First Night of CGC Class

As a New Englander I don't really have any right to complain about how cold it is because almost every day the temperature has been in the 40's this winter but last Thursday night was damn cold and dark.  I had sent my money so after a long day of day care and training Tipper and I bundled up and made the half hour trip to class at Fit and Trim.
Now for those of you who don't know the story, Last summer Tipper had an interesting experience with one of my handlers Chihuahua's. Tipper seemed to think it was a very exciting stuffed toy. She scooped it right off the top of a crate as she was walking by, so fast that no one even saw it happen and she wasn't going to give it up. Luckily for everyone the tiny dog was unscathed and the handler spent the next few hours picking chi hair out of Tippers teeth. The reason I'm telling this story is that as soon as we entered the lobby there was a long haired Chihuahua and my first thought was oh crap, this isn't going to go well. Especially after another woman immediately mentioned that the little dog was very aggressive. Lucky for us the dog was there for agility. Our first hurdle overcome! Our class was only half full and besides Tipper we had a Wheaton Terrier named "Logan" and a golden who's name escapes me but by our next class I will remember it. Once we entered our side of the room and got ourselves situated Tipper approached the instructor for a sniff and a pet. Another hurdle overcome. The 2 areas were separated by an ex pen covered by a tarp and someone knocked it down! Crash a loud sound and Tipper passed another phase of CGC without realizing it.
Lesson one was with the golden who likes to jump on people to greet them, but what dog doesn't? So the dog jumped on the instructor who's name is Kim. She took the dogs front paws in both hands and danced around with the dog until it wanted to get down. This was repeated 2 or 3 times. The fourth time the dog approached Kim she put out her hands with fingers spread and sure enough the dog did not jump!!!! Woo Hooo!
Lesson Two was to sit, sounds pretty simple, but not for my retired show dog. We tried every trick in the book but she wasn't going to put that butt on the floor. We finally resorted to scooping an arm around behind her butt and moving her backward with the collar. SUCCESS. The next part of class was getting our dogs to relax on a piece of carpet. Most training classes shape this behavior because it gives the dog the ability to chill out on his or her blanket no matter where they are. I have used the command "mat" or go to your mat but Kim uses "park it" which I love. Think about it.... You want your dog to chill and now you have the command "park it". By the end of class my show dog was parking her butt on that piece of carpet. A little cheese, some time and we had completed the first class. Now home and homework.