And now, for your moment of Zen

Her Royal Highness (HRH) Berkeley has had a problem recently with barking and not letting me get more than 5 feet away from her without barking for me to come back and attend her. This past week we did some training, with a little success. Fred and I would give her a down-stay command and then would leave her presence for 30 seconds to a minute and then come back to praise her for staying (if she did!) or get her to redo it (if she didn't).

As the line in Monty Python and the Holy Grail goes, "(She) got better."

I taught several classes last week and some of them went smoothly with HRH sitting quietly. Others, had HRH jumping up and harrassing me verbally to the amusement of all the students.

Wednesday, though, was a good day. I caught her in a rare moment of calm and tranquility and she decided that sitting more than five feet away from me was OK. Watch for the frequent glances back to me for verification that I am still in my same spot and haven't moved. Otherwise, not a peep from her.