And now for Agility!

lolll, nice work you guys!
Sounds like an awesome class
Wait til she is all Missy ;) that's too cute
Sheltie girls have attitude, that's why I love the boys ;)
 
Sounds like your first class went well. :) I'm sure after few weeks, you might change your mind about competing, too. Agility is so addictive, lol.
 
Sounds like you had a fun first class. Don't worry about being the only one who doesn't have experience. First off, everyone in that class started where you are now. Second, if the instructor is good she'll be able to adapt to help you learn the sport. Third, even if you have experienced handlers in class their dogs are probably green so they are going to have some struggles since every dog is different.

I'd suggest watching what the more experienced handlers do. You could pick up from tips from them.
 
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Silaria is right.... Everyone has to start somewhere. I remember our first class. I was absolutely useless, couldn't even make front cross LOL. Good ol' times. :lol:
 
Sounds like a great start, to me! I think you've got a leg up on a lot of the people that start agility. You know about dog sports, you know about drive, and your dog knows how to learn. That's a huge step.

I remember in the first few weeks of Bentley's class I considered giving up. We were teaching dogs to drive to a target on the ground. I would slather it in peanut butter, attempt to "rev" Bentley up to send him to the target. He would just stand there and stare at the target, then back at me, as if asking for permission. So much for drive! And that little hesitant bugger now has his agility championship!
 
Class #2

We had our second class last night (after a long weekend of flyball :dead:). Once again Missy did great. We worked on running with our dog, which was fun for Missy because she loves to chase me. We do lots of recalls in flyball where I'm running, but the problem is she's not supposed to catch me in agility, which she doesn't quite understand. This resulted in a lot of barking and jumping on her part ("I caught you, I caught you!!"). The trainer showed us different ways to send dogs over the jump. We had 2 jumps set up so we had Missy take the first jump (no problems) and then do both the jumps. Well she must have had flyball on the brain because she took the second jump waaaay too early and dropped the bar, and by dropped I mean crashed right into it. The second time around she adjusted her stride so she actually went over it. We were all pretty amused, although the acronym "ETS" flashed in my head! But I know it was because she was trying to do it flyball style.. which didn't work because the jumps were farther apart.

We also played a game where the trainer would let the teeter hit the ground and we would treat them so they wouldn't react to the noise. I had food, Missy only gave it a short glance and wanted the food. Apparently she isn't afraid of the noise. We also got to try the a-frame, which is difficult if you have a food monger of a dog who keeps staring at your hand. So she basically went up the a-frame with her nose in my hand trying to get the food. The trainer said not to worry about that because it would get better once she figures it out. Then finally we did some intro to contacts stuff where we used a clicker to click them touching the board and then put them in a position with only their back legs on the board. It was interesting... lol. But she seems to be enjoying everything about agility!
 
Jess041 said:
We had our second class last night (after a long weekend of flyball :dead:). Once again Missy did great. We worked on running with our dog, which was fun for Missy because she loves to chase me. We do lots of recalls in flyball where I'm running, but the problem is she's not supposed to catch me in agility, which she doesn't quite understand. This resulted in a lot of barking and jumping on her part ("I caught you, I caught you!!"). The trainer showed us different ways to send dogs over the jump. We had 2 jumps set up so we had Missy take the first jump (no problems) and then do both the jumps. Well she must have had flyball on the brain because she took the second jump waaaay too early and dropped the bar, and by dropped I mean crashed right into it. The second time around she adjusted her stride so she actually went over it. We were all pretty amused, although the acronym "ETS" flashed in my head! But I know it was because she was trying to do it flyball style.. which didn't work because the jumps were farther apart.

We also played a game where the trainer would let the teeter hit the ground and we would treat them so they wouldn't react to the noise. I had food, Missy only gave it a short glance and wanted the food. Apparently she isn't afraid of the noise. We also got to try the a-frame, which is difficult if you have a food monger of a dog who keeps staring at your hand. So she basically went up the a-frame with her nose in my hand trying to get the food. The trainer said not to worry about that because it would get better once she figures it out. Then finally we did some intro to contacts stuff where we used a clicker to click them touching the board and then put them in a position with only their back legs on the board. It was interesting... lol. But she seems to be enjoying everything about agility!
Click to expand...

that sounds great that she is having fun.
the Aframe- Dixie would put her paws on it in class but that was it.....
we went back to the field later and I let her and Cran do some jumps and the tunnel then I sent Cran up the Aframe- Dixie followed and except for some minor issues with rubber vs painted contacts, she's been fine ever since:winkgrin:
doesn't work with the dogwalk though.....
 
Class #3 and #4

I forgot to post an update on class #3, but basically we introduced the tunnel. I thought Missy was going to be afraid of it, based on past experiences, but she didn't mind one bit. We also learned front crosses, and introduced the dog walk, which was on the ground. So really they just practiced walking on the board. It was a pretty good class, Missy did well. She's very enthusiastic about everything!!

We had class #4 last night. We introduced the tire (which was not a break-away, I was worried), but Missy did fine, no hesitation. We did a little drill where we had them go over a jump, through one tunnel, and then another. I was having a bad rheumatoid arthritis day, so my knee and hip were bothering me, and I had a bit of trouble keeping up with her. Again, she did the tunnels like it was no big deal, which surprised me! We worked on calling the dog to either side of our body, which Missy almost took of my hand trying to get to the treat (sigh..). Then, we talked about weaves and the different methods of training them. Then for fun, we let them try the channel weaves that had those clip on guides. Missy didn't seem to like the weaves, especially the guides, and when we were trying to get her to run through the channel, she kept trying to jump over the guides and escape. We tried it a couple times and finally she seemed okay with the idea. I'm thinking that is not the weave training method for us, lol.

Missy was also having a bad night because she kept barking in her crate when I walked away from her. I don't think it was a separation anxiety thing, it was more like, "hey, I want to play too!" thing because she does that at flyball too. I guess I will have to bring her crate cover out of the car next class. She's enjoying it so much, she doesn't like watching the other dogs playing!
 
Am not fond of guides but some trainers like them. Love channels though. They should be started so wide that it does not matter to the dog whether they there or not:biggrin2:
Close up can be done first in larger chunks but after 18¨or so biggest points is to train independence, speed and crazy entries and close very slowly.
Suggest ask around, someone might have Silvia new DVD on weaves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQgZ2YF_lqM
 
SheltieChe said:
Am not fond of guides but some trainers like them. Love channels though. They should be started so wide that it does not matter to the dog whether they there or not:biggrin2:
Close up can be done first in larger chunks but after 18¨or so biggest points is to train independence, speed and crazy entries and close very slowly.
Suggest ask around, someone might have Silvia new DVD on weaves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQgZ2YF_lqM
Click to expand...

Birch was trained with channels and guides and frankly I don't think Birch ever saw the guides. He was running lightening speed down the middle in a day. I do agree independence almost right from the beginning is the key(keep yourself out of the picture) and do everything you can do to encourage speed right from the beginning. 4th dog and I finally figured that out. :lol: Ember hates guides because they tend to sit at her eye level. She learned with just guides which I don't recommend. I retrained with channels her but though she shows flashes of real speed she will never be all that speedy as she has too many bad habits and never learned correct form. She however rarely misses an entry even a tricky one.
 
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