This Week in Classes

Gracie had another fun contacts class on Wed.  The goal of class was to get the dogs used to different surfaces, movements, and sounds.  There were some boards propped up on tables so that they resembled a low dog walk, except one of the sloped boards was at a right angle to the other two.  There was a small wobble board on a bigger toy so that it wobbled a lot.  Finally, there was a mini teeter board, a teeter sized board that only tips a few inches and makes a decent bang noise.  Gracie did great on the mini dog walk and wobble board and was showing a good beginner understanding of her "bottom" behavior, 2-on-2-off, though we still have a lot of work to do on that.  She had a little trouble with the mini teeter board.  I didn't think the bang would bother her much, so little does bother her.  It did throw her off a little, but a couple treats as soon as she banged the board and she was flying over it.  They did put an A-frame panel in place of one of the boards on the mini dog walk toward the end of class.  It was just to get the dogs used to yet another surface and width.  Gracie did have one paying too much attention to me issue.  We were heading toward the mini teeter board, she didn't look ahead and tripped right over it.  I need to remember to tell her something is coming up.  Just after this though, she did look ahead to see the mini dog walk and drove towards it on her own.

Gidget's class had a nice jumpers course set up.  Our goal for the night was speed and our first two runs were very speedy!  Our instructor even sounded impressed!  It was fun running full out with Gidget.  She did really well too, got her weaves perfectly on her first try, didn't get thrown off by my excessive front cross (now I seem to be using them too much), and followed me pretty darn well.  I had to remember certain places to decelerate a little, before the weaves and for pinwheels since she has to run further than me.  I could tell that a few runs wore us out a bit as we were making a few mistakes on our last run, a little slower, missed weaves, nothing major, but noticeable.  I'm going to try to take up running with the dogs this spring/summer so maybe that will help our endurance.  It's been a long day, so hopefully I've remembered the important stuff.  Time for some rest!  Happy agility!