#draft dog

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i know i say it a lot, but damn i love him

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This silver dog got to go carting today! First time in ages and ages- he was rusty haha.  We tagged along to a meet up hosted by the Saint Bernard Club of the Puget Sound- it was a hoot.  One day we’ll have a cart of our own!

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lovely 

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working hard and looking good ;-)

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working on that standing stay!

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an excerpt from today’s draft training session! we did something new and moved from our backyard, up the cul-de-sac. it was the first time he had heard the sound of the wagon on pavement, so he was a little nervous at first but he recovered quickly. the cul-de-sac is a flat circle so it’s easier to pull on with no sharp turns. i also started to walk beside him rather than in front of him (tho i do move in front of him at the end of the vid because he was starting to get nervous and needed some extra encouragement) 

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a more high quality vid of fox’s draft training! i wish i knew how to edit out the areas where we’re out of view, but it’s mostly all in view of the camera.  i’m so happy with our training session today. fox recalled to me confidently without turning around to look at the wagon for the first time! super great outing i’m so proud!!  this is the first time i’ve really got a good side view of the cart, and i’m really not happy with the shafts. they do need to be longer, and the angle they’re at is not ideal (they should be parallel with the ground). i wonder if it’s something i can fix with adjusting the harness i would be really disappointed if i had to remake the whole wagon conversion. 

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An update on our draft training! Today we started working on sit, down, and stand while hitched. I'm so happy with the confidence in this video, only one moment of hesitation during a turn and he recovered beautifully!