Flyball introduction to the moving box

Tonight was another good night.  I made sure to warm Lexi up first by just doing some up close stuff.  We moved back slowly.  She did great!

All night she never dropped the ball once.  The only issue she had was that if I didn't put the ball she had just brought back into the bucket or in my pocket, she wanted to go get that one rather than the one on the box.

I also made sure to not run with her, but to rev her up (she already knows the get excited command since I use the same one at agility...it gets her spinning and crazy...I say "reeeeeeeeeeeeady!?!?!") and send her.

We did introduce her to a real box.  That was interesting.  She didn't really like it much even though we didn't actually load the ball (just set it on there).  She didn't seem to worry about it or anything, just only wanted to put 2 feet on instead of the 4.  So, I put the ball away and just worked with shaping a turn (just like I did at the beginning with cookies).   If she put 2 on and turned, small cookie, then I upped the criteria and after just a few tries she was putting 4 feet on again.  The turns weren't beautiful, but I was glad she figured it out so quickly, but they were fast and hard (not hesitant or worried) and we ended on that note.


Oh, and tomorrow Lexi turns 2 so we brought cookies to agility class.  Our instructor said, "I keep forgetting how young she is.  She's still a baby!  You guys have tons of time to keep working with her.  She's doing great for a 2 year old."  I'm reminded how young she is all the time...but it's easy to forget because of how often we work with her.