What to do when you're to old for agility
Fille has always been a very special dog. Over the years she has become even more special. She is a big time opportunist and she'll try to get the most benefit out of any given situation.
For example Fille likes small children, because small children often has food at her eye level. They are easy to distract which makes it even easier for Fille to snatch a snack right out of their hands. The only thing Fille doesn't like about small children is that they have a tendency to cry when they realize the food is gone which leads to Fille getting busted (but she doesn't care, she got what she wanted:))
Whenever I do some agility with the other dogs Fille will make the training session somewhat interesting - if she isn't taking a nape that is. When I'm busy placing a dog at the start line she'll sneak in from the side and block the way. When I try to get a video of our training she somehow knows where I've placed the camera and she will place her self directly in the shot.
Fille is the type of dog that one way or the other will end up as the center of attention.
You might be thinking why I'm not crating her or leave her inside the house while training the others? Well, then you don't know Fille very well :) She has a very long history of reinforcement for barking! If you bark enough you will eventually get your way.
It might have something to do with the way I taught her to bark on the verbal command. As a kid I was very creative but not very consequence orientated; I knew Fille would bark when the door bell rang so I rang the door bell and rewarded Fille for barking. It worked like a charm and I got the behavior on command in no time. What I didn't know was how self-reinforcing barking really is plus the extra bonus of Fille barking like crazy whenever someone came to the front door. Yes, my parents was very proud!
I might irritate me she interferes this much when I'm focused on something else, but it is part of her charm and I don't how long she'll stay in this world. When I'm at my parents house I try to get the most out of the situation and enjoy every minute with her.