Curly - Advanced Precision, Week 2

Today was the start of week 2 for our Advanced Precision class. It was a great class and I really needed it after a challenging Rally trial. I went in with the attitude that we'd do great and have fun! I think we accomplished our goal.

Curly seemed in sync with me tonight and I learned a lot about how I communicate with him. We did healing and sharp turns around cones to warm up. It was really important to ensure we had a loose leash with a "U" shape so the dogs did not feel restricted. Once we all fixed our leash and grip the dogs walked much better in a heal with us. Good job!

Next, we worked on our "sit" stays and "down" stays. This can be hard for us because of distractions. I found I was talking too much (shocker, right) and really needed to watch Curly rather than talk his ear off. When I talked less he listened more! In week 3 we will have to do a down stay away from our dogs for a period of time so you know what we'll be practicing hard on this week!!

Tonight we also worked on walking around cones. Imagine us standing in between 2 cones and then we did figure 8's around them in a heal. In week 3 we will be circling other human students, hence the reason our dogs will need to "down" stay while I act as a cone. Eeeek! We'll see how that goes. Ha!

Finally, to lighten the mood since we were being so serious tonight we went around the room showing what dog tricks we know. The first dog did "peek-a-boo" which was very cute, Curly did "touch", Wrigley did a BIG "shake", another dog did a bunch of cool stuff like backing up to beeping noise and finally our buddy Harley played dead after a "bang, bang". Ha ha ha! This was a great way to close out the class.

The start of week 2 if off to a good start with lots of practice in our future!!