Handling 2 Week 2
Have I mentioned I love this dog? Right now he’s curled up next to me on the couch but earlier tonight he was a rock star in his agility class.
He’s a young male and I think he acts that way, but despite that, he’s really coming along nicely. His jumping was complemented tonight. Both for good form and for being a quiet jumper.
We’re still having lots of distractions, but he always comes back to me. His leash is a HUGE distraction. Diann ended up holding his leash so we could get through the sequences. She did give us some good tips for curing this leash issue.
All of the sequences tonight were grid exercises which in a lot of ways I find more challenging than other sequences. We did front and rear crosses, a two jump lead out push, a 270° turn with a tunnel distraction in the middle, a few pinwheels, and a few 180s.
Tonight was very distracting for Riot. I usually put him in a down stay between his turns on the far side of the building. Tonight we were on the far side of the building second and it seems like the more courses he does, the more amped he tends to get. He was holding his down stays, but barely for the first sequence on the far side. For the second, we were behind the tunnel and Riot kept sitting up when I was walking the sequence and setting bars. He was okay for the border collie, but waiting for the other two goldens to have their turn was torture. He was whining and kept sitting up. I’m thinking the sitting was to see over the tunnel and see what was going on. By the time it was his last turn he was so ready. I asked if he was ready and he barked at me.
We’ve been working weaves and teeter all week too. He needs to learn collection on the weaves. He was missing between poles 2 and 3 maybe 20-30% of the time.
