Argo is a Portuguese Water Dog...a very smart, independent working breed. He is motivated by food and play, so I take his daily ration and keep a portion with me at all times. Reward when he does something right. Play for fun multiple times a day. We play "find it" with a stuffy toy. I put him in a sit stay and hide the toy and then tell him to "find it!" He then gallops around the house sniffing about until he does indeed, find it! Then he gallops back to me and on to round two.
The place we did our test and also do our training I found through our old DB friend PSLUKE. It is a fabulous facility with 2 outdoor arenas, an indoor one, a pond, and lots of room for running. So after Argo passed the test we went over to the pond where he was playing and zooming about with a pack of border collies. He had SO MUCH FUN! It was dark so I wasn't able to get any good pictures.
What's next is more letters after the name. I am doing Rally so RN (Rally Novice) is the next goal. (about rally) Once we go as far as we can there I am not sure. If he can gain more confidence in the water we might go for Water trials.
Anyway you can see he keeps me busy and entertained!
SG
Survival Goddess "The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." -Alice Walker
