The thing about Lizards is...you never can tell how things will go!

Well, class was overall TERRIFIC for Liz last night. I think I got a lot of good things to keep an eye on in future classes. These classes are LONG. They typically last 2-3 hours, so for some dogs that would be the kiss of death, but for Liz the longer she was there the better she did, by the end she was so totally spot on everything and working so nicely...for her I am thinking these long classes might be really good, enough time for her to get there and get settled and get her brain together, work through the first excitement, etc. When we got there Liz was VERY HYPER! I could not leave her in a crate while Deanna gave her first class speech about where the potty is, blah..blah..blah...LOL, a fine speech, but of course I have heard it a few times...

Liz was barking and screaming so I could not leave her in a crate, I must have went through a whole bait bag full of food and every trick we had even thought of to keep her with me and keep her head during the orientation stuff. I would have been a bit concerned but I stayed in the moment and did not think about what this might mean once we got started. With Liz you can never predict...so why stress trying? LOL

So then we started the exercises. Unfortunately we started with some wrap practice and the first exercise was just wrapping around one jump and Deanna does get pickier with me...she knows I really want to get good, but Liz was not happy redoing something so quick a few times over, so she took off for a minute, I had to go get her but not a real true zoomie, so partial victory? The next exercise was two jumps and Liz was a little frustrated and wanted to sniff in her stay and did take off when I tried to correct her not going over the first jump...but she got back on track after a tug game. By the longer sequence she did really nice except for not figuring out to switch from handler focus to obstacle focus and to drive ahead at the last two jumps, hey, I will take that!!!

The second set of exercises was a discrimination exercise, and Liz did very good, Little Lizards can do really well and stay on course and get all their weavies, each and every time. Our only problem is that Liz is what Deanna says like a kid with a Ferrari, she sees no need to take the food off the gas....decels are not our friend...yet,...so to get her to decel and not jump full force is not exactly happening too well, but she did terrific and stayed with me. I was even able to walk her back to the crate without a leash-HUGE for Liz.

Third was the reverse flow pivot, which I do not like at all, I can do them but I do not feel they are good for my dog or fit well in my handling system, I want a dog like Liz to always trust that I am not giving her mixed signals, but last night, well, what ever, of course by that time Liz was perfect and we do have a killer reverse flow pivot, LOL.