Sunny Saturday

I love the jump in place exercise in the video - I could do it all day! What could be easier - stand, boing, get treat, repeat! LOL! For my agility guru foundation friends - does it look like I push off from my back legs and jump like I should? (same video but with some slow motion editing here)

Yesterday I made major progress with my dumbbell (you'll be relieved to know that there is no video of that!). Mom stood up straight and acted more confident and I held on to that DB and walked in a circle a few times (on leash). I only dropped it once. We haven't tried it yet today but I am sure we will.

It was sunny and 25 this afternoon and we went on an awesome walk at the park! Even though mom hates winter, she does like going to the park in the winter. There are very few bikers (there was one though on a snowy bike path - crazy) and joggers (there was one of those too) and cars and people. We got to walk in some places we never go - like on the bike path. We saw an opossum out in broad daylight - poor guy was maybe hungry and hopefully not sick? I met a miniature American Eskimo dog that I had met awhile ago but hadn't seen in months and I actually PLAYED with him a little (until he annoyed me and I had to growl to get him to stop). It was all very fun!

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend! I finished my annual holiday video yesterday so I'll post it soon!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

More agility

Sorry we forgot that it was Tricky T-Day today so we'll try to remember to play on the other T-Day in the week!

Since it's more or less summertime now, we spend far less time in the house and at the computer than we used to. So we get really behind at sharing our activites with all our blogging friends. We've been on some great walks - including a brand new place for me - a huge park about 45 minutes from here. We've been practicing a lot of backyard agility - working on running the down plank of the dog walk using my teeter board on a cement block (in my novice comp. class last Wednesday night, I jumped off the side of the down plank above the yellow twice! - mom was turning and trying to get me to go faster - so I did! - but now we have to work on making sure I know to go all the way to the end), practicing serpentines with two jumps and the tire, and throwing a food container (that bolt holder thingy that Sara told us about once - I can't remember what it was called) out ahead so that I run faster forward through the weaves or over jumps or down the dogwalk board. It works really well, but mom's not sure how that eventually translates into making me faster when she doesn't throw it. We'll make a video soon so you all can see.

Today we started a new class called handling drills and skills and it's held outdoors at the instructor's house at 9:30 in the morning. We had a great time! I was a little distracted when we first got there but I was soon able to focus better. There are only four dogs in the class - and they are all tri-colors! Two Berners and two Shelties! The small class size is wonderful but there are three jump heights so we are constantly running around changing the bars. Today's class was taught by Jenn Crank (her mom Susan is going to teach the rest of the time). It was very exciting to have a USA World Team member as our instructor. She is really good - and nice too. In this class we focused on forward sends and parallel sends. It's hard for me to get motivated to jump when we are drilling the two sends and mom is standing pretty close to the jump - I did ok but not great. I sped up some once we started trying to incorporate those moves into longer sequences. We also talked a lot about turning cues - like deceleration - we are never supposed to use "come," "here," or the dog's name as cues to turn. It should be all body language. The last sequence of the morning was the best for us - Jenn said mom's handling was excellent on that one!!! We are really looking forward to next week's class! (Our Wed. night class overlaps with our new class for two weeks - so we have class twice this week and next).

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Agility Level 1

Last night was our first level 1 agility class at the club. It was great to be back in an agility class after having three weeks off. The class is in the actual agility building this time, and we are in the first class of the night. So not so much waiting around for the last class to finish and fewer treats left on the floor for me to hoover up! Last night was a get-acquainted with obstacles night for pups who might have never seen jumps and tunnel before. We started with some heeling to get loosened up and then split into two groups - smaller dogs and bigger dogs. I got to go through a really long straight tunnel - I was super fast and had mom running full-out to meet me at the other end. And I even got to try the curved tunnel - my first one ever. No problem. We did a wing jump (also never seen one of those) and walked a real dog walk plank although it was on the ground. When it was time for us to try the weave poles, they had them set up with wires and a straight channel. Mom told our instructor that I already knew the concept of weaves so she let us do it without the wires and with the poles in a straight line. I wasn't perfect but did prove to her that I had the idea so she said we shouldn't use the wires. Cool. Mom was worried that they would make us start over and that it would mess me up. We also did three jumps in a row and table. The only thing last night that was really new to me was something called a buja board. For any dogs who have never been on a teeter before, it gets them used to motion under their feet. It is a like a plywood board about 3'x3' and it has a small ball underneath it and this makes the board rock around. I was not fazed by it - mom tried to let me figure it out slowly, but I just climbed on and started walking all over it and smelling it. This class will introduce us to all obstacles except the teeter. It will be fun to get used to regulation equipment. And I am sure mom will learn more handling skills - she's gonna need them if she is going to keep up with me!

Today mom read a jump exercise in an old Clean Run magazine - make a box out of four jumps and teach jump left and jump right and also go out jump and here jump. She set it up and I did great and I was so excited about jumping and getting rewarded with tugging on my slip lead that I didn't even notice that no food treats were involved! When we were finished with the exercises, mom threw my frisbee and that gave me the zoomies! I zoomed faster than ever around the backyard and took two jumps in a row on my own at full speed! Wish we had a video of that! I have always liked agility, but now I think I'm starting to LOVE it!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky