Vito's 1st Agility Class!

Today I took Vito to his very first puppy agility class. It's only a 3 week class, but I'm still very excited about it! There are 5 other dogs in the class, and 3 of them are just a tiny bit older than Vito and the other 2 still under 9 months. They are also all big dog breeds which is the opposite of Lance's agility class which is almost all small breeds.

I was very excited that we started to work on the tunnel right away! Vito absolutely loved it and had no problem running through it even when it was stretched all the way out. I think we progressed a little too quickly as they had us sending our puppies in the tunnel from right next to us instead of calling them through at the other end, but at least Vito did great with it! We also walked over a board with the dogs. Before we started Vito was starting to offer me the behavior of backing up onto it with his hind legs. I was very proud of him even if that isn't what you do with a plank! When it was our turn to actually walk on it Vito did it perfectly. Then they had a small table that Vito was very excited to hop up on, and I had him lie down on it to get his treat. There was also a little "scary center" that I didn't think looked scary at all as it was generally just some boards, pool noodles, a barrel, and toys, but Vito had a lot of fun trying to figure out if he was supposed to do offer me a behavior with the objects. He then had to do a little stay and come there which he did just fine with. The wobble board came out next and of course Vito had no problem with the movement under his feet.

The last 5mn there was puppy play time. I was very happy that Vito was relatively quiet and didn't show his evil face at all! He didn't quite want to play as he still wanted treats, but he would venture away from me and try to play a little bit with some of the other puppies. A little bit of barking and growls, but it was definitely the good type of barking/growling!

Vito was very attentive in class. Adam said that Vito is the 2nd best dog there after the 9 month lab/pit! But really, all the puppies are very attentive and well trained. I wish that Lance's class had dogs that were this focused as we could progress a lot faster in his class!

The only downside is that I almost lost my fingers in class. It's held in a doggy daycare that is in a warehouse and I think they turn the heat off in the evening. I normally have poor circulation, but tonight my fingers were white and then purple for the entire class. The treats stuck to my fingers and I couldn't tell if Vito had actually gotten a treat or not sometimes as I couldn't feel them in my hand!