Agility training

Food toys or containers will help here. A small Tupperware container can do the job, or those little tubes like this: http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=45&ParentCat=10 (I bought mine at the hardware store) or even just a treat pouch thrown ahead. It took a while for Georgie to be interested in them because she had to learn that the food came from there. She's not very toy motivated but these work as thrown rewards for her now!

Kili had an awesome trial today! So happy! No Qs, but she was focused and never blew me off to run laps or to investigate other things. I mishandled her standard run, and she was clean in steeplechase but bobbled her weaves a couple times so we were over time, and then I honestly think she was just too tired in jumpers... she pulled a bar early on (very uncharacteristic) and then had a refusal at the chute (also out of character) but handled the actual difficult ending really well. Oh, and she didn't ditch me at the end of our runs to leave the ring without me like a bat out f hell. It's nice when my dog acknowledges my existence! Lol

I'm sad I ended up not being able to come up for the trial Next year we'll get to one! Maybe lol. #poorstudentproblems

It was a great trial. I was only there for Sunday, but I figured if you were coming you'd be there both days. Definitely we'll have to meet up in the new year! I want to see a puglet run!

GREAT class today. Last one before Invitationals! Kimma was awesome. Fast and smooth. Jari was also great, even though there was a new puppy (my instructor's) in the ring that he had to run by a few times. We're getting there, and the only thing missing now is consistency with his weaves. We didn't end up going to the trial yesterday for a few reasons and I'm glad we didn't. I think it might have been too much for him (and therefore too much for me!). Not sure when I started pushing him, but I had an epiphany and am backing off. He will let me know when he's ready to trial. Just like Kimma did.

YAY!!! HUGE congrats on your OA!

Hahahah I know what it's like to have a dog not acknowledge your existence

Sounds like you guys had a great trial

It was an awesome trial. First one where I can say from start to finish that she was focused and with me. I hope this means we've turned the corner and not that we had a lucky day. I don't mind working on skills, mishandling courses, having dog errors... I just want to know that when we go into the ring, my dog will be giving me her full attention. It felt great yesterday, and I hope this is the new normal for us.

Yay for invitationals! Have fun and good luck!

That is such a huge thing . Congratulations!

Woohoo! Have an absolutely fabulous, fun time!

That is AWESOME! I'm so happy for you guys!

Thank you!!!! We will have so much fun

Thanks! It's me and Kimma plus my friend and 4 of her BCs (one of her BCs was invited to the Obedience Classic). Quite the full RV

It makes me very sad that I didn't have a better place to put the GoPro, but we did some jumping drills at class tonight and not a single dropped bar in this run! (Previously he had dropped just the last bar, once.)

[YOUTUBE]JT5aDFdlz7A[/YOUTUBE]

Been casually training here and there at the barn and am seeing some fantastic things out of the Pug because we have ceased to really care. Nice commitment and distance even on discrimination and angry weave entries. Not to mention we're both so much more relaxed because it's not ZOMG IMPORTANTZ anymore.

So then I was asked by my friend/coach if we're planning on putting these skills to use and trialling again in this millennium. Maybe, i said.

We need two more jumpers and three more gambles for her ATChC.

There's a one day masters only fundraiser trial on the 28th to help a guy in the agility community here (as in Alberta, not here here) to worlds. There's a gamble and TWO jumpers. I guess I'll be trialling in this millennium after all haha.

[YOUTUBE]tSRu0tpEAz4[/YOUTUBE]

Learning jumping handling things, both of us really hehe. She's so fun to do this kind of thing with lately, really kicking it up a notch and growing it up.

On Jan 1st the place where I train is having run-throughs to help raise money for one of the sick students. Trainer says Siri is ready to come and play. We probably will not be working on full courses, instead she wants us doing portions of courses and really focusing on focus.

It should be interesting, as it is usually just us there as we do private lessons. I hope she is able to keep her brain with lots of other people and dogs there.

Last night after Rally class we let the dogs run around a bit, and the instructor pulled out some agility equipment - just an A-frame, a tunnel, and a jump. I probably did everything wrong, but it was the most fun we've had with agility equipment in a long time.

Watson immediately zoomed off and ignored me while trying to get the other dogs to play. When he did come to me, I asked him for an A-frame (which he was nervous about and refused) and a tunnel (which he did, but then zoomed off again). I just let him do his thing and after a couple minutes he came to me and didn't leave again. He flew up the A-frame, through the tunnel, and over the 16" jump again and again with a huge smile on his face. This is a dog who is nervous about contact obstacles and always refused any jumps over 12". He was having a blast and it's the most engaged, connected, and confident I've ever seen him around agility equipment.

I used to spend every agility class trying to keep him under complete control so he didn't run away, but every time I lost and he would eventually zoom off. It was clearly stress, and I think now that trying to control him and pressure him to do what I wanted him to do was just too much. I tried my best to make everything super easy and within his abilities, and he did what I asked in class because it's what I wanted, but he wasn't 100% comfortable with the equipment and it would build until the stress came out in zoomies. Once I removed the pressure and let him choose to participate, he had a blast and zero confidence issues.

We may never trial, and I've probably taught him terrible habits and he'll always zoom away from me during agility, but I'll take that if we can have moments like last night where we can be a joyful team.

Go Siri Go! I'm sure she'll be awesome! Find someone to video you!!!

I can probably be convinced to video.

So Invitationals was. Interesting. Kimma has been to dog shows, including big indoor ones. She even competed in Rally at the National Dog Show in Philly quite a few times, Qing every run there. But for some reason the way this whole this was set up freaked her right out. Like visibly shaking before going in the ring. We worked on getting her comfortable, we just ran (no fixing things), and by the end she was getting better. But no clean runs, no Qs. I'm not disappointed, of course, but just surprised that she was so scared. I'm hoping it does not bleed in to trials around here.

I'm proud of her that even through her fears she did some nice things and was pretty speedy considering.

Not sure if we will be going again next year, though the event itself was pretty cool IMO.

Took Sam and Wilson to an open ring rental thing today. It's two rings, and obedience ring and an agility ring. So I took turns working with Wilson in the obedience ring while other dogs were running. He was awesome. All eyes on me even with the distraction of screaming running dogs nearby.

Then Sam got to play agility for the first time in two or three years? I pulled him from classes a few years ago to work on focus issues. He'd get distracted and get the zoomies and blow me off.

Well today I went in expecting to take a few obstacles at a time and reward heavily.

Nope. I was wrong.

He was running full courses no problem. I rewarded his contacts and at the end of each run and that's about it. He was taking directionals from me beautifully and we even got our front and rear crosses down. Which I had trouble with a few years ago (my fault not Sam's)

I also forgot how therapeutic agility is when we're on like that. Need to start playing more often again.

That's so exciting. I don't do any dog sports (yet) but I want to get into them casually for just that reason- that connection you guys when you were working together. I feel like that when we're "on" in general obedience/trick training, but I sports would kick it up a notch for us.

That's fabulous. Those big events can be so over-whelming. Meg got about three obstacles in during her first run at Cynosport and just about stopped dead and was staring around the coliseum, and up and up at the seating.

Hopefully it was just the atmosphere and environment, and she will go back to being herself at your regular trials. Congratulations on going, running, and finding your own successes!

This dog guys. This dog. <3333

He is so much fun.