Last night I had agility class. There was only one other student there, so we had a lot of time to work on things.
We started out on the tiny teeter that Susan has been lending me. Felix did a pretty good job on it!
The next time he was out, we decided to work on different tunnels. Before last night, he’d only been through a straight tunnel where you could see the other end. So we decided it was time to work on the curved tunnels, where you can’t see the other end when you enter.
It took him a while to figure it out, and in fact it took Susan climbing into the tunnel from the other end to show him that it wasn’t a dead end! It was so funny to see a grown human inside a dog tunnel! Susan is REALLY dedicated to making dogs successful at agility! And it worked! He got the idea and started going through the tunnel! We got a couple of videos of him going through the pink curved tunnel and then leaping over a couple of jumps. The jumps were set to what is probably his competition height, which is higher than he’s jumped before. He did such a good job!
The next time it was our turn, we went to a different curved tunnel. It took a lot of Susan playing with him and getting him excited before he went into this tunnel. It is dark purple and so a bit scarier than the light pink one. But once he figured it out, he was going through that tunnel wonderfully! I was even able to try sending him from a foot away to the tunnel! No video of that.
When heading back from that tunnel, we worked on “side”, which means heeling on my right side instead of my left. He did a FANTASTIC job of it, but it was hard for me because I have to drive my chair with my left hand to be able to reward with my right.
The last time we got out to play—or “train” LOL—we worked on the teeter again. This time Felix had a total breakthrough and was able to go completely over the tiny teeter all by himself!!!! I was SO proud! He was such a good boy and so brave. Susan got a couple of videos, which I’ve strung together. At the very end of the video, he does the teeter himself without any prompting from us at all! We called that a major success and ended there. Here is the video!
We really had a great class, and Felix accomplished so much. I am so proud of how well he’s coming along. I still have the tiny teeter that I’m borrowing because it can go up a bit higher, and I want to transition from that teeter to the one Russ made for me which is even bigger. So stay tuned for more videos of our teeter work at home!
I’m so glad I started taking agility classes with Susan! She knows how to break things down into really small bits for little dogs like Felix who might not have started out the most confidently. With her guidance, Felix is having a blast in agility class!