Saturday Class with the Boys

This morning was Flex's Advanced Beginner's class and then we ran a Snooker course at Fun & Games. My goal with Flex this morning was to work on his focus and attention on me rather than sniffing and paying attention to everyone else. We spent a lot of time doing mat work and I was asking him for eye contact. He complied most of the time. I also worked on the go sniff game so that he would learn that he will be rewarded for paying attention to me. This was the first time for him on this game so it is still a work in progress. By the end of class I had pretty good focus on me and when I sent him to sniff he started to come back very quickly. He did well on most of the sets, except the weaves which were a struggle again. We need to practice his weaves in other places besides the living room so he can translate this skill.

During the snooker run Gus handled like a dream! He was super attuned to my body language and followed my plan exactly. I even got a couple of weaves out of him! He was a remarkably calm while waiting for his turn. He would occasionally look at the other dogs who were running and then check back in with me. He did not lunge or bark. He was calm and let me do the t-touch on him. He has made tremendous progress in just a few short weeks.

When it was Gus' turn he was pretty calm at the start line and cleared the first jump! We took the red jump at the right of the diagram and then went over jump 4. I pulled him to the left over the red jump that was net to it and sent him into the left hand side of the tunnel by doing a rear cross (RC) there. I then pulled him around to send him out of the last red jump. I wrapped him him to the his left around that jump and then sent him into the tunnel again. Once he came out of the tunnel I turned him around and sent him back into the tunnel to start the closing. He shot out of the tunnel and i was able to pull him with me over jump three and easily around to four. He hit the Aframe hard and I was on his left so as he came off the frame I sent him over the first jump of the number 6 combo and rear crossed him there. He easily did the pinwheel with out me being into the middle of the pinwheel. He also pulled around to the 3rd jump very nicely and headed to the weaves. He hit the entry and then bypassed the rest of the poles. I called him back and though he missed the entry this time he did about 6 poles with correct footwork. We called this a success and left the course.