Reflection #5 -- "Ready?"

Denise suggested that I use a short leash and have it on him while training. It is short enough to loop into the harness and he won't really even know it is there. But when he doesn't do what I ask I can easily grab the leash and correct him.>>

I'm not sure about his one. If your dog is close enough to you to grab this leash, then he is probably still paying some attention and you do not need it, otherwise it is the cart you need to grab. And if you are to be grabbing the cart, why bother with the leash... If jerking on a leash is your only method of expressing disapproval, than maybe, but if your dog responds to "no" or similar, I'm not sure the leash is very useful once the dog can be safe without it. And it is a big psychological difficulty to give up the leash for most people.

If you want to use it though, I tried today looping a regular leash to the end of the cart and snapping the other end to the dog (to this ring on the back of the harness, on top). I was in an on leash park, so I had a dog on a leash and I could hold it, while there were many people around, but it did not get tangled into everything while we worked off leash, like a short leash probably would. And it was 6', so I actually could grab it from behind the cart.
<<
Keith suggested running in the opposite direction >>

I do this with Magic a lot. She races forward, so I fall back and she waits for me. I don't run in the opposite direction, because I do not want her to twist in the cart, but I just walk slower and work from behind. I think this is a good one for a dog that doesn't tend to turn in the shafts. And for a dog that pays enough attention to notice that you are missing in the first place :-).

<<
is you say the name, they look at you,
>>

I use the words "ready" and "watch" to have a dog look at me. "Ready", because it's so useful in the ring: the judge asks if I'm ready, my dog is daydreaming, I respond with "ready" and the dog stares at me. And I use "watch" because it makes more sense to a human. But both mean exactly the same thing as a dog command.

And I have no doubt that Molly's idea of working every day would do wonders, I wish I had the time.

But then, Magic is not completely ready to compete in draft, so I'm not sure if any of this really works or just appears to work.

Ida