Moving and Staying

Training group yesterday and today! Yesterday we did this rear cross exercise. It didn't go as well as I expected. I'm having a hard time switching from how Blaze responds to cues (which is what I would like from the others!), how Luna responds, and Griffin. We had a lot of people in the room and that was definitely a challenge at times.

The best part was Griffin tugging readily the whole time (not so great that he wouldn't take food). He wasn't looking ahead enough to make rear crosses work well and I was having to put in a lot of effort to get him to even take jumps nearby. He may have been sore from his OFA experience two days before, I'm not entirely sure.

Training group today: Great focus with lots of people and dogs. While doing obedience. Absolutely horrible precision. He did great stand for exams. But he was twitching before or after the exam (NONE during the exam which is AMAZING). He was actively trying to hold still for the touching. But the rest was ridiculous. We had a TON of wrong clicks, at least three different people tried. But he moved so much and we responded so poorly. Eventually just giving up and hoping this was a one day thing and not a long term problem.

Second part of his session was spent looking at differences between his obedience focus (high) and his agility focus (not high). So we alternated between 1 min of obed. 1 min agility. 1 min obed... And it was crazy. As soon as we started agility, and not even real agility, sending to a platform for 2o2o, he went off into space, far away.

He also had trouble switching...I sent him to a table and he stopped before it. Sat. Offered behaviors. Not sure where to go or what to do. That was with a Table cue. After a few reps where he showed no interest in the table other than a brief nose target when nearby. But when I sent him with "Up" he went up and did an auto Down. He has great concept ideas. But not the specifics. He saw the table as something to go "up" on, but NO idea of what Table actually meant. Amazing!

And we spent way too much time talking about handler focus and more attention and my expectations and all of that great stuff. We're doing a Super Ton of Training for a few weeks, both in training groups and alone. And it's not enough time between groups to work on all the little problems. There are so many tiny pieces and big pieces I'd love to work on!

That said, Griffin is the best dog ever. We've been going with someone else. And he says nothing about two completely unknown dogs in the car with him. He's jumping into the building and wanting to play. He's adorable. No video from the last few days. I take my camera but forget to use it.