Day Two doesn't really involve any new concepts. Your doing much the same thing you were doing at the end of day one i.e. working the arc and reinforcing the entries. Though it does specifically suggest that you should move around as you work the dog so they don't get dependent on your body as a queue.
However there is one minor difference from day one, minor that is unless you have a high-drive, working collie. You move from working on hardstanding to working on grass "so the dog can dig in and gain some speed". Obviously if you do this you can't reward your dog by throwing treats down the reward line. Treats would get lost in the grass and you'd lose time as your dog searches for them or gets distracted by lost treats. No problem, you simply replace the treats with a toy to reward your dog and reinforce the reward line.
And there in lies the problem. Enya is a high-drive, working collie. A real racing snake ... and she's very focused on toys. So on Day Two the energy levels went up, dramatically. Susan Garrett does suggest that you play with your dog at the start of each session to get their energy levels, to build their Desire (DASH) to work. Not really necessary with Enya - she can hit an 11 without even trying if she thinks there is the slight hint of being able to work. It's a characteristics of Kilnhursts, they love to work for their people.
So on the grass Enya definitely dug in and gained more speed. Like, serious speed. When she was being reward with food at the end of Day One she was hitting the entry every time. Using a toy she was missing some of the entries when she had to wrap the first pole, simply because she was moving soooooo fast she was finding it difficult to bend her body round to make the entry. We like these kind of problems :-)
By the third and final session of the day we'd got the accuracy back up. Just by letting her work through the problem, and by making sure that I was throwing the toy as accurately as possible down the reward line.
DASH - Desire, Accuracy, Speed & Habitat. The first step is to "get the dog really excited" before each training session. Fortunately if you have a Kilnhurst, this is very easy. Simply check to see if your dog is breathing, if they are, they will have achieved the required level of Desire. Or possible overachieved it - Kilnhursts love to overachieve :-)
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| Note the raised paw and the ready to go, forward focus :-) |
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