Tuesday Night Class

I was SO not up for class last night. Vegas, my son, and I biked 4.3 miles yesterday after I got off work which was a lot of fun. I even let Vegas "race" me on the track (she ran in the grass). We had a ball in the fresh, beautiful Fall weather and came home to make dinner. After dinner I attempted to read a book for a while and soon got too sleepy. I let Vegas curl up on the couch next to me and was cat-napping when the kids started bugging me about class time and getting ready to leave. They all but pushed us out the door as they got all of our things together, put Vegas' coat on her, and sent us on our way.

I am SO glad I went although at first I thought it was going to be a bomb. Vegas has discovered an 'off' button and I haven't found her 'on' button that corresponds to the off. Tammy, our instructor, is really good about having a concrete plan for classes. Last night appeared to be somewhat of a doozy. We started out going over a series of two jumps and had to wrap on the second jump then take a tunnel that was directly to the left of the jump. Vegas never excels when I am in a handler's position of not moving. However, Tammy gave us a pointer and she picked it up right away which was exciting as my handling maneuver was not going to work. From the tunnel we climbed the A-frame then went over a jump without wrap/front-cross then into another tunnel. The purpose of this sequence was contact discrimination - getting our dog to choose the tunnel or the contact obstacle at the correct time. She did well!

Then we moved onto another sequence that contained a jump followed by the dog walk, followed by a jump that was out a bit and offset from the dog walk, then another jump, a set of 12 weaves, and the table. Again, the challenge after the dog walk was keeping her moving into a long arc to get around a jump without me having any speed. She did it several times and we've decided to start treating that maneuver more often until she really looks forward to it. Yeah for great tips!

The final note I want to make on last night's practice is this: Vegas' weaves were STUNNING! She plowed right through them like it was a championship event! It was a thing of beauty and I really wish I had it on video. Perhaps soon. I'm really glad the kids pushed me out the door last night. Vegas' performance totally made it worthwhile.