FOCUS! and last nights class

Focus seems to be an issue in my training lately.  Not only am I having a hard time focusing on what to train, I am having a hard time getting my dogs to focus as well. I am sure that the 2 are related, but I really need a training kick in the pants lately.  So this week I took steps to work on this.

Sunday Magic and I are going to a Michele Pouliot seminar on improving performance for any performance sport.  I am really excited and hope I can get a lot of helpful hints from this one. When asked in the registration what I hoped to accomplish I said that I really wanted to work on attention, focus and attitude. With Magic this is primarily a heeling issue, but with the girls this is an ALL the time issue.  I am taking Magic as I think I will get more out of the seminar if I have a semi cooperative dog.

Then, I also signed Grace up for a 6 week class with Annelise on focus and attention. Now, I think this will be geared more toward agility, but hopefully it will carry over to the other things I would like to do with her.

I do want to say that last night at agility class Grace was much better than the week before. Even with a new dog in class she was much more willing to pay attention to me. AND, for the first time ever, we were able to be successful on everything we did in class the first time through (except 2o2o on the dogwalk which she hasnt learned yet).  We are starting to run a bit longer jump sequences and Annelise usually puts in a fairly tough cross in there.  And even though I almost ran into the jump, I got Grace through them all the first time-table at 16, no bars down, no off courses, even a little bit more distance.   And unlike last week, she had no issues with taking the dogwalk at all, and even starting a running A frame went well.  I was really pleased with my princess last night.