Oct 30th - at the barn

Tonight was an AWESOME training night! Normally the 4 hours is so long but it just flew by and I was very proud of my pups. Thanks to Andrea and Linda, I was able to get video of both Abbey and Baxter running. The video of Abbey are on her own blog so I won't bother to put them here. It was a bit painstaking but I was very happy to get some of her.

First we started with the puppies and were doing some lead outs. I didn't think that there was any way that Ripley would ever allow for this lead out but after some shaping and use of toys for rewards (strategically thrown out by Andrea) we were able to get him to understand some of the concepts...a huge breakthrough if you ask me. We finished off with some weaves which reinforced to me that I need to get my butt back in the backyard and work those 2x2's.

Next was the big boys turn. Both Peso and Baxter did really well, I was very proud of Baxter. He wasn't turning as tight as we would have liked when the tunnel was in front of him but again with some reinforcements we were able to get some tighter turns. He nailed every weave entry which I was thrilled about and maintained some really good sit-stays.

The class usually follows the boys but because we only had 2 students come Andrea had me work Baxter for the other hour. We set up a pre-starter type course for them which Baxter also did. In between his turns he maintained really good control over himself, doing some sit-stays etc and never once barked at the other dogs (and even Peso was playing the odd time). Linda was nice enough to tape B's final run and he ran it clean! I know it wasn't anything difficult but still, he was running full out, had good contacts and kept the bars up and had a good startline :)

Our final hour was spent doing some harder courses with Abbey and Chase. Andrea figured out some other options and added weaves and teeter to the course. Abbey was being an idiot at the weaves popping the last pole to get to the frame but otherwise did some nice stuff, kept her contacts and jumped the 16" jumps really well. Andrea taped those runs which I am starting to collect now.

Soo...as you can see, great night for the Thirsks :)