The first session I had with Tug today consisted mostly of the touch it pattern on the way to go eat grass. When we got back to the barn, I tried the weave pattern like Pat did on the dvd. I realized that I’d been moving my feet a little to much. I probably pushed it a little when I asked Tug to do it at the trot, but it was a lot better than the last time I attempted it. Then, I thought that my level 3 kit was being delivered, so I had to hurry up to the house. When I came back, Dot and Sugar came to me, but Tug stayed in the barn. That told me what he thought about me! So when he finally decided to come to me, I took his halter off and walked back to the barn. He did a lot of lip licking, so who knows!

Then, since I always seem to feel the need to progress, I got Tug again and started with Liberty in the roundpen. He got unconfident so I switched to somethin else…. jumping over cone laying down. I finally got him to put effort into by playing a really slow stick to me and then trotting over the cones, and getting a treat. The second time was when he put the effort in so that’s when he got a treat and when I ended it. Then I started refining mouthing from the fence. He’s gotten pretty good at sideways towards me without a fence, but I really had to refine that while I was sitting on the fence. I remembered reading in my match report that really the only time Tug needed repetition was when he was unconfident or when learning something new. As I repeated the process of getting Tug to actually come to my sideways while I was on the fence, I could really see him relax and try harder!!! Then I climbed on and gave him a treat before feeding.