I started training at around 6 months of age. There was no hitting just leash work with heel and woah. You know the drill, 'heel' walk alittle then 'woah' then 'heel' again. Early sessions was perhaps doing that twice. At nine months, it got a little more complicated with walking in differing directions and also introduced thechain gang (actually only 3 sessions overall - she stopped fighting it). But usually, 5-10 mins. At one year of age, I made sure she did the routine perfectly twice before ending. This could be anywhere from a couple of minutes to 20. I started the woah post due her reluctance to follow the 'woah' command. I would 'heel' her then 'woah' and she would stop briefly then come to me on her own. Spent the next 6 months on 'woah' specifically but she started to show signs of frustration - whining then jumping on me after spending too much time in a training session.

For the longest time she would reluctantly come to me after woah. That is, goes into 1/2 speed. I originally thought that's her cop-out but not entirely sure now. I'm trying to evaluate if I put too much training. She's now three and just started get back into training but only a weekly session. I noticed that the moment I tell her a command, she goes into 1/2 speed hence trying to find another way to make it fun again or atleast tolerable.

I do have an idea I want to try, an adaptation of Buddy's barrel method. Once long ago, someone showed me how to take a dog and place him on an unsteady surface to see how they will look on point. It was on a piece of plywood resting on a metal garbage can. The dogs went rigid. But it is more stable then the barrel and there's no chance of slipage. I figure couple of times on the garbage can then place it on a sturdy bucket then evenually just the ground. But this will only be done at a friends house who has pigeons visits (they feed them). I figured if I can't get birds where I live, I have to go where the birds are. Any thoughts?