Dog Agility!!!!!

[ParNone]

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.

Par…

[Crikit]

BWA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!! Welcome to the agility side. If you think just training the dog and yourself...because after all 90% of the mistakes made in agility are the handlers fault and not the dogs...you should wait until you try to compete in it, that takes the feeling up to a whole new level.

Glad to here that you and Oz are liking agility so much...it makes me happy to know that others are getting turned

If you have an questions that you want answered or just to talk to somone who will totally understand what you're going with...you can pm me anytime, I might be able to answer the questions because I help my friend teach on Tuesdays nights. That and I'm pretty sure I've dealt with some very weird problems with my dogs, in fact right now I'm dealing with a table suck, a zoomie freak, and a dog that half the time sniffs more then he runs.

[ParNone]

Hi Crikit!

Yep, the one who needs practice is most definitely me. Oz is
only 9 months old, so we've got awhile before we could even
consider competing. We're just having fun right now. It's so
funny. I'm normally so quiet and reserved and I can tell quite
a few people in the class are normally outgoing.
Except when it comes time to praise their dog, everybody does
just a "good girl" or "good boy"... Far from enthusiastic. Then
here comes me and Oz...
"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOWOOOOOOO!!!!" followed by
enthusiatic clapping from me... That I'm not completely red from
embarassment shows how much fun I'm having. And it may be
one of the reasons, that when we first did something like the
tunnel, everybody else was having to coax their dog to come
through to them on the other side, whereas Oz came to me like
he was shot out of a canon, leaped into my arms and knocked me
over. So I guess I'll keep embarassing myself.

What's a zoomie freak?

Par...

[Crikit]

A zoomie freak would be what Tama is. I put him down to do some training and he immediatly starts to run around and around in circles, which is what we call the zoomies. He's really cute while doing it but one of these days I'm gonna have to try to get him to stop it, which is going to be a challenge all in itself.

I know what you mean about the people praising their dogs however, that's one of my pet peeves in the classes. The dogs are trying so hard to please their masters and then when they do what they are supposed to half of the people either give pitiful praise or no praise at all. It's sad really.

[wolf_Q]

Originally posted by ParNone

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.

I WANT TO! I WANT TO!!

I'm not sure how well my independent husky boy would do though...hmm....he's good at basic obedience at home, but sucked at class.

And it may be
one of the reasons, that when we first did something like the
tunnel, everybody else was having to coax their dog to come
through to them on the other side, whereas Oz came to me like
he was shot out of a canon, leaped into my arms and knocked me
over. So I guess I'll keep embarassing myself.

Nebo LOVES tunnels!! Hhahaha he does the same thing...."like he's shot out of a cannon" LOL. We had a little tunnel to mess with at the classes, plus there was some at the dog park...he's in and out of those things constantly!

Aww man now you've got me really wanting to start an agility class.....problem is, I know there's not one near me....closest is probably an hour away. *sigh*

[gkristian]

I am starting to take Foxy to agility classes next month. He hasn't been before but i think he will like it because he is a very enegetic dog.

[Jessica12345]

oo! that sounds like soo much fun! I wanna go! lol

It sounds like you and oz make a great team. keep up the good work!

[ParNone]

wolfq wrote:

I'm not sure how well my independent husky boy would do though...hmm....he's good at basic obedience at home, but sucked at class.

Most of the dog's in the class looked like they've never had any
basic obedience and it's not required for beginning agility, but
I did find that "Come" is pretty useful, because you do end up
letting go of the leash quite a bit. From what I remember of
your entries in the training journal thread, Nebo would be leaps
and bounds ahead of most of the dogs in the beginner's class.

And as for the husky part, don't let that stop you. Most of my
class is comprised of herding dogs, but the lil' Cairn Terrier is
doing better than most of them. The 2 dogs having the most
difficult time in the class are a German Shepherd and a Lab.
So if you get the chance, you should go for it. Go Nebo!!

Par...

[ParNone]

hiya gkristian!!

You're just gonna have a blast! Can't wait to hear your
impression of it, once you start.

Par...

[ParNone]

Hola Jessica!!

Go!! Find a class!! There's a maltese in the Thursday night class
and she was doing great. The littler dogs seem to have an
easier time to start with, because none of'em had any fear of
the climbing stuff. Don't remember any of the lil' ones balking
at the dog walk, whereas Oz was just petrified. That first time
through, I thought we were never gonna make it to the other
side.

Par...

[anna_66]

I'm so glad to hear that Oz like his agility classes, it can really be alot of fun if you have a good teacher and a good student (we really didn't have either when we went )
Roxey liked jumping the hurdles, going through the tunnels and even jumping through the tire, but she really had problems with the teeter, and I think it's called the dog walk (walk up a slant on one side then a short walk up high and slant walk down). She was scared to death & neither me nor the teacher could get her to do it even with bait, she refused after 2 times. So needless to say we haven't been to any more agility classes after that
It does make their minds work and gives them something to think about. I wish you both the best of luck in class!

[ParNone]

Hi there Anna!!

The first 2 obstacles that Oz had to do were the A-Frame and
the Dog Walk. The first time through he did the A-Frame no
problem, but the second time through, I didn't stay close enough
to the frame and he was totally focused on me and walked right
off of it, trying to stay next to me... Totally my fault... So then
he was scared to death. The teacher picked him up and more or
less lifted him up to the top and when we came down on the
other side, I cheered like a maniac and the 3rd time through he
did fine.

Then we went over to the dog walk and he was so petrified he
couldn't move. Luring him with treats had no effect, so the
teacher lifted him up to the top. With me holding him, we moved
him one paw at a time. It was so agonizingly slow, I had a
momentary thought that he is never gonna want to do this.
When we finally made it to the end, I cheered like a maniac
again. By the 3rd time through, he was walking by himself, with
only me holding onto his collar. Last class, we were suppose to
be going over another obstacle and he kept pulling me over
towards the dog walk. He gets more confident, each time he
makes it to the other side.

I'm not sure if it's the best training method or not, but it definitely
worked. Almost every big dog had fear the first time through,
but after she picked'em up and made sure they successfully
completed the obstacle, the second time through they all did
much better. You could see their confidence building each time
they did it.

By the time we got to the see saw, he was so thrilled that it was
low to the ground, he flew through that.

Par...

[Dogz]

I LOVE dog agility! Prince and I have been working on it for a couple of weeks! It is sooooo much fun!

[Crikit]

Originally posted by wolf_Q

I'm not sure how well my independent husky boy would do though...hmm....he's good at basic obedience at home, but sucked at class.

Amy, Nebo would proably do great. There is actually a lady in two of the classes that has 6 huskies and she's trained each of them to do at least the basic stuff. Right now she's taking an advanced class with one of her females and a beginners with another one of her females...actually the dog in the advanced class is the mother of the one in the basic class. The only thing she doesn't do is run trials and stuff in the summer because it gets to be to hot for them.

[ParNone]

Hi Dogz!!

Feel free to share your agility stories. I'd love to hear'em.
What kind of dog is Prince?

Par...