Training again - and again

It was really hard to head out for training today. When I let Tristan out at 6:00AM, it was pouring. What the #@$%? Where was the sun that was predicted for today and that I'd been relying on? Sorry for all the weather whines but this is really a grim winter. My only excuse is that I'm the poster child for seasonal affective disorder which I've had even before it was a disorder. We managed to get out the door and, thank goodness, the rain stopped.

There was a small turnout for training today. I laid a longer track with more turns and spaced food about every ten to twenty feet. After a bit of a rough start because Tristan was going too fast and pulling, he settled down and I took the leash. He did well on the rest of the track and found the corners with no problem. I took grief because of the size of my food rewards. The trainer said he'd pick up any missed treats and give it to his dog as dinner. Pretty funny and point taken. I use Natural Balance rolls and I'm overly generous in my cubing technique.

Tristan was squirrely in obedience and hard to calm down. He still gets so excited when he gets out on the field and sees other dogs chasing balls. No matter that he has his own ball and gets to play with it too as a reward. If it's a ball, it belongs to Tristan. We've been doing well in obedience training during the week so it's frustrating to get to the field and have to deal with trying to get him to settle down. Obviously getting him to focus in the midst of the other dogs is part of obedience and he needs to do so reliably. Is this a familiar refrain or what?

Protection? No problem there.