The temperature was ridiculously low when we set out for Training School and I actually had ice on the inside of the car windscreen so it took ages to defrost the car, luckily we had come out early and I was dressed for the weather in several layers.
We went the long way around so that we could use the main roads and so the only dodgy bit was the bridge over the canal just as we got to school. As I came in the drive I could see some of tour classmates were there already and were letting there dogs have a play in the field. I quickly got Rodders out of the car and joined them. You could tell that he wanted to run and play with the big dogs so I let him off his lead. He was so funny, bouncing around and trying to keep up but he had a good time.
At 10am Sam called us inside to start our lesson, there were 10 of us today so it was a big class. We had to make sure that our dogs were concentrating on us and not the other dogs as we started to walk to heel around the room in such close proximity so Sam had us changing direction quite often. I nearly caused a pile up by turning the wrong way at one point.
It seemed to be colder inside even though the heating was on so we headed outside to the car park. We lined up in a row and the back dog and owner started to weave through the line, when they were halfway the next dog started off. Rodders was very good at the weaving but not so good at being weaved past as he wanted to play with the dog behind us all the time but he got lots of practice as we did this all the way to the field.
Once on the field we did sit and wait while we walked away from our dogs. Rodders was being very good when one dog ran off to play and other swiftly followed. Luckily I reacted quickly and stood on Rodders lead before he could join them, everyone else returned to their dogs until we had the two escapee's back under control.
We then made our way up towards the agility course, alternatively walking and jogging with our dogs at heel with a few sits and downs thrown in. We made two lines at either side of the agility course and Rodders was the first to go through the tunnel and over the jumps, he just loves the tunnel and it quite good at sitting and waiting until I get to the other end and he went over the three low jumps with ease.
We then swapped sides and Rodders had to be encouraged through the Lifebelt but was very happy to go over the snowy A Frame. After everyone had been given a turn most dogs were left off lead for some play, Sam suggested that we let Rodders lead trail so that we could grab him if we needed to. We then practiced recall for a treat. Other than being deaf once when there was something exciting to sniff for Rodders was quite good at coming back to me, helped by the fact that I had liver treats with me today. We let the dogs off to play a couple of times and then called them back one at a time which went quite well.
We walked back down the field with our dogs at heel but off lead and I ended up with quite a following as a couple of them smelt my treats. It was then time to make our way back to the training room and so we picked up our leads and got the dogs to walk to heel back across the car park and to sit and wait at the door until called in. We were to put our dogs in to the down position and then stand over them, Rodders is usually OK at this but today he was a nightmare and kept getting up or rolling over on to his back for his timmy to be rubbed. As Sam came around to meet and greet (and collect the weekly fee) he was misbehaving so she missed us out and came back to us last. By this time it was clear that Rodders was getting tired of behaving and the only way to get him to stay down was for me to stand on his lead.
As we left the training room he did sit and wait at the door but he could see Liam and the other puppy's waiting for there class and he was desperate to get to them, he did stay until I told him to come and then tried to bolt towards them.
We had a quick chat and fuss with Liam, Beau and a couple of the others before we left.
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