Tonight, Duncan was definitely 'Most Improved' in his class. Sorry, no videos. My camera batteries died on me. They are being recharged tonight. Hopefully next time, I'll get video evidence.

We started on the A-frame, a previously unattempted stunt due to Duncan's reticence on the dogwalk and other contacts. First, we did it flat. No problem! Over the next three (that's right - THREE) height bumps, Duncan was great. It wasn't full height, but very nearly there. I stopped him while he was still excited about running up and down and not at all scared. It was like he suddenly decided that contacts were good things.

When we switched to the dogwalk, my Dunc got a bit weirded out at the entrance. It is so much thinner than the dogwalk, so he needs to have accuracy. I ended up picking him up and running him off the end a few times, backing him up until he was comfortable running down the end. This seemed to clear that up with him and he could run the whole thing without a problem. The height was maybe a foot and a half high. Still low, but Duncan is definitely getting used to it.

We did the wait table once. Duncan hopped right up and someone else wanted to use it, so we moved on.

Next we did a few jumps, loosening up. Duncan had a barking fit to which I responded by just looking at him and not doing anything to praise him. When he was done, I took him over to the chute and we did that a few times. Duncan was getting pretty good and could have the chute almost to the ground (someone was holding it up and dropping it after each successful go).

We did some tunnel work after this. We were asked to do the tire jump. Duncan would not sit for me, so I asked him to jump through using a 'come' and he did. After this point, Duncan would not sit for me again that night, even if he was attentive and doing well. We were able to do some tunnel/tire jump combos very successfully.

There was a little course of four jumps, the tunnel, then a jump and the chute that we were to try. Duncan refused the tunnel time and time again. First, the instructor asked me to start treating on the ground, since Duncan is SO hand-focused. Duncan still wouldn't enter the tunnel, but if she held him, he would fly through it. Then, my husband Thane came to the rescue. We called Duncan back and forth between us, treating for when he would duck into the tunnel. A few minutes of that seemed to solve our problems.

Duncan ended on the high note of the chute, barking madly the whole way. Believe it or not, that took an hour!

We did not do weaves or the teeter tonight. I want to build some weaves to work with at home. The teeter can wait until Duncan is fully confident with contacts.

Overall, we were very pleased with the work we did tonight and so was everyone else!