One thing that I really neglected when training my other dogs was getting the 'show on the road' and proofing behaviours in lots of different locations. Not that I didn't do it, but I wasn't very creative when choosing where to train and ended up going to local ovals and streets where they always had a similar level of noise and distractions to deal with.
As I am now paying for this big time with Cruz, I have been trying very hard not to make the same mistake with Ivy and so I am aiming to fill a list with 50 different (read the more unusual the better) locations where she will tug with me regardless of what is going on around her.
So far we have clocked up the car park at the local market, right on the automatic doors at the supermarket, inside the container at training while all the equipment is being wheeled out and banged around (luckily they forgive my little eccentricities at training!), directly under the flight path at Bulla (literally the last place the planes are still in the sky before they land at Melbourne airport), at the local skateboard park when it's full of kids on bikes and scooters, on the beach, right beside my neighbour's fence with his sheep directly on the other side (big points for that one), at the Airey's Inlet lighthouse and beside the local tennis courts with kiddy coaching going on. Probably not all that creative compared to what some other people do in terms of adding distractions when tugging, but way more than I did with the other dogs, so at least it's a start.
And she was more than happy to tug with me in every one of these locations, no matter what was going on around her.
Lately she's not as obsessive over the kelpies as she was, but she does love running with them when she gets the chance, usually at the beach.
Our new favourite is Anglesea, easy 2 hour drive so not as far as Warrnambool and nowhere near as crowded as it is over Summer. Plus around the middle of the day the tide is out so you can walk across the mouth of the river which doubles the size of the beach.
On this day it was so deserted everywhere we went that they even got to run on the beach at Lorne as well, usually way too touristy to even consider off lead running on the beach.
The lighthouse at Airey's Inlet aka tugging location #15. I would have even considered doing some circle running around it if there hadn't been a crowd waiting to go inside on a tour - the only place that we visited that actually wasn't deserted. I'm sure I looked a big enough nutter as it was tugging all around it, especially given some people's reaction to tugging. When we started obedience with Yasser years ago, we were told that tugging was the devil's tool and I believed it until I got into agility. Now I know better, blind crosses are the devil's tool.
Ivy on the beach at Lorne. Complete with her autograph in the sand, sort of like a canine Hollywood stars boulevard - and a split second before she couldn't wait any longer and had to hit the water.
That's more like it - throw the ball ! Not her prettiest look when she's all wet, but she loves it.
Wonder how my contact training travel board is going to fare on the beach next time - just kidding, although it's definitely a thought .............