Griffin in Beginner Agility Class III

One word for tonight? Bad.

Good parts:
- He tugged! I offered his disc four times and each time he went right for it and tugged. I cued the out and gave him food each time. And we tugged again. He was less enthusiastic on the last one, so we'll stop a bit sooner. Next week, I'll try to bring it out more than once. This week I'll see about tugging in various places.
- The heeling! BEAUTIFUL attention and movement with me. He was adorable!
- First working minutes. When we had our first turn, he was great while I talked to the instructor. We did mini formal recalls, relaxed downs, and some tricks. He was attentive and going NOWHERE but with me.
- All running was FAST.

He was annoying when we arrived ( a few minutes late.> Garrr!). Next week I'll arrive 5-10 early and do training to get better walking to/from the building. We can definitely be working on this at home and at work.

As soon as we were inside, he was turning to me and ready to work. We did our own things for a while, when it was our turn with the dogwalk, we did two reps and then talked about placement of reinforcer (I'd left our food toss item at home).

And then we worked more with heeling and fronts. We were on the other side of the barn and...Griffin caught scent of ...something. He was REALLY interested. So, unsurprisingly, he ran off during our next turn to go visit the smelly spot. (and someone was standing there with a sheltie....) After two tries, I clipped on the leash. While waiting for our next turn, we heeled over the smelly area, did smell-leave-smell-leave practice, and lots of reinforcement for leaving it. Un

Next turn? Again. He went out. We tried that twice with just the tunnel. It WAS really cool to see that I talked to him and was able to send him 8-10', full speed ahead, he was definitely seeking out the tunnel on his own without extra motion from me. He ran off and visited the sheltie-less lady. Very happy about her.

And that was our night. We'll be doing more public visits, esp in busy areas, and lots of reps.

I'm sad that I let Griffin repeat the incorrect running off thing so many times. I should just keep the leash on when I'm in doubt! Don't be fooled into taking it off!

I was told to use less food and less from my hand. In past 'tests' Griffin has performed equally as well with the food in my pocket rather than my hand. But I know it can be sloppy training!