DAY 21: FIRST TIME TOTALLY OFF-LEASH

DAY 21: Cold today! Wasn’t I just sweating in Helena, where the high temps broke a record??? Now I come back home to Crane, and it’s cold and rainy! RAIN!!! I can practice in RAIN. So no staying home for me today! It is historically rainy at the GWDC Road Trial in October, and I’ve been worried that I would not be able to get in any practice in the rain. Violá! It was out in the rain we went!
We walked on the flexi for 1.2 miles as usual, with some random comes and sits. The rain had stopped by the time I got the horse saddled, but on our second “lap” around the property, the wind was nearly gale force, and a light rain was falling. Crosby took it like a trooper! No problem for him! I took him completely off-leash, and he had no problem staying with me. As a matter of fact, sometimes he wouldn’t leave me, so I couldn’t even practice a recall. That means I will have to teach him to do a sit-stay for a “formal” type recall. That is much harder (IMHO) than teaching a simple “release” and “recall”. I’ll need to practice that on the ground first.
We also practiced the SPEED exercise. I’ve loped a few times with Crosby on leash, but it’s hard to tell if he would keep up with the horse on his own. So today, with Crosby off-leash, I “whooped it up” and galloped. Crosby was right with me! And he loved it! Sure hope I can get a rental horse that doesn’t mind me “whooping it up”!
I practiced the sit-stay twice today, and neither one was very successful. When I told Crosby to sit (off-leash, me on horseback), he just looked at me. It wasn’t like he was running off or ignoring me – he really just LOOKED at me. This means he doesn’t understand the word yet, or he isn’t LISTENING to the verbal command. I think he is too used to responding to body language and hand movements – he isn’t really LISTENING to the actual words that come out of my mouth. So when I said, “SIT”, and it was not accompanied by fingers in front of his nose, or whatever, he just looked at me like, “What? What is it you want? Show me?” He was off-leash, so I couldn’t correct with a collar correction, and I couldn’t be too rough with him (that would make him run from me), so after repeating the command several times with no correct response, I dismounted (Crosby thought I was bringing him a treat) and gently put him into the sit. I need to practice more on the ground, and on horseback, making sure I’m not giving some sort of hand signal. I need him to respond to my verbal command. That’s the problem with teaching Rally. You can do so many double commands and signal/verbal combinations, that the dog doesn’t learn to respond to simple verbal commands. More work to do!
The second time we practiced the sit stay, he sat on command, but then he got up after 30 seconds. He just doesn’t understand yet that when I say STAY, I mean FOREVER! (Silly boy!). You have to admit, though, he’s doing REMARKABLY well for having been here less than 3 weeks!
We went off the path today and traipsed through some of the bottom land on the back of the property. Crosby flushed some pheasants, but I don’t think he knew it! Good thing! Mileage today: about 4.