CU Training

I'm cutting and posting most of what I wrote on the poodle lists here. Just a little more detail.

Morgan and I spent the day at a Control Unleashed seminar. I learned a lot about myself and my dog. I am very glad I went but, in a way discouraged, because it pointed out the holes in my training that I have to conquer before I ever want to show this dog.

Our participation in the seminar started out great. Morgan was relaxed on her mat she was chillin' and looking very calm. She lay flat on her side and was acting so sweet. Only had eyes for me. The first couple of exercises were wonderful-- doggie zen, and jumping with the mat and one other dog in the ring. We have been working from the book pretty diligently for the past three or four weeks and that helped a lot. Morgan looked like the star. I kept telling people, just wait because they all wonder why my dog is in these classes when she seems to be so good.

Right after lunch, Meagan really upped the ante. They set up a little circular course sequence in the box --two jumps, tunnel, two jumps tunnel. Then we were asked to find a place around the box. We started out fine with each person finding a new spot for themselves and their dogs and we did it one by one but had to pass by other people's set-ups to get there. Morgan did great. Then, I sat on the floor with Morgan, got her all settled and laying on her side seeming very relaxed. I didn't know how unfortunate my choice of a spot was until dogs started running courses. We were away from other dogs but right behind the tunnel. Bad idea.

The first dog ran the sequence, not a problem. The second dog caused Morgan to look over at the course. Good, we played the look-at-that game and she did okay. The third dog was an exuberant border collie who whooshed through the tunnel with amazing thunder. Morgan was up and barking immediately. I was able to get her to focus on me and the cookies after a few seconds but now everyone was aware of our challenges. I stayed in the same position for the next dog and now that Morgan was alerted that dogs were actually doing agility in there, she perked up but stayed under control. However, when another fast and big dog went into the ring, Morgan was up and off, snatched the lead right out of my bad hand and when I went to grab her with my good hand I hit it against the dog walk and boy did that smart. To her credit when I gathered my wits enough to call her to me she came running back. YAY!
Needless to say we moved further from the tunnel after that and I was able to keep her focus a lot better. Talk about embarrassed! She was the only dog to have such a major reaction. Meagan didn't ask us to move but I figured I should because she was being so bad.

Morgan's ballistic reaction to dogs playing is why we are doing CU work.
After today's seminar, I'm encouraged that we have come as far as we have but discouraged that it seems that we have so much further to go. I need to add a few things to her training plan. If we have puppies in September, her training plan will need to be altered anyway. I think I will wait to change the training plan until we know for sure she is having puppies.