The Perfect Spot

I found the perfect spot to practice carting with Bosley.  It is very close to my house, has lots of natural obstacles to practice going around and is a dog friendly area.  Funny I never thought of this place earlier - I drive by it every single day.  It is the University campus.

There are some gentle hill to practice going up and down.

There are wide open spaces to practice basic commands and skills.

There are rocks and trees to practice turning around.

There is thicker underbrush areas to practice working in more confined areas.

It's the perfect carting place.

I have been trying to get out carting at least three times a week.  Bosley is getting much better doing tight turns and will be doing 90 degree turns (the cart pivots 90 degrees without any forward or backward motion) in no time.  Making tight turns is sometimes hard for dogs to learn as they cannot turn their body when they are hitched to the cart, rather they need to learn to cross over their feet to make a nice, tight turn.  Bosley has also figured out the whole backing up thing and backs up fairly straight without trying to sit.  He can now back up the cart for more than the required test distance.  Right now Bosley really needs to work on his "slow" and "stop" commands while pulling- it is very important in draft work that your dog will respond quickly to these commands as they can keep your dog from crashing the cart and getting injured.  We have lots of other detail stuff to work on, so hopefully we can get everything together before the draft test.