Beginner's class - Week 2

Well, Flex had his second beginners class this week and he did really well. The first set we went to was flat work and Flex has seen all of these exercises before so he did very well with this work. We worked on the sit/stay (which he was very good at - 15 feet lead outs) and the Greeting Game. He did really well at this, changing direction with me fairly quickly. The other dog we were working with was very reactive and Flexi responded very well. The final exercise we worked on was The Waltz. Again he has done the exercise many times and he responded very well.


The second set that we went to was the introduction to the plank. We shaped the performance to interact with the plank and eventually built up to walking across the plank. Flex has not seen this exercise before but he did very well. By the end he was driving across the plank to the baited target with speed and confidence.


The next set was the weaves. We have been working on shaping the weave entry already so this set was pretty easy for him. He was however getting very hot and tired so he was only able to focus for about 7 minutes. Once I lost his focus we went and got some water and I picked up his tennis ball and we played for a few minutes. This helped him regain some ability to focus so when we got to the last set he was able to work again for a few minutes.


The final set was the jump set. We were doing perch/telephone book work. Flex already knows this activity so he did very well with it. I also started to work with Flexi to place pressure on him to get him to move his rear legs away from me while keeping his front paws on the book. This is more advanced than the rest of the class but since he has been working this for a few weeks I didn't want to hold him back too much.


Overall, Flexi had a good class. I am hoping that as the weather cools he will be better able to focus for the full hour. I also think I need to work on his general conditioning because he seems to have limited endurance right now.