When The Cat Ruins Months of Training

Question of the Day:

What does THIS

Sweet, sweet Blossom in a dog crate

And THIS

Sweet, sweet Rip eating his dinner in a tunnel

Have in common?

Let me explain using badly drawn pictures, and a photo or two.

For Christmas, I was lucky enough to get something that had been on my wish list for a long time:

A heavy-duty chute!  From my favorite dog training store J and J Dog.

What more could a girl want?

Rip has already worked on the chute during agility class, but I wanted one at home so I could get a more solid, quick performance on this obstacle.  

I had the chute upstairs to practice in the living room on a daily basis.  The first days went really well - Rip liked the chute and I was able to send him to the obstacle from many different angles and distances.  He seemed happy.

Then, one day, Blossom saw us practicing.  

Rip was happy.

Tail up and wagging.

Ears and head up.

Looking forward to the obstacle.

Blossom watched.

Rip entered the chute, thinking happy thoughts.

Then, like a cat on a mission, Blossom ran to the chute, too.

And then…

Just when Rip was pushing his way through the closed part of the chute…

Blossom pounced on him from behind.

He ran through the rest of the chute,

but would go near it no more.

Head down, ears back, and tail tucked,

 Rip wanted nothing to do with the chute.

Blossom seemed pleased.

I was not pleased.  I now have a dog who, after months of training, REFUSES to go near the chute.  Not just go INTO the chute.  He won't enter the room if the chute is set up.  

I tried clicker training him to get close.  This worked to get him in the room, but didn't work to get him near the chute.  And he still looked unhappy.

So I removed the closed/fabric part of the chute, and started feeding Rip in the open tunnel portion of the obstacle. At first he was even wary of that, but his comfort level is growing. Once he's comfortable with this, I'll add the fabric back and continue to feed him until he's comfortable again.  Then we'll try re-training the obstacle from scratch the very beginning.

Meanwhile, whenever I train Rip now, I put Blossom in the dog crate.  Why?  Not just because of the chute, but because she started to ambush Rip on dumbbell retrieves, and taunt him while we were working on stays.  Don't feel bad for Blossom, though, I only train for 10-15 minutes at a time, and she can watch most of our work from the crate.

So that's what this...

…and this have in common.

Backyard Agility

This weekend we had really nice weather.  Not too hot, not too humid.  Perfect for outdoor activities.  I should have taken the opportunity to do some weeding.  That would have been the “responsible” thing to do.  Instead, The Child and I set up an agility course.

Here's our course for the weekend.  

Lots of work on front crosses.

Using a “Backyard Dog” course from a recent Clean Run magazine, this is the course The Child and I chose.  I would say we both built it, but he lost interest in course building about halfway through.

I love that the open space in my back yard is big enough to accommodate the “Backyard Dog” courses.  These courses are perfect for at-home practice, as they require 40’x50’ worth of open space , and weaves, jumps & tunnels are the only obstacles required.  They can also be run multiple different ways, so one course can stay up for days!

Maggie studies the course.

She seems to be eyeing up the tunnel.

 Each of the dogs got to run the course. 

Ziggy got to run the whole course.  I was impressed that he still remembers how to weave (albeit slowly), and his weave entrances were very good.  He even did a bit of cantering between obstacles.  Unfortunately he decided that a couple of runs were enough.  At that point, he merrily trotted away back to the house – tail up and wagging.  I did bring him back to the course and had him do a short sequence (with lots of praise at the end) before “officially” releasing him.  I don’t want the boy to get the idea that he can dictate the terms of work.

Meanwhile, I had to stash Maggie and Rip in the house.  I tried using an expen as a gate to keep them on the deck.  The two of them were having none of that, and knocked it down straight away to get to the fun…

After Ziggy was done I let Rip out.  Since Rip just turned 1 year old, he’s not doing agility “for real.”  Instead, he and I worked on sending to the tunnel, some “one jump” exercises with the pole on the ground (mainly sending him to the jump), and some flatwork in the form of circles and front crosses.  Needless to say, Rip LOVES agility.  Action!  Food!  Running!

I couldn’t forget about the Old Lady, Maggie.  I mainly couldn’t forget about her because of her incessant “I want to work” barking.  She and I worked on tunnels and a few jumps with the bar laid on the ground.  Maggie loved it, and I loved working with her.  Working with an enthusiastic, well-trained dog just feels good.

Not to be outdone, The Child ran the agility course without a dog.  He jumped over the jumps, went through the tunnel, and weaved.  I was particularly impressed that he got the right weave entrance every time!  I also chuckled because every time The Child went through the tunnel, Rip would spot him and run full tilt into the tunnel.  This resulted in a squeal from The Child as Rip got in more than a few good licks.

A good way to spend an afternoon.

Help wanted: Stalker for Ziggy

My  current training focus with Ziggy is to 

get more of this in the obedience and agility rings:

Shiny, happy Cardi smiling

and less of this

worried, suspicious, don't-stand-so-close-to-me Cardi

(a picture from puppyhood)

Ziggy is becoming more confident in the ring, but he still gets un-nerved when the judge follows him.  Unfortunately this is something judges seem quite likely to do.  It's as if they want to see how the dog is performing or something.  Go figure.  

While I am working on an idea to petition the AKC to get all judges to use binoculars and stand on the edge of the ring instead of walking in the ring, I realize this may take some time.

In the meantime I'm working to change Ziggy's mind, and get him to think that being followed is ok.

To do this, I'm pairing Ziggy being followed with the best treats a Cardi can imagine.  On open training night on Monday, I took the first step and asked one of my fellow club members to follow us around for a couple of minutes.  While we were being followed, Ziggy got a constant stream of "platinum level" treats.

We took our show on the road yesterday and went to PetsMart.  I didn't ask anyone to follow us there (I thought that would be a little weird and might attract the wrong kind of person), but I did give lots of treats when strangers were around, walking near us, etc.  

If I can convince Ziggy that being followed is a good thing, it should help our agility and obedience performances.  It's worth a try, anyway.

The letter for today: F

Today things didn't go quite as I'd planned.  I can sum things up with 3 "F" words:

• Frustrating
• Fail
• Fun

I was thinking of a 4th F word, but decided to leave that one out...

FRUSTRATING

This sums up our Standard run.  The run started off a little shaky - the second obstacle was the dog walk, and the judge was hovering very close to Ziggy, which made him so nervous that he slowed to a walk.  I had to cheer A LOT to get him down.  The next six obstacles (a few jumps, weaves, teeter, table) were lovely.

Then we came to a tunnel.  Corgis love tunnels.  Ziggy loves tunnels.  So why did he stop and start barking?!?  After 3 refusals (and lots of barking), I finally got him in the tunnel.  He did the next jump and chute ok, but was goosey and barky after the chute (a hold-over from yesterday?), and had a refusal at the A-Frame (another of his favorite obstacles).  

As I was going back to try the A-Frame again,  we got whistled off the course for going over time.  It was more like putting us out of our misery, really.

I cannot explain how frustrated I was.  Ziggy was scared/goosey for about half of course.  Scared of the judge following closely.  Scared of the ring crew.  Scared of the tunnel.  Where do I go with this boy?

I couldn't quite figure out what happened with the tunnel.  Then a friend of mine came over to offer condolences - particularly about the tunnel.  Apparently a dog crated right behind the tunnel was unattended and barking it's head off (I couldn't hear this over Z's barking).  My friend's comment was, "I can understand him being scared of a barky tunnel.  Who would go in something small, dark, and barky?"  I felt better that at least I knew what happened.  

Jumpers was next and Z was still nervous, so I grabbed some turkey, and took him all around outside the ring (including near the barky tunnel - but of course the owner had shut her dog up by then).  My hope was to calm him down a bit.  It seemed to work ok, and I decided to take him in for Jumpers.

FAIL

Anyone who has scribed in Agility knows that when the judge holds up both of their hands (like they're signaling the #10) that's a Fail.  No fails allowed.  Fails can come from things like knocked bars and uncorrected wrong courses.  Nobody wants a fail.

That's what Z and I got in Jumpers, though.  He had the second fence down.  He was still a little nervous, and just didn't judge the double jump right.

The rest of the course was ok.  He was slow, but not as nervous as in Standard (no scared barking!), so at least we ended the day on a better note.  

FUN

I wish I could say that it was Ziggy and I having the fun, but not so today.  Instead it was Rip who had the fun!  I brought him to the trial again for socialization.  He had a great time (over-enthusiastically) greeting many people and dogs.

As a bonus, I found one of the Samoyed women.  She was done with her run, and chatting with a friend.  I asked her if her dog was friendly, and if my crazy puppy could say hello.  She said yes to both (thank you, Samoyed woman!), so Rip got to visit.   The Samy was indeed friendly.  The lovely white dog let Rip sniff, leap, and even gave a couple of play bows.  No crazy alert barking from Rip today.  Only fun, fun, fun with Samoyed!

So that's it for our first trial weekend.  I'm left with lots of work to do.  Somehow I have to figure out how to help Ziggy get over his nervousness of people following him, and of the ring crew.  This dog is determined to teach me things I never really wanted to learn.

Double Q! Beginners luck?

Woo hoo!  It's 2 blues!

Ziggy did a very nice job today at his first-ever agility trial.  He qualified in both Standard and Jumpers, and took first place in both classes -- what a way to start an agility career!

I took Taryn's advice, and had a friend video both of Z's "inaugural" runs.  

Standard

Here's our first run - Novice Standard 8" Preferred.  We were the only dog in our class, and the second dog in the ring.  Ziggy was doing quite a lot of looking around (why is this strange man following me?  why are these people standing by the dog walk?), causing him to be even slower than usual (and that's saying something).  

For those of you who enjoy a bit of Cardi-induced humor, hang on until the last jump.  The woman who is straightening the chute decides to straighten it before we've finished the last jump.  Ziggy was not a pleased.

We ended the Standard run just under 1 second over course time, with one refusal for 95 points.

Jumpers

Next was Novice Jumpers 8" Preferred.  I was pleased with Z's performance, particularly since his Standard run ended on a less-than-stellar note.  His one refusal was the jump that the bar setter who "ran after him" in the previous class was sitting by.  Putting myself between this suspect character and Ziggy seemed to do the trick.  We ended just over one second over course time, with one refusal for 94 points.  The other dog in the class NQ'd (failed to qualify thanks to more than one wrong course), so we ended up in first place again!

For those of you who are still awake after watching our Standard run, here's Jumpers:

Other highlights from today include:

• Ziggy ruining yet another soft crate in an attempt to escape.  Mild-mannered Ziggy is the only dog I've had that can escape from a crate if it's not all the way "locked down," or tear his way out if it is, but it's a soft crate.  Guess I'll get to lug the wire crate around from now on.  ugh.
• Rip barking furiously at a pair of Samoyeds.  What ARE those things!?!  Rip never did calm down about the Samy's - I had to move him away so they were out of sight.  Guess I need to socialize him better with white, fluffy dogs?
• A friend (who knows both Z and Rip) commenting to me after Ziggy's run, "It's going to be a LOT different for you to run Rip in agility."  Yes indeed it is.

Coming Tomorrow: Ziggy's Agility Debut

Tomorrow Ziggy is entered in his first ever agility trial!

We'll be competing in Novice Agility - 8" Preferred - Jumpers and Standard on both Saturday and Sunday.

It's our hometown trial, and he's been in the facility many times, so I'm hoping for the best from my lazy boy. (fingers crossed)

I'll let you know how it goes!

A new AKC agility title! (one that Ziggy will never earn)

 Today the AKC announced a new agility titling class:  Time to Beat.

In this class, the "most accurate, quickest dog sets the pace."

Ziggy says, "Quick and accurate?  Who needs that?"

It's the quickest part that throws Ziggy and I out of contention.  Z and I are scheduled for a trial at the end of this month, and I'm quite worried about making the Novice Preferred course time...

The T2B class sounds like fun to run, though -- like a Jumpers With Weaves class with some contact obstacles thrown in.

Did any of you participate in the trial/exhibition runs for this event?  If so, was it as fun as it seems?

Maybe in a couple of years I'll have a T2B candidate...

Rip says, "That quick part sounds like lots of fun.

Maybe wild snow frapping will help me prepare!"

Ziggy: the 15 minute dog

This week in agility class, we had 15 minutes to practice on our own on the equipment before class started. Ziggy was a lovely boy.  Happy, wagging, and enthusiastic (well, enthusiastic for Ziggy).  Eager to work, even.

Then Z had a break while we handlers walked our practice course.  When it was our turn to run the course, Ziggy was LAZY - trotting slowly around, barely making it over the jumps, etc.  Not really a pleasure to run.

At the end of class one of my classmates mentioned that we should consider extending class.  "Wouldn't an hour and a half - long class be great?!?" she exclaimed.  My other classmates agreed.  One of them chiming in that, "My dog would love a 3 hour class!"

This got me thinking.  Ziggy's ideal class time:  15 minutes.

The only thing Ziggy would really like to do for 3 hours is this:

This time I'm a bit sad to say that I agree with Kristine

Denzil doing agility back in the "good old days."

Note that he's so keen to compete that the fur on his back is up..

It's not that I didn't enjoy her article in this month’s Clean Run magazine, it's just that I wish it weren't true.  In her article titled “Has Agility Gone the Way of Obedience?” Kristine talks about the increasing competitiveness of agility - how it used to be a sport where everybody cheered for everyone else, but that’s not so true anymore.  Now people have handling systems, ways to train that are “better” than others, and are often less than supportive of their fellow competitors.  There's just not as much camaraderie as there used to be.

If you’d asked me a few weeks ago, I might have disagreed.  But after a couple of things I’ve experienced lately, I’m not so sure. 

Situation One:  Ugly Competitors

About a month ago, I was bar setter at our agility trial.  My area of the course included the double jump, the triple jump, and a high/plank jump on a curve.  I figured this would mean a lot of jumps down and a lot of action for me.  Unfortunately, only one competitor in all of the Excellent class had any of those jumps down.  One of my friends joked that I was like the Maytag Repairperson.

All of this free time did provide me ample opportunity to eavesdrop on the competitors sitting near my end of the ring.  I’ve gotta say that much of what I heard appalled me.  This particular group of folks started by chatting about their breed of dog, and the philosophy behind some upcoming breedings they had planned.  This was interesting not because I like their chosen breed, but dog talk is usually fun and informative.  Why not learn new things when eavesdropping?

Then they turned their conversation to the other competitors, and it wasn’t kind.  They talked about how some people shouldn’t even bother coming in the ring because they aren’t competitive, how “well, she trains with so-and-so,” the like. They also seemed to enjoy maligning other breeds.  We have a multi-MACH Cardi in our area.  I paid particular attention to what they said while she was in the ring.  They really liked this dog (how could you not – she has MACH’s and she runs like it), but then one of them said something like, “That’s the only corgi I’ve seen that isn’t fat and slow and who should be running agility.”  GRRR.  If I’d been feeling more cranky I would have said something, or “accidently” dropped an extra plank from the high jump on their toes.

Situation Two:  My training philosophy is right (meaning yours isn’t)

I am training Ziggy to do the weaves.  Ziggy does pretty much everything slow. Unless he's chasing a squirrel or guarding our house from the neighborhood dogs, Ziggy sees no need to do things quickly.  I'm trying to train him to be at least somewhat quick through the poles, so I’m training using channel weaves.  It seems to be working pretty well.  He’s happy, reliable with his weave entries, and brisk through the poles.  

The woman who’s teaching the agility class I’m in uses a different method.  In the spirit of learning a new training technique, I tried to practice in class using her method, but Z just didn’t get it.  That’s ok – maybe if I’d started that way from the beginning it would work – but at this point I’m determined to see the channel weave method through.  Anyway, she mentions to me that “no top trainers” are using channel weaves anymore, and that dogs trained this way just learn to run parallel to the poles.  I was a bit taken aback. 

Just because I choose a different training method doesn’t mean that one of us has to be wrong.  There are many ways to train agility obstacles (and I have many of the DVD's to prove it!).  What works for one dog/handler combo might not work for another.  I’m always looking for the best way to train my dog so that we both have fun and we complete the course safely and cleanly.  I guess maybe I missed the memo about right and wrong handling systems and obstacle training methods.

So yeah, I guess things have changed in the agility world.  It's not too bad for me, though - maybe it’s because I'm not a world contender (heck, I run my dogs in 8” Preferred – how competitive can I be?), or that I don’t live or compete in any of the big metropolitan areas - so far I've been able to keep myself out of the worst of the political fray at trials.  My dogs and I still enjoy the sport, and I have a group of friends from the area who are still happy to watch each other do well. 

I know a lot of you are fellow agility folks.  What’s the trial atmosphere like in your areas?

Ziggy cantered in agility!

(this photo has nothing to do with cantering or agility, but it does show Ziggy in his favorite place - the sofa)

Ziggy and I continue to take agility class on Wednesday nights.  Z has lots of fun in agility class and has even started to pull on the leash to get into the building (demonstrating that perhaps he's even interested in what's going on inside).  During class he throws his tail in the air and trots happily along - this is his pace.  A pace so slow that it's NQ-worthy.  

He moved from the beginner class to the intermediate class for this session.  In this class we work on short sequences. In all of our classes, Ziggy has been SLOW - especially with the jumping and transitions between obstacles. Trot, trot, trot, wag, wag, trot.... 

At home we've been doing skills and obstacle practice to increase his confidence - jump grids, sending to the tunnel & chute, teeter, table.  Today it seemed like it was actually paying off.  His send to the tunnel was great, which allowed me to run ahead on course - he came out of the tunnel cantering and even cantered around the entirety of the last two sequences we did.  Good boy (he got LOTS of praise & string cheese)!!  A big change from previous weeks.

It also reinforced to me that for the next set of classes we need to focus on sending skills, and obstacle understanding.  He is a dog that goes faster when he feels more confident.  So, starting in early March, it's a new class a little closer to the basics.  

Ziggy may never be a MACH dog (he's going to run 8" Preferred anyway) - but at least we seem to be on our way into "Q" territory!  And he remains happy along the way.

Pictures from Maggie training Z

In my last post, I mentioned that I'd try to take the camera with me the next time Maggie trained Ziggy on the agility equipment.  And, hey, I actually remembered to do it!

Before you go any further, I need to issue a disclaimer:  The photos aren't the best.  One - I need to learn how to use my camera properly (who knew there were so many settings that one could mess up?!?).  Two - it's hard to take photos while sending two dogs across agility equipment.  Well, hard for me anyway.  Perhaps photography is not my "fall back" career....

Here's some of the fun!

First, set both dogs up in the proper order (fast, confident Maggie first):

Next send them over the lowered dog walk:

Oh, a little slow with camera.   Try to get them running toward the camera.

Almost got the shot.  But look how quick they are!

Missed again.  Ziggy didn't quite keep up on this one.

I threw the ball for Maggie so she kicked it into high gear.

But look, Ziggy took the lead this time!  Brave boy.

This one was not set up.  Ziggy just decided it would be fun to run the dog walk again!

Ok, how about taking a rest on the table?

I must admit that Z has a better table performance than M.

I can send him from further away and he has an "automatic" down.

Maybe I am learning something as the years go by...

Now let's do the A-Frame.

This was a "spontaneous" one as well - note how Ziggy still has his toy in his mouth.

And finally, a cute picture of Maggie.  She wants to know why the play has ended.

Can't we go just one more time?  Please....

Maggie's a better agility trainer than I am.

Recently I've been reading my unread back issues of Front & Finish and Clean Run magazines, and have read a few articles about dogs learning from one another.  Certainly I've noticed that the dogs learn things from one another around the house (Maggie taught the boys that "comeonin" means come in from the outside, for instance).  I guess I've just never thought to much about the dogs learning agility or obedience from one another.

I am lucky enough to have the week between Christmas and New Year's off.  I'm also lucky enough to have "off-hours" access to our local kennel club building, so I've been taking advantage of these things to do some agility training during the break.  Maggie, Ziggy, and I have gone down to the club building to have some fun.  I'm mainly there to work with Ziggy, but I can't resist doing a bit of running with my agility "retiree" Maggie.

Since I had Maggie there, I thought I'd try the "learning from each other" training out on some agility obstacles.

I started by taking Maggie over the obstacles, through the weaves, and over a few jumps.  She was happy, quick, and enthusiastic!  I had Ziggy tied up so that he could see the whole thing.

Then I worked a bit with Z - mainly the channel weaves.

After Z had done a bit of work, I worked Maggie and Ziggy together.   Not a full course, but some obstacle training.  This worked WONDERS!!

Ziggy knows how to do the dog walk and A-Frame,working at lowered heights but he's very leisurely about the whole thing.  He has this cute little trot that he likes to maintain.  A great trot if you need to trot along after livestock all day.  Not so great for agility.  Maggie, on the other hand is fast on the obstacles - especially the dog walk (it's her favorite obstacle.  If she could have a whole course of dog walks she'd be one happy corgi).

First we tried the tunnel.  I lined Maggie up first, then put Z in a sit stay behind her.  I sent them both to the tunnel, and had a ball that I threw when they started to come out.  Both of them were fast through the tunnel, with no hesitation from Ziggy at all.

Next we did the dog walk.  Same set up - Maggie first, then Ziggy.  Maggie blasted over the dog walk and Ziggy galloped right along behind her.  This was the first time he'd actually run across the entire dog walk!  We did this a few more times - adding the ball as a reward at the end.  Ziggy ran almost every time.

We then did the lowered A-Frame, the chute, more tunnels, and the tire jump with Maggie as the leader. All went well, and all of us seemed to enjoy it.

We worked at the same things today.  I even let Z take the lead on some of the obstacles and he did great - the leisurely trot only made an appearance once.

I know that a few sessions won't take Ziggy from beginner to perfect overnight, but it does seem to be giving him more confidence on the obstacles.  My theory is that lack of confidence is what causes a lot of his slowness (as he's become more confident at the obedience exercises he's gotten quicker, anyway...) so I hope that the Maggie training will help.

If nothing else, it's alot of fun for all of us!

(I keep forgetting my camera, but I'll try to remember to bring it tomorrow so I can get some "tandem agility" pics)

Chute Teeter

Thanks to my travel schedule (India + 2 more short trips this month), right now I'm not taking any training classes.  Sometimes  I go a bit "adrift" when I'm traveling a lot and not taking classes, but I'm trying to change that.

So what am I doing?  I've decided to concentrate on Ziggy until the next set of classes starts up.  To improve his agility preparedness, I'm working on a few obstacles that are easy to work on in the basement (the frost and short days have come to the Midwest, making it hard to train outside).  The obstacles we're working on:  Chute, Teeter & Tunnels

Chute
Ziggy was really not a big fan of the chute in his beginning class.  He never got to the point of doing this obstacle without someone holding the chute open.  And, being a Cardi, he was suspicious of that woman at the end of the chute (just what is she up to?), so went slow, to boot.  In the past, this has been an obstacle I've struggled to train at home, as holding the chute open requires a helper.  I love them dearly, but The Husband and The Child are really not the best training helpers (Husband = disintersted; Child = unreliable and easily distracted).  So what's a girl to do?

I was stumped until I ran across a short article in Clean Run magazine.  The author suggested using a collapsible  yard waste bin to hold the chute open.  Great idea!  And, it involves a trip to Lowes - what could be better?

Unfortunately, Lowes didn't have a collapsible yard waste bin.  So I decided to wander around the store to see if anything else would work.  After much time wandering (I'm easily distracted in Lowes - so many things we could do to the house!), I figured it out - a rope handled utility tote! (found in the storage aisle near the trash cans):

I brought the tote home and cut the bottom out of it using a utility knife w/ a new blade.  I then cut the rim off of half the top so it wouldn't sit up so high.

Finally, I used duct tape of of the cut edges to make sure that the Cardis (or The Child) didn't get snagged/cut/injured on the cut plastic.  Or maybe I did it because I just love duct tape.  You decide.

Here's what it looks like "installed" in the chute.  I'm using the sandbags to keep it from shifting too much (it still does a bit, but not enough to bug the Z), and the small clamp to keep the fabric from shifting.

Here's the "full chute" view:

The tote can be moved with the sandbags (or shifted more into the tail of the chute - towards the entrance) to open the chute up more - giving the Cardi a more clear view of where they're going.

Here's a Cardi-eye view with the chute mostly collapsed:

So how is it working?  REALLY well.  I took Ziggy downstairs and did a few clicks & treats (throwing the treats a bit forward into the chute) when he showed interest in the chute entrance.  After a few times of that, he ran right through!  I clicked when he hit resistance from the top of the chute, and treated when he made his way out.  Ziggy already likes the tunnel, and I think being able to see "daylight" at the end made him more confident.

After a few tries with it open, I slowly moved the tote at the end so that no daylight could be seen, and Ziggy had to push his way through a few feet of chute.  He was happy and smiling and wagging the whole time, so we quit there for the day.  I plan to work on it a bit every day, slowly moving the tote until he can push all the way through.  What fun!

Teeter

Ziggy and I are continuing the work we were doing in class.  We're working with a lowered teeter (you can see how high it is in the background of the 2nd to last photo - behind the chute - we've worked our way up to this height).  I've adjusted the teeter so that it doesn't pop back into position after the dog is done.  This allows us to run (what fun it is to go fast over the teeter!) back and forth over the teeter.  We're working on this so that Ziggy gets used to the banging and the dropping motion of the teeter, all while continuing to move on the teeter (instead of stopping at the middle & riding it down).  Z has always gotten clicks & treats on the teeter, so he thinks this is really cool.

Maggie had a slow teeter performance.  She was VERY consistent and seemed to enjoy it, but she stopped shortly after the pivot point to let the teeter go to the ground before she'd move again.  This is my fault (I trained her this way) not hers.  I didn't want to make the same mistake with Ziggy, and lose precious time on obstacles, so I'm trying a different method this time.

If I ever get more of the basement cleaned out, I'll start working on jump grids again.  I'll let you know when I get that done....

Ziggy graduated!

Yesterday was our last day of our second go at beginning agility class.  We were on the borderline, but based on our performance last night, Ziggy gets to move up to the next class!

His accomplishments this time around:
* Much improved at front & rear crosses on the flat
* Driving well (using his hindquarters to push) over a slightly lowered A Frame
* Jumping skills much improved (we've been working on this at home)
* Faster through the bent weaves - and can complete all 12 reliably off leash

Where we didn't make much progress:
* We're still unsure of the chute  (I finally bought more tunnel bags so we can start to use the one I have at home)
* The dog walk - Ziggy loves the dog walk, but won't go faster than a cute little trot

The best part of it, though, is that Ziggy really enjoys his agility time.  He's still a slow dog (I expect that more speed will come with practice --> confidence), but he trots around with his tail up in the air, wagging back and forth.  And isn't that why we do this, anyway?

Beginners again

So this week was Ziggy's next-to-last class for beginning agility.  His performance this week was much improved.   I think this is due to him gaining confidence in what's expected, me having the furry squeaker stashed in my pocket for spontaneous reward/play, and - oh - perhaps a little bit about the leftover steak that I cut up as treats.

The instructor is planning what classes to run next session, and was providing us with guidance on who got to "graduate."  While our instructor was impressed with Ziggy's progress over the last 8 weeks, it isn't enough to earn our way into the next level up.  So beginners here we come, again! 

This really is the right move for Z, as he needs to continue to build confidence, and I certainly don't want to ruin what I've got.  Also, I have limited time to practice (job, family, remodel, yardwork...), so our progress is bound to be a bit slow.

Here's where Ziggy is so far:

• Loves the table (who wouldn't love jumping up 8", laying down & getting a treat!)\
• Loves the not-yet-full-height teeter
• Likes the tunnels, but we need more speed
  
• Likes the low-height dog walk, and starting to canter across it
  
• Not so fond of the A-Frame (not a very corgi-friendly obstacle), but running over a 5' version pretty well
  
• Looking straight ahead - but moving slowly - through 12 bent weave poles
  
• Becoming a more confident jumper
  
• Learning his flatwork well
  

I'm anxious to see what improves in the next session......

 ....and Ziggy's looking forward to more fun & treats!

"I think we need to work on his drive...."

... Or so my agility instructor tells me last night.  Followed by:  "We won't turn him into a border collie overnight, but we really need to build his want."

What, Ziggy needing more drive?  Shocking!?!

And so I begin in earnest.  How do I discover what will really motivate this boy?  Carrying around a live squirrel would work, but somehow that doesn't seem feasible.

So I turn to the experts.  This weekend:  Sylvia Bishop.  I've audited her clinic.  I've bought the DVD's.  Time to watch them.  I'll let you know how it goes....