up again and tell him
this is fun. If he's in the mood think up a phrase that's going to be a trigger on
the start line. I started with "On your marks.....get set", but I felt a bit
silly in
the ring so now I just say "Are you ready?" Waggle the toy again and when
he's ready to run chuck the toy and shout "GO." I know this sounds like
"NO,"
but Jamie responds to "GO." You could try "RUN," or
"CARROTS." Now race
away with the dog to get the toy.
I tried this a few times until
Jamie got the idea. Then I raced him over poles on
the ground and little jumps using the wind up phrase "Are you ready?" at the
start. This made him have a few mad turns but at least he was enjoying going
fast instead of plodding round like a geriatric. We progressed to bigger jumps
and finally we tried it at a show and it worked. We also speeded up the weave
but that's a different story.
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