For the months of March and April, we re-took Agility 1 with Penney Morse of Sunara Dog Training and we took and Advanced Class with Lisa Lucas of Northern Tails Dog Training.
Our class with Lisa was great. Meg REALLY like Lisa's partner Dharma, the Belgian Sheepdog. Two dogs from day camp were also in our class. We learned more about shaping and backchaining and had a lot of fun. Meg now knows paw targeting, crawl, and "you're on fire" (roll over). We also put together a little routine of tricks for the Headstart Class.
Agility with Penney was also great. Things were a little bumpy starting out. Meg still does not like/trust Penney, but Penney has been great about not pushing the issue and slowly trying to regain Meg's trust. Meg was much more confident on the equipment this time around. The A-Frame is the greatest and when you aren't sure what the human wants, run through the weave poles...lol.
We worked on the dreaded teeter a couple times in the last sessions of the class. Penney had some new ideas on how to help Meg become more confident about it. First, with the teeter lowered to nearly to the ground and an x-pen blocking her from jumping off one side, I walked her across it holding her collar. Penney held the end of the teeter to prevent the 'bang'. This helped boost Meg's confidence. She was still unsure about the whole thing, but she wasn't terrified of it. By the third time across, she was doing the leading; I was just guiding her to stay on. The next session, we had the teeter at full height, but put a table underneath one end so the down side only had to come down half-way. (And Penney put a rug on it to silence the bang, though there was still a 'bang' when it reset.) The first couple of runs, I slowed the teeter as it moved so it didn't scare Meg. Meg did fantastic. By the third run, it was all her and she actually enjoyed it a bit.
Yesterday, I made a make-shift teeter for practice at home with the center point only about 6" high. Meg went over it like it was nothing. We did it about four times. When I reset the board so it wouldn't move (so we could work on other things) Meg walked on it and seemed disappointed that it wasn't moving anymore.
Meg is REALLY starting to enjoy every aspect of agility now. I can't wait until we start Agility II in a couple weeks and start putting things together more.
Next weekend we start a 4-week class with Diomonds in the RUff that focuses only on Loose Leash Walking, something we really need to work on. Then in June we take another 4-week class to work on loose leash walking in the 'real world'. I'm looking forward to this one as we get to meet at area parks and enjoy summer evening walks. Here's hoping it stops snowing by then...lol.
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