Sunday, February 21, 2010

Second Class - Abby Still No Where To Be Found

Abby had her second Rally-O class this afternoon. She did almost as good as her first class - her heel was a bit forward. But if that is all I have to complain about, then that is good news!

We really didn't practice at all this week because all my focus was on Mole - his back went out again. This time was worse then before because a few days on his meds didn't help at all. We had to add a steroid and a muscle relaxant. He seems to be doing a bit better but you can always tell when the meds are starting to wear off. Mornings seem to be the most uncomfortable for him. By early afternoon he starts to feel too good and decides to do something stupid - like jump off the bed - and you can see he pays for it afterward. Poor old man.

Just because mole can't do anything, it doesn't mean that Abby can't do anything, right??? Wrong! When Abby gets trained, Mole throws fits. Full on, toddler-in-a-grocery-store FIT! He gets really naughty when someone else is getting food and he isn't! And in the spirit of keeping the household calm, no one gets trained!

Since we didn't do much training this week, it showed in class. But I still think that she did exceptionally well. She knew why we were there and was ready to work right when we got in. This class had more continuous training, but we still took a few time outs. We trained almost solidly for 80-90 minutes. I'm super proud of her willingness to continue to work with me. And the more we work together, the easier it is for me to see how to work with her better. It's amazing how much you can learn about training your dog when you just pay attention to the feed-back that they give you. And by paying attention, and responding properly, you find that the training comes easier and feels less like work and more like fun.

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