Last Tunnels Class

I had quite the busy day yesterday.  I spent the morning at the training school helping out with an open agility event.  I didn't run either of my dogs though.  Gidget had a cough earlier in the week so she took a week off to recover and make sure she's not going to pass anything on to any of her agility buddies.  Gracie just isn't quite ready for that kind of event yet, there were too many obstacles she hasn't seen yet: panel jump, double and triple jumps, tire, full height contacts, and 12 weave poles.  It was fun to watch so many dogs, some I knew and some I didn't, and some different handler methods.  There was one handler that made me kind of sad with how she scolded her dogs for every mistake they made, from breaking a stay to knocking a bar.  The dogs wanted to please but seemed scared into doing so.  Not that I've never scolded my dogs, Gracie certainly knows how to help me lose my temper, but I don't like it when I do so and try to avoid it.  I certainly think agility should be all fun and have never angrily scolded them for messing up there.  They hear "oops" and "try again" a lot and probably even more "sorry, my bad" when I mess up, but not much else.  The one handling issue I noticed was several dogs being over zelous on the teeter and just about flying off.  The teeter was at a sharp left turn from a tunnel and several handlers use a front cross to the teeter.  I think this blocked the dogs' view of the teeter so they weren't prepared once they were on it.  Most of the dogs that were turned to the teeter with a post turn had a much better performance.  I had walked the course just for fun and when I tried the front cross there it did occur to me that I'd be blocking my dog's view of the teeter.  Hopefully being able to see that will keep me out of trouble in the future.

After a run home for lunch and to get Gracie, it was back to school to help with tear down and Gracie's last tunnels class!  We did sequences the whole time.  They started with just 3 obstacles and we worked our way up to 8 obstacles.  The biggest challenge involved 2 parallel tunnels and using a post turn to send the dog from one to the other without having to move all the way to the ends of the tunnels.  This allows the handler more time to get back to the end of the second tunnel for a front cross or other handling move.  I had 2 problems with this, not facing my dogs path and standing still.  My first attempt I turned too far toward the second tunnel and Gracie came between the tunnels to me instead of going into the second tunnel.  I had to face her path toward the entrance of the second tunnel in order to send her there.  Once I had that part fixed I stopped moving when I got into position.  Gracie figured out where to go, but hesitated not knowing if she should keep moving since I had stopped moving.  I just had to remember to keep some part of me moving, even just my arm, to keep her moving.  We figured it out pretty well by the end of class.  So now there are no more Sat. classes for Gracie.  The next Sat. class is contacts which Gracie is already in on Wed. plus we're coming up on travel/wedding/trial season for us so we'll be home fewer and fewer weekends til next year.  Gracie will be finishing up contacts and starting weaves in a few weeks here and there are still the drop in jumps classes that she can do.  Beginner agility class should be just a few months away for her!  Happy agility!