New Class for Gus

Tonight I took Gus to a new class at Top Notch Canines. It was a private lesson and the first time Gussie was seen by the instructor. It is an indoor training facility and has just opened this week. To start with we reviewed Gus' issues and then the instructor wanted to see Gus in action. Her evaluation of his performance was that he was:

1. unable to drive forward to the next obstacle because my cues were too late.
2. looking up when jumping and not putting his head in to the proper jumping position.

After an initial evaluation run we tried some jump grids which Gus was marginally successful but it was obvious to the instructor that he was keeping his head too high. Then Debbie introduced a new exercise for Gus to do at home, which is a jump grid at very low height (4"). We are to do a single jump and then go into an immediate sit. I must treat Gus very low to encourage the low head position. We also need to work on the phone book work and teach him to move his rear end in to the proper heel position.

I also need to work on 101 things to do with a box as homework. Gus shuts down when challenged so Debbie wants me to work on keeping him engaged with me by challenging him and getting him to work through it. When he disengages I am to put him into his kennel until he calms down enough to work with me.