Monday Night Handlers Class - Week 6

Well, tonight I decided that self control was my only concern with Gus right now. I spent the entire night working with him on paying attention and not being a maniac. We started at Set 3 and I made Gus be calm (and lay down) before releasing him into the weaves. I bypassed everything else so that we could focus on 12 poles at speed. As usual he did better on our last turn. When we rotated to Set 1 I required that Gus sit and look at me before I would allow him to take any equipment. Unfortunately he refused on each turn so he was not allowed to run this course. I would request that he look and sit and wait for 30 seconds. If he did not do as I asked I walked him over to his kennel and put him in there until his next turn. Of course he screamed about it but I ignored him. He needs to learn that he must remain calm enough to comply with my requests around the agility equipment. Finally we rotated to Set 2 and this time when I asked for his eye contact and a sit I got it!!! He figured out the consequences pretty quickly although I expect that we will have to revisit this lesson for months. When running Set 2 I really struggled to get into position for a front cross after jump number 5. He is just too fast for me. On the final attempt though I handled 6 to 7 with a rear cross and we were more successful than before.