Progress from Last Week

Here's how things have (or haven't) improved:

1) Obstacle fluency: We've been attempting to go outside at least twice a day using meals as her reinforcer. I think we've got out for half of them. We can improve on this for next week! Most of the last week was with jumps, but we'll do more teeter, weaves, and tunnels this week.
At class tonight she stuck right by my side other than a few times where she wasn't sure where to go and guessed. I was extremely happy with her!

2) Trust my dog on stays: We did not work on lead outs this week (hey, I did with Griffin!).
At class I only asked once while I put the leash in my pocket. Next week I want to be using a lead out on half of the exercises and working on it while we wait our turn.

3) Wear warm socks on cool nights.
It was about 40 tonight. I should have taken gloves...

4) Run more.... after that short time running I was very out of breath!
Tonight's class didn't involve very much running so we had no problem there. We only went out once this week....if the bike didn't have a flat tire we would have gone more. Though I suppose biking while my dog pulls defeats the purpose of -me- exercising? We went out once this week....goal this week is more than that.

New set:
1)Run more. More than the once from last week.
2)Dress appropriately.
3) Continue on obstacle fluency, especially: Speed on Teeter, Weaves, and Tunnel Discriminations. Take Luna out for more than half her meals.
4) Work on Lead Outs. In class use them half the time and between turns.
5) Handler movement on contacts [in agility many people teach their dogs to stop at the bottom of the ramp obstacles. The base area of those pieces of equipment is called "the contact"] Luna should remain in position until released. She should get into position regardless of what I am doing. But in reality, like way too many dogs, she only stops if I stop. And that doesn't make me happy.

Overall tonight was great. We'll spend some more time doing weaves the way we were at class. Varied entries to two sets of poles slightly off center... I thought the exercise was that the dogs found the entry on their own but our instructor was using luring and body blocking to get entries. We'll see what happens. Wednesday night is one of the few times when Griffin stays home alone. Generally I'll give him a stuffed kong as I whisk the others out of the house. It's good for dogs to learn to be comfortable when they are alone and I should start doing this more than once a week.