Agility training

[iriskai]

Does anyone have any suggestions or products to recommend for keeping my dogs warm at agility and when training?

Kili is a HUGE wuss about the cold. Today at agility class she was pokey, avoiding jumps, harder to engage (more distracted) simply because she was cold. I could not get her to engage in play with me (with or without a toy) and even her favourite activity of chasing me... she mostly refused to move faster than a trot. She wears her sweater for class and training now that it is cold, but evidently it is not enough. And it was cold today... but if she would just get her little butt moving she'd be fine. After the first 10 minutes I took my jacket off and worked in my sweater for the rest of class with no problems.

I kept her out of her crate most of the time and while the other dog was working I jogged and walked her around the arena and tried to engage her in play activities. Nada.

So now I'm basically looking for things I could buy that people have had success with. I'm thinking of those of you living in northern climates with thin fur coats (Penny's mom!) and what you do to keep your dogs warm when working in sub zero temps.

I am thinking about getting her a "Back on Track" coat to try to warm up her muscles at least. I know it won't really make HER warm (core temp) but if her muscles are warmer maybe that will help. Are there any jackets that are easy on-easy off or that allow enough mobility that she can run in them that also offer superior warmth? Keeping in mind that most coats for regular dogs don't fit my greyhounds well, so it's preferable if there is a "long and lean" variety of the coat (was super happy to see that Back On Track offers a greyhound coat).

I feel your thin-skinned, no fat pain! I have a number of coats/options for my two, specifically Mimi because she's a pansy and shivers if the house ambient temps hit 67. While she's crated, I keep a fleece coat on there, warms up easily, retains heat. If we're out and it's REALLY cold, I have a heavier duty coat, but that wouldn't help for actually training.

I HAVE trained her in a pair of flannel jammies. I keep them on under her fleece, then when it's our turn, take the fleece off so she was just in the flannel. The place I order from does custom measurements, specifically for sighthounds, so the fit is great. Usually we're good if she's just coated between runs, though.

 

[MandyPug]

Hmmm... Do you know if it comes in a greyhound variety? I noticed that the regular does but the mesh ones not (at least it's not listed).

I wonder why it's not on the website. I wonder if I could e-mail them to order it?

I'm not sure. I'd email the company to see what's available and they might be able to direct you to a distributor in your area.

 

[krissy]

I'm not sure. I'd email the company to see what's available and they might be able to direct you to a distributor in your area.

I'll have to e-mail them. All the listed retailers/distributors on the website are in the States.

ETA: they have a Canadian website too. Derrrrr.

Called the local tack shop and they are going to look into it for me since they carry BoT stuff. I'll order it through them. They're just going to see if the rain rug comes in a greyhound variety or not. I suspect only the regular has a greyhound size. Now the issue is... My dogs have about a 2 inch length difference. Hoping they can both wear a small so I don't need two coats. I'll order one to start and if Summit needs a large I'll have to suck it up and et another one.

Aside from warming up your dogs, anyone have any experience with the actual therapeutic benefit? Kili visits a Chiro regularly and Summit has a lame front leg. I believe it's an arthritic toe. Has anyone tried the leg wraps?

 

[Elrohwen]

I'm considering signing up for Jess's puppy foundations class that starts today. I have a couple questions for anyone who has already taken one of her classes (I also sent an email, but thought I might get a faster response here if she's busy).

For anyone who's done them, do you recommend working or auditing? How much work is entailed with the working spots? Obviously working spots are going to give the best results, but I want to make sure I can fit it into my schedule before I over commit myself. How long are the classes?

 

[adojrts]

I'm considering signing up for Jess's puppy foundations class that starts today. I have a couple questions for anyone who has already taken one of her classes (I also sent an email, but thought I might get a faster response here if she's busy).

For anyone who's done them, do you recommend working or auditing? How much work is entailed with the working spots? Obviously working spots are going to give the best results, but I want to make sure I can fit it into my schedule before I over commit myself. How long are the classes?

I have never taken her online courses but train with her in real life. That said the courses are 8 wks long but you have access to the material for 6 months.

Recommend a working spot

Jess is flying home today from Orlando and the AKC Invitational, give her a day or so to respond.

 

[Elrohwen]

I have never taken her online courses but train with her in real life. That said the courses are 8 wks long but you have access to the material for 6 months.

Recommend a working spot

Jess is flying home today from Orlando and the AKC Invitational, give her a day or so to respond.

The class starts today, so I wanted to make a decision by the afternoon if I can. I'm just worried about biting off more than I can chew with a working spot and not having the time to get the most out of it.

 

[adojrts]

The class starts today, so I wanted to make a decision by the afternoon if I can. I'm just worried about biting off more than I can chew with a working spot and not having the time to get the most out of it.

I just sent you a private message on chaz

 

[krissy]

Okay, so BoT discontinued the greyhound style coat. Which sucks. So I went to a local tack shop and bought the regular rug in the 70 cm size. I think it fits Summit just right. Is this too big for Kili or do you think she can make do with it being big? Should I return it and get the size down (63 cm) and have it be a tad shorter on Summit? Should I just bite the bullet and buy a second one for Kili? (Sorry the pictures are huge)

Summit:

Kili:

 

[BostonBanker]

I like them a little big, because I figure the more they drape, the more muscles they cover. I just accept that I need to either flip the back up when they potty or take it off for bathroom breaks.

As for our own agility update, I took the dogs to one day of a USDAA trial this weekend. I have been going around and around lately trying to figure out why Gusto is so brilliant in some situations and so stressed in others. The only constant I could find was that he was always stressed when I was around a certain group of people, and his finest moments were always when they weren't there. Not that I think they stress him out, but I think they cause a constant, low grade stress in me, and that I react differently. Not that I don't need to get over the issue myself, but I wanted to go to a trial where I knew they wouldn't be, to see if 1) it actually seemed to change things and 2) if we could get a great trial experience under our belt.

I only entered Gusto in 3 classes; he's in PIII for jumpers now, but I didn't want to put him on a course that might have been a little over his head when he's been stressing lately. And I didn't do pairs because I hate pairs. He came out in Snooker happy and playful and RAN with no signs of stress. Stuck his nose in a wrong tunnel when I didn't cue him quickly enough, but I definitely didn't care! His gamblers run was super, but he was 0.19 seconds over time in the gamble because I didn't plan the opening well. His standard run was smooth, fast (ish) and 100% clean. I was so, so proud of him. He got faster and more confident in every class, and I really focused on keeping him out and playing with him after his runs. I think it was exactly the experience I needed to feel good about the work we are doing, and to let me look forward to spring trials!

Meg ran two classes as well, and was her usual ridiculous, happy, fast self. She NQ in PIII jumpers because she broke her startline (really Meg?!) and forced me to do a messy cross that gave us a spin, but she did get her 11th Super Q in PIII Snooker. I love how sound, fast, and happy she still is at trials. I had thought I'd retire her once Gusto was trailing regularly, but with the minimal training we do, and only entering her in classes she loves, she still get so much joy out of running, and makes me so incredibly happy.

 

[Laurelin]

We had a nice night. Nothing too exciting but Happy Mia showed up for the third week in a row after Unhappy Mia was at the Fun Run, photoshoot, and trial. I like Happy Mia. I've narrowed the issue down to being: time of day, temperature, or strange dogs/people everywhere. Yeah not very helpful LOL.

Also Mia is starting to go up (happily) to my trainer and actually allowed her to pet her today, which is a first. We've been with this trainer since mid-summer and she's just now allowing petting. *sigh* Sometimes this dog.... But my trainer was very hopeful that the more I get her out the more she'll figure out how to cope with everything. She was very happy Mia was happy around her. Even if we only play in class, I really love playing with her in class. I also think it's good for her.

Sometimes I get a bit down on myself because she's so... Mia and spooky but I realize I've put about 10x the effort into her that most people would and she's the better dog for it. Is she ever going to be bombproof? No But she's figuring out how to cope and have fun. I think I need to pat myself on the back more often for putting so much effort into her vs getting down on myself for not being able to fix everything.

As for actual agility, they did great! Mia is hitting her weave entrances fantastically and she's really thinking it all through, you can tell. She had a few sniffy/distracted moments but picked back up well and was on for 95% of the night. Summer is not hitting her weaves as well. One particular tunnel to weaves was the problem, she'd hit it from the other tunnel. I think it is the lighting. I'm hoping her eyesight isn't going.

 

[krissy]

UGH!

So I thought Kili was cold and that's why she was so sluggish at class on Sunday.

Took her to the barn to train tonight and could NOT get her moving at all no matter what kind of idiot I acted like. I was getting really frustrated. Went to take off her jammies and found this:

Left hock

Normal right hock

Side by side comparison

Now, I had to put the jammies on this evening so I know it wasn't THIS swollen, however the leg has obviously been bugging her since at least Sunday, and I think since Saturday. But other than some weird little quirks she hasn't shown any obvious indication until this swelling that there was a problem. She has not (unbelievably) been lame at all and only started being a huge screaming drama queen when I was manipulating it and trying to position her for x-rays. She was such a dumb dumb that I only took one view to make sure there was nothing obvious and the rest I will do tomorrow after sedating her heavily. But I did notice an odd purplish area that makes me think it could have been a wound that became infected and spread to the rest of the soft tissue. I started her on antibiotics as a precaution pending her x-rays tomorrow. Seriously. If it's not one thing with this dog, it's something else. FML.

 

[Beanie]

Yikes!! Poor girly =< I hope it's nothing serious.

 

[Laurelin]

Owww. That looks painful. Poor thing.

 

[yv0nne]

Poor pup ..hope it's nothing major& some R&R will be all she needs!


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A fun course Sunday morning! Love that dog.

 

[krissy]

X-rays were clean. Had to knock her out completely to get it because she screamed and thrashed like the darn leg was broken. Not impressed.

I'm hoping it's just a soft tissue infection. She's got her antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and I will be using the cold laser on it every day until we have to leave on Saturday to visit family. Hopefully by next week it'll be better.

 

[speedydogs]

Poor Kili I hope she's feeling better soon!

For better or worse, Newton has officially been entered in his first CPE trial. It'll be my mom's first trial as well, so we'll see how it goes As long as he's comfortable and has fun, I'll be happy, although he has been doing very well in class lately.

 

[Elrohwen]

I'm in Jess Martin's puppy foundations online class and it just started. Very excited! We're not in any local classes until beginning/mid January, so this will give us something to work on.

The first week lesson plan is mostly much stuff Watson knows at a basic level (spin, back up, going around an object, etc), so it will be a good way to start out. My goal is to get out and proof these in new places, since he has them down in the house but they're not all solid in exciting places.

I like how she started out with a doggy personality quiz and the results recommend which exercises you should spend more time on. Watson scored almost 100% in the confident pushy puppy category. No surprise there. :rofl1:

 

[Oko]

Feist is learning cik and cap, it's adorable. I can't believe she's old enough that we can start doing baby agility foundation things. She's also generalized this to everything. My leg, the trash can, whatever she can circle. Stimulus control. Right.

 

[Beanie]

Stimulus control. Right.

Stimulus control is over rated.














It's totally not.

 

[PWCorgi]

Had another lesson tonight and Siri totally rocked it. We missed our last lesson due to a huge traffic jam (a 30 minute drive took 2 hours ) and the lesson before that Siri just had such an off night, just would not engage at all, so I've been kind of bumming about agility.

Tonight we played barrel racing (OMG I can't wait to compete so we can do NADAC extreme games, eeee!) to work on front and rear crosses. It was so much fun that if you could die from fun, I would be dead. To make it better the instructor was really impressed with her during this exercise as well. All our front/rear cross work has totally paid off.

We also worked on outing around barriers to a target, and worked our way up to multiple barriers and a lot of distance, and she nailed it almost every time (except when she decided to make her own shortcuts ). My instructor said that with this kind of thing we are going to have to raise criteria very quickly because she's so smart and she has such a high drive to get to the target. NO BIG DEAL!

Then we worked on an exercise to teach Siri to collect and turn. It involved footwork on my part. Siri did great. I think I need more time with the instructor :rofl1: She ended up taking video of us so that I can watch it when I go to practice because I could not get it down, at all. :rofl1:

So yeah, those were my favorite parts of tonight's lesson.


And to top off the night, Siri found a mouse for the trainer opcorn: Yay terriers.

Cliff notes: My dog is awesome.