fire and control

A few weeks ago during one of our nightly (well, maybe not exactly nightly but we do try to train nearly every night) I enlisted the help of both my Mom and my Dad.  Dad was choosing and holding up the Rally signs for us to work on and Mom was holding the full length mirror (big girl + very small dog means I can’t really see where she is in relation to perfect heel position without getting myself completely out of position).

As we were working my Dad made a comment,

“You know, you’re really lucky that you’ve got a dog that absolutely LOVES all this stuff.”

And she does.  She absolutely LOVES training.  Whether we’re doing obedience or tricks, she just really enjoys working with me.  And I am lucky.  To have such a drive-y dog in such a small package.  A dog who will respond above and beyond my expectations.  People ask me all the time “Why does she just keep staring at you?  How do you get her to do that?  Did you train her to keep her eyes on you at all times?”  We just work that well together.  We are a team.

The only thing holding us back from dominating the dog sport world is our location.  There is NOTHING down here.  Our nearest obedience club is more than two hours away.  No one has ever heard of earthdog or canine freestyle.  Sure some people enjoy throwing a ball or frisbee for their dog or teaching them to down and stay but no one wants to pursue any of that as a sport and actually compete.  But I love this stuff.  Thankfully so does my dog.

So yes, I am lucky to have such a ready and willing dog.  And I will take her as far as I possibly can even with our current limitations.  She is everything you could ever want in a performance dog.  And I am very very lucky that she loves this “stuff” so much, because so do I.