Another Great Class Night
Another fantastic pair of classes Wednesday night. I'm so pleased with both dogs I could have just cried.
Puppy class was fantastic. It was a full house and chaotic as it gets, but Indy mixed well with the other puppies with hardly a bark. It's worth noting that we weren't doing direct meet-and-greets, but puppies where everywhere. Personal space was in high demand, especially during particular exercises where everyone spread out or where we did surface work stations (Intro to Agility-style)
Diane did class up until the end where we did Come-fores and surface work. Indy was having a tough time focusing by that point, and it's much harder for Diane to keep the engagement level high when he starts getting distracted. That's not a knock on Diane, because it's a real challenge still at his development stage. An hour is a long time. That said, Diane and Indy did a bang up job for all of the early parts of class, and she's got him doing terrific on his sit- and down-stays.
We did the tunnel for the first time and had a little bit of freak-out, but I think it was because the first time we tried it, it wasn't properly secured. Once he had a chance to try it with the sandbags in place and when we could take our time, he was fine with it once he'd run through a few times. He's taken every other piece of equipment in stride (low table, flat dogwalk, ladders), but that's no surprise since we've deliberately exposed him to as many surfaces as possible.
He also proved he has a nice recall because he slipped his collar when instructor Elsie was trying to hold him at one end of the tunnel, and he took of toward Diane and a huddle of puppies, but returned immediately when I called him. Good boy!
Ebby was awesome again. One of her classmates, another shepherd, was going nuts through the entire class and several of the other dogs had reactive moments, but it didn't phase her at all. I was able to keep her attention through everything. When we did walk-bys (where you face another dog and handler and pass them, sometimes stopping beside them) she didn't even glance over at the other dogs. We did a lot of work with heeling patterns, and she's doing even better than last week as far as proper position and attention. During our downtime, I also practiced stationary right and left turns and having her move with me into proper position. I'm still doing Touch Hand maybe 35-50% of the time, but that was the magic key to getting her to understand exactly where I want her body.
Diane worked with Indy for a large percentage of the time I was in class with Ebony, and she got him to settle down dramatically from last week. I'm so glad because he needs to be able to chill out when we want him to just sit and wait around for times like this, even if he hears my voice or sees Ebony. They also worked on Leave It.
3 classes down, 3 to go. These sessions fly by so quickly.
Puppy class was fantastic. It was a full house and chaotic as it gets, but Indy mixed well with the other puppies with hardly a bark. It's worth noting that we weren't doing direct meet-and-greets, but puppies where everywhere. Personal space was in high demand, especially during particular exercises where everyone spread out or where we did surface work stations (Intro to Agility-style)
Diane did class up until the end where we did Come-fores and surface work. Indy was having a tough time focusing by that point, and it's much harder for Diane to keep the engagement level high when he starts getting distracted. That's not a knock on Diane, because it's a real challenge still at his development stage. An hour is a long time. That said, Diane and Indy did a bang up job for all of the early parts of class, and she's got him doing terrific on his sit- and down-stays.
We did the tunnel for the first time and had a little bit of freak-out, but I think it was because the first time we tried it, it wasn't properly secured. Once he had a chance to try it with the sandbags in place and when we could take our time, he was fine with it once he'd run through a few times. He's taken every other piece of equipment in stride (low table, flat dogwalk, ladders), but that's no surprise since we've deliberately exposed him to as many surfaces as possible.
He also proved he has a nice recall because he slipped his collar when instructor Elsie was trying to hold him at one end of the tunnel, and he took of toward Diane and a huddle of puppies, but returned immediately when I called him. Good boy!
Ebby was awesome again. One of her classmates, another shepherd, was going nuts through the entire class and several of the other dogs had reactive moments, but it didn't phase her at all. I was able to keep her attention through everything. When we did walk-bys (where you face another dog and handler and pass them, sometimes stopping beside them) she didn't even glance over at the other dogs. We did a lot of work with heeling patterns, and she's doing even better than last week as far as proper position and attention. During our downtime, I also practiced stationary right and left turns and having her move with me into proper position. I'm still doing Touch Hand maybe 35-50% of the time, but that was the magic key to getting her to understand exactly where I want her body.
Diane worked with Indy for a large percentage of the time I was in class with Ebony, and she got him to settle down dramatically from last week. I'm so glad because he needs to be able to chill out when we want him to just sit and wait around for times like this, even if he hears my voice or sees Ebony. They also worked on Leave It.
3 classes down, 3 to go. These sessions fly by so quickly.
posted by Erica at
4:18 PM
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