Once again Asa is putting his own spin, or in this case bounce, on Mom and Dad’s training. So far in their lessons he commando crawled his way through down/stays to greet adoring fans, rolled on his back with floppy paws waving in the air during an informal sit/stay competition, and ran zoomies around the classroom while practicing avoiding distractions. So why should heel be any different?

This week Dad happily mentioned to the trainer, “Asa is doing great with his heel. Sometimes he walks so close that he bounces off my leg.” The trainer simply smiled, and responded, “let’s see if we can replicate that here.” While we waited in another room, he set up an obstacle course filled with Asa’s favorite things. It didn’t take long for Asa to start bouncing off Dad’s leg like a ping pong ball as they made their way around the course. “Ah! Ha!” exclaimed their trainer, “It’s just what I suspected. Congratulations! Asa is in his ping pong phase!” Apparently this is a good thing?

As the trainer explained, Asa knows he should be walking at a heel, and can no longer lunge or pull towards whatever catches his attention. However at the same time, he’s still easily distracted and can drift away, or simply lose focus that he’s leashed to someone. But here’s the good part. These separations from the heel are so small that Asa catches it, but it’s almost imperceptible to Dad. Therefore, rather than need a reminder from Dad to return to the heel, Asa is self-correcting himself. But in typical Asa style, he’s doing it with so much enthusiasm that when he returns to his heel he’s bouncing off of Dad’s leg like a ping pong ball! Thankfully, he doesn’t do this all the time, just in high distraction areas like at the pet supply store.

So although Asa looks rather foolish bouncing off Dad’s leg from time to time, it shows he actually understands that walking is a team effort and knows what is expected of him. The trainer assured us with a little more practice in high distraction areas, Asa will no longer be bouncing back and forth, and will walk at a heel guiding Mom or Dad past anything they meet along the way. I proudly wagged my tail at this news. My little brother is finally taking Mom and Dad’s training serious, even if he does look goofier than ever doing it.