day two and second trip

I will go ahead and say you don't even want to know what all I have eaten today. Grits, three donuts, two tacos, chocolate cake, and some rice. I have not eaten anything but junk. My instructor keeps giving me a hard time saying I ate forty donuts. Don't know why I've had so much junk, but if its around and its donuts Hope will take care of them if no one else wants one. The second trip went very well, first trip on sidewalks and around not much traffic. Shannon did great but for some reason my foot got stuck in a crack in the sidewalk and down I went. I felt fine afterwards but my knee hurt just a little. Kind of reminded me when I was in training with Muffin I fell and twisted my foot. I have not fallen in all most eight years, so guess I was due for one. My instructor keeps on telling me how good me and Shannon look together. I really think we were meant for each other. This afternoon we did a second trip in the same place as the first trip this morning. This time I started judging the traffic and telling Shannon forward when it was safe to go. We had a wonderful trip and I stayed on both feet this time. I must sure be thinking about Muffin, because I have called Shannon Muffin two times today. I said Muffin sit and Shannon sat. I didn't realize what I had done at first. This morning we had a meeting on leash corrections and how to give one by putting a little tug on the leash. One thing I learned is your dog is as well behaved as you make it, and gets away with things you let it. That is so true, because the dogs behavior falls totally for the most part on the handler. The dog will do what you let it get away with. One part of the meeting discussed praise and a happy voice is praise, touching the dog is praise, giving the dog a hug is another form of praise. There were a few diminstrations which were pretty funny. I laughed so hard I cried. When you give a leash correction you pull the leash as soon as the dog does something you don't want such as a work error for example running a curve. If you wait a second or two the dog has moved on to something else, and the correction is not as effective. We also discussed dogs being afraid of things and ways to work through it. If the dog is showing a sign of fear never correct, that could make the dog more fearful. Being confident will help the dog. It may snow tonight but I really hope not, I have not ever really worked a dog in the snow before. I am done with trips for today, all that is left to do is take care of the dogs and dinner. I will be glad to relax for sure. Shannon is doing great and I really love this girl. I will update when I get another chance.