Class Time

We had a great class tonight.  We did a variety of sequences, working all of the obstacles in at various points.  I won't go through everything, but here are the highlights:

1.  Jonah was running so fast when he jumped on the table that he almost slid right off the other side.  Funny!

2.  At the base of the A-frame I meant to drop a cookie on the target, but nothing came out of my hands (the cheese was sticky) and I went on to the next obstacle.  He couldn't believe that I could possibly have forgotten to cookie him, so he kept sniffing around and delayed in coming to the tunnel.  When he did come to me, he missed the tunnel entrance.  Next time around I got my cookie right and he did the tunnel perfectly.

3.  We worked on a pinwheel.  It was three jumps, making half a circle  ( __  |  __ ).  We actually had a little bit of trouble with this.  I was supposed to do a front cross after the second jump, but I was having trouble getting there in time and I wasn't making eye contact with him.  When he didn't have clear direction from me, he went straight after the second jump and was on the A-frame before I knew what had happened.  After a little practice we had it going smoothly.

4.  Jonah was great on the teeter, which was low but free-standing this week.  I let him go his own speed (pretty fast!), and he was a little surprised when it moved faster than expected, but he didn't seem bothered at all and was happy to get back on the next time without any hesitation. 

5.  In general, I was really pleased with Jonah's willingness to go out to jumps that were farther away from me.  We're only talking about 10 feet or so, but it's some amount of independence nonetheless.  As he warmed up, he seemed to get more and more focused and attentive.  The wider, open courses feel great.  He is smooth and quick, looking for the next obstacle and driving to it.  We need to work on the tighter, more technical questions, but I know we'll get there.

We're going to have our class extended another 4 weeks at the same place and same time.  I'm looking forward to it.  Tonight there were only 3 dogs and it looks like that's the way it will be for the next month.  The dogs are the more competent ones, so I'm excited that we'll be able to be challenged while still being in the fun environment we're so comfortable with.

I'm still waiting to hear from another new agility place to see what they have for us.  It's farther away (about an hour without traffic), but it looks like a nice facility and they have competitions there, which seems like an added bonus.  If that doesn't work, we'll wait until my classes are over and I'll go to the new, closer place (about half an hour) on Thursday nights.  Meanwhile, we've got 4 more weeks already set up for us.  Time's counting!