Agility Lesson April Spring

Tibby did very good at our lesson with Loretta today.  She was a really good girl.  I have a lot to work on though! 

I really like how Loretta can see what I'm doing and then explain it to me.  Now if I could just remember to do what she says!  I'm pretty sure she must get sick of telling me the same thing over and over again - and think that I don't get it!  I get it, but my body just doesn't want to connect with my brain! 

I really, really, really have to stop getting into Tibby's space.  It's so tempting though!  She hates it.  So I have to stop.  If I could stop doing that then maybe her speed would even out and that would help me quit decelerating and then Tibby wouldn't get de-motivated.

Tibby did a great job though!

 She likes extension and thinks collection is stupid.  I have to agree with her.  Less thinking with extension - which is good for me :)

"We go now?"

My right thumb is so beat up from Tibby biting it.  It hurt all afternoon, but it's fine now.  I give her tiny little bites and let her nibble on my thumb to get the pieces.  Good except I have 2 holes in my thumb now! 

At the end of our lesson Tibby played with a toy!  It was so much fun!  Back a couple months ago (maybe Dec. or Jan. ?)  I offered her the toy and she was not interested at all.  Today she was ALL OVER IT!!!  Running around chasing, tugging and then running off when she 'won' it.  She figured out really, really quickly - give toy back, get treat.  Although I still chased her a little when she had the toy, because that's her favorite part. 

I think she wasn't feeling well last week.  I don't like to make excuses for us, because there are always excuses for why something is wrong.  But last week, the day of our lesson, Tibby threw up twice in the early morning.  This is gross, but I think she ate a hair ball that Catty threw up outside.  There were pieces of grass and cat hair, ect.  Yuck.  She was also acting all scared of everything and now she is much, much better.  She has started sitting outside on the grass - by herself!  It's one of her favorite things to do, but she has been too scared for the last couple weeks to do it.  It's nice to see that she is feeling all relaxed again.

"I tired."

It really helped to tie Tibby to the door when we weren't running.  We would do an exercise, run back to her leash and then Loretta and I would talk about what we had done.  I think that made a big difference in her motivation.  At first she didn't get it, but by the end of the hour - when I let her off she was running with me.  It really helps to have Loretta talking me through everything.  It's hard to see, objectively, what is going on.  I like lessons!

I also liked running Tibby to her leash at the end, because I have been teaching Tibby to target her leash.  I figure there is a pretty good chance that, if we ever trial, and I don't teach her to target her leash, she will run out of the ring when we finish running.  So this will be a good training step.  I'm going to do it at home too, when we are training.  I just have to make sure that I remember to reward her when we get to the leash, so she doesn't think she is being punished or that she did something wrong.

She is such a good dog.