Serious and Fun

Griffin is supposed to be heading towards a serious and successful career in obedience and agility. But, I'll admit I don't stick 100% to my perfect behaviors and cued responses.

Tonight, the young two-leggeds were interested in "racing" the dogs on a timed course. We set out some jumps and a tunnel (the kids run along it, not through it! They've found that takes too long.). Luna wasn't keen to play, I ran Blaze a couple times.... and Griffin thought it was brilliant.

We've only done a little bit of sequencing, and what we had tonight felt great! I was handling more cautiously than I do in training when we're working on handling, but, he was responding to cues and seemed to want to be working a little further away.

And the other part of our evening? The kids took turns running him too. With their less than ideal cueing and timing... but that's okay. I was able to watch and see what cues Griffin was responding to (and not) to figure out what unintentional cues I might be providing or where he is still needing work on cues. How did Griffin handle this? He was fairly responsive, more handler-focused than with me, kept trying to enguage them despite no food on hand, and did read sloppy rear cross cues.

Griffin is so much fun. We also played with (obedience) directed jumping. It has been a while since we've had a training session on that, but he remembered what we were going for. We need more distance between the jumps and from where we start/end.... but we're getting there and do have plenty of time. That silly stand for exam is what we need to work on!