I remember a year or so ago we were discussing silent running. I think it
was in the context of learning to pay attention to how much the dog's work
off our body language. Anyway at the time I commentd that Tsuki doesn't
much like silent running because he works so far from me. Well as we have
progressed to more complicated courses I've discoverd he's become more
comfortable with it. We had some really great runs this weekend and I'm
convinced that at least in part it had to do with me saying *nothing*
except on the hard parts. I places where other people were using a
call-off I didn't have to. I just said "switch" which caused him to check
in and adjust off my body language. If I had said nothing he would have
continued on the course my body said the last time he could see it. And I
never needed a call-off because I got the information to him early
enough.

Unfortunately for my Q rate (50%) I got lost twice, and gave bad
directions twice. But the good runs were really great.


--
Diane Blackman
http://dog-play.com/
http://dog-play.com/shop2.html