I found a training video a couple of weeks ago where a trainer taught her dog to ‘sword fight’ by jumping over a foam sword. The completed behavior looks like they are mock-fighting, because the dog jumps over the sword when she swings it towards him. I thought this would be a great project for Zora and I, we could integrate it into a Freestyle routine as Super Heroes or Pirates.

I have bunch of foam swords from Halloween. I started by having her jump over the sword with me sitting down and holding it still. She got that concept without a problem. Now I’ve started to ask her to jump over the sword while I’m standing. This isn’t working so well, I realized that she’s watching my hand for the cue and not listening to me. I need the cue to be the movement of the sword. So we will have to back up several steps and maybe even change the verbal to a new command.