Second training session

Molly wasn't very well this morning. She'd hoped I'd keep her company while she was in bed but instead I chose to velcro myself to her dad. When she felt a bit better this afternoon she cooked some chicken in preparation for our training class tonight & we did some work on "stay". She can now ask me to "stay" inside the house & take 4 of her biggest steps back away from me & I stay there until she returns, gives me a treat & praises me. We've still got a way to go but she's impressed with how much progress I've made since we started learning "stay" just one week ago.

Then we went on a walk to the playing fields. We did some recall practise & some work on distracting me from other dogs but there were lots of them around which made it all a bit trickier.

I didn't have a full meal this evening because Molly knew I'd get lots of treats during our training class but the food I did have she sprinkled on the lawn so I had fun searching for it. And it kept me distracted while she cut up my chicken!

This evening we went to our second week of training class. We got there very early so I had a 10min walk round the sailing club. There were lots of things for me to sniff.

Then I got to say hello to the other dogs. There was a new one who really didn't like me & growled every time I got near him so Molly had to keep me away from him for the rest of the session.

Molly gave me pieces of chicken every time I sat rather than trying to play with the other dogs around us so I soon twigged what I had to do to get food. I wasn't perfect & still tried regularly to get to the other dogs but in between I'd sit next to Molly (without being asked) & wait for a treat. I even did this when there were other dogs just a couple of metres away which is a huge improvement on last week.

Firstly we did some work at waiting while our owners went through a makeshift door before us. I moved too soon the first time but got it right on the second try which Molly was pleased with because we'd not done anything like that before & I've only just started to learn "stay".

We did a lot of work on new surfaces & obstacles & I was fearless! Some of the other dogs were scared of things they'd not experienced before but I just found it all really exciting, to the extent that I ignored Molly's hand containing treats on some ocassions because I was more interested in what I was doing! I jumped through 3 hoops, did a "sit", "down" & "stand" on a wooden table, piece of slippery material & wobble board, walked between the rungs of a ladder lying on the ground (& then did it an extra time when we just walked past it because I enjoyed it so much!), climbed over a small "A" frame & tried out a seesaw (although we got told off for wandering off & trying that on our own!). Oh & we had an informal go at a long tunnel but I just backed out of the entrance & ran round it to get to Molly at the other end!

We also did some heel work - a future of eight round 2 cones (where the trainer drew attention to how well Molly had moved her hand to change my position near her leg in front of the rest of the class!) & a course around poles with instructions attached to them (like "sit", "left turn", "about turn right", "slow pace"...) which I did surprisingly well at.

I made Molly laugh when I started limping because I'd got a leaf stuck to my paw! I was fine again once she removed it.

I did misbehave a little bit towards the end of the session. I initially tried to wee on a car tyre but Molly caught me in time to stop me. Then I wee'd up a fence post. As I did that the person leading the class said to Molly that it's ok for dogs to do that but they mustn't wee on the agility equipment. So guess what I then tried to do?! Molly said she can't take her eyes off me. I like to think of it as keeping her on her toes ;)

Overall Molly said she was really proud of me this eve, especially regarding the difference in my focus compared to last week. The other owners & the trainer noticed it too.

I had a good sleep after all that hard work, then a short energetic burst of energy & now me & Molly are both getting ready to settle down for the night.

Apologies for the lack of photos in this post, Molly doesn't take them during training classes. She took this one a couple of days ago when I claimed her pillow for myself.