All things considered...

...last nights Agility class went very well!

We started class by warming up on the jumps. Bella is really improving on her jumping technique and she is also learning to watch me for direction. The jumps were staggered so that you had to move to the right or left to hit each jump; by the end of the night Bella was on a loose leash and watching me as I pointed to the jump I wanted her to take. It was really awesome!

While we worked on the jumps, the others took turns on the rest of the course and Trainer Guy worked with each team individually on the teeter. After about 15 minutes on the jumps, Bella and I were called over for our turn. I took a deep breath try and calm myself, I knew that it was imperative that I remain calm. I walked her up to it, she was a little unsure at first but with a little coaxing I got her on and about half way up. There Trainer Guy instructed me to calmly pet her and talk to her for reassurance. Initially he stood on the opposite side of me to help keep her on the board, but she was more nervous with him there so he backed off and I was on my own. Again I took a deep breath, and relaxed my posture. He told me to ask her to take a step with her front foot, then another and another, each time pausing to calmly praise and pet her. Once she hit the balance point he moved in and slowly lifted the back half of the teeter so that it tilted downward. She tensed up but as soon as it was down I asked her to move forward and she did. She did amazingly well! We repeated again the same way, Trainer Guy said “look she’s nervous, her whole back end is shaking but she is trusting you, she’s moving forward”. This gave me a bit of a confidence boost.

On our third attempt he backed away completely and said that he wanted her to move it on her own. I stayed close and gently held her in place, she did panic a little right before the balance point because she knew that it when she moved so would the board underneath her feet. But again with some calm praise she took that extra step and the board slowly moved to the ground and off she walked! Trainer Guy said that we should end right there on a good note. I took her to the other corner of the yard and played with and praised her. Actually out of all the dogs in the class she was one of the best ones on that particular obstacle. Some of the others went off the sides several times and took many more attempts to get over it. I was very proud of her!

The rest of the class was spent working on some of the items in the rest of the course. We skipped the tunnel, chute and unfortunately the weave poles, as he had the guide wires on them and Bella refused to go through those scary looking things. But she did very well on the Dog Walk, A Frame and jumps. She seemed very comfortable going over each of these.

Next week is “graduation”. Sadly Trainer Guy is going out of state so class will be run by someone else, but I’m looking forward to it. I'm hoping that I can get my grama or DH or someone to go and take some pictures of us. After that Agility class will begin again at the end of June. I’m considering taking it again then to continue to expose Bella to the obstacles and environment. Hopefully next time we will get through all obstacles, including the chute and tunnel, once we can get through those we will be in great shape!!!

Onward and upward!!!