Spirit Joy

Cara Sandler said:
I understand. We have the same issue :-) But it's much easier having a dog that needs to develop impulse control than having a dog that needs to build drive. I'll take exuberant any day :-)
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yes- I haven't been in that position- all my dogs love to play agility and rally and whatever else we've tried:smile2:
 
Calliesmom said:
yes- I haven't been in that position- all my dogs love to play agility and rally and whatever else we've tried:smile2:
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Ditto. Spirit is an exceptionally enthusiastic participant in everything. Except flyball. She doesn't seem to like flyball. I finally gave up on it. There's no point in trying to make her do something that she doesn't like, and realistically she is too small to be a serious contender - even as a height dog. But I have a friend who would like to do rally and her dog doesn't seem to like it, so she's probably going to work with Spirit instead (Spirit LOVES obedience and is so gorgeous when she heels with that sheltie prance - and I personally think rally is boring). And we're pursuing therapy dog training. Spirit seems to have that innate sheltie sensitivity to people and is so gentle when she is around the elderly or handicapped. She LOVES being held and petted and seems to understand how much they love her :-)
 
Cara Sandler said:
Ditto. Spirit is an exceptionally enthusiastic participant in everything. Except flyball. She doesn't seem to like flyball. I finally gave up on it. There's no point in trying to make her do something that she doesn't like, and realistically she is too small to be a serious contender - even as a height dog. But I have a friend who would like to do rally and her dog doesn't seem to like it, so she's probably going to work with Spirit instead (Spirit LOVES obedience and is so gorgeous when she heels with that sheltie prance - and I personally think rally is boring). And we're pursuing therapy dog training. Spirit seems to have that innate sheltie sensitivity to people and is so gentle when she is around the elderly or handicapped. She LOVES being held and petted and seems to understand how much they love her :-)
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Flyball isn't really an option for us- even if Sheep really wants one of the horde to get into it. the closest place for flyball is Pensacola and that's an hour one way. we'll drive it for trials but regular practice would be way too much.
they'd probably be good as therapy dogs but again- while there are places that have therapy visits, no one here does the testing/certification that they ask for. and with everything that we're into, I don't see where we'd have the time.
I do love that sheltie prance- I love watching Destin prance down the hall every day- it's just so cute:yes:
 
Calliesmom said:
Flyball isn't really an option for us- even if Sheep really wants one of the horde to get into it. the closest place for flyball is Pensacola and that's an hour one way. we'll drive it for trials but regular practice would be way too much.
they'd probably be good as therapy dogs but again- while there are places that have therapy visits, no one here does the testing/certification that they ask for. and with everything that we're into, I don't see where we'd have the time.
I do love that sheltie prance- I love watching Destin prance down the hall every day- it's just so cute:yes:
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Honestly, I'm not sure where we'll find the time either. I travel frequently for work and agility is the priority. But Spirit seems to just love it and I kind of feel as though I'm lucky enough to have this incredible, amazing little dog who brings a smile to everyone who meets her, and I owe it to them to let her bring joy to their lives. Don't get me wrong - if she didn't clearly love it we wouldn't pursue it, but she really does seem to love it. It's a win/win. Have you looked into Share-A-Pet? That's the organization we're going through. I know it isn't the most commonly obtained certification in this area, but they have more flexibility with their training and I'm very impressed with their knowledge level and commitment to positive training methods. They only ask for 1 hour a week time commitment.

And I am completely, 100% in love with the sheltie prance.
 
Cara Sandler said:
I hope I'm right!!!!! Wouldn't it be fun if you entered Echo and I entered Spirit and their first trial was the same day (even though it was across the country)? I realized that the first run through is the day that the entries close for the January trial, so I'm going to have to make my decision without having the information from the run through. I think I'm going to go back to my original plan of entering her and then if she isn't ready just not compete, and not worry about the money.
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That would be fun. I'm confident that we can Q on a novice JWW course. I'm less confident with the contacts on a standard course.
 
Cara Sandler said:
Honestly, I'm not sure where we'll find the time either. I travel frequently for work and agility is the priority. But Spirit seems to just love it and I kind of feel as though I'm lucky enough to have this incredible, amazing little dog who brings a smile to everyone who meets her, and I owe it to them to let her bring joy to their lives. Don't get me wrong - if she didn't clearly love it we wouldn't pursue it, but she really does seem to love it. It's a win/win. Have you looked into Share-A-Pet? That's the organization we're going through. I know it isn't the most commonly obtained certification in this area, but they have more flexibility with their training and I'm very impressed with their knowledge level and commitment to positive training methods. They only ask for 1 hour a week time commitment.

And I am completely, 100% in love with the sheltie prance.
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I've never heard of Share-A-Pet so I'd be surprised if they are in our area. I'll check them out - just in case...
 
Well, tonight we went to a run through at Spirit's agility school. I'll start out by saying that this was a masters level standard course, so we tweaked it quite a bit. But it was still way harder than anything we've done in class, including a back side jump (which I've never asked Spirit to do before), rear crosses (which Spirit has only started to do correctly in the past week or so), and a really tough tunnel/dogwalk discrimination. But she really did a wonderful job and most importantly, she stayed connected with me - even when a beginner level dog on the other side of the field decided to come over and see what we were up to. For some reason she wasn't into the weaves to tonight, but I'll just chalk it up to an off day. All in all, I'm really, really pleased and am almost definitely entering her into the trial at the end of January.
 
More good news! Yesterday was the "sheltie olympics" - basically a day of fun activities for the local shelties. Spirit walked away with 2 gold medals (obedience and agility), a silver medal ("musical squares", which I used as a practice for sending Spirit to "place") and a bronze medal (best trick - she waved hello). But the absolute best part was the agility!!! It was just a tiny bit of a course for shelties who had never done agility, so Spirit definitely had an advantage. But she worked off leash, within 6 feet of other dogs and handlers, and stayed connected to me the whole time. She also allowed me to leash her up afterwards. So, the verdict is - I'M ENTERING HER IN THE TRIAL AT THE END OF JANUARY!!!!!!

Boy do I ever hope I'm not making a mistake on this. I'm trying to keep my expectations low and just have fun, but I really do hope we perform well.
 
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