Steps forward ..

We're loving our long Autumn walks ... the UK is ablaze with golden leaves right now and it really is a fabulous time for dog walks!

Polly's recall has improved in leaps and rather excitable bounds of late, which has meant she has been able to enjoy plenty of off lead time during our walks.

Like an anxious mum, I call her back the moment she dips out of sight and don't take my eyes off her for a moment - just like I used to with my children when they were first making their way in the world!  She's great at racing back to me now, is learning not to race too far ahead and has also started to check in from time to time without me actually calling her back, so I think it's safe to say she now has the hang of what's expected of her and the long months of recall training have paid off.  

Training is far from over though, as I think we still need to master a reliable emergency stop ... only then can I be confident I have done all I can to help Polly stay as safe as possible whilst off lead.  After speaking to our instructor today, I think we have the basic play elements in place to build an emergency stop but need to work out how to pull these together to teach Polly to develop fun time with mum on the playing field, into an impressive emergency stop ... 

I'm thinking this is probably going to be much easier said than done!

:-)