First dare on single track

I went out to the trails with only M'Opus today. It was a little too late to profit from morning chill, therefore hotter than ideal to run a dog. I thought that since I could expect Mopus to be slower, I would dare some single track....Wow! I didn't expect such training benefit from running on a single track.
On the narrow twisty trail, M'Opus was very attentive to what was going on behind; more than ever, I felt her attentive to my commands and directions. When we came to intersections she was clearly looking for instructions. I think that short runs on single track might become part of our training, I think there is an opportunity there to reinforce good communication and response between me and my dog.

M.E. Fhast teaches me the lesson

M.E. Fhast showed me something interesting today. I was working on the whaooo with her. All we do is run together and when I say Whaooo ooo we both STOP! And reward. It's working really well, she has figured out that the Whaooo ooo is a stop. Eventually I will delay stopping myself and leave her the first initiative on the command. Anyway, that was not the interesting part. Once in a while we get this strange reaction form our dog and wonder what on earth went through there head. Most often I think the reactions have a good explanation. On one of our STOP! M.E. bucked, gave me this worried look and didn't come to my hand for her reward. ???? Quick play back in my head...realization! My command came out wrong. I use a looong, extended  whaaaoooo ooo to indicate a stop but this time, by mistake, from the excitement about my dog picking up so well, I gave a dry Wo! ...well that sounds the hell of a lot like a No! M.E. is one of those dogs that wants to do well, doing wrong upsets her. Doing wrong and not knowing what has really put her off. I sat down, comforted her a little and we did one more run and stop but my mistake had upset her spirit, not worth keeping going. Lesson learned, next time I'll do better.

 

Working on Waoo