We had a really great class last night. First with the pee issues - I couldn't find a belly band in Watson's size (seriously? do only small dogs need belly bands?) so I just took him out every 5min or so for the first half of class, and he didn't pee on anything!
Our instructor split the class into two groups, and had the remedial jumpers work on a simple exercise to get the dogs more confident while the other dogs were in the main arena. When we switched to the main arena, Watson was much more confident. She also brought out a target for him at the end of the two jumps and he flew through. Maybe part of his problem is that he focuses on me instead of the jumps, and then gets there and hasn't found a distance. When he focused on the target, he went right through without an issue at a much faster speed. We even did our first rear cross, which went ok. Watson got to the end of the two jumps and just spun in a circle, so confused about where I had gone. Haha. The look on his face was priceless - "Where's my mom?! Oh, there she is!"
The best part is that he didn't leave me even once. There were a couple times he glanced at the other dogs, then turned right back towards me. I'm so proud of him! I think we might actually be good at this agility thing some day.
Our instructor split the class into two groups, and had the remedial jumpers work on a simple exercise to get the dogs more confident while the other dogs were in the main arena. When we switched to the main arena, Watson was much more confident. She also brought out a target for him at the end of the two jumps and he flew through. Maybe part of his problem is that he focuses on me instead of the jumps, and then gets there and hasn't found a distance. When he focused on the target, he went right through without an issue at a much faster speed. We even did our first rear cross, which went ok. Watson got to the end of the two jumps and just spun in a circle, so confused about where I had gone. Haha. The look on his face was priceless - "Where's my mom?! Oh, there she is!"
The best part is that he didn't leave me even once. There were a couple times he glanced at the other dogs, then turned right back towards me. I'm so proud of him! I think we might actually be good at this agility thing some day.