Dear Adam:Thank You For You Book And Tapes. They Have Been Invaluable In Training Maggie My 5 Month Old Rat Terrier. I Got Her At 7 Weeks And Have Been Working With Her Ever Since. She Does Very Well And Masters Most Things Usually Within A Day. Or At Least Understands What Is Expected. She Is Very Good At The Downstay Or Sitstay In Most Cases. If There Is A Lot Of Activity In The Park Or Something New Going On She Doesn't Always Listen. I Use A 50 Ft Lead And Occasionally Let Her Off.Most Times She Will Listen To My Commands However Periodically She Decides To Run At This Freedom. When I Catch Her I Correct Her And She Knows She Has Done Wrong. My Main Question I Guess Is To Get Her To Downstay From A Distance. Very Rarely Will She Do This If I Give The Command From A Distance. My Goal Is That If She Were Loose And For Some Reason I Needed Her To Stay Put (i.e. Danger To Her) I Want Her To Know And Respond To This Command. I Think For Being Only 5 Months She Has Done Very Well, But I Know That We Must Continue To Work At All The Things That Will Make Her An Even Bigger Joy Than She Already Is. Maybe I Am Expecting Too Much At This Age? Keep Up The Terrific Work And Thank You For Your Time.K. FletcherDear K:A Big Emphasis In All Of My Material Is The Understanding That You Cannot EVER Let The Dog Be In A Situation Where You Might Give A Command And She MIGHT NOT Respond, Until She Has Already Proven To You That She Is 100 Responsive.In Other Words, If She's Not 100 Responsive, Then You're Letting Her Off The Long Line Too Soon.Furthermore, As She's Still An Adolescent, I Probably Wouldn't Take The Long Line Off In A Park Setting Until She Is BOTH 100 And At Least A Year Old. At Her Current Age, She's Really Just An Adolescent.You May Choose To Let Her Off The Leash (although I Wouldn't) ... But If You Do This, Please Recognize That If You Give Her A Command And She Chooses Not To Reply... THEN YOU'VE HUST TAUGHT HER TO BE LEASH-SMART.Make Sense?That's All For Now, Folks!Adam
