Today we had our first agility class of 2023 and the first in some time. We have started a new session on Tuesday afternoons at Skyline Agility club with Betsi Hartman. It is a smaller class with several other reactive dogs. I was super concerned going into it today. I was also not very focused as Devyn was being spayed and I simple was not prepared for class. I forgot water and a toy for MeiLi.
First let me say I really enjoyed this class. Betsi had a nice set-up to help us deal with our individual dog issues. The class was organized. There were several options for how to do your dog’s run based on where each team was at in their training. We walked the different courses with Betsi giving us various handling options. We would get to either run the entire course or do half of it twice for each of our turns. I did bring my Go Pro to video but failed to turn it on the first turn and on the second turn it missed the beginning of the course, which of course is where we had our biggest issue.
I was super pleased with MeiLi’s behavior outside the ring while waiting for her turns. She was mostly quiet, and we were able to work on her verbal positioning cues. She was able to watch the other dogs running in the ring without losing her mind. That is a huge improvement from the last couple trials. I had really expected her to be very distracted by a new setting. Clearly the Recallers work is helping.
Our first turn, I had really planned on just working on our start line routine. Figuring that would be a good chance to see where her focus was with this new environment. I was pleasantly surprised as she did her peak, stayed, and even followed direction to do a “pretty” before being released. We did a couple short leads out playing with this new routine. Then we attempted to run the first part of the course. With my running limitations and her speed, the agility part was pretty ugly. She was not listening to her verbal commands but did remain focused on me. I count that as a big fat win. We stopped after tunnel #6 on that turn. The second trip around our part of the course she did improve to the point that I added a few obstacles. We tried to go all the way back to the #9 jump. She skipped the tire and took the tunnel instead of the frame. Again, I was late with commands and so very far behind her. We let the tire go and just to the frame to finish up.
Our second turn the start line fell apart as one of the handlers came into the arena room from the hall as we were setting up and MeiLi totally lost focus. She ran over to that side barking. I did manage to call her back to me, she made a quick bark at Betsi as she returned. So, while we are making progress, she still has a lot of work to do. I ended up giving up on the lead out for the first run this time. Hoping to see if we moved away from the start area if she would re-connect with me. The plan worked and we were able to get a decent run in. These are the two runs I did get on video. Kind of disappointed a missed the first turn and that the camera really was set up poorly and missed the start area.
Overall, I was pleased with our performance. I have things to work on including cleaning up our start routine, working on my mechanics with releasing her. Getting her better committed to her dig and zips with only verbal cues. We are going to need both the lead out and the verbal communication as she is way too fast for me to keep up with. I look forward to next week and to see where this class takes us.
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