Katie, her dad and I went to agility tonight. I was eager to see if the success we experienced last week when she finally connected with the A-frame would transfer to tonight. And I was wondering if she’d get comfortable on the tall dogwalk tonight as well given she only ran it once last week on her own, then got scared. We’ve done a little bit of dogwalk in the driveway this week, but the weather has really limited the amount of time we had to practice out there.
We arrived early, just as the instructor was beginning to set stuff up. Katie and I went off to another ring to do a little warming up. I use heeling and other obedience stuff as a way to get her focused on me so that we don’t waste class time remembering that we’re there to work. It doesn’t take Katie long to figure out she’s back in school and there are TREATS available if she pays attention. In fact this evening about half an hour before we we would normally leave home for school we asked her if she wanted to go to SCHOOL! and she got so excited we had to leave the house early to get her to stop whining at the front door. 🙂 (Can you tell who rules at our house?)
As my husband was helping the instructor get the agility ring set up Katie and I watched impatiently. I was so excited to see if she’d run the A-Frame; husband hadn’t seen her do that yet. Once it was up and locked I walked her into the ring to sniff it. She sniffed once, looked up at me and ran up and over it! She caught me by surprise and I had to sort of trot along after her as we were attached by the leash! Of course husband had his back to us and missed it. No problem. As soon as she got down the other side she grinned, turned around and ran over it again! He saw that one and we all cheered for her. The instructor (who had never seen her successfully run it before either) said “Well look at YOU!” and then asked me how she was on the dogwalk. I didn’t really know as she’d only run it once the week before and then balked. So Katie and I walked over to it and she sniffed it. She wasn’t too keen about walking up the ramp until I picked her up and put all four feet on the yellow, held her tummy with one hand and started walking her up. “OH!” she said…”WALK IT” I remember THAT!” And she started trotting, went up and across and down the other side without me touching her. And then turned around and RAN back across it on her own! “No sweat Mom!”
Class started with dogwalk, and all the dogs trotted right over without problem. Now we’re focusing on getting them to do the 202o at the end. Even Katie stopped when I told her to TOUCH! Then we added the tire to the dogwalk. No problem. After that we did a series of 3 jumps and then tunnel; we were practicing pushing and pulling the dog, sending them to the correct entrance of the tunnel which was shaped in a tight U. Katie loved the jumps, but had difficulty doing tunnel. There was no room for me to run past the entrance, so each time I slowed or stopped she’d pop back out. That was frustrating. She was successful eventually but it wasn’t a sure thing. The first time she successfully jumped then ran through the tunnel she ran out the other end, and while I was fumbling for a treat to reward her, she spotted the dogwalk across the room and ran straight for it and was up and over it before I had time to react! We all laughed. Silly shy little pup, afraid of everything, was choosing her own agility course now!
We also did a combination of table and chute. She hadn’t seen chute in a long time and the first attempt she ran back out the entrance. But after that she was fine with the chute and I was always there to reward her when she successfully popped out at the other end. I was really pleased she didn’t have any real issues with it. Our only problem was with the teeter. She’ll run up it, then jump off at the midpoint. Even when it’s not moving. I asked the instructor why she was doing that, and the instructor said “Because she’s a smart dog. She knows it’s going to move!” So we have work to do on that obstacle, I think it will be our most challenging one of all.
Our last run of the night was tire, dogwalk, A-frame, table with a down, and chute. Katie loved every second of it. This is our next to last class. I’m going to miss it after it’s finished. I think Katie will too. We’re already investigating plans to build some jumps and a dogwalk for her. Maybe if we’re ambitious we’ll build her a teeter. Looks like this summer is going to be a lot of fun!
If we can just get this darn snow to melt!
Quick break and then the instructor added A-frame and a jump to the dogwalk, then tunnel, then jump then table. Sigh again. She HATES the A-frame. She won’t do more than put her front feet on it…and streeeeetch out for a treat. So after some of that I ask if it’s OK to pick her up and put her on the frame. They said OK, so I did that all evening. Putting her about 2/3 of the way up and she runs over the top and creeeeeps down the other side, then springs over the jump, races over the flat dogwalk, flings herself through the tunnel, does the jump and lands triumphantly on the table grinning the whole way. Over the evening we added more jumps before the Aframe, including the tire, and she did everything except run the Aframe and the tall dogwalk. I was really pleased.
The story is that my mom was very pregnant with my sister on dad’s birthday and she didn’t feel up to making a cake. So she made him meatloaf and “frosted” it with mashed potatoes. My sister was born the next day. I think my sister was actually Dad’s best birthday present ever. Even if she was one day late.
Change Is Hard 