Agility training

I will try to get video next class!

and :rofl1: I can imagine peoples face. Thankfully I live so rural, we don't really have neighbors that can see our yard easily, haha, so nobody has ever stared or asked questions.

And Penn took off with the zoomies about 10 minutes ago. I'm in house debating whether to cry or kill her ..if I can ever catch her to kill her before a car does I love my dog. In the way where sometimes I wish I never got her and got a totally different breed

Georgie got her first Q today! She took 1st and Q'd in JWW.

Payton bit on some kind of wonky angle in open jumpers and ran around a jump, we're not sure what was going on but a lot of dogs even in excellent (the sequence of jumps was the same) were running out. Also missed his weave entry because there's a huuuuuge fan spinning at this place and it basically causes strobes on the floor, so he came out of the tunnel into the strobes and had to go straight into the weaves - no go. Nailed them the second time though. Darn refusals!

Standard was a mess, it had been a long day and neither dog wanted to do the weave poles with the off course a-frame staring them in the face. Georgie was a bit of an off-course mess (still did really great for a baby dog!) but she stayed on her teeter today!


Ughhhhhh I just really wanted P to get his last standard Q, because I literally ran Payton, ran upstairs to put him back in his crate, grabbed Georgie, went downstairs, shoveled five pieces of hot dog in her mouth, then ran Georgie. I wanted him out of Novice so I don't have two in the same class anymore!

Georgie would have her NAJ after this weekend except I was stupid and sent her over a wrong jump. The ending of her course was the same as Payton's for open jumpers, except in Payton's course you took THIS jump then that, that, that one... and in her course you just did that, that, and that jump. Well, I sent her over the THIS jump. Bad bad handler ripped Georgie out of a Q and what would have otherwise been her title.


P came home with no ribbons and a handful of rotten performances, some for reasons that are just due to inexperienced baby dog and some due to... I don't really know what. The only real plus I came away with for P this weekend: he ran his open jumpers course on Sunday at just 5.91 YPS, and that speed is brought down by having to redo his weave entry (all that work on weave pole performance and only ONE TIME did he get his entry the first time - and it was after he already NQ'd his jumpers run so OF COURSE) and a second spinning refusal later. Holy crap. I knew it felt really fast, but I didn't realize until I looked at the times exactly how fast. SCT was 43 sec, his time was 23 sec. The closest time after that was a small border collie at 31 sec. If Payton had run clean and smooth he would have smoked the course under 20 sec.

So just a, um, minor problem of learning how to control the wild man. I'm hoping time and experience will shape things up. Some lady walked past us as I was taking P out to potty and she said "Oh, there's that wild dog!!" Yeeeeep, that he is. That he is. Sunday on the drive home I announced I want a shirt that says PAYTON SUCKS. And I just saw that AKC is considering rules that will allow people to wear clothing with their dog's name on it. PERFECT.


ETA: Forgot to mention I twisted my ankle Friday night so ran Saturday with my ankle and foot wrapped with athletic tape after an emergency Wal-Mart run - Saturday morning also brought on a migraine complete with aura. Yeah Saturday was not a very good day. Sunday my foot still hurt but not quite as much. Today, of course, it doesn't hurt at all. My mom was panicking she would have to run Payton. LOLOLOL yeah no.

How many runs should I sign each dog up for this next trial?

Well, I decided to try gamblers and jumpers with both. I'm really excited to see how Mia's jumpers goes since we've never entered before. Now I need to book a hotel!

Tonight went very well. Summer seems very congested and that's affected her stamina (probably would be better if she didn't bark and jump the entire class when it's not her turn). I think it's allergies. Poor girl.

Mia was flying! The cooler weather is doing wonders for all the dogs.

She is a little bit of a brat because she is starting to go WAY out of her way to do the A-frame. We had a tire jump (on the left) to a tunnel that was under an A-frame that was perpendicular to us and she kept swinging WAY around to flip sides on me to climb the A-frame instead of going to the tunnel like she was supposed to. But funnily enough once she had the first go, the second and third runs went well. This is week 3 of discriminations and she definitely has a 'thing' for contact obstacles over tunnels.

Also our blind crosses are getting better and I am so liking that vs front crosses where I have a tendency to trip over my feet.

And I talked to my new trainer and we both agree that we give up on Mia having a startline stay. She runs much nicer if I drop her and go. Have to change my plan up between the two of them since I lead out a long ways with Summer but it's nice to have her running happily. Definitely worth no start line.

I really, really need to work on Pirate's table down if I'm going to run USDAA:

[YOUTUBE]pp4xrXzvZak[/YOUTUBE]

And that was an improvement from the previous day. He does know how to do a down on the table, he just doesn't believe I mean it when we're at a trial.

Ok, well we've got the Trkman foundation agility DVD and the foundation agility class. Robin (and Limit!) have started the cik/cap stuff. I also have someone in GA (I live in TN) that is willing to meet with me on weekends about once a month to help me out/watch my handling/teach me. She's good and also runs BCs so that should be helpful. In between I'm going to rent a field and follow Trkman's guidelines. *feeling hopeful*

I seriously almost don't want to post these, I'm so disheartened by them. Editing them together last night, they look even worse than I remember our runs being. Ughhhhh. I just have to keep reminding myself of all the runs I've seen by big names and stuff, and things aren't always prefect for them either. So... okay.

Here's Georgie. Witness the total refusal of Georgie to do the chute!
[YOUTUBE]I02Xp5F3HzQ[/YOUTUBE]

Witness... uhhhhh... Payton.
[YOUTUBE]QSsfV50ALNQ[/YOUTUBE]

Payton is missing a run, my mom continues to not know how to use a video camera. Don't worry, you don't miss anything worthwhile.

They both look fine.

Georgie looks great to me for her 2nd trial. She needs more practice with the chute to be comfortable with it (preferably, with different chutes), and looks like she could use some contact work. Some of that is excitement from the trial, though. She does look like she's having a good time. I think she's off to a good start.

Payton has lots of good points. It's true that he's missing his weave entries. Some of that might be reluctance to slow down and weave, though his weaves are fast, maybe more weave practice would help. Also, since you have music I can't tell, when are you cuing the weaves? Payton wants clear, early information. You should be telling him to weave before he takes off for the preceding jump. When he comes to the weaves after the chute, he's not going to be able to see them from in there, so I'd be saying "weave" before he emerges, so he comes out looking for them. If he doesn't know how to look for the weaves, that is something you can train.

I think if you can get the information to him a little faster, you'll find him to be more focused. You don't appear to be late in your movement, so it's probably verbal cues that he needs a little earlier. He may also just need more practice in competition, it's very exciting. But I think he looks fine for a baby dog.

Cara starts a foundations class in the 24th. What should I take to class with me? On my list I have fleece tug, treats, water, bowl, treat bag. Anything I'm not thinking of?

Maybe a crate. A lot of classes don't require one to start, but it makes it SO much easier going forward.

I was thinking about that. I think I'll end up getting a soft sided crate for agility because well a pt cruiser isn't the best dog car. lol For now I plan on working on Cara's focus when it's not 'our turn' because her biggest downfall is wanting to go play with all the dogs instead of paying attention.

Our school requires dogs to be crated. We have some spares that live out on the field but if you want your own you have to bring them.

I didn't think of that Laurelin. I talked to the trainer for the class when I was making sure there were open spots and nothing was mentioned about it so I suppose I'll find out.

I've never heard of dogs having to be crated during agility class? Really? lol... I've taken classes with 3 different trainers at this point. We just leash them up after their run/turn.

Good thing we don't, Jackson does not do well in a crate, and is not crate trained.

We never crated dogs in our agility classes, but honestly I would prefer it. I think it would be good for the dogs to learn how to be crated and hear/see other dogs running. Also it's easier for people to watch other dogs and learn if they are not wrestling their dogs.

Well I've taken classes at...five different facilities now? Ish? And yeah practices vary but most places require that your dog be removed from the ring when you are not working. Either crated or leash, but with some sort of barrier between the working dog and the nonworking dogs.

Considering I have had my dogs gone after twice during agility classes, I am a huge proponent of this practice. Once a sideline dog (leashed but in the ring) got loose and went after Kim while we were midrun. Another time the working dog left his work and attacked Mira as she sat next to me facing away from the course (we were next in line and told to be ready, there were no gates set up) and I've seen more spats between other dogs. Not worth it.

The problem with not having a crate or some place to confine your dog is often that it slows the whole class down between exercises as the instructor is explaining and people are walking the sequence because you either need someone to hold your dog, or you skip your walk, or you walk with your dog which can create other issues (multiple dogs walking at once, split attention, rehearsing being "on course" with your dog while disengaged, etc).

Just my experience, though.

I've been to four different places... 1. Ukc style place with poor training methods and they kept dogs leashed for 'foundations' but running courses we had them outside the fence. 2. Texas- for fun type of place. No crate required and dogs stay within fence when not worked. 3. National level competitor. Crates and quiet crating required. 4. Competition based club (usdaa) and one trainer did work with one dog but he was kept away and all class dogs were dog friendly. They have little runs set up near the rings and thats what he tended to use vs an actual crate. Trainer 2 requires crating no ifs ands or buts.

So variety but I think it is a very very good plan to do. For safety reasons first of all and especially if you don't know if the dogs are dog friendly. If dogs are crated and the dog running blows off a cue and runs to the other dogs, the dogs are safely crated. It also keeps people able to watch and teaches dogs to be crated near the ring, which if you compete you will have to do. The biggest reason though is safety and liability.

Mine don't crate great but it's improved through classes and my instructor helpin us.

Oh yeah forgot about walking courses. There's lots of times the handlers and the instructor are on the field walking the course and discussing the plan (what crosses to use, handling specifics, etc) with the dogs crated. I don't know how you'd go about that with the dogs in tow.