Zooka and Blitzen normally get two off-leash walks per day. Most of the walks are exploring and running and looking for bunnies and having fun. But there is always a bit of work involved.

In the attached video, Zooka and Blitzen are having to work a bit harder than they have been in a typical walk. They've had a lot of freedom lately, and we've seen their listening take a bit of a slide since they have not had to work as hard. It's definitely time to get back to challenging them more.

In this video, we are at the top of our hill. At this point in time, Zooka is just a few months shy of his 6th birthday. Blitzen is a just a few months shy of his 5th birthday.

I ask them for a few different things in this video:

• Touch (nose target to the hand)
• Wait (release from Wait is GO)
• Down (I primarily use a hand signal for this – fist over my head)
• Up (I want them to jump up on the obstacle I point at or am closest to – a bench or a log, usually)
• Check in (this is our informal recall/come – I need you to return to me, but it's not URGENT)

Which cues did they successfully perform the first time? Which cues did I need to repeat?

While they performed MOST of the cues successfully, there were a couple of failures. At one point, I ask them both to “up” on the bench I am standing near. You see Zooka do it right away. Blitzen remains in his Down. Did he miss my cue? Did he think I was talking to Zooka and not him?

I asked a 2nd time, and he moved closer to me and went Down again instead of Up. I had to ask again for him to jump up on the bench. Not sure why he had a problem, since typically, he is the first one to go Up for me. I do know that sometimes one will hesitate to go Up if the other one is already there – especially if it's a smaller obstacle and there's not as much space for both of them.

There was also a failure on one of the Waits. I was walking away and they both got up and started moving toward me. Not sure why, since they had both been doing really well with their Waits up to that point.

So, overall, they did a good job. But neither one was perfect. I do know that they do better if we keep up our work regularly. If we slack off in asking them to work, it's easy for things to get less reliable. This session showed me that we need to be working more than we have been. They are not as reliable as I would like them to be. And there were no other distractions around this time.

They do like to work. They love our walks, but they love them more when I engage with them and make it more interactive. Which is what I tried to instill in them in the very beginning. It's way more fun to walk with me and be tuned in than it is to walk without me or with me nearby but everyone doing their own thing.

We generally work well as a team, and I want everyone to PREFER to work as a team!