Today was a tough day for Ascot, we had to do a particular piece of reinforcement that is stressful; traffic.

The idea is to get Ascot to move off a kerb while a car is approaching.  This is done in a controlled situation, one trainer drives the car while the other worked with me and Ascot.  Ascot performed well and despite me encoring him to walk into oncoming vehicles he stopped each time.

However it was easy to see how it was affecting him.  His entire body language changed and I could tell he was becoming less confident.  During this stage he became more aware of distractions and was busy eyeballing a dog.  We did traffic training twice today and each time I could identify how stressed Ascot was becoming.

I find it encoring that I am now able to read Ascot and hope I can continue to develop this technique and really create a strong bond.

As a treat on the way back from trafficking I also went and bought him some toys.  He doesn’t get them till he gets home though!