SNOW!!

Our last agility class did not go well. Meg has decided she does not like Penney anymore (the evil one who brings out the teeter) and barked at her straight off. So we spent a good portion of class working on that. Penney insisted we try her on the teeter again with it nearly flat. I reluctantly gave in. Meg still hated it. Then we worked on weaves a bit and that was all.

The next agility classes starts up in January. I'm not sure if we'll go. We may take some time off and work on things at home and try again in the spring. Partly because the last few classes have not been fun for Meg and partly because a deer rearranged the front end of my sister's car and we've been sharing mine to get to and from work. On top of that, the roads are covered in snow and I don't want to drive any more than necessary.

On the topic of snow, just last weekend we we had gorgeous golden brown leaves on the ground.



Now one week later we have two feet of snow on the ground.





Meg and Bear love it (as long as they don't have to stay outside too long). Here is a video of Meg and Bear and I playing in the snow for the first time:

Roll Over Beethoven...

Meg is learning to play the piano! I thought the noise might bother her but she seems to enjoy it. She isn't much of a composer, but its a cute trick to show off for visitors and another confidence booster for Meg. I'll post a video once she's had a bit more practice.

This week agility went a bit smoother as we did not attempt the teeter. Meg was hesitant on the dog walk the first time but once she was sure it wasn't a teeter in disguise she enthusiastically jogged the length of it three times with a very nice bottom-stay on the ending contact each time. On a tunnel-jump sequence, she wanted to go around the jump not over. We used some extra jump wings to block her and she happily went over the jump. The tire gave her some trouble at first too. I'm not sure why...she wanted to go through the gap between the tire and the support, not something she's done in the past. She was brilliant on the table. We've only worked on a table-down 3-4 times in class and not at all at home, but she knew what she was supposed to do. Later, in our handling practice, Meg has a very nice out and wrap, but I need to work on my hand signals still. I keep giving the same hand signal for 'out' when I'm asking for a 'switch' and Meg isn't sure what I want so I/we have some practice to do.

I'm sad to say today was our last class for Prep School. We had a play session before class and Meg was confident enough to run the perimeter of the yard for the first time (she usually sticks pretty close to me). She and Dahrma went for a run until the lab arrived. Meg did better with the lab in the yard than she ever has though. She ran around with her for a bit before deciding she had enough and coming back to me. When the German brothers arrived, they were pretty wired and a bit more than Meg could handle at the same time, but she still did ok.

When class started, Meg got to show off her new tricks ('pretty', wave, and roll over). Then she also showed off her down stay. She does very good as long as she can see me. If I leave her sight, she stands up to look for me (though she still stays in the same spot). Then she got to be the distraction for the other dogs, which was nice because we worked on loose leash walking through a maze of dogs. Meg played with Dahrma for a bit while everyone else got some pointers on stay. Then all the dogs practiced being calm and quiet while us people talked. Meg was so calm she fell asleep...lol. It was a great class, and we're looking forward to taking the Advanced Class with Lisa in January!

Let's Play!

This week in agility class, Meg once again let us know how much she dislikes the teeter. I think maybe we'll just skip the teeter for now since she is so adamant about not liking it. Most of the local competitions are NADAC anyway (no teeter). Meg also did not want to go through the chute with the cloth, though I think with a little practice, she'll get over that one quickly. We introduced Meg to the weave poles...she did well. This week we've been working with a triangle of buckets and practicing our outs, switches, and wraps. Meg does better than I do...my hand signals are inconsistent but she's training me and I'm improving (slowly).

On Saturday in our Prep School class, Meg did great in the pre-class play session. All the dogs were in the yard together and Meg wasn't the slightest bit nervous, even when the crazy lab was flying all over the place and Dahrma had to tackle her to remind her to get control of herself. Meg the workaholic just took it as an opportunity to come sit-lay-stand in front of me in an effort to coerce some treats from me.

During class, Meg kept trying to get everyone to play with her. She bowed, nudged, pounced, rolled, and wiggled for all five of the other dogs in class. A few took her up on her offer to play, but the German Shepherd pups got a bit too enthusiastic so we had to step in before things got out of hand.

We worked on impulse control exercises in class. Meg did great! We also worked on getting the dogs to do the basics (sit, down, stand, stay) regardless of what position we were in. Meg has trouble with this. She feels the need to be able to see my face at all times. So that's our homework for the week...getting her to understand she does not need to see my face when I ask her to do something.

In addition to training for her classes, we've also been working on a few new tricks. Meg already knows shake (right paw), paw (left paw), and crawl. She recently learned to wave. We've also been working on 'pretty' (sit up) and roll over. She doesn't quite have the balance for 'pretty' yet, but she's improving. I've tried to teach her to roll over a few times over the past few months, but she wasn't comfortable with it. We've been working on it for the past week with the clicker and have made progress; she'll at least go on to her side. This morning however, she had a bit of a break through and rolled completely over three times!