I have been working with Wyatt on his sits in a different way. For a long time, I did not worry about fidgeting and just focused on not going down. But now, I am working on the fidgeting, especially the rear legs. So I am rewarding for increasingly longer intervals of complete stillness. Seems to be helping but not too confident it will cross over to the trial setting.
I am working with Patriot on out of sight sits, again, working up to longer and longer out of sight times. I am also working to increase his motivation on retrieve on flat, which was our main problem in both open attempts. I have been holding him back and saying, “Ready, ready, ready?” and I can feel the pressure of him wanted to go out and get the dumbbell. I also back up when he is coming towards me and praising during the retrieve, which all seems to be increasing his motivation. Trying to find a free weekend to enter him in Open again, not sure how many local indoor trials I can find easily. May have to wait until summer. But I really think he is close to being able to qualify.
