"I am so good at this sit-stay".
Journey graduated with honors! Actually, the whole class graduated. It was an especially good class. Some dogs need to do the class more than once to pass on all the obstacles.
Above, Journey is doing a sit-stay, and waiting for his "okay" to do the jumps He is very good at this, probably mostly because all the dogs practice sit-stays when I open the gates at home.
"mom insists I do the baby jumps until my hips are x-rayed".
Journey loves all of the obstacles, even the teeter and the chute, which were a little bit startling at first. I guess if I had to choose his favorite it would probably be the weave poles. He flies! He does 12 poles, off lead and he is very fast. He can find is own entry to the poles, which must always be on the right side of the first pole. I can send him from all the clock positions. He doesn't care if I run with him or not. We owe this success to our instructor, Karin and the wonderful method she uses to train. The first agility dog I trained took months to train on weave poles and he never really loved them.
"On my left is Molly, she is very good at agility and she is my girlfriend. Demi is in the back. She is not real friendly but she is good at agility."
At this class our dogs learned to do the A-frame. It was new for everyone except Demi, who has already had a lot of experience on everything. Journey liked it. He was just slightly cautious, but after the first time he headed for it every time.
"That is my girlfriend, Molly, watching me and waiting to do this after me."
At first we don't worry about the dismount from the A-frame or the dog walk. We just let the dogs get comfortable on the boards. We are just now training the "two on, two off" finish as of our last class. The dogs have a tendency to jump off the board before they get to the bottom. They must put at least one foot in the yellow section to qualify on those obstacles. In order to slow them down so they will do that, we train them to stop with both hind feet still on the board, before they continue on the course.
The teeter is a little harder to train, for some dogs. The fact that the board moves and makes a loud "clunk" sound as it hits the ground, worries some dogs. So on that one we train a complete stop on the end of the board, before continuing. This prevents "fly-offs" which are disqualifications in competition.
"This is the teeter. I got a little over-enthusiastic once and did it on my own, when I was not supposed to. I didn't realize it moved and the loud bang frightened me. I am listening to Karin and mom in this picture and getting over my scary experience."
Journey's bad experience was because I was not watching him - so - my fault. I was very pleased that he got over it so fast. Sometimes it takes months to get a dog over a bad experience.
"This is the chute. I used to be nervous about this because I could not see out of the end of it. It is no big deal though. I do it so fast now!"
The only other obstacle Journey was a little concerned about was the chute. It is made of parachute material and it lays flat on the ground. So the dog must run through it without being able to see out the other end. He is good at it now. It did not take him long. He is such a funny dog. Once when he was much younger, we were walking by the lake, in town. He saw a large concrete statue of Buddha. He did not want to go very close to it. The next day I took him back, armed with treats and prepared to give him lots of encouragement. When we approached the Buddha, he just walked up to it, sniffed it and then walked past it as if it were nothing. He never even looked back. I have noticed since then that when he sometimes has shown resistance to something, if I just ignored it, the next time he saw it he ignored it too.
"This is me learning to jump through the tire. I did it the first time, it is easy."
On the tire it is important that dogs know the right way to go through it. There are several spaces they can go through with a risk of getting tangled in tension lines that hold the tire in position.
"This is my sit-stay. Mom is going to leave me here and walk all the way to the end of the barn. Then she will call me and I will jump over 4 jumps and then jump on the table and lie down real fast. I am really good at knowing how to do this"
Once again I want to stress the importance of the sit-stay, or stand-stay, or down-stay if you prefer. You can train it long before starting classes and it is one of the most useful things my dogs know. Sometimes it has been a godsend. Occasionally a naughty puppy is so excited about something, he forgets to come when called and I need to go get him. He might be inclined to run when he sees me coming. Either because he knows he is wrong or because he is just so excited. I have been able to command a "sit-stay", and thereby safely retrieve my errant puppy. I never punish for this, nor do I treat. I just practice more until the sit-stay is solid. It can save your dog's life.
Also, at my age, I am not very fast at agility. It is important that I be able to command at a distance and to be able to work my dog away from me. I get a long head start by leaving my dog in a stay, at the start of a course. The timer does not start until your dog crosses the line. I can then direct him, at that distance and already be on the move by the time he gets to me. This training has always been very useful to me, even when I was faster than I am now. Over the 15 years or so that I have been doing agility, I have sometimes had various injuries: knees, feet, whatever.... Training my dog to work away from me was always a plus, whether it was on the agility course, the park or even at home.
Even after the start, there are places where you can use the stay to your advantage and gain time. If you are doing one of the venues that requires a 5 second stay on the table, you can walk away toward the next obstacle and gain time for yourself. While your dog is doing the tunnel you can gain time by moving away toward the next obstacle - just be sure to call him before he comes out of the tunnel and has to waste time looking for you.
There are many ways to even the playing field by training in such a way to make up for your weaknesses. My weakness is being in my seventies, with a bad back. I love this sport though and will continue as long as possible.
"Here I go. I love this part."
"Love tunnels!"
Thanks to Rhonda McMahan (Journey's breeder at Surefire) for taking all these pictures. She came to class to watch Journey perform. We are now in Agility Foundation 102 classes. We are doing sequences. Last Tuesday Journey started with the chute, then the tunnel (in a U shape), and four jumps. When ever he does any obstacle he tries to go on with another obstacle of his choice. He can be a handful, but thank goodness he minds me pretty well.
"Any treats left?"
