June 21, 2003
Dusty touches the contact for a treat
5:00 p.m.
Dusty did great in agility today. She wasn't timid at all - if anything, she was too adventurous! Today, we were encouraged to have our dogs offleash, but under control as much as possible. Dusty was really good for the first part of class, but her attention soon strayed. She started going on the equipment when it wasn't her turn (or, embarrassing, when it was *another* dogs turn). I had to put her back on leash for the last 20 minutes of class.
We worked on the same stuff as last week, with the addition of two new pieces of equipment. The pups were introduced to the 'chute' in this class.
For beginners, the long bit of cloth at the end is folded up over the tube so it's open at the end. The pups had to go through the tunnel before tackling the chute. As she always, Dusty had to thoroughly check out the new equipment before she was go through it.
We also worked on the weave poles for the first time. For beginner dogs, poles with guides are used.
The first few times, we were encouraged to back through the two sets of poles, spaced wide apart and coax our dogs through. By the third time, Dusty was completely fed up with this nonsense and she raced through the poles before I was even able to get my clicker out!
Last week, Dusty was a superstar on the table, but this week she was distracted and intent on smelling the floor when we finally did that exercise. I had trouble even getting her to jump on the table, which was disappointing since we worked on this specifically all week. Oh well.
We demonstrated the work we were doing with contacts and also learned 'touch.' (Dusty already knows this one). Dusty was eager to walk across the plank and she successfully touched the contacts before stepping off the end. We also walked and ran around the room with our dogs on our right or left sides. Dusty did pretty good with this (*way* better than last week), although when we were running she tended to run on whatever side seemed most appealing at the moment.
All in all, it was a good class. While we waited for E and Chinook, we played outside on the grass. It was a pretty day.
Our homework for next week is much the same: Walking on both sides and contacts, but also running on one side or the other. I'm going to take Dusty to the dogpark and ask her to run by my side. We often play in the park, running around, so it's no wonder she was so confused.