Obedience class #1 of 2008

Tonight was our first obedience class of the year. You should have seen Toby's recall! The gal next to me looked at me and said " that was beautiful". You should have seen me. I must have been glowing in the dark. I put Toby in a sit stay and walked with my back to him out about the length of an agility field. Turned and when the instructor told me to call my dog, it was picture perfect! Toby look absolutely gorgeous! He ran not walked straight to me and sat down straight just in front of me. I spat the piece of food out and he caught it. Just marvelous!

We worked on heeling. we still need a lot of work on that! Toby wants to lag. I guess that is a no, no in obedience. We learned a new trick while heeling tonight. It is called ? something like shiatsu? Not sure how to spell it. Well, let me tell you. I suck at it. It is like a dance step. You step so that you are angled to the dog. Then as you step into the dog and around you bring the dog around you. Or something like that. I am going to have to get a lot of practice in on this one.

The last thing we worked on was our stays. I guess because Toby had not been to this training field in almost a month he was very rusty. All in all he did not do that bad. He just needed a refresher.

The other thing that I need to work on with Toby is the stand. He was being a little brat on this exercise. I thought that we were getting it. I have been working with him at home on this one. However, tonight he did not want to stand. We even got into a struggle. Man, when Toby doesn't want to do something he will put up a strong fight. I hurt my poor baby tonight. I just wanted to crawl into a hole. I don't think I really hurt him. He did not limp or act very hurt. He just yelped when I grabbed his collar to give him a correction when he absolutely would not stand for me. I think he was getting very tired by this time. I have noticed that by the end of this class he started acting up. He looked like he wanted to do zoomies. I just looked at him pointed my finger and said no. He started to run off. I called him to me and he came and that was wonderful! No zoomies. He thought about it. But did not do it. Great progress!