KCGC Bronze Training - Week Six

Another evening of training at the barn. Thankfully, the weather was a little milder this week, although that didn't prevent Christina from getting us moving around.

We did the usual sit/down stay for a warm up. We then played musical chairs. Christina placed a number of chairs around the barn and we had to walk around the barn to music whilst Christina was instructing us to change direction. When the music stopped we then had to place our dogs in a sit/stay and go and sit on the nearest chair. This was a really good exercise in terms of getting Ellie to stay put whilst relative strangers were passing very close to her. She did really well, and other than constantly wagging her tail, she didn't move for the duration of the whole exercise.

We then practised some heel-work to music moves and then put the individual moves together. Ellie and I really enjoyed this much to the dismay of Maz who, bless his heart cringes every time I even mention heel-work to music!

The heel-work to music exercises comprised of Ellie walking around my left leg, me putting my legs together and then her walking around both of my legs, another step to the right and repeat. After that it was a few leg weaves and then finish. She did really well apart from feeling the need to do "cop-cop" each time she went between my legs. I'm busy hunting for a good piece of music to do our first dance to...

After this we had a go at a bit of fly-ball. Ellie absolutely loved this, as we suspected she might. It's fast-paced and energetic. She did really well but couldn't resist having a mad dash around the barn - something she usually does when trying agility. Personally, I think she'd be better at fly-ball than agility, but time will tell.

Lastly, we practised walking along a trestle. Christina held onto Ellie's collar and I, with a handful of food treats, led her along the walk. She did fine with this, but she did get a little nervous at the end, on the descent.

We seemed to do quite a lot this evening, and thoroughly enjoyable it was too!