this weeks class the lizard continues to puzzle me

Well, today was my agility class here in town. I was not going to bring Breeze because she had still been doing a little bit of limping after she hit her foot on saturday. She looked ok this afternoon so...I deceided to take her and just do a few things and mostly work Liz since I knew the topic of this class was going to be contacts and Liz loves her contacts so I thought I would have a good chance of keeping her working. The first sequence was a fast sequence I ran Breeze in and boy was she wired. She was spinning and barking and she was just not able to get the weaves because she was so wild. I tried to stop and collect her but some days she just is so over the top, LOL. I am going to have to work her on the weaves and get her way more excited, because it really falls apart when she gets like that.

So the next exciting show that we put on for the class was Lizzie running a speed circle of contacts around the yard, at least that is what the idea/plan was. I have been in Deanna's contact class several times and the whole point of it is a very good one and one I have always remembered. We get homework for this class and are supposed to come with very specific criteria for each contact obstacle written down. So like for Liz on the teeter she is to load onto the teeter going straight, drive quickly up to the very tip of the teeter then shift her weight back as she rides it down,with her head forward and low, stay on the obstacle once it hits the ground until she hears a verbal BREAK cue, she is to do this no matter where I am. I have a criteria for each dog with each obstacle and I do think it really helps to train the obstacle like I want it, to have a clear picture and know what we are looking for and helps so that I know EXACTLY what to reward for so it is clear for the dog.

So that is all well and good, but with the Lizzie Lou, whooooo, it was a wild ride. I have got to figure out what this is all about, but she just bailed off the teeter, she was trying to take off, she was in full whoo hooo factor. I got her with me and shifted to rewarding her for each obstacle to get her head. It was amusing and I would have been laughing if I was not the person trying to handle the wild girl. So the second time we were going to run the circle, this time with the aids, i.e. targets, etc...Deanna said she really wanted Liz to do it so we could fix the teeter. I pullled out the cheeze whiz so I could put it on the end of the teeter and went back to training mode with that and she did it gorgeously and proceeded to do the whole course beautifully, running fast, performing all her criteria. So was she looking like an agility dog the second time because she knew food was involved? Was it because she had got a little wild whoo hooo out of her system the first turn? If I could figure out why she can be so amazing sometimes and so crazy wild at the drop of a hat, gosh maybe I could get somewhere.

I went back and ran Liz over the sequence Breeze had trouble with and she was amazing, she got her weaves, she did great, then all of a sudden with no warning she took off and ran to the pee/water area, ughghgh, so I am trying a new thing where I just do not let her do that, I go and grab her and bring her back and make her do a few more things then I release her to go and do what she wants, not sure if that is going to work or not, but it can not hurt.