Week 3 - Advanced Precision with Curly Bear

Tonight was our 3rd night of class. I can't believe we are already approaching the mid-way point. I drove to class with the goal to just have fun no matter what. I knew we'd need to have a good down stay which is a challenge for Team Curly.

We warmed up first and Curly was doing great! He was healing and stopping like a pro. We were able to do our favorite move the "Left About Turn" (which used to be our hardest one to do a few classes ago). Then we did some stay work and it was then time for the human cone.

Two human students needed to act as the cones for another human and dog student to heal around those people. While those 2 were to be standing as cones their dogs were to "down stay". (Insert hysterical laughter from me here.) Curly did get up several times, but he did very well for such a challenging exercise. I took advice from many to #1 have fun and #2 envision what I wanted to happen and those pieces of advice paid off. I know we'll rock it next week!

Next, we did some "stand" and a "drop down" like they use in traditional obedience. The dog is to come towards you and then you signal (kind of like hale Hitler) for them to drop down while moving in your direction. Uhhhh I wasn't sure about this one. But I think with practice we can nail it. It's one we will probably love after we overcome the challenging part.

Then we worked on doing a "call front" while running away from you dog. Yes, you heard me right and yes I paid for this level of torture...I mean TRAINING. LOL! The goal is to ask your dog to "wait" leaving them from the heal position and running away from them while they await your next request. As you run you call your dog to "come front" or we just say "front" right now. Then Curly is to high tail it around me on my left and sit square in front of me. He did really good!! He said it must have the beef treat to do it just right and I complied. Rock star is all I can say. =)

Again, we showed off some tricks and learned some from another student. I really like winding the class up with this. There were only 3 teams tonight and I think that allowed for more practice and fun time. Loved it and really look forward to week 4!