Lance Obedience Run Through

Since Vito's agility class is taking a break today and next Friday, I was able to go to a run through at SPDTC (not his normal club). Because of the problems we've been having in a ring at trial I decided to try something different. I knew that if I brought treats into the ring Lance would have no problem, well at least not a problem with being distracted. But this time I decided to see what would happen if I left the treats on the table and told the "judge" that I just wanted to do 2 heeling patterns and exit the ring between each pattern to treat him. That was the plan.

Lance started out great, there was even the "slow" right away and he still maintained eye contact. But by the first halt Lance was gone. It was extremely hard to even get him back into heel when I told him swing, and I just settled for a sit. By the time I finished the first pattern I was glad I had Lance on leash since he was ready to bolt out of the ring. The judge thought Lance knew he got treats out of the ring, but since this was the first time trying this I knew he didn't and was just excited. It was frustrating. I gave him a whole bunch of treats anyway and got ready to do the second pattern. He was a bit better the second time, but it still wasn't pretty. This time as Lance was ready to bolt the judge said she would call out a right turn which helped since Lance hit the end of the leash and then did run to catch up with me.

I know that Lance is affected by my body language in a ring setting, but I also know that this behavior is not because he is shutting down in any way. Lance does shut down easily, but this did not look like that in anyway. His attitude was very excited.

It is just really frustrating because it is so hard to work on. I feel that doing small heeling patterns and then running out to get treats could help Lance, but even if I was able to do a run through every week (which I rarely can do) I can still only do 2 heeling patterns in the time I'm allowed. Ideally I would have liked to do at least 2 more so Lance would get the game. If I would have given Lance even 2 treats in that ring he would have been fine like he was in our warmup, but that clearly hasn't helped his real trials where I can't do that.

So anyway that is my vent for today!