PuppyLog

Stats:

Age: 16 weeks
Weight: 17.5 pounds!

Agility

We go to an introduction to agility training class for puppies and have a lot of fun.

We work very briefly on:

• "go", where the pup runs to a target consisting of a plastic lid with a treat on it.
• "through", where the pup goes through a tunnel. I already taught her this and she has no trouble doing it on command even with the new equipment. There are two types of tunnel, one just an open tube, and one that is open on one end then goes into a soft cloth tube which is collapsed and the pups have to push through it. We start out holding the far end of the tube open so they can see all the way through it at first.
• "table", where the pups have to jump up onto a low table and stay there for a moment. S_ has already taught her to jump up on something using the command "up", so I continue to use that same command. She does this easily.

Socializing and Eating vs. Training

During this class it was a bit difficult to keep Lila's attention and she pulled at the leash a lot even though she is usually fairly good about that. She had already played with a friends puppy for over an hour that same morning. We have noticed that she pays less attention to us for a day or two after a session like that. Another mistake that we made was to feed her lunch too soon before the class so that she was not particularly hungry. This makes the treat rewards less attractive than they could have been. Sometimes you just can't schedule your entire day around the pups feeding time. It's one of the horrors of modern life.