Level Three, Take Two

I decided to re-enroll Rubi in Level Three mostly because I don't know what else to do with her right now. Tonight was our first night with a new group of dogs, and it was boring. Not boring in the "yay! progress!" kind of way, but boring in the "I'm tired of writing about the same stuff over and over again" way. So I'll keep it short.

B was wound up on the way in, which is silly because I totally played ball with her until she fell over before we left home. Hung out in the lobby for a bit where she whined but didn't get REALLY FRIGGIN' TIRED OF SITTING STILL  until after about twenty minutes in.

There are six dogs in this Level Three, which makes it the biggest class we've been in since Changing Attitudes. The other dogs are pretty chill, though, so it's okay. Rubi handled herself really well while two dogs began to loudly chase each other around the ring, so maybe there's hope for that Really Reliable Recall class someday. She did less well when one of the other dogs stared at her because she's a great big freak. Of course, that did nothing to make her look like any less of a freak. There were other good moments, and other bad moments, but no disasters. I don't think any of our classmates were thinking, "Holy crap, that dog's psychotic" by the end of class. File that in the "of the good" drawer.

On the way out, we got to practice out strategic retreat A LOT. Apparently, my timing was really bad because other people kept trying to come in at the same time that we were just trying to leave, please, for the love of all that is good, just let us out. Rubi did not seem to mind this. I blame Ula's hot dogs. The was one really good (for us) moment where three dogs started really snarling at each other while we were in the middle. Rubi focused on me (and the hot dogs) and didn't seem to notice them at all. Granted, I pretty much let her stick her whole head in the hot dog bag when it happened, and she was busy trying to inhale as many as possible before I took them away.

All hail the power of over processed mystery meat!

To finish, here are some pictures that make it look like class went better than I actually think it did (no mat or gentle leader!):