training: roxy at agility last night

I take Roxy to a walk-in style, on-leash agility class just about every Tuesday. It's truly helped her build confidence, and it gives me a controlled environment to do some desensitization and counterconditioning on a weekly basis, especially in the winter when there are far fewer people and dogs outside to work with, as far as triggers go. It's a pretty basic class:  mostly basic equipment, dogs are kept on leash, they don't touch or play, and it's more for fun than anything else.

Roxy views every person in that class, even new people she's never met before, as treat dispensers. She's very comfortable in that environment, and she handles other dogs being near her much better now that we're around them all the time. There are some dogs in the class that are on the reactive side, some because they want to play with all the other dogs, some because they're anxious, some because they're hyper, and others are just plain talkative.

When we first started going, Roxy was a bit reactive when the other dogs were running about or barking, but she has gotten so much better and is now more curious than anything else. Last night was no exception. Rob came to class and he commented on how he thought she was the best behaved dog in the class, and the best on the equipment as well. He was really impressed with her running through the obstacles, which made me very excited because for a while, he was thinking Roxy didn't even like coming to agility, that it was more for me than for her.  Now he knows that's not the case!

So, without further ado, Roxy's run at the end of class last night.... she was pretty tired since we'd been through several times already, but she did really well.  I'm so proud of her.  She stays so focused on me and looks to me to see what's next when she doesn't know.