Quality time with the pup

I would love if all weekends were like this one. Gorgeous weather and lots of time with the pup.

Obedience class is going well. Sophie is doing awesome with her long sit/stays and down/stays. Our instructor pointed out a few confusing body language signals I was giving off. It is always interesting to me, how something small and almost  not noticeable to me is cuing Sophie. I need to be more aware of where my hands are and if I am leaning forward etc.

Agility practice both days went well.We are now 6 days away from our first event. I think I am over my nerves and now very excited :-)

One of the highlights of my weekend was flyball practice. We worked on passing drills which as some of you know has been the bane of my existence. Coming out of the lanes is no problem because she is so focused on reaching me and the tug. Going into the lane has always been an issue. She just can't focus on anything but the approaching dog.

We are working passing drills where we start with baby gates in between two dogs and have them run in opposite directions at their handler. We slowly remove baby gates and the distance between the dogs until they are running parallel in opposite directions. We have done this numerous times and its been fine because Sophie is running to me and her tug. In other words we are not working at her having to leave me while a dog charges at her. So this week, I handed the tug to a teammate and I was the one to release Sophie to run away from me.

She nailed it! ::happy dance:: Running parallel to one of our other dogs and away from me. No hesitation, no focus on the other dog. Ultimate goal is to get her to run into the lanes and to the box as another dog exits the lanes. But baby steps!

We then spent Sunday afternoon napping on the couch.

And since this is a whole lot of writing, here is a picture of Sophie celebrating her birthday with a ginormous cookie.

You can also see her brand new Sirius Republic Collar