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Ten (almost eleven) month old spoo Pixie is currently enrolled in her second agility class. The first one, agility basics, went .... okay. She had a ton of fun, learned some things but still had some things to work on. We had no plans to compete, this was just a fun thing to do on a Saturday morning to work her brain, get her into the car to go do something fun (she had terrible car sickness until she was about 8 months old and still isn't fond of hopping in there, still has to be boosted in...oof) and socialize with other pups and people in a more structured way than the dog park. I've had two other dogs (doodles) that I did agility with; they absolutely loved it and it created such a tight and special bond with them.
So I enrolled her in a second class. We have gone to 2 classes of 6. Pixie does NOT CARE WHATSOEVER about agility. I do believe part of it is that each individual dog gets the course to itself during practice runs and meanwhile the other dogs have to be in the crate. There are only 2 of us in the class so we get a lot of run time during the hour, she's literally in there for 5 minutes at a time. However, she pouts in the crate; she is the epitome of the Pouting Poodle in the crate. When she gets let out of the crate for her turn, she won't go over the jumps or even do any of the other obstacles that she absolutely loved in the beginner class (dog walk, a-frame).
She alternates between 1) breaking off the sequence pretty much immediately and running (bounding, those beautiful athletic poodle leaps that cover miles in an instant and is poetry in motion to watch) around the facility like a crazy dog and 2) running along beside myself or my husband while gazing up at us adoringly - thereby unable to see the obstacles coming up and swerving around them to stay by our side. Last weekend was so NOT her finest moment....refused to do anything, acted like she had never seen the obstacles before, ran away to beg cucumber (her favorite) from another dog's handler and capped the class off by peeing and pooping in the middle of the floor at the 45 minute mark (she hasn't had an accident in many, many months). She absolutely loves going there (so excited to pull up to the facility) and is exhausted after. Agility class has helped a lot with the "not wanting to get in the car" but the class part itself isn't doing it for her and I suspect the crate is a huge part of it as we didn't have any of this "poodle-tude" in the beginner class.
I have accepted that agility is just. not. her. thing. We'll finish off the four remaining classes because the facility doesn't give refunds or credits but I have to think about what SHE would rather be doing and a better way to keep her busy, happy and create that bond. It's actually better for me also because I have a lingering ankle injury and now that we're getting into crosses and such it isn't working so well for me either.
Anyone else have a poodle that would rather interact with you in a more up close and personal way than doing an activity like agility and any suggestions for classes that have a closer interaction between handler and dog? I've pondered scent detection as she has quite a sniffer on her and she could always use more obedience classes but in typical poodle fashion endless repetition is NOT her thing either and you really have to mix it up and make things fun or she mentally checks out and stops working because she loses interest. Darn smarty pants poodles
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So I enrolled her in a second class. We have gone to 2 classes of 6. Pixie does NOT CARE WHATSOEVER about agility. I do believe part of it is that each individual dog gets the course to itself during practice runs and meanwhile the other dogs have to be in the crate. There are only 2 of us in the class so we get a lot of run time during the hour, she's literally in there for 5 minutes at a time. However, she pouts in the crate; she is the epitome of the Pouting Poodle in the crate. When she gets let out of the crate for her turn, she won't go over the jumps or even do any of the other obstacles that she absolutely loved in the beginner class (dog walk, a-frame).
She alternates between 1) breaking off the sequence pretty much immediately and running (bounding, those beautiful athletic poodle leaps that cover miles in an instant and is poetry in motion to watch) around the facility like a crazy dog and 2) running along beside myself or my husband while gazing up at us adoringly - thereby unable to see the obstacles coming up and swerving around them to stay by our side. Last weekend was so NOT her finest moment....refused to do anything, acted like she had never seen the obstacles before, ran away to beg cucumber (her favorite) from another dog's handler and capped the class off by peeing and pooping in the middle of the floor at the 45 minute mark (she hasn't had an accident in many, many months). She absolutely loves going there (so excited to pull up to the facility) and is exhausted after. Agility class has helped a lot with the "not wanting to get in the car" but the class part itself isn't doing it for her and I suspect the crate is a huge part of it as we didn't have any of this "poodle-tude" in the beginner class.
I have accepted that agility is just. not. her. thing. We'll finish off the four remaining classes because the facility doesn't give refunds or credits but I have to think about what SHE would rather be doing and a better way to keep her busy, happy and create that bond. It's actually better for me also because I have a lingering ankle injury and now that we're getting into crosses and such it isn't working so well for me either.
Anyone else have a poodle that would rather interact with you in a more up close and personal way than doing an activity like agility and any suggestions for classes that have a closer interaction between handler and dog? I've pondered scent detection as she has quite a sniffer on her and she could always use more obedience classes but in typical poodle fashion endless repetition is NOT her thing either and you really have to mix it up and make things fun or she mentally checks out and stops working because she loses interest. Darn smarty pants poodles