Week 5 Agility-yep, excited

Week 5 Agility-yep, excited

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https://www.facebook.com/droptheleas...3/?pnref=story
Hope the link works.
This is week 5, was not expecting sequences in the 1st round of class, but it works. Sonic's not keen on tunnels, yet. (It's one thing I can't do as homework)
I use lawnchairs as homework, still working on getting him to drive forward (eyes on me is too much of a good thing here)
Anyway, it's big fun.

Home Agility Fun Fact:

Home Agility Fun Fact:
Okay, so I put him out on our verandah (our only outdoor enclosed space) and made him watch while I set up his course.
His course consist of 2 lawnchairs (ends up to make posts) as jumps (broad jumps) and one pole wrapped in a towel (in lieu of cone, to practice wraps) and a wooden box as table.
By the time I was done dragging this about, he was totally excited, MUCH more than when I just take him out to play--so I guess he likes agility. ;-)

Other stuff: plays frisbee in the parking lot after a walk, so yay! This is becoming a thing.
Taking him to petsmart to get used to being around dogs when leashed- not so good. Mostly not enough dogs to practice with, BUT I can get him playing and performing in the parking lot, which is awesome.

Cat feeding time: this used to be mayhem. He would just bark and bounce and carry on crazy (my husband puts up with this), I avoided it and would just crate him. Sooooooo, a few weeks ago, decided to make him do a LONG DOWN, which took some fussing to accomplish. Now, he sees his mat, plunks himself down with a relaxed eagerness that is good to see (while I feed the cats, I occassionally drop a cat kibble on the matt, but now down to 3 times). So, no more crating during cat feeding time--he can handle this, and his long downs are much better in general.

Erm, that's all, excepting I'm already anticipating pining for agility classes when they are over. It is sooooo much fun....

sums things up for the week

Cheating my journal, but it fits. Wrote this to a friend: sums things up for the week.

Yesterday, as usual, we took Sonic on a long walk through the woods on
local forest trails. Did a 'leave it' and then played frisbee--hard. A perfect re-direct.

Afterwards, I was ambitious, and set up my impromptu agility practice
which consists of two folding lawnchairs set up with front and back
sections upright to make low broadjumps for the dog. Sonic is great
at sticking by my side like glue, but unless I can run really really
fast and turn on a dime, this is not ideal for agility...so I am
practicing at home at my leisure with whatever equipment I can find.
The purpose of the two jumps is to teach him that moving away from me
and taking the equipment (jumping, in this case) is as or more
lucrative than sticking to my side. I have a throw toy to reward him
at a distance, but first I have to convince him to keep moving forward
even if I don't, and b) skirting around the obstacle produces no
goodies. The class, even though it is an hour long, is too short, to
train all things, and sometimes too distracting. Sonic does like it,
as do the husband and I. Santa may put some real jumps under the tree this
year (the husband can make them from pvc pipes). We had a set of diy pvc
equipment, but gave them away, thinking we would never again have an
'agility dog'. When Sonic runs through the woods, leaping, dodging,
climbing, flying across the jumbled landscape, it is clear that
agility (the dog sport) is not so much about canine athletic ability,
but about the dog and human's ability to communicate and work
together. There is nothing, physically, about the sport that Sonic
can't do (effortlessly) right now--teaching him to do what is asked
and not do what is not asked, and to do everything as fast as chasing
squirrels and have as much fun doing it--well, that is the task and
the challenge.

Just got back from nursing home visit.

Just got back from nursing home visit.
He was so cute & comfortable, working the old folks, wiggly piggly, a social butterfly. What fun. He's always been polite and aloof there, friendly if invited, but today he really looked like he thought it was fun and took the lead in interactions. Nice.
I take no credit, this is Sonic being his happy self, just taking joy in seeing it.
Oh, and the off leash walk went well.

Sonic's 1st agility class

Sonic's 1st agility class--completely awesome. Indoor arena, really fantastic comfortable people friendly instructor, and only 2 students! Can't get better.
Sonic was nailing his toy, and launching himself after it, velcro eyes on me, just really really into being there.
He did have trouble with the instructors dog when she started barking and jumping, started jumping barking himself (and not in a good way). Then he completely lost focus and looked like a dejected puppy for the next exercise.
BUT, BUT, BUT, this was completely fixed with a quick time-outside on the longline, where he instantly went toy crazy again, played a quick round, let him pee, then drink, and then back inside & he was ON again. So now I know what to do next time.
Learning some new handling skills, driving forward, rear cross. My former training we just taught the obstacles, and then direct dog to obstacles...which is fine if you have the obstacles. Here we are building handling skills that can be practiced without obstacles, which is ideal for poor folk like me...because when the money runs out, I'll be without obstacles but with dog & skills. So, yay!
Topics covered. Front cross (which was pretty much already learned by instinct, running with dog off-leash).
Rear cross--brand baby new. 1st, teaching dog to drive forward with food on a stick (treat in chuck-it toy), to get the dog to run ahead of handler (anti-laser eye training). This would have come in handy in the early 'afraid of treats' stage.
Then teach circling at a trot (not there yet).
Then forward motion with me behind (rear-cross)
Wraps--hand signal & go round cone (used a traffic post at home), (egg-beater hand signal & toss treat forward)
Drive forward with toy (go! command). Been doing this in the woods with squirrels, so he has some idea already. Collar hold back does not work--which I'm actually happy about, since I've spent 9 months training him NOT to pull. When I gave up on that & just lightly held his leash tab, said go! he surged forward, I dropped tab & threw toy--that perked him up.
So all in all very good. He showed his top form, which looked AMAZING, and also his chips, the reactivity to barking dogs, and a brief moment of shut-down, so it looks like he's READY READY READY -- Yay!
I think I got me a brand spanking new little sport dog! (I miss you Dynamo, I really do, but I'm happy to get another kick at the can, ONE MORE TIME)
and now I'm feeling a little weepy, really, seriously, I never thought I'd....never mind, bye.

HE PLAYED FRISBEE IN THE WOODS!!!

HE PLAYED FRISBEE IN THE WOODS!!!
HE PLAYED FRISBEE IN THE WOODS!!!
HE PLAYED FRISBEE IN THE WOODS!!!
I thought it would never happen, at least not for a very long time.
Used the leather tug-n-treat disc, but he was really chasing, just like he chases squirrels, and he was bugging me for more, and tugging. He was excited about it!
Please excuse the enthusiasm, but this is an exciting FIRST TIME.

Made a trip to a nearby city to buy fish for my aquarium. Took Sonic along for the ride to practice in new places.
Stopped at a city trail/paved pathways through parkland.
In the parking lot, did some sedate (read-boring) loose leash walking to see if he would start looking to me. Check, yes. Teased him with his tug-n-treat toy and got him tugging, and got him started up. Actually engaged enough that I felt perfectly comfortable to drop the leash and have him chase the frisbee.
Walked the trails, he was very distracted, but decent on leash, going out.
Could not engage him in anything when I stopped in the middle of a ball field--he just wasn't feeling good out there.
On the way back, same route, he started bugging me for training, whip out the frisbee, and played tugging and fetch games on the (empty) trail (had to watch for other users, it was Sunday, mostly empty).
Seeing him get excited for play on a trail that he obviously found somewhat strange and disturbing going in, is exciting and new. I can no longer say that he only plays at home.
He was overly interested in some dog sightings, but behaved okay, needed treats and space to accomplish--leashes still suck.