Kia and I are starting Agility next week!

[ramanth]

First class update!
Kia's class went wonderfully! There are only 3 people total which makes it great for having Janet, the instructor, work closely with all of us.

In Kia's class there is Molly, the Doberman and Paco, the Border Collie mix. Paco isn't very dog friendly on the leash I suspect. When we were introducing our dogs to each other Paco laid into Kia. But when we were working around the equipment, he was real good. Molly is very shy but towards the end of the day she really opened up.

For the first class we worked with tunnels. Kia's still hesitates on the closed tunnel and Janet has to hold her at one end and I call her at the other. But with the open tunnel and chute, she barrels right in. :D All the dogs did great.

We also practiced walking the dogs slowly over a ladder so they know what their back feet are doing. Took them all a little while to get used to that.

And we as handlers practiced working the dogs on the left and right side.

Looking forward to next Wednesday!

~~~~~~

I'm really excited! :D

Here's the specfics:

MI Dog Agility will be offering an introduction to agility class from 6-7 p.m. Wednesday evenings from June 16 to July 21. This course will:

~Show you and your dog how to negotiate all the United Kennel Club agility obstacles. (UKC has some obstacles not found in other registries. If you learn the UKC obstacles, you’ll have the skills to participate in agility events sanctioned by the American Kennel Club, NADAC, USDAA, CPE, etc.)
~Teach you the rules of agility, including some of the differences among the various registries.
~Teach you basic handling techniques.

This course is recommended for owners and dogs who are new to agility, or for experienced owners working with an inexperienced dog.


I don't expect to ever end up at competitions, but I think Kia and I will have fun with this. :D

I'll be sure to get pictures once we get a feel for the class.

[apcrs5122]

Sounds like fun!:) I've always wanted to do agility, but Alex just isn't the right kind of dog:p
You guys must be excited, hopefully Kia will enjoy it too! Can't wait to see pictures of it all;)

[shais_mom]

Go Kia!!

[Kfamr]

Yay! Have fun Kimmy and Kia~! :D

[wolf_Q]

Awesome!! Agility is a lot of fun. I bet you will do great!!

[anna_66]

Oh I just know Kia is going to love it! I remember you talking about it when we were at the park.
Have fun and let us know how you both like it:)

[Crikit]

Good for you Kimmy. I know you'll both enjoy it, but I must warn you it gets to be a very very very addicting sport :D

[ParNone]

Welcome to the wonderful world of agilty! You guys are gonna have a blast!

[lizbud]

Sounds like it would be great fun for both of you.:D
Go Kia, and Go Kim...... Let us know how it goes.:)

[RobiLee]

This is exciting. I remembering you mentioning it at the park also.

Yay! Go Kia and Kimmy!

Can't wait to hear all about it.

Robin :)

[ramanth]

Thanks everyone. :)

Hey Amy...did you find that you got a lot of exercise too? :)

[jenfer]

Yay! Have fun!!! I think Gigi loves her pre-agility class too. But seems like I am the one who do most of the work. :o

[Logan]

Kimmy, you guys are going to have so much fun! Honey and I tried it, but she was too scared of everything! :o It was outside and at night and there were lots of other dogs around. It was not the confidence builder we had hoped for! I think Zipper would love it, but we haven't figured out when we have time to try with him!

Logan

[ramanth]

I also love how this class will be small. She only allows 6 to register at one time. :)

[ParNone]

ramanth writes:

Hey Amy...did you find that you got a lot of exercise too?

hi ramanth, I know this was directed at Amy, but thought I'd chime in with my observations. How much exercise you get is in direct proportion to the peppiness of you and your dog. I've seen fast people with slow dogs, that don't get much in the way exercise. Fast dogs running here and there or ahead, while their owner was more or less stationary, standing there yelling commands at their dog.

I get a lot of exercise, because Oz paces his speed to me. He won't run ahead of me, which is something we have to work on or I have to get really thin and fast. :) So the more I put out, the more he does. So I really try on every run, to run full out. Even in the beginner's class, after the initial introduction to the obstacles, I'd keep running well after he completed the obstacle, to make it more fun and keep us both running, whereas a lot of people would just stand there as their dog came trotting out of the obstacle. Not much incentive for the dog to run through the obstacle.

Kia seems like she'd be really fast, so I could see you getting quite a bit of exercise, trying to keep up with her.

Par...

[ramanth]

Thanks Par. :D

I really hope I do get to kind of run with her and guide her to each obstacle.

In the past when we've been to Humane Society events where Agility equipment is set up, she wants me to jump with her and she'd have to be on a leash, making it hard to do the tire and tunnel.

Kia's in good shape and I welcome the exercise for myself! :D

[Crikit]

Originally posted by ramanth


Hey Amy...did you find that you got a lot of exercise too? :)

I'm not Amy either but in my experience you do tend to get a lot of exercise...providing your doing the right type of handling that is. I've seen some people at trials who believe in the point and shoot method where they stand still and send their dog out to the pieces of equipment -which quite often results in the dog going off course but that's something else.- Most of the people I know though prefer to run with their dogs and if Kia is anything like the goonies you'll be doing a lot of running. In time however instead of you running to keep up to Kia it should be Kia trying to work at your pace, at least that's how the theory is supposed to work. :D

[dappledoxie]

Awesome! :D Have lots of fun! :D

[ParNone]

criket writes:

In time however instead of you running to keep up to Kia it should be Kia trying to work at your pace, at least that's how the theory is supposed to work.
Really?? Cool, Oz and I are doing better than I thought we were. :) I figured we were at a disadvantage, because he won't run ahead of me. Instructors keep telling me we need to work on that. Especially after practicing a gamblers sequence a few weeks ago. We were doing Jump, Jump, Tunnel, Table and I had to stop at the Jump. He'd start to head towards the tunnel, but as soon as I stopped at the "imaginery can't cross line", he'd stop and come trotting back to me. I've been working with Gully to go to a target, so I'm going to retrain Oz to do that also.

Par...

[Crikit]

Originally posted by ParNone
criket writes:

Really?? Cool, Oz and I are doing better than I thought we were. :) I figured we were at a disadvantage, because he won't run ahead of me. Instructors keep telling me we need to work on that. Especially after practicing a gamblers sequence a few weeks ago. We were doing Jump, Jump, Tunnel, Table and I had to stop at the Jump. He'd start to head towards the tunnel, but as soon as I stopped at the "imaginery can't cross line", he'd stop and come trotting back to me. I've been working with Gully to go to a target, so I'm going to retrain Oz to do that also.

Par...

Well what should happen when running a standard or jumpers course is the handler sets the pace for the dog. For things like gamblers it's kind of good for the dog to be able to work some distance from you. There is a difference however from working distance to the dog working ahead of you. My friend who is a very experienced teacher believes that when you are trying to control the dog from behind them it puts you at a disadvantage because you don't have as much control and it's harder to maintain a visual contact with your dog. For things like the gamble having a distance is good, I know that's one thing that is going to cause me some problems this weekend with Smudge at the regionals. I can get some distance to with him but not on pieces like weaves. Good rule of thumb though even with things like the gamble, if you stop your dog will stop to. After all they are reading your body languge and if you were running full speed and suddenly stopped they will most likely think they should as well. That's why it's always kind of good to get some momentum before sending the dog out to the gamble and then try to run along side the gamble line. Can you tell I spend some time listening to classes when I'm helping move equipment and hold dogs on Tuesday?

[wolf_Q]

Hey Amy...did you find that you got a lot of exercise too?

Yeah, though I'm still fat though so it hasn't seemed to work yet haha. If Kia's like Nebo with running (and I know she is!!) she'll keep you on your feet!

[ParNone]

crikit writes:

Well what should happen when running a standard or jumpers course is the handler sets the pace for the dog. For things like gamblers it's kind of good for the dog to be able to work some distance from you. There is a difference however from working distance to the dog working ahead of you. My friend who is a very experienced teacher believes that when you are trying to control the dog from behind them it puts you at a disadvantage because you don't have as much control and it's harder to maintain a visual contact with your dog. For things like the gamble having a distance is good, I know that's one thing that is going to cause me some problems this weekend with Smudge at the regionals. I can get some distance to with him but not on pieces like weaves. Good rule of thumb though even with things like the gamble, if you stop your dog will stop to. After all they are reading your body languge and if you were running full speed and suddenly stopped they will most likely think they should as well. That's why it's always kind of good to get some momentum before sending the dog out to the gamble and then try to run along side the gamble line. Can you tell I spend some time listening to classes when I'm helping move equipment and hold dogs on Tuesday?
Hi crikit!

I actually did try running along the line, but guess I wasn't selling it well enough, because Oz wasn't buying. We've a long way to go before we'll be even remotely proficient at gamblers. He's really more attuned to my body language than verbal. I could yell out "jump", but if I'm pointing and heading to the "tunnel", that's where he's going. So we've obstacle discrimination to work on too, as well as distance work. There's so much mental work involved in this sport. I love it!

There's getting to be quite a few agility dogs on pettalk now. You oughta do a weekly agility tip post. :)

Good Luck to you and Smudge this weekend! Go get'em y'all!!!

Par...

[Crikit]

Thanks Par,

My main goal this weekend is just to have fun and hope that Smudge gets his contacts that's the one thing that is constantly stopping us from getting a q :o

My friend has a theory for the verbal commands she thinks that it takes a dog a couple of years to actually learn the verbal commands for pieces of equipment and they mostly go off your body languge until then. I have to agree with her because I constantly screw up the name while running on course and my guys still take the piece of equipment. In fact there are times when in classes we make the students run the course without verbal commands except for praise and maybe a side change command just to prove that point and 9 times out of 10 I don't use a verbal on a course like jumpers or tunnlers becuase really what's the point of repeating "jump" or "tunnel" when that's all the course is?

[ramanth]

First class update!
Kia's class went wonderfully! There are only 3 people total which makes it great for having Janet, the instructor, work closely with all of us.

In Kia's class there is Molly, the Doberman and Paco, the Border Collie mix. Paco isn't very dog friendly on the leash I suspect. When we were introducing our dogs to each other Paco laid into Kia. But when we were working around the equipment, he was real good. Molly is very shy but towards the end of the day she really opened up.

For the first class we worked with tunnels. Kia's still hesitates on the closed tunnel and Janet has to hold her at one end and I call her at the other. But with the open tunnel and chute, she barrels right in. :D All the dogs did great.

We also practiced walking the dogs slowly over a ladder so they know what their back feet are doing. Took them all a little while to get used to that.

And we as handlers practiced working the dogs on the left and right side.

Looking forward to next Wednesday!

[anna_66]

Sounds like a great night!

That's great that there aren't too many people and you can get more one on one training.
Good luck next week and don't forget to let us know how it goes:D

[heinz57_79]

Woo hoo, Kia!! :) You go girl! I've always wanted a dog to do agility with. chloe probably could if she wanted to, but i think she feels it's beneath her. LoL I can't wait to see pics of Kia doing her thing!

[RobiLee]

This sound like fun! Keep us updated, Kim! I know Kia is going to do great. I would love it just because I was doing something with the dogs. Does your dog have to have a lot of traing before you go into agility? Is there any requirements? I'm wondering if I could do this with Tori. I don't think Katie would do very well. I can just see her staring at me like what the heck do you want me to do that for?! Are you crazy mom?....lol. She did do just a pinch of it at her last obedience class and didn't do to awful bad. She actually went through the tunnel and hoped over a hurdle thing..but you couuld just tell it wasn't for her and it would take her forever to do it.

Robin :)

[ramanth]

heinz57_79, just about any dog can do agility! Janet, our instructor, has done agility for 6 years with a beagle! He's won competitions too. She's even seen Bassett Hounds doing agility. :D

Robin, I'm sure all a dog needs is basic obedience. Sit, Stay, and Come. We even did some practice exercises just before class. :)

Crikit, ParNone, and Wolf Q can probably answer any questions better than me. :)

I don't have any pictures from class, but I do have these from a past Humane Society event. :)

Kia on the A-Frame:
http://kia.cutestsandgirl.com/images/walk_for_animals/kia_aframe2.jpg

Kia on the Dogwalk:
http://kia.cutestsandgirl.com/images/walk_for_animals/kia_andy_dogwalk.jpg

Kia jumping (she'd only do it if we did it with her. :o Something she'll soon learn to do on her own. :D )
http://kia.cutestsandgirl.com/images/walk_for_animals/kia_andy_jump2.jpg
http://kia.cutestsandgirl.com/images/walk_for_animals/kia_andy_jump1.jpg
http://kia.cutestsandgirl.com/images/walk_for_animals/kia_jump2.jpg

:D

[ParNone]

That's so great to hear you guys are having fun. Go Kia!!

Robilee, most places don't seem to have any set requirements, because they do the beginning classes on leash. But I found for Oz and I, having a really good recall and good focus on me, was a huge asset. I could let go of the leash and just focus on what we needed to do and not worry about chasing him down.

Par...

[Crikit]

Sounds like the classes are off to a good start. I especially like to hear that the teacher is getting the dogs to discover where they're back feet are. I don't know if she told you this or not but if you want to do a little extra homework that will prepare Kia even more you can make her back up.

Just take a treat and start walking towards her forcing her to back up while you do. It works even better if you do it in a hallway or someplace that is difficult for a dog to turn around. Make sure you don't hold the treat to high though or she might try to jump up.

Now as for the other dogs being able to do agility, any dog can do agility, yes certain types of dogs do excel more at then others (i.e. Border Collies...though you wouldn't know that by watching Winter) but it really is something that any dog can do. I even know an 11 year old dog that still compete, she just jumps at a lower height.

As far as obdience goes it's highly recommended that your dog has a reliable recall, a good sit and down and a solid wait or stay command.

[ramanth]

Originally posted by ParNone
But I found for Oz and I, having a really good recall and good focus on me, was a huge asset.
You know, it's funny. In an everyday situation or in territory Kia is familier with, her recall is not so good. She'll come to me maybe 8-9 times out of 10. However, in class, it's like her seperation anxiety works to my advantage. If the teacher is holding her back and I walk away and call her, she jets straight to me. It's funny how people will say, "Wow! What a great dog to come as soon as you call her." If they only knew.... :o :rolleyes: ;) LOL!


Originally posted by Crikit
I don't know if she told you this or not but if you want to do a little extra homework that will prepare Kia even more you can make her back up.

Just take a treat and start walking towards her forcing her to back up while you do. It works even better if you do it in a hallway or someplace that is difficult for a dog to turn around. Make sure you don't hold the treat to high though or she might try to jump up.
She never mentioned that but thanks for the tip! We'll start working on that. :D