I think that at this point in time I can say that I am no longer officially "obsessed" with running contacts. Probably because Cassie and I appear to have them more or less under control (did I really just say that??). As I well know this is a week by week proposition and if I happen to be updating my blog when things are going badly I may type something significantly different. However I think I should just enjoy the feeling of training success while it lasts...it has been known to be a fleeting sensation.
Pretty
I've decided that Cassie is a true "Gen Y". That being that she will always try the easiest option first. Doesn't matter how many times we've done something before, if there is a possible short cut, she's your girl. Initially she managed to get away with this. Mostly because I was so surprised by what she would try, I didn't have time to react. My border collies wouldn't dream of being so cheeky. Cassie a.k.a. "Naughty Pants" apparently has no aspirations to be compared to a border collie or be that well behaved.
We still alternate our training sessions between 2 x 2's and dog walk. I'm pretty happy with how quickly she's progressed with 2 x 2's and is super close to having them straight. I tried to straighten the back ones yesterday but she hasn't quite got the hang of finding the entry when they are straight. I feel confident that after another few sessions we'll get there. I also need to start doing some sessions away from home to generalise the behaviour.
Fizzy
This week I made a concerted effort to take Miss Personality down to training for further exposure to the distractions that she thus far can't resist. We started off OK, just doing a jump table combination, but when she spied her Sheltie friend Benny in the distance (who she adores) it was more than she can handle and off she went at warp speed to go visit. She did come back when I called her but when she repeated the game two more times I was panicking that going to visit while doing agility is going to get built into her agility. So Cassie went to spend some time in the car while I got Miss Fizzy out. Then I had a reminder in the difference between a border collie and a papillon as I played with a five and a half month old Fizz off lead without her being even vaguely interested in the other dogs let alone running off. Something that almost fifteen month old Cassie still can't manage! Not that I have any right to complain. She's made agility and dog training more fun than I could ever have imagined!
