My first mistake of the day was accidentally feeding him breakfast. I usually skip his morning meal on agility training days so he's as motivated as possible to work with me for his reward. Plus he doesn't need a full meal and the additional calories from his treats in class. I could tell when we got on the field that he wasn't super jazzed about eating. He was giving me about 50% of his normal attention.
Then Jackie arrived. My second mistake actually occurred last week. I broke my rule and allowed him to interact and play with a dog on the training field. He was enamored. As soon as he saw her today everything else faded into the background. I didn't think I would ever get his attention back on me or the task at hand.
We had to skip the first exercise which was just practicing start line stays. Porter wouldn't turn away from Jackie, so I just walked him around a bit and tried to get his mind off her.
Our first sequence looked like this:
I wasn't even sure if Porter would just sit for me at the start line but I thought I'd give it a try. If we had to do one obstacle and then stop and reward to keep his focus I was going to do that.
But Porter surprised me! Not only did he not run off with his new girlfriend but he did the sequence perfectly! He stayed with me the entire time. He did wonderful with my lateral lead out at the start. He had no issue with the wing jump at #3. He read my arm change after the tunnel exactly as he should have and didn't get sticky and glue himself to my side, but peeled off to the left to take the last jump.
I could tell his brain wasn't with me 100% though since he was *much* slower than normal, but he did it :)
The second time around he did great. I chose a different toy to throw (one he often runs away with) since he didn't want food anymore. He grabbed it, started to do his victory lap, but came back to me quickly when I called him!! No running to the pool. No running around the field. Or to his girlfriend. Right back to me. :) Such a good boy.
And did I mention it was so nasty and hot out there today? And he never gave up but kept working with me.
I love my big goofy boy.
