Awesome private lesson!!

Today we had a private lesson! and it was amazing! :D It was just perfect and I got so much out of it!!

The private was supposed to be a half hour, but it ended up being an hour. The instructor didn't charge extra either! So we talked for the first half hour about what Mika needed to improve on, the definition of drive, rewards, how to use the rewards, etc. etc. I found out that Mika REALLY LOVES liver! The instructor was tested out a whole bunch of rewards with her and once she gave her the liver, Mika couldn't stop staring at her! That dog just wanted more and more! She even jumped up on her and BARKED, three times! (she never does that!) Wow, guess I got to start using more of that stuff.

She said that instead of ignoring Mika when she makes a mistake, I should still praise her like crazy like I always do, just don't give her food or throw the food tube. That's because Mika is a sensitive dog. I think it'll work out great!

Then we went into one of the rings (we were in the indoor arena/building) and I got Mika to do the dog walk, it was probably about 3 feet high. The first three times she trotted over it, but then we practiced on it a lot more and she was galloping! and she hit ALL of her contacts! Perfect running contacts man!

Then we went into the other, bigger ring (used for trials) and practiced the normal height dog walk in there. She only trotted over the first two times, and then she was FLYING! and again, hit all her contacts! In under 2.5 seconds! EXACTLY what I want! :D

The instructor said that Mika needs to practice on all different dog walks so that eventually she'll realized that a dog walk is just a dog walk, and that her performance on it is the same. Good thing we have the fun match on Sunday! :)

Then...the instructor unexpectedly said "now let's go work on the teeter" or something like that. I was surprised! It was a full height teeter too, and indoors! I almost asked her if she was sure that we should do that, but I trusted her judgment and let Mika follow her over to the teeter.

She had these big chunks of dehydrated liver with her, and she told Mika to do the teeter. Then when Mika got to the pivot point, she held onto the end of the teeter and slowly laid it to the ground so it wouldn't bang. I told her that I'd taught Mika to run right to the end of the teeter, but she said that Mika should work her way up so we could make sure she was confident on the teeter.

She had Mika do the teeter again a few more times, and by the third time Mika was going right to the end of the teeter!

I got to do the same with Mika after that. After holding the end a couple times, I had Mika just do the teeter ON HER OWN...and she DID IT!! YAY MIKA! She was SO AWESOME!! She raced RIGHT to the end before she stopped to wait for it to end the ground, and then she leaped off right away! I was SO SO SO proud of her!! GO MIKA! She got big hunks of yummy liver for that! She did the teeter again three more times and then that was it for the lesson! Awesome dogger!

We'll be having another private next week, working on lateral distance. So now it's the all clear for entering a Novice Standard run for the CKC trial in October! It'll be at the same place we had the private today, so no worries! They might be having some fun runs in the fall so I'll go and practice the teeter on the fun run before the trial.

No photos this time, got to get off the computer!

I'm ELATED! :D First time I've used that word!

~Nat