#but we don't have prolonged eye contact while prancy heeling yet

[fayeandknight]

For a lot of reasons I am pretty much the only person who handles/trains with Forte.

But tonight my coworker (L) wanted to try demoing something for a class (taught by a different coworker) and didn't have a dog to do so with. So I offered them Forte. L asked if he'd work for them and I said guess we'll find out and handed them his leash and bag of treats.

The demo was for building eye contact/getting the dog to check in. The first few times L used the Watch cue Forte looked at me.

After a few reps he started earnestly offering L engagement and by the time they were ready to demo it was pretty much flawless. (The exercise was having the dog sit in heel position, place food on a nearby chair, wait for voluntary eye contact, then release to the food.)

It was really cool to watch because I seldom get to see his work ethic outside of working him myself. And it made me reflect on what an awesome dog he is and how much he really does have the handler focus I wanted.

Objectively, this is not new information for me. But sometimes I get too focused on our mistakes and miss the forest for the trees, so to speak.

But watching him pick up on the game and give L his rapt attention was a neat experience. I thought, damn that's a fun dog to train. Look at that focus. Look at that eagerness to work. And then thought, oh shit that's my dog!!

So I guess this is a gentle reminder to myself to occasionally take a step back and get out of my own head. That the foundations are there.