Before I diarise and make up for my disappointing 10 days of nothingness, do your dogs have any nicknames? Aster has so many and they are really stupid but I only really call her Aster when I'm cross or introducing her to you lot and professional people. She is mainly Noodle, Snoodle, Snood, Snoot, Noots, Nood, Noodle Fish, Fish Guard, Fish Fart, Baby Fish, Small Fish, Fish Whip, Whip Fish and Whipsnade. Our morning walk this morning was a bit more focussed, meaning I didn't just let her f-off along the edge of the field that she runs EVERY single morning because she once got to chase a squirrel along it about 3 years ago. I put her on a slip lead and we practised some contact heeling at the walk. It's very hard because, like Ave finds with Frank the Tank, she is worried I'm going to tread on her (which I probably will with my clonking great hooves). I wonder if it's a smaller dog thing. They make it look so easy with the bigger dogs. We had some nice little touches against my leg at a very slow walk so I did let her off for a run and she promptly disappeard under a fence onto the riverbank. I slipped into my usual daydream planning what to work on next with my horse when there was a yelp from Aster so I back tracked to see what was up. She had a freshly squeezed squirrel in her mouth and was crunching on it's head as I looked thru the hedge 🙄 it had either bitten her paw or made her catch it as there was some blood but luckily nothing catastrophic. It cleaned up fine thank goodness. I let her carry it for a bit then decided she could bloody well leave it because she would prob eat it and then have the worst farts ever. She was really pretty good at dropping it considering. I lobbed in the woods only to turn around and find Islay wandering around with it. Aster was furious and told her to drop it 😂 I only had to look at Islay and she drops it lol, they are so different. I took the opportunity to train a bit to have her sit stay whilst i moved it and she was really very good considering she really wanted it back.

So I’ve been struck down by a flu bug, head cold, shivers, sweats not much fun…. Mabel hasn’t had a walk today and everyone’s been at school then out for grannies birthday, so just me and her all day. She’s been fab, curled up on sofa with me, had a few short plays of find it with her sock and I tied four treats in four blankets which kept her entertained for ages! Such a good girl!

Wow. I've been MIA for 10 days! We've been training but I've let my posting slip and i would say our solid daily habits have slipped a bit. Much of this is because my focus has shifted to my horse lately. I joined a similar community group for horsey people and have been looking into all the gaps in my training and knowledge in that world and...well...opening copious cans of worms really. It has been interesting and depressing all at the same time because the more i learn the more I learn that I know nothing 😂 is like re-launching my dog training journey but with horses! Haha its not all that bad but there is so much to learn. I love it but it's also exhausting 😂 So, i need to swing my pendulum a bit to the dog end of the spectrum and uphold my samurai warrior philosophy of training every day again 😁. We have been using dinner to train some weaves with two bowls game and I've been playing with Alex' play with purpose techniques. I find the weaves really hard if I'm honest. So does Aster. It's hard to move this forward as i find just as we think we are making progress we slip. Maybe i need to shelve it for a bit

Managed to catch a little of Wednesday training. There is a resident robin in the barn and Igor is hell bent in eating it but we did a few things once we managed to get him back in zone. Turns out toy trumps food but robin trumps toy! 🤦

Another busy day for Kairo! Her first adventure was a trip to Herm to get used to boats. We worked on recall, heelwork, stays, and settle. Achievement of the day - Kairo recalled to heel, then walked calmly past a group of people! She was a super good girl! Afterwards, we met up with some friends for a training walk. Our main goal was focus whilst around other excitable dogs. Again, she was a very good girl! So proud of her today!