The spins

Rocket and I have been hard at work on our homework for class. Rocket can spin right and left very well although he seems to prefer spinning to his left. He can spin like a top actually, as long as he doesn't spin himself into a corner or suddenly decides that he has spun quite enough thank you and he wants his treat now. Or maybe he gets dizzy, he doesn't say.

I have tried to get footage of his spinning skilz but the results have been disappointing from a an  production value  place or from the audiences stand point. I  would need a camera phone operator to get really good footage. Maybe the cat?

He is also making short strides in "down" and "stay" for a ten count . "Down" has always been a problem for him and it is still a struggle. It is hard to teach "down" as a command for weims in general as a breed, as they seem to see down  as too submissive or another theory is that "down" means "floor" and floors are hard on their delicate bellys . I vote myself for the "too dominate to down" theory.

He is doing very well with "bow", he can do that even without a treat. It is is only skill he will perform without a treat. My handy  book of dog tricks covers "spinning" and says that within two weeks of learning "spin" he should do it without a treat and by command. Thus far he seems deaf to the command without a treat. This is disappointing, previously when he learned new skills, a hearty Good Dog! was plenty adequate reward.

Today he demands a peanut. Which is fine, but he has had a lot of peanuts and not once has he spontaneously spun! He will  voluntarily sit for no reason! Because well, he has to sit, he can stand, or he can lay down or he can sit. He does not "have" to spin .

I try to comfort myself by remembering the hours and hours and hours of practice it took to learn how to sit on command.  I don't know to what end we are working so hard to learn "spin", I don't know  what agility skill we are laying the ground work for as we have been told that most of agility is about jumping and successfully making jumps over things, not spinning. Rocket has a four foot vertical jump when he wants to, but he has rarely been asked to or found any pressing demand to jump over anything and then the very few times he has jumped  "over" it was at a standing start, he has never been asked to jump over anything at a run or to aimed at something and then jumped over it.

This class is going to be hard.