New Year's Day Agility

Wow-can't believe I haven't posted in a month! We had a little break from agility class, but New Year's Day Spot and Shelby both had a session.

In Spot's class, we are up to running courses of 16-20 obstacles now. It feels weird because to me he is still a beginner! The course we did opened with 2 jumps in a row, then a jump diagonal to the right, then left to the A frame. I opted to handle it on the right, and call Spot to me, then send over the jump and handle the tunnel on the right. I did that rather than the front cross, because Spot is so fast, and I just don't have the timing down right. My instructor didn't really like the way I did it, because I used the Linda Mecklinburg system of calling to heel position, and I didn't cue the turn well, and Spot slid, which can be danerous. So to make it work, I ust needed to cue like a serpentine, so Spot knows the turn is coming. I did it a second time, but tried a rear cross, which Spot usually does well, but he was super slow this time.

The second section of the course was A frame to a tunnel underneath on the left, then weave poles, a jump with a 180 to the dog walk. I ran the A frame on the right, and then did a front cross to the tunnel and the weaves on the right, to the jump and dog walk. That worked fine, but my instructor suggested doing a post turn-type move off the A frame to make it easier for me to run to the other side of the A frame to get the weave poles. That did work better!

After the dog walk, it was a left turn, over 2 jumps, to a tunnel, then a 3 jumps in a pinwheel, to the final jump. I ran it so that I was past the jump after the dog walk when Spot was hitting the contact so I would be able to call him over the jump. That worked well and he held his contact. The sequence went well, until the pinwheel. I tried to send, and Spot missed the last jump. For some reason, I feel like I should send whenever posible, because it's more advanced or something...when in reality, running with the dog works better.

For Shelby's class, we had the same course, but in different order. We added a tunnel after jump 3. Then we went to the tunnel under the A frame, the A frame, then a jump, and the dog walk the opposite direction from the first class. We worked a lot on how to handle the tunnel/A frame combo, like rear crossing the tunnel, running the tunnel on the right and flipping to the A frame, front crossing the tunnel, etc. The end section was the same, so I actually skipped out, since we had been there more than 90 minutes and I had to go get ready for the party.

We talked a lot about matching your stride to the dog's stride, and I have to say, it worked. I felt like Shelby and I were more connected somehow. Like we were running the whole thing together, I wasn't sending her to go run and standing there. Shelby seemed to be having more fun too.