I love my mat!

So I am finally getting my rear into gear and starting some Control Unleashed stuff.  Took a mat to agility class on Sunday to start working on Go To Place.  For anyone who hasn't read CU, the idea is basically that the dog learns that their mat is the best place in the world (and eventually you should be able to cue the dog to go to their mat from anywhere.)  For Penny, I hope that it will help her learn to relax in various settings and during downtime at class, trials, whatever.  I also want her to learn that it is where she gets cookies after doing a good job!  She picked up on it quickly, in fact, halfway through class we would finish our sequence and she would immediately dash back over to her mat and wait for her cookies, even if our turn wasn't finished because Mom messed up and we were going to redo the sequence!  :)

Clearly, my next step is to add a cue so that she doesn't just go to her mat whenever she wants.  I am planning on calling it "go night-night" since that is what her cue for getting in her crate used to be.  She hasn't been crated in the house for over 6 months now, but I want her to be OK with it again because we are going to be trailing soon.  I also want her to understand that being on a mat or being in a crate is kind of the same thing in the sense that it is a place that she can relax and enjoy.  I am thinking that if I put the mat in the crate, it will be the same thing... since she is still going to the mat (it just happens to be inside of a crate).  I also need to tighten up my criteria and only reward downs on the mat (I was allowing sits as well, which might have been a mistake), and eventually only reward a relaxed/settled down.  We'll also need to start enforcing being released from the mat, and I need to be better about not rewarding broken stays (on the mat or otherwise!)

This is the relaxed state we are going for :)

Anyway, class was also good in other ways.  I think our communication is definitely starting to improve and I like to think that my handling is also improving!  Penny jumped at 20" to see how she would do at a lower height, since that's what I entered her in for a couple of upcoming trials.  She may measure too tall anyway, but I would prefer to run her at the lowest possible height that she can still do without being sloppy.  She would be fine at 24" too though, and will have to do 26" in USDAA regardless, so we will see what happens.  I like to think that jumping lower at the first few trials will be better for her but that could also be a completely incorrect assumption.  I just like to think that I should make it as "easy" for her as possible until she gets more used to it, if that makes any sense.