Journey
"This is the best school! I get to do all kinds of fun stuff here. It is not just minding my mom either. I get to run off leash and make up my very own mind about things. Every week we do different stuff and I am getting better and better - mom says so!" Journey
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Journey is now in Foundation 101 Agility class. As any dog that I have ever taught agility, he loves it. Due to some back problems, I was not sure I would be able to continue doing this sport, that is my favorite of all sports. So we got a late start. No matter, we are making up time fast. This boy is a natural. He is doing all the obstacles now after only five classes. Some were easier than others, but he is always ready to go.
This is Clancy learning to walk the ladder.
We started with walking through the ladder. Journey held his back legs up carefully until he learned just how to place them confidently, without hitting the ladder rungs. The ladder aids the dog in learning the placement of his hind feet. The one in the picture is a regular ladder and it worked OK, but a friend of mine made a better one out of pvc pipe. It sits a few inches off the ground and is a little easier to navigate. I set it up in our hallway and I give everyone a treat as they run or walk through it. They are all doing so well. Maybe I could improve if I tried it.
Next were the poles on the ground, at different angles. Journey liked that one and he was soon running through and jumping the poles. Our instructor starts the weave poles early. It is probably the most difficult obstacle to learn and she does not believe in teaching it in increments. We start all twelve poles with chicken-wire threaded through them so the dogs cannot make a mistake. Pretty soon we do them off lead, and just treat at the end. As soon as they accomplish that, we start encouraging speed. This is a different way of training and having seen the results, I much prefer it to the old way.
Spirit learned the old way and it took forever. He was very accurate, but he never really got super fast on it, nor was it a favorite of his. Quest learned it with chicken-wire, and he is fast. That is one of the things that got him his AKC Excellent title. Pirate learned this method and his speed is awesome. Now the kid is on his way and he loves it. He does not even care about the treats, he just wants to fly through those poles.
Journey can already find his own entrance and he is almost ready to switch to the poles with just a guide wire, instead of the chicken-wire. Unfortunately I have the old poles that are spaced 20" apart. I am currently trying to find a welder who can revamp them to the new standard of 24" spaces. The 24" spaced poles are much safer for our big guys with long backs. I was so pleased to hear that the standard had changed.
Another benefit of this method of weave pole training is that the dogs LOVE doing the weaves. Most of the dogs I have seen learning the old method never seemed to like the weaves that well. Journey will actually add in the weave poles voluntarily, between doing tunnels, etc.
We are doing the baby dog- walk. It is lower than the standard competition one. We want to be certain that they know what all their feet are doing and that they do not take any falls off of the board as they are learning, before we raise the height. We will be doing the two-on, two-off method on the dog walk, the A-frame and the teeter. More of that training will enter in after everyone is comfortable on the boards. Everyone already knows all the "touch" games, so it will just be a matter of applying the use of them to the ends of the boards instead of flying off in such a hurry.
There have been other equipment changes in the last year or so. There is only one venue that still insists on a "down" on the table. Our dogs can be trained to stand, sit or down. Personally, I still intend to train the "down" as I figure if my dog is down, he will not be wandering around on the table and making me nervous that he may be going to jump off. The barn where we take lessons has sand flooring, so this makes our table landing a little bit of a slide. We are still working on training our dogs to learn how to steady themselves on landings.
The competition tire jump has a break-away tire now. It is supposed to prevent a lot of accidents. None of my dogs have ever had a problem with tire jumps, and the break-away tire jump is about $500 - so we will not be getting one of those. I will just have to tell them to "be careful". I believe the problems occur more often with the super fast Border Collies, etc.
We have just began doing the teeter. It is set on a very low level, with only about an 8" drop. Journey was doing great until I was inattentive once as were walking past the teeter. He decided to try it on his own and it frightened him when it clunked down on the ground. He was going too fast. So now we get to spend a lot more time retraining that obstacle. Duh - bad mom!
Our jump training is moving right along. The dogs in this particular class are all large except one. But so far everyone is staying with the low jumps. I prefer waiting until after Journey has his hips x-rayed before letting him jump higher. The Briard, the Bovier and the Labrador will also be jumping lower for a while. The height of the jump has nothing to do with learning the obstacle and it is not worth taking chances if you do not know that your dogs growth plates have closed yet.
We are hoping that Rhonda will be coming to see Journey's last class on Tuesday. Perhaps she will be able to take some pictures of Journey. I can get shots of the other dogs, but it is not easy to take pictures while running with your own dog.
We will be continuing with Agility Foundation 102 when this class is over. Karen Haderly is such a good instructor. She stresses positive training and she enjoys the dogs. Maybe she even enjoys the handlers a little bit. At least we hope so.
Karen has always been one of my favorite handlers to watch in agility competition. She runs both of her two Border Collies beautifully.
