Week 2

This week looked a little different.

My dog, Sunny, is still recovering from his paw injury, so our priority was healing first, training second. If he had shown any pain, discomfort or if his paw had looked worse after a session, we would have stopped immediately. Luckily, everything was fine.

Instead of running contacts at speed, we focused on slow, controlled exercises that let us keep working on understanding and decision-making without putting unnecessary stress on his paw.

Small sessions. Lots of rewards. And plenty of observation.

The Contact Project: A-frame training 

This week we continued working with our DIY square. The goal wasn't to make the exercise harder physically—it was to make it harder mentally. I gradually changed my body position and movement to see if Sunny would still choose the square and confidently step inside it. The reward stayed the same throughout every repetition: Sunny stepped into the square, and I tossed a treat forward to reset the exercise.

The Contact Project: Dogwalk training

This week's goal for the dogwalk was confidence. Instead of running the obstacle, we worked on moving slowly and comfortably on a narrow surface. I planned two simple exercises: backing up and turns on the dogwalk.

We started with a warm-up on the floor before moving onto the dogwalk. As soon as we switched to the dogwalk, it was clear that Sunny wasn't completely confident yet. His backing up was hesitant, and at one point he sat down instead of continuing—most likely because I held my reward a little too high. We simply reset the exercise and tried again. The good surprise of the session? Sunny absolutely nailed the turns. He stayed much more confident and balanced than I expected, so we'll definitely keep building on that.

The Contact Project: Seesaw training

The seesaw is still very much a work in progress. Our goal isn't speed yet—it's building muscle memory for the end position. I want Sunny to automatically drive down into the position I need at the end of the seesaw, no matter what is happening around him. We're not there yet, so I'm keeping the exercise simple and setting him up for success. Little by little, I'm adding more movement and excitement to see if he can keep the same behaviour.

This week we practised three versions of the same exercise: a calm repetition, adding a toy as motivation, and finally adding my own movement. The last one showed me exactly what we still need to work on.

This week was about slowing things down and paying attention to the small details. The A-frame showed me that Sunny can stay focused despite distractions, the dogwalk reminded me that confidence comes before speed, and the seesaw showed us that we still need to build more independence in the end position.

His paw is healing well, so for now we're happy with these small steps.

Next week, we'll focus on fitness exercises to strengthen the skills behind our contacts and see how Sunny handles them.

See you in Week 3! 🐾