ED (obedience) lesson in the new place

From now on our ED (obedience) lessons are held in TAKO hall. There we can use much more space than so far. Today we had 7 dogs in the class, 3 of them were completely strangers for us. Before the class started, our aglity trainer saw us (her AG class was next to our training site) and gave us a waring that in the ED class there are 2 very big and dangerous dogs (fortunately one of them was "disqualified" because there had been a attack last time or something like that). This made me careful, I did not know what to expect. But it was not so horrible at all as there is enough space for every dog. Besides, Ruudi had a very good contact with me today.

What we did during the class:

• Heelwork. Although Ruudi did quite well a short distance, we HAVE TO practice it MORE! He just goes too ahead from me.
• Recalling the dog while other dogs sitting in a group in both sides of the way. Ruudi was very good in it. In both roles: in sitting (good contact) and specially in recalling part. Although I think that he should have been more near me when he finished.
• Dumbbell. We practiced holding on the dumbbell. The purpose is that the dog should hold on the dumbbell very-very strongly, never drop it down. We did it like the following. Put the dumbbell in front of the dog (3-4 meters) and if the dog is looking at it, give the command "võta" ("take"). Dog takes it and should bring it to you. Then you play a drawing game with him using the dumbbell. Next step should be: dog should be holding the dumbbell during the heelwork and should not let go of it. Ruudi likes the dumbbell but when getting it, he would like to run with it a bit and after a while he brings it to me. The next step is a bit too big for us right now.
• Sending the dog around the obstruction. This exercise is similar to the exercise in AG, so I use the command "tik-tik-tik" to send dog from right side and command "tak-tak-tak" to send the dog from left side of the obstruction. Piece of cake for Ruudi, BUT somehow he likes to bark during this activity :S We have to get rid of this behaviour! Also I should try to take longer distance to send dog around the obstruction.
• Tunnel. Then we did some AG elements, like running through the tunnel. Ruudi likes tunnel very-very much and he gets so excited then. 
• We finished the class with a little jolly competition: running through the straight tunnel, sending dog around the pillar, then again the tunnel and then finish. Who was the best? Ruudi was :). He did not care about other dogs, although we were running in pairs. He just wanted to run and be as fast as he can ;) His contact with me was good - I'm happy about it!

I very much like the new spacious training site!