Agility Week Two

Once again Savvy proved how awesome he is in class last night. We worked on new obstacles (although he has already seen jumps and tunnels, he has never seen the ladder before) and he went through everything with ease. Carolyn even called him a show-off. :-)

I'm so proud though because he got to do the demo for the rear cross. Carolyn was very adamant about how we were doing the flatwork because it is so important. So we practiced without the dogs and then she told us to try it with the dogs. I had already practiced the flatwork with him prior to starting class, so thankfully I had refreshed my memory, :-) I started trying the rear cross with him and Carolyn said how great I was doing, and then told everyone else to stop and watch me because I had some experience with this. At one point Savvy tricked me and didn't do a 180 like he was supposed to and I simply went back, lured a little lower and he did it perfectly. Carolyn pointed out what I did and complimented that as well. :-)

We worked on introducing some obstacles, the ladder, jumps, and the barrel of the chute (w/o the fabric on it). Savvy took all of it in stride. The only thing he was a little funny with is the ladder. He hadn't seen one before and that didn't bother him at all, but he is so uncoordinated that he just couldn't walk through it very easily. He did wonderfully, but would hop through half the time, or only put his front feet in part of the time, pretty typical of the first try with the ladder, but it was funny to watch. Of course he went running over to Carolyn while she was sitting on the floor to say hi and was licking and zooming around her like he does, and of course he peed on the floor, but it was funny to watch, and I'm just so happy to have a dog that is so happy all the time.

It was an awesome class and I'm so proud of my little Savvins. I really think that once he gets the drive for it and starts showing more interest in the obstacles and being challenged a little bit he's going to be awesome.

So our homework for this week is:

1) keep working on targeting from all angles
2) keep working on heeling on the right
3) start working on our flatwork (front and rear crosses on the flat)
4) walking through ladders
5) spinning on both sides
6) board work - click only back feet on board, if he offers 2 on 2 off click and feed in that position