Simone was just coming up for 5 months when her 'competition' training started.
I took her onto the field next to the house and just walked around changing directions every dozen steps or so.
Now the majority of my pups, when I do this, eventually look up at me with the expression on their faces that says "which way are you going? why do you keep changing direction"  At this point, as they look at me, they get a ton of praise and lots of fuss. By the end of the 'lesson' most pups have cottoned on to the idea that if I look up at mum while we walk, she thinks I'm wonderful. I finish my first lesson with this, the pup having had a good positive feedback that 'looking at me' was what I wanted.
Simone however had to be different !!!!!
She looked at me with an expression that said "Oh for goodness sake, why do you keep changing directions? Can't you see I'm busy looking and sniffing at all these glorious things on the field? Can't you just let me pick up that wonderful leaf that's lying over there?"
She had no interest in me or what I was doing, my self centred little princess could think of nothing, other than what she wanted.....
It baffled me all day. Until I spoke to a friend.
We were just talking about pedigrees and who was related to who in my house.
Then I mentioned 'Sky' Then a light bulb went on in my head.....
Sky was Simone's great grandmother and the most ignorant, difficult dog we'd had for a long time.
She wasn't bred by me, but was out of one of our bitches to an outcross dog. A lovely looking girl but oh boy, not the easiest to live with. A very opinionated girl to say the least.
It was this conversation that was to change the way I trained Simone in the early days.

A couple of days later I took Simone onto the field, put a half check collar on her and went through the same training I had done in her first session. Every time I changed direction she now came to the end of the lead and the half check closed. Did it bother her? Not one iota, !!!!
She still had the same attitude of "why are you bothering me with all this when all I want to do is ignore you?"

Exactly as her great grandmother Sky had done at that age, but with Sky I had found it quite amusing and done nothing in particular to change it. Sky was never going to be trained for competition, so I never really addressed the behaviour. Oh boy, did I pay for that mistake later in life.... Sky considered herself a 'princess' all through her life, and because I had not done anything in particular to change this, she was always a dog that was a 'pain'. Now don't get me wrong Sky had a lovely temperament and was not a 'problem' dog, and was fairly obedient, but she would do things in her own time. When I said something like 'come here' - she would always come to me, but, she'd have to have a look at that bush first, or have a pee first, or just run round the field first and THEN come back to me. It was never 'instant compliance'....
Well, I had no intention of repeating that experience with Simone.

So with no more ado, I went and got a slip chain......
Now I know that this will cause absolute outrage amongst the ' you must motivate your dog' trainers, but you have to understand that Simone didn't care about being motivated or patted or fed titbits. All she cared about was getting her own way.

So I went through the same training as before but this time each time I changed direction she ran into the slip collar. Well, that changed her mind totally......It was like flicking a switch, as it dawned on her that I wanted something from her. The next 5 minutes were an absolute joy,,, Simone took to heelwork like a duck to water.

Now for those of you that worry, I never once 'took her off her feet' with the slip collar, all it did was tighten with a bit more umph than does a collar or half check. I never once hurt her, just stopped her in her tracks.

After that Simone's  favourite game to play was the 'heelwork' game and she came on in leaps and bounds, literally !!!! We had to have a couple of sessions learning that heelwork does not have to be done at a 100 miles an hour. Her balance of course was and still isn't perfect, but that will come in time.

She then learned how to 'fetch' things and how to arrive in front of me for a 'novice' recall.

Then we went to an obedience show to see what she'd think about doing all this stuff where there was a lot of people and dogs.
At 6 ½ months old she did her first 'Novice' class. I was so proud of her, she did superbly.
At the end of the day, her ring work was up there in the top 10.

We went home happy and tired.
The next lessons will be her 'Sit' and 'Down' stays, which she needs, to be able to complete her class.