I'm obsessed now with rehearsing for my Evita audition. I had a phone "conference" with Christina this weekend. I have been able to zero in on some things now after getting some direction from her.
Drake amazed us all on Saturday during training! We were able to walk the whole loop (the one by my house not the three mile one) with the guidance of his trainer. She was so thrilled with his progress. We have found a weak link in Aaron though... It seems I am the Enforcer and he is the Disney Dad. Christine (the dog trainer. Not to be confused with ChristinA, my musical mentor) had given Aaron homework last week.
Drake likes to wrestle pretty rough with Aaron, which is fine, but Christine wanted Drake to stop when Aaron was done. She asked Aaron to get Drake revved up and rough and then tell him "leave it" when he wanted Drake to let go of his arm, clothes or whatever he had his jaw clamped down on. She also told us that growing up they had some sort of large breed dog that her dad always wrestled with. He bought big leather gloves just for wrestling with that dog. This week Aaron bought big leather gloves and wrestled with Drake every day. He did not take anything else from Christine's instruction except the story of her dad's leather gloves. Now when I put on leather work gloves to do yard work Drake freakin' attacks me! Phooey.
Also, I tried to walk Drake home last night after a play date at Caren's. Aaron was leading the way and I had Drake on the leash. He was completely unmanageable because he wanted to be up where Daddy was. He nearly pulled me down the stairs so I had to relinquish the leash to The Weak Link.
This afternoon Drake and I worked on all of his training homework, which included a walk. He immediately went into a heel! I didn't even have to get him into a start position. He stayed in a heel the whole way around until...we got to Stormy and Trigger's corral. The horses were right at the fence watching/taunting Drake. He lunged so I threw the leash behind and around my waist and tried to just keep him moving. I pulled him like this up the WORST part of the hill until he went back into a strained heel. i.e. he was beside me but turning with some pull to look back at the horses. When he would do this I would click-treat to get his attention back in a forward direction. I did this about 4 times and then he was back to walking like a pro! I was so proud of him! I was pretty proud of myself too, I'm not gonna lie.
Once home I got back to rehearsing and cleaning house. I have to say it is quite humorous to be belting anthems of glamour and power while folding socks and underwear....
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