Reviewing

I taped this video yesterday and was really proud of how she ran. She is focused forward instead of at me and running ahead of me. But then when I watched it today, I started to see things wrong. She missed the running contact. Yes she is running fast, but do I have control or is she just running the course? I should have rewarded the "easy" command. And how many times can I say "go"?

Today I went to an agility drop in class. There were all young dogs or first time agility people except me and another lady. I'm glad I went because its good to see how your dog reacts in new places. There were lots of sheep running next to the field. That didn't seem to be a problem. But the tunnel must have smelled interesting. She kept sniffing and standing inside of it. I had to walk off with my back to her, until she notice me and came running.

Of course , Miley did her usual circling stuff. She circles me between runs, when I am getting my shoes on for a walk, when I'm getting her food ready and when playing ball at the Field. I haven't been able to stop it. I wasn't even sure why she was doing it. The instructor felt that she is doing it to try to control the game. She doesn't want to wait and wants to keep playing. Or it could be that I added motion to soon. I need to get her to stop doing it. That's the hard part. She wont come to me when she starts the circling behavior. So, she told me to play a game on the agility field with light colored treats. Have her sit in front of the jump, throw the treat on the other side of the jump and send her. When she goes to the jump, you go out to one side of the jump or the other and call her back to you. ( not back over the jump). I may need to keep a line on her. Also play this game on the agility field, but without any jumps.

Miley wont stay at a jump and let me do any amount of a lead out. (Also a control thing) Every time I tried to take a step, she took off and went over 3 jumps in a row. So the instructor told me to stand next to her , put her in a sit-stay, then take on step back (with just one foot) and then bring your leg back to where it was. If she stays, she gets a treat. This worked very well. I don't know why I didn't think of that. Then slowly go sideways and forward in small increments. Another sit -stay exercise is to sit your dog in front of the jump, you step over the jump and turn around an reward the dog for staying. Then turn back around and call the dog over the jump. This also worked well.