Spot went to his first agility class as Gemini on Thursday. He doesn't need to go so much for learning the obstacles, he needs it more so that he can get used to working with me and being more comfortable around other dogs.
When we got there, there were a couple of other dogs. Right away Spot is excited and barking his head off. I had to get out the treats and start feeding. The other dogs all seemed pretty calm, which was good. Once we started working, Spot had a heard time calming down, especially when we did exercised when we were moving back and forth. For some reason, all the dogs moving gets him nervous. So I just took him over to the side and we worked on our own a little bit and he was better. About a half hour into class he was feeling calmer. I think the next class he will settle down quicker.
Carolyn used Spot to demonstrate how to shape a behavior with a new obstacle. Spot is awesome at shaping. He has a natural curiousity and loves to try different behaviors to get treats. Carolyn had a little sled or something-it was circular and concave. She wanted the dogs to use their paw to move it so they get used to things moving underneath their feet, like the teeter and dog walk will. But by using the sled, you don't make any negative associations with planks, just in case the dog doesn't like it.
It will be interesting for me to see the different ways Carolyn trains vs Denielle. I already see that Carolyn likes to talk a lot more, which can be a problem because I missed a lot of what she was saying because I was trying to keep Spot quiet!
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