Agility (2/6)

In addition having the puppy buddies join Gimme in her "special place" for rides in the car, I also added a snug coat for her to wear.  Overall I would say she did much better.  I watched her in the rearview mirror, and for most of the ride, she just lay in the back alertly looking around and silent.  Her whole demeanor was very different.

I put all four puppy buddies in the puppy pen and when Gimme got in, I distinctly heard her say, "I didn't know they'd take up so much room."  I'd placed one in each corner, figuring it would be the least impact on her space.  The two she interacted with were Kermit (naturally) and brown rabbit, so I may try taking the other two out, and they can be nearby, but not inside the pen.  I'm thinking the space between the pen and the side of the car will work.  She tended to lay right next to Kermit and I noticed later she had moved brown rabbit.

I think she liked the snug coat, once we got it on her.  She was unimpressed with getting it on.  Its a child's vest and just a tad too small.  If she continues to do well with it, I will probably alter it, make it a little larger in the forechest and replace the zipper with velcro.  I have another one I will also try on her to see if it fits better with less alteration required.  I'm going to wait and see what Tonya says before making changes.

Class was very good.  Gimme did really well and was overall very focused.  The only places she lost focus were when I made mistakes, not having walked the first course.  I started with my plan to get her working with me - it starts out looking very much like obedience, but its all skills she knows quite well and has lots of confidence in how to win.  I think it works well to put her in the right frame of mind.  Everyone was commenting about how good she was doing.  I was not altogether clear-headed myself, though I don't know why, so I also made mistakes on the second course, even though I walked it.  Still Gimme did very well and was running fast and was really responsive.

Because Gimme was having so much fun and working so well, we were able to focus on a couple of skills and tweak specific parts of the course to get a tighter line.  For the first time since we started agility I was able to send Gimme 20 feet to a tunnel while peeling off laterally and layering a jump.  It was very exciting because then I was able to easily get into position for the section of the course which followed.  It put me 20 feet down course when she exited the tunnel, so Gimme had fun running to catch up.  I also was able to get more lateral and slightly forward of her in the weaves, which also helped me get down course sooner.

Fun stuff.