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For each ‘week’ of lessons, we put in this Pause to Practice so that you won’t just read through without practicing. Feel free to pause to practice anywhere along the way, too!

Again, we don’t expect it to just take one week for many people. Take your time to get it right. The leash skills are the key to doing BAT well.

1. Sit down and write out your goals for your dog. Are they realistic? What measurable goal do you think can you achieve in the next month?
2. Film yourself doing leash handling with a human. Watch your video and look critically at each skill. Are you holding the Handle the same way? Is it a tight bracelet? Do you have enough braking distance? Are you gathering in figure 8’s or accidentally gathering in loops?
3. Do a “Sprinkles” exercise with your dog, as described by Sally Hopkins. Practice quiet off leash near your dog.
4. Repeat the above exercise, on leash, using the BAT handling skills that promote freedom (handle, braking distance, shorter,longer). Only use the control skills if needed (Slow Stop, Slide Mime Pulling).
5. Written assessment: Type out some comments below your video to point out any places where you did especially well or could have done better. Include specific times, like 0:22 – 0:33. One of the things I want to teach you in this course is to look at your own videos objectively and look for places you can continually improve. Please ignore the size of your own backside. 🙂 This is just for you, mostly.
6. Optional: Cut to a short clip to share for to your peers to discuss in the ABBA Facebook group.
7. Practice 3 treat parties a day.
8. Play this game with a friend. Face each other with a leash draped in the palm of your left hands, so that both of you have the same amount of extra leash hanging down. Both do Slide at the same time (so you’ll reach with your right hands first, under the leash). Both of you do Slide 10 times (5 times per hand) and then notice who has more leash at this point. The person with the least leash is the ‘winner,’ because Slide is not about pulling the leash, just gently letting it slide through your hands. [This is more fair if the leash has clips on both ends or is just a rope, so the clip doesn’t weigh things down.]

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