Last Class This Session

This week Peyton and I had our last two agility classes of the fall session, and overall he did great...especially in tonight's run-through class, which also happened to be our last class at our club's current location.

I was a little nervous because we had a lot more dogs tonight than usual, and a few that Peyton had never worked around. And even though he doesn't really care about any dog in class other than Riley, new dogs can often change the class dynamics and I wasn't sure if it would add to our focus issues, which are already challenging enough.

I think he proved me wrong! For the first time in a long time he didn't have his usual first run zoomies, and better yet - he actually ran the nested standard course quite nicely. Our second attempt was a jumpers course and I did manage to lose him at the start to Riley, but we took a little break and he was much better on his second attempt - not as good as his first run, but that was mainly because I was sending him all over the place - bad handler. :)

I'm really, really happy with how much he's progressed this session. While we still have our wild moments, his focus has improved so much, and I'm really pleased with how he's running. The "no mistakes" plan seems to be working - he's showing great speed, good jumping form, nice contacts (although I need to do some more a-frame work), and really great weaves. Now if I could just learn how to handle him...

It looks like we'll have a little break before our next round of classes begin at our new location, so hopefully I can get him out to a few other agility fields in the area. He's only worked at one location other than SOTC, so it will be interesting to see how he does in a new environment.

Oh, and I can't forget Indy! She came tonight and had some really nice runs too. I've not had her in class much this session, but we still play at home quite a bit. We've got some trials coming up in November - it's going to be a busy month!