IO Exam Prep, Day 1

Glimmer has worked very hard for the past hour practicing all the lessons she will be tested on this Friday when she takes her IO [Intermediate Obedience] exam. She’s still having trouble with the “go to mat” exercise, but she did a fantastic job with her heel exercises (return to heel, heel with speeds, and etc.) and her u-turns. She also did an amazing job with off-leash heeling with distractions.

Although she broke position a few times and had to be returned to the mat, Glimmer did a really good job with the down-stay, down-stay walk-around, sit-stay, sit-stay walk-around, and distance down-stay with recall at 10 feet, 25 feet, and 50 feet.  Her return to heel on recall still needs some work, but she did a much better job of it than I was expecting.

Distraction work came in the form of vehicles and high school kids walking past. Glimmer is a very social dog with a strong leaning towards young people, so it was very challenging for her to maintain her position on her mat while the high school kids walked past.  A large group of them even helped with the exercise by standing nearby. It was all Glimmer could do to hold her position instead of bolting towards them – which she very clearly wanted to do.  😀

The next session – which will be later today, when the temperature is cooler – will be a toys and treats course for Glimmer to practice distance recall with. This will be one of the most difficult challenges for her to date, as she has never done this exercise before. She will have to ignore all of the temptations and focus solely on me. It’s going to be interesting to see how she does.

Have a great day, everyone, and remember: Stay calm and lead on. 🙂