Going to class when you don't want to...

I really didn't want to go to class tonight because I was just way too tired. However, having a crazy, wound-up, 125 pound dog was motivation enough to go anyway (with an extra nudge from a friend). I really was glad I went. Jim always sets up really awesome courses that go beyond challenging us. Sometimes the courses are more difficult to walk than they are to run our dogs, and other times they are just plain difficult and we end up feeling like bumbling idiots. However, we always accomplish the goal of pushing ourselves farther and learning how better to handle our dogs. Thursday nights are truly an opportunity to train beyond our actual skill level and I love knowing that at times we actually run clean.

As per usual, we had three nested courses set up tonight. Things started out a bit rough. Vegas was really wound up and blew through some things and right past me like I wasn't even on the course with her. That was frustrating. Then when I tried to reign her in and work on the course, she would act like I wasn't even there. She did her little trick of looking at anything but me, sniffing, nose to the ground, looking at the wall like there was something incredibly fascinating, and generally giving me the royal canine flip-off. ANNOYING!

But, after our first debacle of a run, we had our second shot at running course number one and it was much better! I guess she just needed to blow off some steam. The next course she worked really well with me. She was really going slow tonight on the dog walk though and I'm not sure why. She also was popping out of weaves at pole 10 but I didn't let it go and put her back through all the way. I think Vegas just needed a cheerleader tonight because I sure had to clap and whoohoo and talk her way through the weaves and over the dog walk.

The second course went really well and by the third course is when Vegas really started ignoring me again. She ignored me enough so that I decided not to let up and really pushed her to finish things I was asking of her. It resulted in us finishing the course with a couple of repeated areas and certainly not clean, and then me taking her though again but skipping things like the tunnels and just getting her to open up and have fun. She finished like the champ she is and was overjoyed to come home to dinner and her nice, warm, king-size bed.