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With the Sacramento AKC obedience trials just a few weeks away, Spur and I have upped our training schedule to the max.  It's important that he practice his skills in as many different venues as possible.  Dogs are very situational.  Spur knows the exercises, but he hasn't fully realized that he must do them wherever we are, and that performance is not optional.

For now, I'm keeping the car loaded with Spur's crate, my jumps, ring gates and other paraphernalia.  When I get home from work, we leap in and go!

I often take him to a park near our house in Folsom.  It's large, and so there are several areas that feel "new" to him.  I'm looking for the busy places where he'll face the greatest distractions.  Last night I set up my ring right next to the basketball court where a very energetic pick-up game was ongoing.

We practiced signals with that background.  From about 50 feet away, I gave Spur signals to down, sit, and come, with all that dynamic activity immediately behind me. 

After a while, a little boy, about 4 years old, came to watch us.  As I called out commands, the boy yelled each one right after me.  When I had Spur take the jump on the right, the little boy took the jump on the left.  Both boys were having a grand time, and it was good stuff for Spur.

There were moments when Spur's brain turned briefly to dog mush - "How can I possibly heel nicely with this very fun child racing through our ring?" - but he quickly decided the treats and action I offered were every bit as fun.

After a while the young man's  mother wandered over to apologize for the interference, but I thanked her, instead.  This was ideal!  There are no children in the ring at shows, but they sometimes hang over the gates, or stand nearby with tempting foods, toys and activities. 

My greatest challenge is to be more fun and more interesting than anything else that could possibly occur.  We want to earn our titles, and eventually I would like to experience some competitive wins.  But it will all always be a game to Spur. 

It's obedience, but it's also about great fun and great love.  Those are the qualities at the foundation of the training that I hope will one day take us into a winner's circle.