Star of Puppy Class!!!!

I don't have pictures ready yet, since I haven't even gotten around to getting the ones from last class up, but today Jilly was in the top four of puppy class. She was *amazing*. We started off with puppy push ups, we were supposed to do as many as we could in 30 seconds. So Jilly and I got to work, it ended up being closer to a minute, and Jilly got stuck a few times, I think she was tired because she had a walk right after he bath and then we pretty much went to class.

So we did our puppy push ups, and I was a little worried because she got stuck, even with me holding a treat right there to back up my hand and voice signals. After time was up, the instructor went around the group, starting with the dog just to my left, asking everyone how many they did, the answers ranged between 2 and 10 with a couple around 14 or so. The instructor skipped the Weimereiner and finally, I was asked how many puppy push ups Jilly did. So I gave my answer, feeling foolish, compared to the other dogs...."29". Fortunately, the Weimereiner did 27 puppy push ups, because I was starting to be afraid that I'd counted wrong. I even dropped a couple from my count because I wanted to make sure I wasn't counting too many. The female instructor told me that Jilly was flying, right after that, and asked if we were going to do agility with her, she was pleased when I said yes.

We also worked on stay, which Jilly did awesome at. It helps that she knows it at home, and today she was *on*. She was by far the best at stay, we would have the dog sit in the heel position, then wave a hand in front of the dog, say stay, and walk to the front of the dog and feed it treats for as long as it stayed sitting (while standing on the leash). I went ahead and did it that way in the beginning, but that wasn't very hard, so the next time I scooted the leash out way in front of Jilly (as far as it would go) when I went to in front of her. Then I would walk a couple of steps to her, give her a treat, back up and repeat. I was the only one standing for most of the exercise, and one of the only ones not saying "stay" everytime she got a treat.

Our biggest problem was the running recall. I've been practicing it differently at home (backing away from her instead of turning around and running away from her) but we practiced it a bit after class was over and she's doing great with it now, so we'll practice it that way at home so that she's perfect at class.

Her attention span was much better today, normally she's so busy looking around and at the other dogs that it's hard to do things because she's distracted. As soon as she looks at me she's fine doing exactly what I ask. She also did great on the car ride over, no whining or whimpering at all, just some panting. Also, she only whimpered a couple of times during her bath, and just a little more during her blow drying. She also stood stock still for her bath, it was amazing, she's such a great little dog.

We also worked on doing 180 degree turns, which was a little bit of a problem for us because while heeling she isn't paying attention to me much, she's mainly sniffing the ground the whole time. So we worked on that more after class was over, we really need more changes of direction as opposed to walking circles around the ring, to keep her attention on me.

We worked a little on "watch me", which I'm not sure I see the point of, but we'll keep practicing it. I really need to focus on teaching her stand. She'll do it with being lured, but not from just a hand signal, just a voice signal, or even a combination unless my hand is close to her. Fortunately she already stays when sitting, laying down, and standing (we practice that at doors and gates) so I can focus more on getting her to stand when directed.

For now Jilly is passed out on the couch. She had a busy day with the cleaning for the property manager (she's going to be handling the renting of our house for us), a bath, a walk, and then class. I was really displeased with the behavior of some of the other dog owners. When we're standing in line, waiting for our turn to do the recall exercise (only 2 dogs at a time do it) and the other owners are letting their dogs bounce around and play with other dogs (including jumping on Jilly >:( grrr). Meanwhile, I'm working on getting Jilly to lay down and sit for longer periods of time between treats. And the two worst offenders tonight are also the worst dogs in the class, go figure. But I'm still so, so pleased with Jilly tonight, she was amazing. We're going to try taking her to PetSmart to practice around distractions since she's awesome at home but not quite as good in class because of the other dogs and people that she wants to socialize with.