Practice at the club

We went to open agility practice at our club again today! It was very fun! I have been so cooped up in the house with not much exercise so it was great to be able to go somewhere and do agility!

Mom warmed me up with obedience and tricks again and then we worked on the double and triple jumps and the chute. I hadn't seen the chute there in many months but today I went through it with zero hesitation! We had a curved tunnel set up so that I could go in the tunnel and come out and do the double (this time set up with wings to make it look different). I did all the jumps - no refusing, no knocked bars. Of course, I am pretty relaxed at the club so stress is not usually a factor.

The woman with the dog who was crashing the triple last week was there today too. Her dog did much better. And mom talked to her quite a bit and found out a little more about their training, etc. After talking for awhile, mom admitted that she had been upset last week at watching the dog get punished for knocking the bars. But the woman said it has been years and years of trying many training options and that since her dog just doesn't care if she crashes, she has had to figure out something to make an impression on the dog. She said she hates it too but the way she is working with her dog now is the only thing that has improved the situation. Mom felt a lot better about it all and was really glad they talked!

Actually the woman was super nice and gave us some good advice. They discussed the possible ETS issue and the woman just said - so what if he has it or doesn't - you still have to come up with ways to help him. (something along those lines). Made sense to mom and me. She also thinks that dogs who don't hold their startline stays are often just stressed (as opposed to super excited to run) and that while she trains the dog to have a good stay, she always runs with the dog at a trial. She thinks mom is getting too far ahead of me and that is demotivating me. Like mom should stay with me when I come out of a tunnel and drive towards the next obstacle (yes, we have heard that before but had been trying other things - always experimenting a little). I did a jump to the tunnel and mom yelled GO GO GO at me while I was in the tunnel and I sped up quite a bit. Also if I come out of the tunnel and am headed for the double for instance, mom should tell me - BIG jump - as I am exiting so I can focus faster on the jump instead of focusing on mom first. And the woman thinks that if I do speed up more and get a little more power I might have less trouble getting over the big jumps or if I take off too early, I will have the momentum to clear the jump any way and have more confidence approaching the jump too. So even though mom has always been a cheerleader for me out there, she might need to do even more and be more assertive about it.

Gotta zoom!

Ricky