save the pit bull, save the world.

I took Steve to agility last night. I was so up in the air about whether or not I should, or whether I ought to give him a longer break, but in the end I figured I’d just make the promise to him that if he got uncomfortable again, we’d leave and that would be it for awhile.

I never had to make that call.

We got there early and played ball with his new squeaky ball on a rope in the end of the building where he had all his problems, in case it was a building issue. He thought that was a fab game. If there’s a ball, he’s in.

Then class started, and I concentrated on using play and toy rewards whenever possible and minimizing hand fed food rewards, in case it was my hand moving toward his face that was bothering him.

He had one time where he started to get a little funny. Not the switch-flipping fear reaction, just… a little funny. I quit what we were doing, asked for some hand touches and some tricks, and took all the pressure off. He did jump up on me a couple time, which says to me he was worried about something, but I feel better because he turned to me for comfort the way he always has in the past. The play and tricks settled him down and he worked without a glitch or any apparent concern for the rest of class.

We didn’t do anything especially challenging until the very end, when our instructor had me send him through a straight tunnel to a pair of toe boards set up like a contact zone with a target on them. This was an exercise somebody she knows was using to help their dog learn to brake coming out of a tunnel in order to stick a table. In the last class of last session, we ran a sequence of tire tunnel table tunnel tire and Steve absolutely could not stick the table no matter what I did. I think the problem was baby dog TUNNEL WAHOO!! combined with him being not terribly familiar with the table and not understanding the expected behavior.

But at any rate, it was an interesting exercise for my baby dog who looooooves the tunnel and isn’t so much in the self control department. I set him up at the near end of the tunnel and sent him to the target a couple times, then the instructor took him back to the far end of the tunnel and I called him through and stood right at the target, and then finally I took him to the other end of the tunnel, sent him, asked him to target, and wasn’t that brilliant puppy there with his nose on the target and his feet all on the contact zone when I came running up.

Beauty AND brains, this dog. I’m telling ya, people.

So we got the word that we’ll be given the go-ahead to move up to Beginner One for next session, which is a relief. I think he’ll enjoy class more if he’s being challenged a little bit. I know I’ll enjoy it more if we’re learning new things.

Whatever was so terribly wrong two weeks ago appears to have not gone wrong last night. I don’t know if it’s something I avoided doing or if he was just having a teenage boy moment before and it’s over now or what the deal is. I really really hope it doesn’t come back.

I love my puppy when he’s happy and boisterous, and even when he’s a bit too up and I have to rein his maniac self in a bit. The absolute joy in his face when he sees the tunnel, his utter enthusiasm for all the silly agility games we play even when I’m bored, his overwhelming drive on restrained recalls- this is my happy boy. This is the boy I want to help shine.