Thursday, April 25th, 2013

Good morning!  Well, we had our first night of agility class!  It was SO much fun.  There are 5 dogs total and Bear is the smallest one by far.  There is a huge German Shepherd, a black Standard Poodle, a Goldendoodle, and a Lab-Border Collie mix.  You're supposed to have your dog sit on a towel next to you when you're not working.  Bear was very well-behaved but whined a lot out of excitement.  The instructor, Sarah, said that it was fine and just because he wants to run around and greet the other dogs (which you're not allowed to do).  You're not allowed to let the dogs meet & greet because they are supposed to be working with you and therefore only focused on you. 

We started by working on the jump.  First they just had to walk through the two poles - but you throw a treat through so that they don't learn to look at you when they take an obstacle - but instead look ahead at the obstacle.  Then we put the bar up very low and had them work on the same thing.  She said Bear was a natural ;)  Then we worked on targeting - that's also to help the dog look at an obstacle instead of you.  You rub cheese on a target - literally a target - and then drop it on the floor.  When the dog touches it's nose to the target, you say touch and then put a whole piece of cheese on the target.  Bear had trouble with this part because he was so obsessed with getting the cheese that he was just trying to do any trick I've ever taught him.  It was adorable.  Then we worked on getting the dog to focus on YOU.  We did this by practicing leash walking and having the dog look at you while walking next to you.  We finished by introducing the "wobble board."  The scariest obstacle for dogs is the teeter-totter because it moves under their feet.  So to warm up to that, she brought out this thing that you see at some gyms, but bigger because it needs to fit a whole big dog on it.  It's round and has a ball underneath it so you have to kind of balance on it.  Bear was THE BEST at the wobble board.  He was the only dog that climbed the whole way on - probably because his center of gravity is so much lower than theirs.  He didn't even need a treat and was definitely not scared of it - he just hopped right on and surfed around. 

We had a great time - seriously - I really enjoyed it.  I wish Sofie could come, too, but it would be too expensive and impossible for me to work with 2 at one time.  Also she already got to go to obedience school back when we lived in Philly - so it's fair I think.   Ok, off to work. 

Carpe diem,

J