Class seven was today. Hard to believe it’s almost over. Parker did really well, all things considered. We mostly did heeling and finishing, both behind and to the left. We did some weaves, four dogs sitting, four dogs weaving around them. Was really pleased with Parker’s focus on me and ignoring (mostly) the other dogs. Unless one of the other dogs pulled its owner off the heel position in order to sniff Parker’s butt, but even then, he didn’t break his sit -- just swiveled his head around to keep an eye on them, something I really couldn’t blame him for, but called his attention back to me, and got it.
We also did a bit of ‘leave it,’ with several toys strewn around. Almost all the dogs ignored almost all of the toys (except for the Lab, who was unfairly tempted by the ball). The one toy no one ignored was a stuffed Golden Retriever puppy. In their defense, most people see that toy in a crate when they walk into the training center and complain that it’s much too young a dog to be kept in a crate. Most of the dogs, Parker included, just wanted to sniff. One German Shepherd apparently either wanted to play with it or eat it and barked like crazy when pulled away.
As usual, when asked to do a down, Parker wasn’t interested, but when released from working and while I was listening to the teacher talk, he did them perfecly. Several times I was able to coax him into a down, but he was completely over his leash, so I had to drop my end in order to do a stay. But he managed to hold the stay anyway while I walked around him, so not a complete mishap.
I’ve signed him up for Basic 2, and am waiting on a reply to my question about whether or not it would be a good thing to also sign him up for the beginning rally class. That looks like so much fun and the dogs go through the rally courses singly, which he does so much better than work in a crowd.
No comments:
Post a Comment