Training update - members' class

Last night began a new three-week session of classes for club members. The obedience club I belong to has classes for members on most Thursday nights. They cover a variety of subjects from beginning attention and games to utility and open proofing. I'm taking a break from my usual utility class until the weather breaks so this is a good filler and provides a different type of training environment for Jackson.

I participated in the utility proofing class last night. It was a crowded class, which is good for Jackson as we learn to work through distractions. There were 10-12 dog/handler teams in the ring working at the same time. We did signals next to each other and Jackson did great with that. He was not as bothered as I thought he would be by other teams around him and behind him.

The article exercise went well too. We each set up in a different area of the ring - pretty close to each other. He was able to quickly retrieve the correct article even with dogs crossing paths as they went too and from their pile. He was a little slow going out and back on the glove exercise due to the distractions, but did good pivots and retrieves.

The rest of the hour was spent practicing pivots and short go-outs to various points in the ring. Overall, a good training session with lots of distractions.

On another topic, I just received the photos from last month's trial wins, so thought I would post them here for fun :) I hung the stained glass rosettes we won in the kitchen windows, but I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the ribbon rosettes.