Give Me The Dumbbell Anyway: A Wet Wally Moves Fast.

Well, as expected, rain rain rain. Rain. More rain. And chilly too - feels more like March than April.

However, Wally was still eager for his outdoor training, which isn't entirely unexpected. And of course being wet, he's hyper. So I sucked it up and did some retrieving outside. He was certainly in high spirits, charging after it and bringing it back, perhaps TOO fast! He was going so fast he had a hard time coming to the front position (he would sit, but come in on the side of me or once he went all the way around me) and that was mostly where things got a bit sloppy. It was because of the energy - and not even the rain, which is what I thought would be the biggest distraction, causing him to shake a lot, etc.

It was good to see him charging back and forth, though, because for a while, he was hesitating on the retrieves, like he had to remember what to do. Perhaps, being this wound up will help him remember what it was like and make him more excited again for retrieves. I know being excited and having fun helps dogs remember things, so I think it was good I decided to man up and brave the "hostile" elements for some outdoor training. 

Another positive was that it was another exercise in staying (somewhat) under control to perform a task while excited, this time with the rain "giving" him the excitement. He carried his dumbbell back from the playground with no problem, so he did some 'working' as well.

Of course, him going at about triple the speed is no big surprise. Wally always gets hyper and fast moving in the rain or even when he's just wet like from a bath. I don't understand it, and have seen just one explanation of it that I don't know would apply too much, or at least I can't envision how it works in my mind at least. All day, he was moving at super speed like someone gave him too much caffeine. He wouldn't settle down as easily, was super alert to anything, and played hard even indoors.

I was going to introduce the yellow flashcard to him, but he was too much in "gotta move" mode that it wouldn't have gone over too well. So instead, we just played some indoor games like hide-and-seek, find it, and worked on opening and closing doors some more.

Perhaps tomorrow will be a calmer day and we'll resume working on the colors again. He's actually and finally sleeping after his dinner (let your food digest, Wally!). It only took two hours longer than usual!