Purley

I decided to put Lucy in beginners agility again. The next class is off leash agility and as she was a bit hesitant about the tunnel, I thought it would be good for her confidence to do beginners again.

The first class was last night. What a difference! She was so good and you could tell she loved it. We did the a-frame and some of the dogs were not keen. Lucy leaped up and the trainer even suggested that I take her off leash until one of the assistants said that they wanted all the dogs to progress at the same rate.

She was never hesitant about the tunnel. I said said "tunnel" and she went straight through. She did the weaves almost perfectly. Most of the time you could tell she was keen to go -- she wanted to take her turn every time - would have been happy if the other dogs hadn't been there to do it over and over again.

I was really pleased because she didn't seem to be happy at obedience but she obviously loves agility.

faerie

awesome!

debjen

wooooohoooooooo... good job..we often have people repeat classes until their dogs are completely comfortable.

Olie

That is fantastic! - we went our second round with Suri - different trainer. Still not budging much on the dark tunnel..sad because she excels at everything else she has been introduced too.

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schnauzerpoodle

That's wonderful! Nickel repeated his too.

Rocketagility

I hate classes that hold dogs back what a crappy demotivator for the dog. I teach my classes with stations so people can be working there dogs for the entire time and this way some dogs excel if there owners pup in the work.

Purley

I have her entered in off leash agility in the fall. Now its stopped raining I will have to set up my jumps and weave poles and work with her.

I read somewhere when I had her in a clicker class that you had to vary the location for your training. If you always said "sit" beside the fridge -- the dog would think that "sit" meant "sit beside the fridge". Tyson, my younger Shih-tzu loves agility and has been doing it for about six years. He does everything perfectly in the training hall but when he saw weave poles stuck in the grass -- boy was THAT confusing!! What the heck is this -- can't be weave poles because they have a dark blue base and they sit on black rubber matting!!

Rocketagility

Off leash is the way to work ASAP. I have friends that compete at the worlds level and they are convinced if you walk a dog over a piece of equipment you just taught your dog to go slow. They never train on leash ever the leash if it gets hung up will give a correction and it will be a demotivator. I also believe train with speed.

As for training in one location you are right you must take your dog on the road and train in new and different locations. When I start with a dog I socialize and walk and train my dog to do anything I can think of even silly tricks or dance moves. the more you can do with your dog the better trained he will be. I do stuff people call urban agility like jumping a bush or small fence or playing and kids playgrounds pretty much anything. Dogs need to see variety, one time I was training Rocket in the clubhouse doing a five jump serp well he could do it perfect in one direction but when we tried going the other way, nope couldn't do it. So we needed to make it easier and try again.

Just so you know I train all my dogs with stuck in the ground weave poles in my backyard to start. With my bigger dog a Std I use the Weave-O-Matic method and with my mini I use the Channels method. Both methods promote speed.

ArreauStandardPoodle

Purley...what awesome news! I am so happy to hear how well she is doing and that you are both enjoying it! WAY TO GO!!!!!

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Rowan

For Lucy:

Obedience = BORING
Agility = WICKED FUN!

Plus, didn't she have a bad experience in the obedience class or am I thinking of someone else??

CONGRATS!