Midas & Mason, Rally Round III, Class #1
Tonight was the beginning of our third round of Rally classes. I’ve decided to start bringing Mason along to the class as well. He wasn’t the only new one though, there was a new Rottweiler and a co-worker brought his very frightened German Shepherd. Eric was unable to come so there are no photos of Mason’s very first class.
We didn’t have any new signs and it was kind of hectic to make sure that everyone could get through the course twice but it was really amazing to do with both of my boys! 
They each threw a little bit of a fit when I would leave one behind and work on the course with the other. But, they quickly got the hang of being quiet (with some treat help from the instructor 
), with only some intermittent whining towards the end.
Midas did great, we worked entirely on the flat collar, no prong even on. There were no new signs but the way the course was set up was very difficult. He did really well and the instructor commented that she could tell how hard I’m working to get his attention with my voice and not by the leash. Progress. At the end of class I was standing with him in a small-ish circle with the new GSD and the Portuguese Water Dog and he never even looked at them, ignored them completely .
Mason did wonderfully for his very first course at a new place (at which he peed all over the floor the last time he was there), lots of new people/dogs and a very difficult course. Our biggest struggle was in switching him from heeling on my right to heeling on my left. I worked so hard to teach him to stay on the right, and now he’s so consistent so that if he ends up on the wrong side by accident he will rush to get into heel position on my right 
. Poor eager, confused little dude. He sure gave it 110% though! He kept eye contact wonderfully and while his sits were extremely sloppy he gave trying all the difficult signs a very valiant try. The instructor says he definitely has potential so I am really looking forward to next time with both of them!