The track also had a section through a playground, and when we tracked, the playground was complete with children playing! I called to one parent to tell her what we were doing before letting Devon track through the playground. I wanted them to know I wasn't just walking my dog right through the playground! I really like these playgrounds, because they have shredded rubber tire mulch and are crossed with concrete walkways.
Not only did Devon track right through this area, but she stopped to be petted by a mom (who I happen to know because we used to work together) and her son just as she entered the playground area. And halfway through, she stopped to say hello to another girl on the jungle gym. I was really proud of Devon for working through these distractions AND doing a track that was more than 5 hours old.
On Tuesday, Devon had an awesome agility class at the kennel club. I've been working drive to her contact position at home. I didn't think it was working very well. She wasn't as fast at home as I would have liked. However, she showed lots of drive on Tuesday.
We ran a Steeplechase course for USDAA. Steeplechase is a lot like a Jumpers course, except it also has an A frame and you either take the A frame or the weave poles twice. In this course we took the weaves twice. Devon did a fantastic job in all her sequences. She drive very hard through the weaves, using her two footed hop footing. She also drove very well over the A frame.
She did get a little more distracted on the last run. She had been there for 3 hours, and it was at the very end of class. The back garage doors were open with gates across them. From the middle of the building, Devon air scented something outside the building and quartered her way back across the building to peer outside. Since I'd seen a cat out in the back parking lot earlier that evening, I'm suspecting it was a cat or raccoon she smelled. Oh well, the down side of having a tracking dog!
No comments:
Post a Comment