#45 weeks

Regular Harness + Longline // freedom walk aka decompression walk (full autonomy to explore safely, fulfills desire to make choices, sniff, explore, etc and is great for after hard training sessions)

Regular Harness + Waistline Bungee Leash // loose walk, sniffing allowed but she has to follow my lead (good for exercise or short walks in the dark/bad weather)

Martingale Collar + Leash // structured walk in heel position, occasional checkins, no sniffing allowed unless cued to do so (potty breaks or just needing to get somewhere)

SD harness + Head Halter/Martingale backup + over-the-shoulder leash // close heel with frequent checkins (doesn’t have to be a neck breaking heel but no sniffing is allowed at all)

I let her investigate a dead squirrel and she surprised me. I thought for sure she was going to try to pick it up and play with it but instead she was actually really gentle. She carefully sniffed it for a while, nudged it with her foot a couple times and then slowly wandered off. She almost seemed kind of concerned.

Towards the end of our walk we found a nice grassy area near a beaver pond. I took her shoes off and we rested for a while, investigated the chewed down trees and waited for the train to go by. She’s heard the train from a distance and has seen the tracks before but this was her first time actually seeing the train. She did much better than I had anticipated.

Walked to the local shops to practice some PA skills outside. She did great until a lady was pulling out a cart and made a loud crashing sound. Mandana usually doesn’t have problems around carts but it surprised her and she spooked. It caught me off guard too and she managed to pull free from me. She just jumped back a couple feet and then immediately came back into a heel and was ok with the carts after that.