Associations

I took the girls up to the agility trial at the fairgrounds today. It's been several years since either of them competed in agility, but we went to a fair number (ha!) of trials there in the days. We weren't competing, but I took each dog out to walk around the site individually.

Sleek went first. She was bred and born to dog shows, probably going to her first ones when she was 3 or 4 months old so she'd be comfortable there when it was time for her to show. She loves walking around looking at the other dogs and trying to solicit petting and/or food from people. Even though it's been years, Sleek still was very happy to be out and about and watching everything. The building is unheated, so we mostly had to keep moving, although we did sit long enough to watch our friend Camera Woman run her dog. Then I took Sleek back to the car and took Fluff into the building.

Fluff definitely remembers the place and remembers agility. She was quite aroused going in, pulling hard on her collar and with her tail somewhat raised and stiff. She was good enough around the other dogs. We talked to CW briefly before she got ready to run her next dog and again after they ran. It was funny to watch how Fluff fell back into behaviors she had done when at trials in the past. Although I'm sure she could smell that I didn't have treats with me, she reacted to any movement of my hand toward a pocket with behaviors we used to practice, like sitting, lying down, giving strong eye contact. Her response to cues was very good, too. This behavior on her part was sustained for probably 10 minutes or more, which is a long time to have premium behavior without a reward beyond, "What a good girl you are!"

They both are very good girls.