Baby Brees Update

Brees is growing and growing...big head, thinnish-gangly body and total tween! 3-4 nights a week I pull out the tunnel, wobble board and the mini 'table' (a plastic bin with a piece of yoga mat on top) and we play. With each piece of 'equipment' he gets more and more excited. He LOVES the wobble board, we have been playing on it since I brought him home and he tries to jump on it before I even get it all the way on the floor. Run...Bang!...surf...TREAT! I have also been working on his release..he stands on the edge of the wobble, and waits until I say 'OK' then he runs off to get the treat that I tossed or the toy to play a game of tug.
With our mini 'table' I get him jazzed with holding his collar and 'Reaaaady...steaaaady...GO table!' and he runs across the room and hops up...treat..treat....treat! We have also been working on stay on the table with the countdown (5 and 4 and 3....blah..blah..)
I picked up a small orange cone at Lowes last week and have been working on go outs a little...but not much. I keep the training short...no more than 3-4 reps on each thing and ALWAYS end before he wants to. We have our favorite training tug toys, a riot stick and a woolly toy that I use to start and end all training. After each session I bring the other dogs in and work on group sits, downs, stays.
I finally found a small rake yesterday (the nice sales clerk at my local hardware store let me scrounge around in the basement where they store them for the winter). He is great on leash when I am working with him alone, but when he is with the other dogs on leash he is a lunatic. So my husband will help me by using the other dogs as a distraction (ducks) while I use the rake and work on 'walk ups' and 'stops'
He has another herding lesson next month AND I received good news this week that my most favorite agility instructor, Cindy Ratner, will be offering day classes at a facility only minutes from my house this winter. Wa-Hoo! I think I am an official soccer dog-mom!