Dog Agility!!! Where have you been all my life?!?!?!? :) I wish I had tried this with Murph, when he was younger. Course I’d have probably been chasing him all over the field, but he’d of had an absolute blast at this. Oz and I just started last week and after a shaky start with the A-Frame and the Dog Walk (He doesn’t seem to have a natural sense of where his back feet are yet:)), he is just excelling at this. As usual his only hindrance is his handler. They really do need remedial handling classes. ;)
We had to do 3 jumps in a row and when I was taking the jumps with him no problem, but then the trainer wanted me to run on the outside of the poles. He did great on the first 2, but by the 3rd, he was a step ahead of me and was heading around the pole, so I did as the instructor had previously instructed and tried to get my hip closer to him to steer him over the jump instead of around the pole. It worked in that he went over the jump, but I tripped and did a nose dive into the ground. I’d let go of the leash as I was falling, so he was free to run around the ring, but he didn’t, he came running straight to me. Awwww, I had visions of Lassie, making sure I was okay, until he nudged me for his treat.;)
On many of the exercises, she had us working the dog off our right side, which is somewhat problematic, because Oz just knows, because of obedience class that he should be over on my left. We’re doing this lil’ dance between us, with me trying to get him on my right, as we start running towards the chute. Soon as we start running though, he heads behind me, trying to get on my left. I call out chute. Like a good Collie, as soon as he hears the command, he takes the shortest path to the chute at that point, which just so happens to be, between my legs. How he didn’t trip me I don’t know, but through the chute he went.
On the tire obstacle, we managed to barrel over the guy with the Cairn Terrier (and oh what a cutie she is)… My fault of course… I don’t know, everybody else’s dog just kind of trots through the obstacles. I should have taken that into consideration, but I thought he was far enough back out of the way. Oz, however, doesn’t trot through the obstacles, he flies through them, so whereas everybody else ends up about 3 ft past the obstacle, Oz is a good 15-20 ft past, as I’m desperately sprinting, trying to keep pace to reward him. I’m pretty much not paying attention to anything but Oz, so WHAM into the guy. On the bright side though, Oz got a chance to say “Hi” to Abbey the Cairn and she was friendly back. She’d growled at the Min Pin, who got in her face last class, probably mistook him for a rat.;) There’s also the most gorgeous Apricot Standard Poodle in the class named Sadie, that Oz just loves. She’s just about his size with energy to spare, so he’s just dying to play with her.
Then onto the weave poles. Oh man, was I ever having trouble coordinating holding the leash with one hand, trying to keep it from getting tangled in the poles and luring him around the poles with the other hand. Finally the trainer told me to try without holding the leash, because he wasn’t going anywhere I wasn't… and he didn’t… He didn’t pay an ounce of attention to the other people or dogs. Man I love having a Collie.:) Anywho, with me only having to focus on my one hand, he did great. I got a look from him of “Ohhhhh, that’s what you wanted. Well why the heck didn’t you do that the first time”.
I can not wait until next class. Actually I think I might go get some materials and build a few things to practice, like the weaves and the jumps. Woohoo!!! WolfQ, you just gotta get Nebo in this, it's just too much fun to miss.:)
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