Lance's 1st agility run through
After Vito took his CGC test today, agility run throughs were going on in the annex so I decided to stop by. The courses were all nested so Lance and I did the beginner course for his very first run through. This was also the longest sequence we have ever done since we usually don't sequence more than 5-7 obstacles in class.
It turns out Lance might be closer to competing than I thought! The first time we ran neither of us made any errors and just flew through the course. It was a fairly easy course but I was still very proud of the Lance's speed, reading of my body language, and nice tight wraps. The second time we ran I made a few errors which caused Lance to miss some obstacles, but it was completely my fault. When I redid those parts with correct handling Lance was again perfect by my criteria :)
Of course he completely flew off the aframe and didn't go low enough on the dog walk, but I wasn't expecting anything different. We still have a lot of learning to do on our contacts! But maybe Lance will be entered in a jumpers or tunnelers course late this summer :)
As an added bonus, I still had Vito along and stationed in our foldable kennel. I was continuouly dropping in kibble as we were waiting for Lance's turn to go, but Vito was quiet as I ran with Lance! He was also very quiet when I had Lance in with him while I walked the course. Yay Vito!
What a good boy! Sounds like you are proud of both of them!
Do you take agility at TCOTC? How do you like it?
Thanks for the info on agility at TCOTC. I tried agility with Lok for 8 weeks at Elk River K-9, but the class progessed WAY too fast for him and he hated it. He tried to pull me to the door the whole time. We didn't really do any foundation at all and we were "doing" all the obstacles at full height by the fourth week or so, and sequencing things. It was terrible--we quit the class early. I don't know much about agility, but I know there is more to it than just doing the obstacles. Lok's eyes are now too bad to try agility again, but I might like to try it with Jun this winter. My prior experience has made me paranoid about beginning agility classes. Also, I have to say, I haven't been completely impressed with our obedience classes at TCOTC--except for Patty's class of course. She is great, but the rest of the instructors (or at least the ones that I've had) . . . I've heard good things about Agile Canines, so we might try that out.
Let me know if want to try disc! I'd be happy to help you get started. It's a pretty laid back sport and not much of a time committment, unless you want it to be.
Yeah, it's only been two day for me of fixing Lok's habit of bolting out the door, and already kind of a pain. But your committment to fixing Vito's SA is what insipired me to just do it!
See you at class tomorrow!
Hey - great going with Lance but even greater news about Vito's progress with no crying/anxiety!! :-)
Hsin-Yi
I have a training question that maybe you can help with...
Right now I can only work with the boys when they are on opposite sides of the back door (one in, one out). I do work with them together on basic sits and downs, but it is very hard because if one is acting up (usually Dexter the lab) I can't focus on the other.
This is OK for now, but I want to be able to work with them seperately even if we are all inside or outside. What would you recommend as baby steps to being able to have them take turns?
If I put them in a sit stay and one gets up but the other doesn't, what do I do?
If you like, you can email me directly at
backupdogATcomcastDOTnet
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Mango momma
Excellent job both Vito and Lance. Proud of them.