Obedience Training

I taught my fun and games with Novice class tonight and brought Morgan with me. She stayed in the car for the first 30 minutes and then I brought her out after we practiced all the Beginner Novice exercises. I was charged with doing the heeling pattern while their dogs did their stays. Morgan was VERY ADD. It took about 10 minutes to really get her attention. I tried the heeling pattern 3 times before it was relatively acceptable to me. One of my students stated that she looked very unhappy and really did not want to do that. I told her that it was my fault that I used a lure way too long. I took out a cookie and gave Morgan one and palmed a second one and we did the heeling pattern again. It was like a different dog took over her body. She was animated, and she heeled like she does in practice. It was beautiful.

We have a shown n go to attend on Sunday. What I plan to do is to get her there early enough that she will relax and then I will take her into the ring with that one cookie palmed in my hand to keep up her attitude. I don't want her to get used to this hang dog performance because there are no cookies. In this case the time we have had off from obedience has been a little too long (over a week). I think she needs at least one day off but no more than three.

I have to say that I am really discouraged and feeling anxious about PCA. I am hoping that as usual, when I feel discouraged with Morgan, she redeems herself somehow.

Done.