Spot the superstar

Spot had agility class last night, and I'm really happy with his progress. He's totally comfortable with the other dogs now and only barks periodically. I think I'm also learning how to keep his attention by being more excited myself. The one thing Spot doesn't really do too well is practicing rear crosses. However, I think that's because I'm trying to do them right up at the jump and not giving him room. So I want to practice that at home a bit more. We practiced contacts a lot last night and he's really good at staying in place even when I'm in varied positions, like behind him, to the side, turned away from him, etc. So last night I started having him hold the contact while I moved over to a jump and then released him over the jump. He's so easy to work with-he loves to work and get rewarded. Carolyn said he's doing really great, especially since he'll be 10 next month.

We ended the night with a 6 obstacle sequence of wing jump, bar jump, bar jump, chute, bar jump and bar jump. The first 2 jumps were in a line, with jump 3 being almost 90 degrees to the left, then a line to the chute and the two final jumps almost 90 degrees to the left again. The first time, Spot ran around the wing jump when I released him, so we re-set and I tried again, this time leading out a bit more in front of the jump and that was fine. He did fine over the next jump and then wasn't 100% sure about the chute, but he took it. Then I did a front cross, Spot missed the next jump, but I kept going and he took the final jump. The second time we ran it, he did it perfectly.

Carolyn also used Spot as the demo dog to demostrate how to use a toy to build some excitement. Coincidentally I had made sure to bring Spot's jackpot tug toy to keep him occupied. He got a little too excited I think! One of the other people in class said she wonders if Spot ever sleeps! It's funny, he's a total couch potato at home, but knows when to turn it on, I guess.

In other good news: I found out I did get in to the Bo-Gee trial next weekend in NH. I'm excited because there are 2 rings, and they are going to run levels 1 and 2 separately from level 3. That means no Cinders issue! The only thing is that it's an hour away from my house, so I'll have to get up at the crack of dawn.