Tag Archives: dog agility

Not on the agility course, dude!

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Fran on Friday

booker_play_bow_041616I’ve written about Booker’s training. My frustrations and successes, the endless hours of training and classes (well, it seems like endless hours!). Yet I know that no matter how many hours I put into training, something will happen that I don’t expect. It’s inevitable. You can’t plan for everything. You can think about any contingency, but something will happen out of the clear blue sky.

Case in point: Booker playing keep-away at the end of a run. Really? He’s 3 years old. I know he loves me and likes to be with me. Yet at the end of a run, Booker won’t let me grab him and put his leash on. We’ve trained so that he knows he’s not going to get treats until his leash is on, so I don’t understand it. Does he want to run more agility? Does he like the attention?

I tried to train him to play with his leash, but then he won’t leave it alone when I take it off of him. (You can’t run agility with the dog on a leash.) So I’m trying to train him to jump up on me on command. It works for my Tango – but he’s much lighter than Booker is. Hopefully we’ll figure it out. It’s a work in progress.

Practice, practice, practice

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Fran on Friday

booker_teeter_041616I’ve told you about Booker’s wildness at Agility trials. He’s a different dog when contact obstacles are present (Standard courses) versus courses where they’re absent. The key, I know, for him to have consistent performances on Standard courses is to practice the obstacles that he goes crazy around. That takes much more planning than just setting up a simple jump or two in the back yard. We have to search for “fun matches” in the area, or hope that we get to practice the obstacles in class. In our area, we have to travel an hour or more for fun matches, so I look for those early on my day off. And when we’re at a fun match, it’s five minutes or so on the course for 2 hours of travel time. But, if I can get Booker on the teeter or A-frame at a different place, it’s worth it.

Booker had been especially wild on the A-frame, either not taking it or jumping off the frame above the yellow, risking potential injury. So last night at class I was really happy to have an exercise which had heavy use of the A-frame! It was jump-frame-another jump-frame, etc., etc., etc. And Booker did all his A-frames and made all his contacts! Hopefully this will build muscle memory for him and he won’t be tempted to fly off the next A-frame he sees at a trial.

Booker graduated to Advanced Class!

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Fran filling in on Saturday

Booker graduated to Advanced class!Booker’s trialing weekend was far from perfect, but his performance was good enough to earn a new title! And he graduated to Advanced Agility Class! Of course, that’s mostly for me – to improve my handling skills.

Booker was like two dogs at the trial. In Novice Standard Booker was a devil dog! (The Standard AKC courses are those with the contact obstacles like the A-frame, teeter-totter and dog walk. The dog must run along the obstacle and touch the yellow part on the upside (except for the A-frame) and the downside.) Booker wanted absolutely no part of following the rules. He’d bounce on the upside of the obstacle and then bounce off. He ran around the course and would not let me catch him. Supremely naughty. I know Booker can do the obstacles, but he showed no indication of that at the trial on either day.

His performance in the Jumpers with Weaves  Open class, on the other hand, was almost flawless. In the Open class the dogs are allowed one “refusal” – the dog can refuse a jump or the weaves and then do it properly, and still have a qualifying run. On Saturday Booker was perfect and on Sunday he had one refusal. So Booker got 2 qualifying legs in Open Jumpers and earned his title (he’d gotten his first leg a few weeks before).

2 different dogs! Our agility instructor knows that Booker can do the obstacles, so we were promoted to the Advanced class. Like I said, mostly for me – I need the handling practice!

Sustaining the motivation

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Dog training is not serious.Dog training is an ongoing process. It’s not about the ribbons. It’s not about the scores. It’s not about the applause. Those things are nice, but it’s not why we train our dogs. Every day – every single day – we’re doing something with our dogs. Even if it’s just feeding them and taking them outside to eliminate, we’re doing something with them. On a Saturday I may say, “I’m doing nothing today!” But I’m not being literal. I can’t do nothing. Because that face is looking up at me. I know that he’ll get into trouble if I don’t make him think for at least five minutes a day. And he won’t leave me alone until I do something with him. He’ll jump on me, looking at me with that face…

So we’ll practice “sit.” And “down.” And “come.” And so on. And then we’ll run around and be silly, because dog training is not serious. It’s important, but it’s not serious. Even fetching a ball teaches a dog useful skills. Like coming back to me while he’s holding something. And running around in a circle with me teaches him to chase my shoulder on an agility course. And then maybe I can do nothing on a Saturday.