Workaholic Sheltie
Penni was overwhelmingly energetic when I got home today. And no wonder, she had spent an eight-hour day on her own with only a minimal walk in the morning. Nonetheless, she is well-mannered enough not to do any mischief despite feeling what must be an extreme boredom squared. Therefore, she deserved no less then a long walk with enough play and activity to satisfy her mentally and physically. And that was exactly what I had in mind; a walk spiced with obedience training and playing in the snow.
We walked to a football field next to the local primary school and found it both empty and adequately maintained (there is some thirty centimeters of snow on the ground). We began by practising recall that is one Penni's favourite exercises (because she gets to run). We then trained retrieving which is a relatively new exercise to her and she needs more certainty for her performance. These two were followed by recall with a stop to stand. She performed nicely considering her current sills. I placed a treat behind her, too, and either handed her a reward or let her eat the treat behind her. This is the best way, which I have figured out so far, to motivate her to run fast and to stop rapidly.
By now she had boiled of most of her excess energy with the aforementioned exercises and hunting snowballs during the training breaks. Hence, I felt she could concentrate well enough to learn a new piece of an exercise; to sit down from heeling free. She already masters laying down and stopping to stand from heeling, both of which were required in the novice class. Sitting down from heeling is the third element in the square exercise required in the championship class (the highest obedience class in Finland). The other two are laying down and stopping to stand from heeling.
It took us only a few repeats for her to understand what I wanted. I am still sometimes amazed how quickly she can learn. Of course, she knows what sit means, which must help her quite a bit. Nonetheless, I am very happy with enthusiams to learn and adopt new exercises and tricks.
By then, we had been out some three quarters of an hour of which we had practised about half an hour. I decided to end the exercises for the day and throw her more snowballs and then continue our walk.
We took a track around the field and approached the school yard from another direction. As soon as Penni realised were getting nearer the school yard (where we practise every now and then, too), she began to pull toward it. Penni had clearly determined to work more and showed some apparent dismay when indicated that we would take an other path by the school and would detour home. Fortunately, she quickly found an irresistible smell and headed to the right path.
What an absolutely fantastic workaholic sheltie she is!