On Sunday of this week we took Diva up to Dexter to stay with John to start the next phase of her training.  She'll be learning force fetch among other things.  Diva's not the only one getting an education though; Poppy is currently on her second session of agility training.  Poppy has had a slightly different upbringing than most dogs; since I'm a veterinarian, she was raised going to office and just about everywhere else.  End consequence being a well socialized dog who is pretty tuned into me.  Last spring, she completed basic obediance.  When Diane, the trainer, introduced a couple of basic agility obstacles, Poppy showed a flare for them.  Her education was then put on hold in favor of training the horse.

The first Saturday of January was her first class.  Poppy was definitely not the bold little girl she's capable of being.  Happy to see Diane again, but not at all convinced about leaving me to do things such as hopping up onto a table.  Diane trains off of a targeting method.  So, Poppy began learning to leave me to get a piece of food off of a paper plate.  She really was uncertain at first about leaving me to do something.  But a little practice and time had her running away from me at the command "target"  From there, at each class new obstacles and challenges were introduced.  I was so excited the day she sailed over a line of jumps to hop on the table. 

The first dog walk obstacle was hard for her.  I finally realized that being so short, when she looked up the board, Poppy couldn't see the top.  Still sometimes more tentative than would be ideal, Poppy finally came into her own when the "A" fram was introduced.  She found great delight in running up the "A" frame only to sit on the bottom of the other side for a cookie.  She also did well with the teeter.

Poppy did well enough to be promoted to the Intermediate level.  Last week was our first class of the new session.  This was a big jump in the level of expectation.  We started with doing a few obstacles and built up to a whole course.  This was her first time with a whole course and with being asked to work that independently from me.  Much of this represents a learning curve for me too, both in trusting her and figuring out how to use my body to guide her.  Poppy also worked on two new obstacles; weave poles and the closed tunnel.  I'm not sure competition is in our future, but for now we're having fun.