roxy, my super dog

Roxy had a ridiculously awesome day at agility class last night.  We started agility a few months ago, and she's been progressively getting better, in general, and it's been such a great outlet for her winter energy and a great place for us to train as well.

She tends to get pretty excited and anxious when a new dog is in class, but it calms down after the first couple of minutes typically.  But, she has a harder time with that when the new dog is vocal, easily excited, etc.

Last night there was a 4-5 month old German Shepherd Puppy, who was very, very excited.  She's a regular at the doggie daycare, and plays very well with other dogs (so I'm told), but she was non-stop barking, lunging, whining, and all sorts of talking, and she just got more and more excited when a dog started moving through the equipment...

So, Roxy was watching the shepherd when she barked, but she stayed sooooo calm, except for just the tiniest little whine she let out when the shepherd saw the first dog running and got really really excited.

Then, even better... Roxy was in a sit, the shepherd is barking like a loon on our left side, there's a little white fluffy dog on the right side of us that started talking back to the shepherd, and there was a Golden Retriever running through the course at top speed, right behind Roxy.  A few months back, this would have been KRYPTONITE for her. She would have gone into panic mode standing up, her eyes shifting back and forth, she'd be trying to get away, trying to hide behind me, whining, leading to high-pitched barking, etc.

So, when she heard the golden about 3-4 feet away she turned her head and looked at the golden, but she stayed in her sit. I called her name and BAM she turned towards me and held her sit and watched me, amidst all that distraction and scary stuff.

This is a HUGE milestone for her. HUGE. On a million levels.  Looking back, I wish I had a video of her prior behavior so I could post a new video to show the difference in her.  I'm totally, 100% impressed with her and couldn't be more proud of her.

Plus, she ran the equipment really well last night, even with the shepherd barking the whole time.  She was so focused and she didn't skip a beat

I am so amazed and impressed with her transition from the dog she was before vs. the dog she has become.