Agility

My life has been busy, so this is a post about agility class at Flashpoint Agility on Wednesday. I was going to skip it, but then I decided I needed to keep my news year resolution LOL

So, I ran home from school, let the dogs out, threw them in the car and ran to class. It had been a long day at school and I was pretty drained and definitely still thinking more about school than my dog! It also was one of our first COLD days this winter. And boy was the arena coooooolllllldddd. We had two standard courses set up. Thai's big problem right now is weaves. We walked the course and then ran it. I blew the opening, but the rest went well, including the weaves. The course was A-frame to weaves in a straight line. Thai has great contacts so she held the contact and then I directed her to the weaves and rewarded after. Her sit on the table was also quick (now that I've worked on teaching her the sit).

The second run was also a standard run, although it was a slightly harder course. I goofed up the opening, but then when we came around by the wall near the weaves and the A-frame Thai totally disconnected and was into or scared of the wall which may have had a raccoon behind it, or she may have been worried about the big silver ladder on the ground...I'm not sure, and am still not sure. But boy did she disconnect. So after everyone ran I went over and did a lot of attention stuff near that wall, including some soft corrections and then lots of playing afterwards. She became more comfortable, but was never totally relaxed over there.

I left feeling bummed, but maybe it is good that I took the time to reflect on this through the blog. I think I wasn't all there, and didn't handle de-stressing her well and moving on. I think I perseverated on that spot too long. Should have done more of an instant (like while running the course) little heel pattern, reward, and then move on to another part of the arena and then come back to it 10 min. later

ahhh...20/20 hindsite is wonderful LOL.