Progress

This past weekend was great! Not because we competed or won any titles. But because I had the opportunity to see just how far Sophie has come from the 13 month old terror on leash.

When we first joined flyball, we had been dealing with her leash reactivity for a few months. We quickly learned that having her enter the lanes as a dog exited was not going to work. Since I was restraining her as the dog ran at her she would get worked up and lunge/snarl instead of running into the lanes. She had no problem exiting the lane as a dog entered because she was focused on her task and not restrained.

Now three seasons later, I have such a different Sophie. We had a demo this weekend and we always use this particular demo (since it runs all day) as a chance to train green dogs and work on drills with our solid dogs. We worked on passing drills with one of our solid dogs and Sophie. Sophie did amazing! We started 35 feet back as usual and as Max went over the first jump back, I let go. She went straight on, opened up a little to let him pass and then right back into position. No glancing, lunging or even interest.

She spent most of the day laying in the grass next to my chair when she wasn't crated. Tons of people walked by, tons of dogs and she didn't care. She would look to me and sometimes get treats for her attention otherwise a quick good girl. Then she would go back to napping.

I could not have asked for a better day. Nor could I be more proud of all the work we have done and how far we have come.