Videos below! Last night I had the best agility class I’ve ever been in. I’ve not taken a ton of agility, but done it on and off for the last 20 years. Each of my dogs (except Alice) had taken at least one agility class, and with my first dog, Sabrina, she was in agility every week for most of her life.
Let me tell you what made this class last night so special…All the dogs were safe, happy, excited to be there, and accomplished things they had been working on. The handlers were cheering each other on, and it was really fantastic.
And I had been having a tough day before going, and wasn’t sure I could force myself to leave the house. I was really anxious and the agoraphobia was kicking in hard. But I managed to go, and I’m so glad I did!
There were just three of us there, with one person getting back into agility after a hiatus so while she normally would be in the advanced class, she sat in on the beginners class to refresh. So Felix was by far the least experienced dog!
The way class works is all the dogs are crated while only one dog is out working on something at one time. I go last so I can observe what the other dogs were doing. We started out with dogs doing jumps and tunnels. I’ve been trying to work on the tunnel at home with Felix, and it did NOT work. Also last agility class I tried the tunnel and it was just too scary for Felix.
So when it was my turn, I just sat on the floor tossing treats into the tunnel. After a while, he got to where he could go about halfway through the tunnel to get treats. So I gave him to the trainer, who held him on the other side of the tunnel, and he went all the way through!!!! We decided to end on a high note, and moved on to other things.
Later in class, when the other dogs did turns on the weave poles, Susan (my trainer) and I decided to try Felix on the tunnel again. One of the other class members (of the human variety) took video for us. Felix went through the tunnel like no one’s business!!!! He did it several times with me sitting on the floor to catch him, then we tried it with me in my chair. He came through like a champ!
Then we decided to try me sending him into the tunnel. The first time that didn’t work, so I gave Susan some cheese to hold at the end of the tunnel, showed Felix she had cheese, and I sent him into the tunnel! He did it! I was SO SO SO proud of him!!!!! Here is the video:
We also got to work on wobble stuff. I brought my platform balanced on an antler that I’d been working with Felix on, and he was able to get all four feet on the platform as it wobbled with the antler! No video of this part.
Then we moved over to the tiniest little teeter and Felix put his foot on it and banged it down like we wanted him to. We did that several times, and Susan lent me the tiny teeter to work on at home. I’ll probably only need it for a week or two until he’s ready to use the baby teeter that Russ made us!
We got to do a free choice activity next, where we chose what we wanted to work on when it was our turn. I know Felix loves jumps, so that’s what we did! We started out doing figure 8s around one jump. He did a very good job! I tried out the suggestion I had from a few people to throw the treat out ahead of him when he was going over the jump instead of having him return to me for it, but Susan said that didn’t seem to work as well for Felix right now. Perhaps when he gets more confident about jumps, we’ll switch to that. Here is the video!
Then we set up two jumps at a right angle and practiced going over them with Felix on my right side. Felix always works on my left, and we haven’t really been practicing the “side” cue which means he should heel on my right. But he did it! He did the two jumps on my right side. And here is the video!
We were all so good at the things we were doing in class that we even had time for one more round of each of us trying things. This time we tried lead outs. Felix has a really good stay at home and in TJ Maxx (where we’ve worked on stays), but hasn’t really generalized his stay very well. So instead of working on the stay during class time, I gave Susan treats and she would recall him over the jump to her, then I’d get in position (facing away from the jump) and call Felix over the jump to my side. He did great at this! No video, though, sorry!
It was such an amazing class! I’m so glad I overcame my agoraphobia to get there and experience it. I can’t wait for next week!