We had Gracie's second tunnel class today. We'll start with the good parts of class. I got there early to help set up, but our instructor was already ready so instead she asked us to go through the lesson plan with her so that Gracie could be the demo dog. Gracie was all for that and she got some good practice in before all the other dogs showed up. We lengthened the tunnel to the 4-6 ft range, and I once again had trouble keeping up with her. Our only issue was getting Gracie to run straight out of the tunnel instead of immediately turning to me (there she goes paying too much attention to me again). We improved this by making sure I threw treats with my hand near the end of the tunnel where Gracie would see me throw it as she came running out. If I threw it any other way, she wouldn't see it and would turn to me.
We worked more on targeting. Gracie will go a pretty decent distance to "touch." We put a jump bar in her path too so that she'd have to go over the bar to touch the target. At this point we also talked about collecting your dog and having them stay with you as you get them set up to try again. As our instructor said at least 50% of a course is the space between the obstacles and many mistakes can be made there so we practice keeping our dogs under control between obstacles.
The last things we worked on in class were our "outs" around cones, the chute with the cloth even lower over the barrel to the point that they couldn't see anything on the other side, and more tunnel work. Our second instructor would hold the dog at different angles and distances from the tunnel entrance while the handler went to the other end and called them through. Gracie got really excited about this and would let out a big, happy yelp as soon as she was released to fly through the tunnel.
Ok, now for the bad part. We had a new dog in class today, a little black cocker spaniel like dog that was under 1 year old. She wasn't very good at paying attention to her owner and her owner wasn't the best at keeping an eye on her and of course they sat right next to Gracie and I. I keep Gracie in a kennel during class for many reasons: I can pay better attention to the instructor, I have a consequence for her should she misbehave, she loves running to her kennel, etc. Gracie and I got up to demo some targeting and on the way back to our spot she started driving to her kennel, as usual, and got ahead of me, as usual. Now normally she charges into her kennel slamming it back towards the wall even if there are other dogs within a few feet, but not today. She saw this poor unsuspecting little dog and changed direction. Thankfully I wasn't that far behind her and could quickly pull her away, put her in her kennel with no treat, and covered her up. After that I was way more careful about keeping her right next to me, on the opposite side of that dog, whenever she left or entered her kennel. The rest of the class went smoothly, she even behaved perfectly when all the dogs were standing in line, fairly close together. Then we had to go back to the kennel one more time. She stayed with me and went right in, but as I was zipping the door closed, that little dog was sitting there staring at Gracie. This was just too much for her and she flew out and attacked the poor thing. I got ahold of Gracie as quick as I could, put her in her kennel, and covered her up. This was the second time since I've had her that she full out attacked a dog and I'm very greatful that she didn't hurt either dog. The pup was pretty scared though. I feel bad about what happened, but as far as I can tell I did just about everything I could to prevent it. The only thing I could have done was asked the owner to sit somewhere else when it was obvious Gracie wasn't going to ignore this dog. Definately need to work on recognizing dogs/owners that won't mix well with Gracie. Ok, time to take what I've learned and move past this event. Gracie is who she is and I will do everything I can to keep her happy and healthy and the dogs around her safe.
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