Axel and Lequita

    Axel did a drop on recall on his first ever try. I didn't drop him immediately but had him stop and then go down but he did it. He stopped like I had shot him when I said wait.

I'm going to start training send away this week [big sigh] ... and start distance control with him.

Lequita is getting better at her training. I now train her with the small dogs and she happily does her job, if I put her with the big dogs she just flees to her bed. We've been trying to figure it out for ages why she does this and I came to the conclusion that it's my voice. I am much firmer with the big dogs than with the small ones as I train them for the fun of it and not to perform.
At training she works like a veteran and no-one believes me that she gets maybe 3min of training a day, if I'm lucky. Mostly it's just sit, down and heel at her food bowl.

That's great! You could teach Cesar Milan a thing or two!

 I was just reading a good vs bad thing on him

Obviously worked though! Congrats!

Sounds like things are coming on really well!

Good luck with the sendaway, it was the one thing I always used to struggle with. How do you approach it nowadays?

OMG that makes me sound soooo old!!!!

 

I have my own sort of patched together method that gets me there in the end.
I start by placing a marker (red cone), having my dog sit stay, walking out to the marker showing them a treat and placing it next to the cone.
I then send him to the treat and have him lie down when he's had the treat, going up to him and treating again for the down stay.
When they get that they're supposed to run to the marker I only treat when they've gone down on command at the marker.
Then I start increasing distance and dropping them between me and the marker and treating for that.
Finally I remove the marker and just send them running out and dropping.

Sounds like a good way to do it!