This afternoon was the first agility class of the New Year. We had a break over the Holiday season and because of the inclement winter weather we have not had much of an opportunity to do any practice.
Despite being rusty Kai seemed to get back in the swing of things with minimal difficulty. We had worked on sending Kai ahead of me and crossing in front of my wheelchair which were things he was reluctant to do before. He is so used to staying near me for service dog work that he had to learn that going ahead of me was an acceptable thing to do. By repeatedly sending him ahead of me for small things in the house he had the confidence in class to head in the direction I was pointing and take jumps with ease.
I am really looking forward to the next eight weeks learning together to work as a team and having fun at the same time.
Today also was the second week of agility class for Ashley & Scamp. Since Scamp was not a well socialized dog during his first year of life he is having some issues adjusting to all the new dogs in class but by the middle of the evening he was paying attention to Ashley and not reacting to what was going on around him. He did have an occasional mishap such as when the Minature Schnauzer decided to run up to him so he had to warn her off. But even his reaction to that was so much better than it would have been just a few months ago.
I know that if we keep working with him he will soon act calm, cool and collected around other dogs and people that he does not know.
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