More Training Stuff
Yesterday Faith and I started a new session of agility! It's pitiful that we've been doing this for a year this December, and we're still apparently in "Novice Agility." This session is going to be even better than the previous ones because Faith and Sydney are the only dogs in the class! The woman with Spider (I can never remember her name, which makes me feel vaguely guilty) isn't taking it this time around, so Maureen and I and our respective dogs have that much more time learning. We worked on some cool handling stuff yesterday with jumps, tunnels, and tables. It's interesting how different Maureen and I have to do stuff because of the size difference in our dogs. It's easy for me to accidentally push Faith out too far either by overdoing a gesture or by waiting too long to change something. Not only is Faith fast, but if she's not receiving constant direction from me, she has no qualms whatsoever about making up her own course. She particularly likes the A-frame for some reason. Anyway, Faith was great throughout the whole class. I did well in the first half and for some reason fell apart in the second. We ended on a good note, though!
Then today we went to Roanoke to practice flyball and rally with Laura and Maureen. Also, Carole with Sophie (the other black standard poodle) was there, too! For our practice today, Laura held Faith at the box, then released her when I was at the other end. When Faith neared the last jump, Carole released Sophie, who was supposed to do a full run. Faith and Sophie both are too interested in other dogs around them, so it was good practice. Faith did really well. She looked at Sophie, but only when Sophie tried to jump on her. Towards the end, she was still watching but also swinging wide of Sophie, which is definitely preferable to her usual "let's play!"--BOUNCE--"whee!" routine.
Rally practice was also fun, although I am definitely getting worried about this trial. We went to an AKC breed/obedience/rally show a few months ago to watch, and I now remember that it was very crowded. However, at the time we got there, they were only doing breed classes. Surely people don't tend to watch the rally classes as much....
Right now Kristen is in the kitchen with Joey doing a bit of training. There's a baby-gate separating the kitchen from the foyer (we keep it up all the time so that the dogs have no opportunity to ogle the birds) and Faith is on the other side of the baby-gate watching Kristen and Joey. Every time Kristen gives Joey a command, Faith follows it, too. It's pretty cute. (And Kristen is so cruel, just ignoring my ever hopeful dog!)
Then today we went to Roanoke to practice flyball and rally with Laura and Maureen. Also, Carole with Sophie (the other black standard poodle) was there, too! For our practice today, Laura held Faith at the box, then released her when I was at the other end. When Faith neared the last jump, Carole released Sophie, who was supposed to do a full run. Faith and Sophie both are too interested in other dogs around them, so it was good practice. Faith did really well. She looked at Sophie, but only when Sophie tried to jump on her. Towards the end, she was still watching but also swinging wide of Sophie, which is definitely preferable to her usual "let's play!"--BOUNCE--"whee!" routine.
Rally practice was also fun, although I am definitely getting worried about this trial. We went to an AKC breed/obedience/rally show a few months ago to watch, and I now remember that it was very crowded. However, at the time we got there, they were only doing breed classes. Surely people don't tend to watch the rally classes as much....
Right now Kristen is in the kitchen with Joey doing a bit of training. There's a baby-gate separating the kitchen from the foyer (we keep it up all the time so that the dogs have no opportunity to ogle the birds) and Faith is on the other side of the baby-gate watching Kristen and Joey. Every time Kristen gives Joey a command, Faith follows it, too. It's pretty cute. (And Kristen is so cruel, just ignoring my ever hopeful dog!)