7/16/14
Took Hailey to Bill & Mary's. They live very nearby so I hope to do this a lot.I had exposed Hailey to water (we have a creek) but not much really deep enough for swimming. We put Hailey on a long-line and took her down to their pond. We stood on the shore and Mary tossed a bumper in a little ways and Hailey shot straight in after it and retrieved it. Mary praised her and then tossed the bumper again and Hailey showed no hesitation in re-entering the water. So we started with her first lesson. I put Hailey into heel position (though she hadn't learned it previously). Sit/stay. Mary would toss the bumper into the water. I had higher hopes for Hailey staying, but she got very excited and would try to take off. I kept putting her back into sit/stay. After she was holding Mary would tell me I could release my dog. At first I released her as soon as Mary said to. I quickly realized though that Hailey was starting to respond before I got the words out, so after Mary told me to release, I would wait a few more seconds, to make sure Hailey was going on MY command. Mary was also tossing a bumper for one of her dogs (just playing) so we started using"No Bird" when Hailey wanted to retrieve the other dog's bumper. Not sure she understands yet, but it's a start. Every time Hailey picked her bumper up on a retrieve we marked it with "Good Dog!" Had no issues with her bringing it back, though she would drop it sometimes. A simple "fetch it here" and she would pick it up and finish her return to us. At this point we did not ask for anything more other than she bring the bumper back to our immediate vicinity.
I am not sure how one judges these things, but Mary told me that Hailey is very smart, that she will take me far if I want to go on the ride and she'll"tie the learning curve in knots." I'm not sure whether to be excited or scared, but I am a proud mama right now, lol.