I brought my pup home five weeks before covid lockdown. During those five weeks we took her all over town and to puppy socials. I had several lessons with a private trainer. Then covid struck. I did two zoom virtual puppy obedience classes and one indoor zoom virtual agility intro series. I taught her enough for a trick dog novice title. Vala is very smart and can do everything great—when there are no distractions. BUT she is a holy terror in actual in person classes.
We live in the city, so have been sending her to half day outdoor daycare out of the city five days a week for months, and she loves it. All dogs are her best friends. She runs around with them like crazy. So we know she is getting plenty of exercise. She is now 17 months old. We started intro to agility five weeks ago in person. She spends the first twenty minutes sniffing everything and lunging at every dog and human to make friends. They are not thrilled. I cannot for the life of me get her to focus on me. When she finally does, she is brilliant. What can I be doing with her to fix this issue?
I should also say that she is a very high energy performance girl. Despite that, she has an off switch in the house and will lie quietly at my feet while I read or do computer things. I was a pretty high energy old gal myself until a year ago when I was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer. Have done chemo, surgery, radiation, and more chemo now. I am not my old self. But I desperately need to get her to focus on me despite distractions or we won’t be able to move forward In agility.
Help!
We live in the city, so have been sending her to half day outdoor daycare out of the city five days a week for months, and she loves it. All dogs are her best friends. She runs around with them like crazy. So we know she is getting plenty of exercise. She is now 17 months old. We started intro to agility five weeks ago in person. She spends the first twenty minutes sniffing everything and lunging at every dog and human to make friends. They are not thrilled. I cannot for the life of me get her to focus on me. When she finally does, she is brilliant. What can I be doing with her to fix this issue?
I should also say that she is a very high energy performance girl. Despite that, she has an off switch in the house and will lie quietly at my feet while I read or do computer things. I was a pretty high energy old gal myself until a year ago when I was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer. Have done chemo, surgery, radiation, and more chemo now. I am not my old self. But I desperately need to get her to focus on me despite distractions or we won’t be able to move forward In agility.
Help!