Wednesday, December 16

Roofus, Rally, and Popper

Monday Roofus went to a rally class at Anything Goes for Dogs. He's enrolled in the next class, next year, but she wanted to make sure that we were familiar with all level 1 signs first, because the next class focuses on level 2.

First, I was uber impressed at the new facility. SO much bigger! She even has a separate area for crating and "massage." It's like a doggie heaven! I went ahead and made a private lesson after our next class for Popper. He's ready to return to agility (Thank God!) and I really needed somewhere, supervised, to do it. A nice gentle reintroduction after his, what, seven week hiatus? It's only a half hour, which should be perfect.

Roofus was great at Rally. He really, really likes it. He is probably the most eager to please dog I've ever seen, and definitely the most ETP dog I own! Once he understands what I want, he is happy to do it. He's such a goofball. :) There were a couple new signs that we didn't know, but Roo handled them very well! We need to work on 90 degree left pivots, though. Nobody could do those - they're super hard!

Today, I set up a series of three jumps in the backyard for Popper, and ran him over them a few times. He was so, SO happy that I was letting him do agility. I thought that he was handling no agility pretty well, and then I saw how excited he was to be running again - an expression of pure bliss! We started off rocky, because he would do a jump and run straight back to me and sit, waiting for a treat. After he got comfy again, he was amazing. I'd point and tell him to go away from me (VERY hard for Popper!) and he'd zoom away like a pro. On our last run (I kept it very short since he hasn't done it in a while, and the ground is frozen solid), I threw in all kinds of crosses and directions and he was PERFECT. I can't WAIT to get back into the agility ring with him!

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