I guess I can join in on this thread now!
We're in our advanced/beginner class with Jackson, and I really love this trainer. The last class we went to was more just for fun, really, so it's nice to be working on things correctly. Jackson always amazes me ... it's ME who really needs work. I am SO bad at directing him the correct way, so we've been working at home on our front crosses. I never really learned all the terminology and the basics, so of course everything is my fault. Jackson is perfect when he has a handler who actually gets it right lol.
We worked on introducing him to the teeter yesterday, that was one piece of equipment we never worked on. I was a little worried he might be a bit noise sensitive to the banging of it, so we let him watch all the other dogs first and every time it banged, he got a treat. He flinched a bit the first two times and then went on to ignore the noise! So that was a plus. Then we slowly let him go on it, and he did great, he kept trying to go up higher though and do the whole thing LOL, I had to block him with my hand with a treat in it.
We worked on a jump sequence and he did great, I did bad *shakes head* ... I get too frazzled worrying about which direction am I going in, and I over-think it, so then he gets confused. But the last run we got it RIGHT and sure it was a bit messy, lol, but we did it.
I'm so in love with my dog. I appreciate him so much more even while in this class. A few of the other dogs just have SOOO much energy that they don't even know what to do with it, and I think it's great, but the lack of focus is something I'm not used to. Jackson is so incredibly focused on me and in such a 'training zone' when we're there, he's ready for anything and always watching out for me and what I'm doing next. He gets sooo excited when we're about to do something, but very controlled and he's focused on what we're going to do next.
Oh and stays. We worked a lot on stays last class because he had a tendency to come to do something before I released him. So I worked on having him stay behind the jump and then me walking back to him to reward him for staying. He got 90% better within that one class, so I think he realizes what I want now.
Overall I'm very proud of him. I'm still learning a whole lot, but I really want to continue on with it. I think he has a lot of potential and if I can fix myself, we will be great! lol