Freestyle class

Freestlye class was lots of fun. Guiness was very excited to be there. I was worried that he would be reactive because he has been acting that way in the neighborhood. But he was fine. He was whining to play with the other dogs. There were 4 shelties and one lab in the class. First we worked on heel walking with the dog on the left and then the dog does an outside turn away from you as you turn around. So the dog will go from your left side heel to your right. Most of the dogs wanted to turn into you when you did the turn. So she said you can use elaborate gestures to get your dog to do things and slowly fad them out. We then worked on getting your dog to go around a chair, first clockwise and then counter-clockwise. Don't treat your dog in the same place as he comes around the chair or you will teach your dog to stop there. If you think of the chair as a clock, give treats at 6, 9 12 and 3 o'clock. As your dog gets proficient with the going around the chair ,add your body into it. Put yourself close to the chair so now the dog has to go around you and the chair. ( not every dog needs to learn it this way. Some dogs you can teach just to go around you) Just don't always reward the dog in front of you so he thinks that's the end of the behavior. Once the dog has the behavior then you start to add your movement. Like you turn in the opposite direction as the dog goes around. We also worked on on teaching your dog to spin in each direction and weave through your legs. Weaving through the legs should be done with dog entering through the front and from behind. We worked on roll over. Guiness can not roll over. When he lies down , he doesn't roll off to one hip. So that makes it very hard to go on his side and roll over. Last we worked on backing up. This was a fast moving class with lots of homework. You need to work on all these things with a command for each one. The last thing she wants us to introduce was pressure to your dog. If you put your hand lightly on your dogs hip, he should press back. You will have to work in this for a while for you dog to get it. We need this to teach our dogs in the next class to move with us sideways when you use a touch stick on his side between him and you. I know this was a lot, but she stressed fun and not drilling you dog. If he gets it right , stop. Celebrate and don't do anymore. Wait a day or so and do it again. None of the dogs were proficient with the tricks. Its all homework. Probably the worse part was it was 95 degress out and no air conditioning in the building. The humidity has been 90% everyday for the last week. So it was hot!! Its suppose to cool down after tonight. Thank goodness. Last night we walked the dogs at the park. It was miserable. Twice I doused the dogs with water ( which Miley hates). I told my husband I wasn't walking there again until the weather changes. I was covered with sweat after walking an hour and it was 7:30 at night. Yuk!
I ran Miley through a short agility course. The first run she was very excited and dropped almost every bar. So I got the video camera out and started taping. Then she didn't drop any bars. Weird huh. It was a short 5 min. session because I needed to go to class. When I came back from class I ran her again. She was perfect. Not one dropped bar and fast as lighting.