Agility this week

So today is rainy and cold and perfect for sitting down at the computer to do a little blogging. We had a great agility week! It started on Wednesday with my chute success. At Wed. morning agility practice the building is split up into two rings - a big one for the course we build and a smaller one where we can practice obedience or jumps or something. This week we dragged the chute and a couple of jumps into the small ring so that mom and I could work on the chute without worrying about a time limit or other obstacles. First mom folded up the chute material about half way and then she put a couple of cones in it to prop it up just a little bit. Then she put a jump in front of the chute and we tried jump to chute. Since mom didn't have to stop to hold the chute open, she ran right past it and called me to come through. And I eventually did it. When she thought I was pretty comfortable with this stage, she took a cone out and then took the other cone out. Then each time I went through I gained more confidence and got lots of praise and treats. Mom gradually let out the material and before you knew it, I had gone through the chute with the material all the way out several times!!! Mom was jumping up and down, cheering me on and giving me jackpots! It was very exciting! After that we went over to the big ring and practiced short sequences on the course. I was really having a good time. I flew over the jumps and a frame and wasn't bothered by the noisy teeter at all. And then later we tried the chute again - this time with a jump before it and after it - and I did it all!!!! We're very excited to try again next week.

Then on Thursday night we went to our third agility class of this session. We didn't get to try the chute there because it wasn't one of the obstacles that was out for us this time. First we started with jumps and mom working on her front crosses. Then we went to contacts. We did more a frame/tunnel discrimination. And dog walk. Well, my instructor was so impressed with my improved confidence level that she told us right there and then that we were ready to move on to the next class level after this session!!! Hurray! There are several classes we could chose from - advanced intermediate, a handling class, or novice courses. Mom is thinking advanced intermediate might be good - they split the room up into two bigger sequences (instead of the four sections with small sequences that we have now). Any way, our instructor also told us she thinks we could start doing trials and she predicts we would go straight through novice and get into open with no problems! This was all very exciting news!!! Then we went on and practiced weaves and finally we ended up with teeter and jumps.

So I had a great agility week! Mom and I are going to work on the chute again this coming Wednesday and once we think I can do it reliably, we will try run-throughs, a show and go, and then maybe a trial in February!!!

Gotta zoom!


Ricky