Partying hard or staying at home with the dogs? We're watching Lord of the Rings 😂 Got some really great truffle detection training in with Onyx and @Maarja Heinsoo today too. Also explored a new woods with Lupe and found a really beautiful walk.

this is now ‘the thing Leto can do!!’

Today we did a couple of sessions of leash pop = focus on me exercises at home which went well. I had to pop out this afternoon to pick up some bags of horse feed from town so I loaded Aster into the car too to capitalise on the journey. Coronation Park in Launceston is mostly ideal for training around other dogs - I say mostly because it's lovely and open so you can see a fair way, there is usually enough other users to have some dogs visible but not completely jam packed and technically they are meant to be on lead at all times. Of course, they never all are and as soon as we entered the car park there was a bloke with a German Shepherd puppy wandering wherever it wanted with the bloke walking miles behind. I am not even sure he took a leash with him. I waited for him to get up around the corner and into the park proper before I got Aster out the car. I noted before we even left that she was reluctant to jump in herself. She has clearly over done it running around and is a bit sore/stiff. She is the same about getting out too so I lifted and we just walked on lead. My goal was to literally get some "leash pop = focus" reps in with other dogs in the distance and just make a mental note of her general demeanour, ability to focus on me and take food. She was clearly not 100% comfortable/confident to begin with but she does take confidence from being asked to do stuff she knows well. She did well to break her attention from other dogs and take food from me. We did a couple of food chase games too and right at the end we went and sat on the hill to watch a lady throw a ball for her cockerpoo thing. It went well and I noticed the GS puppy coming back around from the top of the park so we started walking towards the exit. Annoyingly, the cockerpoo and another bouncy curly haired fugly looking dog (really sorry you guys that like the poodle crosses but they just really don't do it for me. No offence!) were loitering around it so I was kinda back tracking to get some distance when the bloody GS puppy came speeding towards us 🙄bloke clearly had no control and was pathetically waving his ball thrower through the air like it was going to magically get his pup to recall. Aster had a few barks and hit the end of the leash bristling but I just ran backwards and lightly popped the leash and engaged her in a game and we somehow managed to get enough distance that the pup left us alone. Luckily the poodlies were greeting one another at this point and couldn't give a toss about Aster which meant we could slip out. Overall she did really good. Could have done without the final hiccup but not the end of the world.

Igors been out for some runs this week as he is racing at the weekend so he has been fairly flat out. He will run hard then sleep hard. I don't like to ask too much of him so I know he has rested. In-between he has had some short bimbles & been fairly good really apart from Sunday when my sister in law came for a walk with us. Its probably the worst he has been for reactions in weeks. Really showed himself up & I was slightly deflated with it if I'm honest. I took phoenix to town yesterday I wanted to try & watch what triggers her barking. When I got there my heart sank slightly as it was really busy 😬 The first bark I had was at a lady. The path was narrow so I stoped to cross but a car was coming & I had to wait but the lady didn't give me a sec she just continued walking at us. Cue the bark. The second was in the middle of town. The owners of a lab & rottie were allowing them to greet each other which turned into a crazy scene of 2 large dogs jumping around all over the place in the middle of the busy town. The rottie actually flew out side ways & jumped at a little kid that was passing. I don't think it was in an aggressive way more excitment but the little kid looks terrified having a large dog fly at her face. Cue phoenix second bark when she clocked the carnage unfold. At this point I stopped & gave her a moment. We continued to the end of town & went in to the pet shop got some treats & walked back through the park. The rest of the way home was good so I don't feel like it was a massive fail but I still can't put my finger on why she does it as both times were completely different situations. There is always going to be a level of that protection mode in her I think but is she scared, excited or is it natural instincts that kick in. Town is also very overstimulating which will heighten her senses but it's not like this is all knew to her we have been doing town since day dot to try & make it neutral for her. I dunno another puzzle to pick. We starter a new trick yesterday just for a bit of fun.

We have done a lot today! This morning I messed about with some play on a long line which was excellent. We did a lot of the stuff from Alex' PWPC so we were "switching drives" as Nino puts it between food and toys. It was a great session. We did some fancy heeling too, videos below. I then went running in the forestry with my sister and got her readied with a decent phone to film any reactivity. Typically it was pretty much dead until on the way back we hit a jackpot with a group walking several dogs. Of course, the one time i kind of wanted the group to be useless thoughtless dog owning jerks was the one time they were exemplary, leashing their dogs, stopping, moving right over very early on so we could pass 😂little outburst from Aster as you can see in the film but that was pretty minor! She actually casually heeled nicely passed. I'll try again in the week to get some representative footage. We then went on a ride and i had dinner at my friend Gill's house which i took her along to. She took a dump on the floor and Gill picked it up with her bare hands thinking someone had dropped some chocolates on the floor 💀 💩 lovely. She's now sound asleep and I'm off jumping tomorrow!