Kimma the Beast.

Well, that makes it sound like she's doing extremely well, doesn't it?  What I really mean to say is "Kimma the Beast-IE!"

I thought we were making some real progress on our focus work, but apparently not.  Now I have her pretty good at home, but she's still all over the place at class.  Proofing, proofing - I know!  We're working on it!

This past week at class, she just didn't want to work.  At all.  She wanted to run around and sniff the grass as soon as I released her from a "wait" for our first sequence of the day!  She couldn't even wait until the end of class to be bad!  So our trainer called her a beastie.  And I fully agree with this nickname.

Our trainer and I ignored my crazy zoomie puppy and walked into an adjoining fenced in area.  Little Miss Kimma followed at a distance, and came right in with us.  So then, we left her.  She got to explore that area, and when she was bored, she just had to suck it up and wait for me to come back and liberate her.  Of course, this involved a lot of barking (all directed at me, BTW), but once she was out, she was better...  Or so I thought....

She did good flatwork up to the start line for the sequence we were going to do, but as soon as I unleashed her and released her from her "wait," she was gone again.  So I went into yet another fenced in area, she followed, and I leashed her up once we get inside.  Her off-leash privileges were revoked for the rest of class.

So for next week, poor Kimma will be waiting in her crate for her turn to go.  Hopefully this will help her to focus a bit more on me, and not on the grass!

In other, better, news, we had our first practice for the CGC test.  It was with 5 other dog/handler pairs whom we know, and it was held in the same place where we do our indoor training.  Now, a lot of things went well.  She didn't bark at any other person/dog, didn't try to play with anyone, and only licked the floor on occasion - real progress from the last time we were in that room!

Here are a couple of videos taken during the class!  And no treats were involved during the exercises, just after.

I shouldn't have started that exercise until I had her attention...  I must remember that!  Gain attention, then carry on...

Again with gaining her attention!  Ugh, will I ever learn?!?!


...Maybe one day...

Better, especially since it involved the oh-so-exciting orange-cone-of-fun!!!  And I did have a piece of kibble in my hand.  Not when I got her into a good starting position, but I must have grabbed it before we started walking. 

The only thing that keeps getting us is her boredom barking/whining.  That, and the fact that she was quite intrigued by the orange cones we were using as place markers...  But the boredom barking is allowed (to a degree) for the test.  Hopefully she doesn't go overboard when we have to do the supervised separation!  That would be the one time she actually cares that I've left her...