Purley

Lucy had her first agility class today. It did not turn out at all like I expected.

I will describe how it went and then look forward to any suggestions as to what I can change.

Lucy is always very excitable here. She races around the yard and generally is very quick and lively.

Not so at agility. She walked around like a Bloodhound with her nose to the ground the whole time. I think that there might have been teeny weeny bits of treat on the floor. I don't know. I just kept on calling her in an excited voice, but quite frankly it was like hauling on a boat anchor!!

I thought that her very favourite thing would be the tunnel. But no - every other dog went through the tunnel. The trainer started off by holding Lucy's leash and I went to the other end of the - maybe 10 foot long - tunnel and bent down and called her. No matter how excited I got -- she strolled through - again with her nose to the ground. Then we tried dropping the leash as we ran towards the tunnel -- unless the trainer grabbed the leash and guided her through - she just stopped at the entrance and continued her Bloodhound imitation.

Honestly, I thought she would absolutely LOVE it. If I spoke to her in an excited voice like that at home - she would get super excited and race around. How come she's not like that at agility??

Any ideas. I can't get any more excited than I am already. She would actually prefer to play with the other dogs!!!

debjen

OH my does that sound familiar..my first Cav (Robbie) has/had his nose to the ground his entire life. For years I had people telling me I needed to be more exciting than whatever he was interested in and believe me it is hard to be more interesting than horse poop until finally one big name trainer told me during a seminar.."it's not anything you are doing he is just being a poop".

Anyway a couple of things ... first this was her first class as she becomes more familiar with the surroundings, the obstacles, the new people and dogs some of her behaviour may change. Second time to get out the super duper treats. In Robbie's case it was chicken or canned dog food in a food tube. Is she toy motivated...then a favorite toy or chasing a ball as she comes out of the tunnel to help build speed.

I wouldn't worry so much about a particular obstacle yet .. I teach a lot of begining classes and the tunnel for some dogs is quite a scary place..it feels different under their feet..it is dark and long with stuff all around them..most times I scrunch the tunnel up so it is only about 3 feet..

For my dog that is so focused with his nose I frequently do a lot of sitting focus work right in front of me with food to keep his attention on me or if I want to watch things he is in his crate or I pick him up so he can't get get too focused on what's on the ground and in fact when going into an agility ring at a trial I carry him in and hold him until it is time to start the run so he doesn't have a chance to start sniffing.

So don't worry yet..give her some time to get use to things and I bet before long she will be bouncing (literally) back.

PoodleMomAnew

I don't know how much this will help as I am about as new to this as you are. At Hunter's first class 3 weeks ago we did the tunnel and while he was not fixated on the ground, he sure as heck was not going through that smelly, wierd-looking tunnel, no way, no how, no thank you. All the other dogs did, of course and especially those cute little shelties, grrrrrrrr. In fairness they had all done the tunnel in the past, though. The trainer kept telling ME to get further into the stinky dirty tunnel from the other end to coax Hunter through and finally, when the tunnel was only about 4 - 5 feet long and with me practically at the beginning end with the treat in Hunter's face he came through. It got a little easier after that, but not much. I have been to 2 more classes since and we have worked on weave poles [they are far apart at this point so no weaving yet] and he jerked around and walked all over the place but not much between the poles and a small ramp which again, he refused to climb up. He is a big boy and I think he's just plain scared of that. The third week we worked on a tube/tire thing that the dogs jump through and that was a little easier. The trainer has been very encouraging and reassures me Hunter will get it all down, because "he is a POODLE after all." I would say hang in there. Familiarity seems to help. Hunter appears more relaxed now and less reluctant to try the new stuff. Hope this helps!

Quossum

Debjen has already given you great advice; I reinforce the part about great, great treats for Agility night. Does your dog have toy drive? Having a tug toy or ball to play with (if that interests her) could be a good thing.

I agree she'll probably focus more on you once the novelty of the Agility training place wears off. Still, keep up the encouragement and always treat for the most enthusiastic response.

Do you click? I find when I've got the clicker in my hand, my dogs seem to tune out the environment very well!

Good luck! Stick with it; the fun will kick in. =)

--Q

Purley

Thanks for the advice.

I actually have a tunnel at home. I cut up some small pieces of cheese and gave some to my husband at one end - and I had some the other end! Lucy went back and forth down the tunnel. Mind you, it was sometimes a little difficult -- I should have shut the other two dogs upstairs. Tyson has been doing agility for about five years and he kept racing back and forth in the tunnel and quite a bit of the time three dogs went in and three came bowling out the other end!! That and I didn't have the tunnel fixed so it was rolling around all over the place while they were in it - and Lucy was fine with it. So its not the tunnel.

I am almost positive I know what the problem is. She is PETRIFIED of the kennel club building or perhaps petrified of so many dogs or so many people. I am not sure what it is that she is scared of. She never relaxes there. She is "stiff" and slow and NEVER has her tail up like she does at home.

She has been in one clicker class - she was sort of OK there but the building was smaller and there were only three dogs in the class. She has taken beginners and advanced beginners classes at my kennel club. Each time she threw up at the first lesson. Each time I thought things would get better and she would start to enjoy it -- but by the time we got to the last lesson she was still looking at me like "Can't you see I have my unhappy face on. Let's go home!"

I don't want to give up. I really want to DO something with her but I also want her to enjoy what we do. I am going to persevere and hope that she will have fun.

JE-UK

I'd give her time. It's new, she is still processing a strange new world.

Can you explain the issue to your trainer, and maybe get some time in the building alone with Lucy to let her explore and decide it's a safe place?