I took the dogs out to the LCCOC agility field early this morning. It's hard to get out there and practice because in Louisiana in the summer, there are only a few hours a day when it is light and cool enough for a dog to work. I worked with Sniper on changing directions at a distance, because that usually gets us in gamblers. I noticed that he was grunting as he hit the ground after the jumps. That is normal for some dogs, but Sniper never does that, so it is a little scary. Red did very well, he seemed very happy about playing the agility game.

One of the things that Red does at shows that he never does in practice is perch on top of the Aframe. He did that today while we were practicing. I didn't encourage him to come down or lure him with a treat or anything. I just let him stand on the top of the Aframe and think. I ignored him for about a full minute while he stood up there. Then when he came down, he got a huge jackpot of treats. I think that beacuse I used to bait the bottom of the Aframe, Red never really realized what he was doing because he was so focused on the treat. Then, when he got to the shows and there was no treat, he realized that he was up high. Now that I let him figure out on his own what the Aframe is and how to perform it, hopefully we won't have the standing on the top of the Aframe problem any more. He didn't do it again while we were practicing today.