Kya’s Intermediate Obedience Class #3
I spent some quality time with little miss Kya tonight before we headed for her class. She was relaxed and happy until I loaded her up on her own but still in a decent mood. She was not too nervous when we pulled in and she hopped out, ears pricked and forehead wrinkled. She’s even started pulling on the leash a little, I think she recognizes this as a place she frequently gets a lot of treats.
The building was decorated inside with streamers and balloons, I thought for sure she would freak out by everything hanging from the ceiling but she was totally fine. She even sniffed several balloons and was done. 
Proud of her!
We started out with some basics in class, Look, Sit, Heel, Stay. Then we moved to a grid around the room. She did pretty well but there was a lot more pulling this week than before. That’s difficult for me because I don’t want to correct her too harshly and scare her but I also don’t want her to take advantage and learn that pulling is ok. She is the worst at the sit/stay and then recall. She does not like to be left behind and she comes to me in an awkward arch that puts as much distance as possible between her and anyone else in the room - and it’s slow and she does the creepy snake crawl thing. 
Hopefully she’ll get over this with time, we shall practice at home to get her more used to it.
Next we all moved into the cattery area of the Humane Society. She didn’t even notice the cats. Was totally fine moving around in there and even snuck up behind someone to sniff them while they were getting assistance at the desk
There is one lady that always tosses treats her way when we are around her (and not working on anything) and now Kya perks up when she comes by and tries to sniff her more - the same with our instructor - both excellent signs .
Next we moved outside. This was both harder and easier. She stopped pulling for the most part but was really interested in sniffing everything. Since I want to encourage her to be curious, I just let her sniff as long as she paid attention to where I was. We did some weaving around people/dogs again. She was much more interested in trying to meet the dogs this time and did a little whining and tail wagging as they passed. She even wagged her tail a couple of times around.
We went back inside for a couple more short exercises and then we were done. As we were sitting discussing any problems or questions, Kya actually laid down and relaxed!!! 
That’s a huge step - she used to not even lay down outside of her kennel at all, not even at home! I was thrilled! She got lots of treats while in the down position and then we headed home. A good lesson.