NCA week 2

we tried some of the things I mentioned last week... kept her in her crate at home all day except for potty runs at noon and 3. no breakfast or dinner. when we got there I put her crate just outside the arena and kept her in there between runs. also brought a toy to tug with if she did really well...

we split the arena front and back this time instead of side to side... it seemed we had more room that way. our group last night was just 2 dogs... Waste' and Marley. Marley is a superfast, supercharged, very sweet mix. she makes Waste' look slow. because she is so active, she drives Waste's herding instinct crazy. hence, the crate. this worked very well early on in the class. we took turns with Marley working first at 24", then us at 20". the first exercise was simply a jump to a 90d left turn to the a-frame, concentrating on our contact on the a-frame. always for us, concentrating on handler focus. Waste' first bypassed the a-frame and ran right for the other group. Lynn was waiting for it and scolded her back to me. It made an impression. the second time thru she hit the a-frame and down contact, looked at the other dogs, then looked at me... big treat for that! then we did a pinwheel to the chute. she took off for the other dogs after the 2nd element of the pinwheel, Lynn scolded her again - a little harsher - and it made an even stronger impression. the 2nd time thru she nailed it. ah, i love a quick learner!

then we moved to the back side of the arena. we did several combinations - each one was better than the last... dogwalk to tunnel to weaves, weaves to tunnel to dogwalk, dogwalk to tunnel to jump to teeter to tunnel and finally jump to right hand tunnel to weaves.

after awhile, going into the crate between runs worked well, but then she started getting bummed out... but she was doing better in the ring at that time, so i pulled out her new tug toy which she decimated! i think if i just brought a couple of shop towels that she could tear up that would make her happy... she does LOVE to shred!

all in all it was a good class... i hope we keep up this trend...