Wasn't planning to update so soon, but just had the best walk so far with Mr Henry. Very, very little pulling. We even managed to get from the car into the park with only a little tugging, rather than him barking his head off with excitement and meerkatting all the way. Walking around the park after a run on the longline, he mostly looked to me for his treats as we went along, but several times he trotted along just looking around. He also managed to not react to a squirrel at very close proximity. He saw it, stopped but didn't lunge, and quickly turned back to my side for a treat. This is a REAL breakthrough.
Looking back over the last few weeks, I am reminded that breakthroughs often come immediately after days when the training has gone badly.
The other thing to note is that this week I have been absolutely resolute on zero pulling. On our bad day on Tuesday, it took us fifteen minutes to get from the car to the park even though it's maybe ten steps in total. I just plain refused to let him drag me. We went somewhere else yesterday, but today we returned to the scene of the standoff and he barely pulled at all. Immediately we got out of the car he started circling round to walk beside me.
Now, there is every chance he'll be dreadful again tomorrow. So I'm writing this as a reminder to myself to be consistent and not give up at the first sign of backsliding, which I've been guilty of before.