Today was our first agility class with our trainer Susan. Before I went to Ohio, we had a private lesson to assess whether he”d be able to join the class. Today was our first time in the regular class.
The drive there was stressful, as there was a big accident and I had to take side roads, and was stopped by a train, and had to turn around and take another side road. Luckily I had left 15 min early, so I arrived right on time.
There were four of us in class—two people/dogs I didn’t know, and my friend Sabrina with her service dog Indy. Unfortunately the videos I got didn’t work out, and I only got two pictures, so you’ll have to rely on my verbal descriptions of what went on.
All the dogs stay in crates except the one dog who is running. Felix did a good job of going into the crate right away and being quiet while the other dogs went.
We started out doing a couple of jumps and the tunnel. When it was Felix’s turn, he wouldn’t do the tunnel. It was a long tunnel, so we decided we’d skip the tunnel for today and try it next week with a much shorter tunnel. But Felix did great on the jumps! He really enjoys jumps, and even approached a few from the other side of my wheelchair (the right side of my wheelchair)!
Next up, the other dogs worked on weaves. That was a bit too advanced for Felix and Indy, so instead they worked on returning to position next to the wheelchair. I decided to name the right side of my wheelchair “side”. The left side is “heel” (or if I say “Felix” he goes to the left side of my wheelchair). Felix did an excellent job of returning to heel, and he did OK returning to side.
The last thing we worked on was the teeter totter. Felix isn’t ready for the teeter yet, so he worked on the wobble board. I’m working on getting him to step on the wobble board and make it make noise. He’s very gentle with it and wants to just stroke it LOL! But he did a few times make the wobble board move, which was great.
Unfortunately while Indy was going on the teeter, Felix got sick and tired of being in the crate and he started barking. So I had to keep having him do a series of sits and downs for treats to keep him quiet. Sigh.
Overall class was really fun. It felt totally safe how we only had one dog out at a time so there was never a chance of conflict. Susan did a good job of brainstorming things for people in wheelchairs, which was really great, too. And it was wonderful to see Sabrina and Russ again! I hadn’t seen them since before I went to Ohio!
Luckily traffic was better on the way home. Hopefully next time I go to class, I can get you some nice video (maybe Brad will come or we can figure out Russ’s phone)! Russ tried to get video this time—thank you, Russ!—but his phone settings might’ve gotten off and the videos ended up really pixelated, sadly.
Here are the two pictures we were able to capture! One shows Felix in a large wire crate. He is a sable and white Japanese Chin. The other one shows me in my wheelchair with Felix standing in front of me looking up at me, and I am talking with Susan.
Can’t wait for next class!
