Leapin’ Labs

Tonight we started yet another round of Agility for Mr. Midas. He was a bit loud because one of the intact males that had been missing from the last round was back again tonight. Logan is a lovely black lab and Midas has no reason to be so obnoxious, yet he was. *sigh*

Tonight was a bunch of small stations that were extremely tight and extremely difficult to maneuver to. They were supposed to demonstrate control of our dogs but I just realized that Midas has picked up some nasty new habits. He is starting to anticipate what I want and go to that obstacle before I give a command, especially if I’m a tad too slow. He is also starting to back-jump, or go back over/on an obstacle when we are heading somewhere else – which is a HUGE no-no for agility trials . Oh well, keeps me on my toes I suppose.

We were on the dog walk a lot – he is flying over his contacts on the entrance to it, but that’s ok so I’m letting it slide. His Wait command is a little rusty so we worked on that tonight too – it was more like a Pause command.

From the dog walk we went over a variety of jumps. Sometimes we went over one, sometimes two and sometimes there was a very tight turn and sometimes a nice straight run – this maximizes the dogs’ attention on their handlers because they never know where we’re going to go next.

Because of the difficulty of the stations, there was a lot of waiting time while other dogs/handlers struggled to master each one.

We moved on to weaves next. Normally, Midas doesn’t hit the weaves until he’s expended quite a bit of energy on-course. Today, we spent a lot more time in tight quarters, involving more thinking than moving. So, when we moved onto the weaves – he flew through and kept popping out. We had to practice over and over. I know he knows what to do but he was just ready to move on – too bad for him haha.

Last we switched to some tunnel and oddly-angled regular jump and broad jump work. He did terrific on this, so it was a good end to the class

Tonight class was…interesting. There is one person in every class who does not pay proper attention to their dog. In this case, a poodle named Ginger. She attempted to attack Mason as soon as we walked in the door. It seems that as class has progressed, so has her reactiveness. Which is fine, if the owner recognized this and even tried to deal with it, which she doesn’t. Sweet Ginger is frequently free to follow and growl at Mason any time he is in her vicinity…

Anyway.

We started off class with a down/stay. Which Mason has seriously gone down-hill on. We’ll have to go back and practice this again. He broke twice and I ended up standing on his lead so that he had no choice but to lay down and stay. This was before that though:

Then we moved onto to the different stations. We chose the Weaves first. Mason does quite well on them in the backyard and tonight there was a set of six ready for us (with no guides, I might add ):

Mason nailed them about 90% of the time.

Next we worked on the Tire jump. He was hitting it with is feet in the beginning but quickly got the hang of it:

Then we switched to a series of jumps, there were two in a row and we had to work on both sides, both ways and calling off of the second one:

We did the dog walk next, he didn’t like it. He shook like a leaf (although no hesitation what-so-ever in following me) and clearly had no idea where his rear end was, but he made it through – we did it several times until he nailed it and had a solid Wait at the end:

We moved to the Broad jump after that, I was sure he would step one of the panels as he’s a little bit of a lazy jumper, but he did great:

(his eyes in this photo are funny)

The collapsed tunnel is no longer reason for any hesitation and he flew straight through perfectly:

Even running when he realized that I was going to add a jump to the end

Then we even added the table to the end of that – we need to work on Stays really bad!

We also need to work on gently grabbing treats, even in the heat of the moment:

The A-frame posed no issues, and he’s really getting the Wait command down pat, he’s becoming faster the more sure of himself he gets:

Then we added the A-frame with the Tire – which was really cool, he’s learning to wait for treats longer and doing well:

My favorite exercise involved the tunnel though. We walked by in a Heel, off-lead and I would randomly send him in, not every time we passed by and not in the same side every time. He did awesome at it, his heel was perfect and he never went in without the command!

Our last set was a circle series of jumps…that he was horrible at. He always knocked a bar. So, we had to take a little time to make him learn to pop his jumps a little higher:

He caught on

Then we all took turns running a mini course of our own devices. We chose as long as we tried to hit as many obstacles as possible. Mason got some great compliments about being fast (who would’ve thought!) and nailing the weaves! It was great!!! He was good while we waited our turn too:

I went to Agility class tonight a little sad, as it was our last one. Then when we got there, I found out that it wasn’t – we actually could sign up for 8 more weeks. But, I don’t know if that’s necessarily a good thing because eventually school is going to start and I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up with weekly 1.5-hour class .

Anyway, class tonight was fun . Midas was a little loud and jumpy – he bopped both of Michelle’s Goldens in the face with his stupid nose, but they didn’t know what to make of that so nothing happened. Then he was terrific the rest of the time, even lying right next to them and other dogs having toys and everything.

We started out doing a circle of jumps with the table at the end. The trick is that now we are adding the words Left and Right to our command, hoping the dog’s will learn directions.

The next station was a series of 6 weaves and then the teeter – both things Midas needs to work on. The difference? The guides are finally off the weaves!!! Yay! Midas did them about 50/50 perfectly .

This was the first time that I asked him to do the teeter on his own, without physically slowing him down. He responded quite well to my Wait command when he was at the point where it goes down, then he noticed the treats – which he promptly knocked off in his excitement (cheese):

But, either way, we’ve now transitioned to him doing it on his own

After the teeter I sent him in front of me to a jump in the corner:

Where I then had to call him back (not back over the jump, but past it) and up the dog walk. Every time he cleared the jump he twisted to the right, clearly expecting me to go that way and I had to turn him back to the left and the dog walk. This would be a good spot to use the directional commands…

We practiced that series several times:

Our next series was the collapsed tunnel, an extremely tight turn to the broad jump and then another regular jump. Oh! All the jumps were set at 23″ tonight too

He actually jumped the broad jump instead of stepping on it this time!

Here we are, getting the explanation for the next group, obviously I’m tired already:

The next station involved the A-frame and then sending them through a tunnel, at the opposite end than they would be inclined to go:

Then through the Tire jump – Midas and I struggled with this, my handling skills were sub-par and I had a hard time getting him lined up properly from the tunnel to the tire .

After that, each handler had to stand on a target (yellow dot) and send their dogs in a figure eight pattern over two jumps. At first it was really difficult as he didn’t want to go that far from me, and at an angle. But, we got it:

Check out those muscles!!!!

That was pretty much the end of class. All 12 weaves were set up for anyone that wanted to try them. I decided to send Midas through on a whim…

And he did them!!! All 12!!!! How awesome is that?!?!

I was ecstatic!

He was so happy that I was so happy that I decided to send him on the teeter a half dozen times – and he nailed that too!!! Yay Midas!!!

What a fantastic “last” class!

Mason and I were solo at Agility class again tonight. It was a fun class, we worked on stations again and I really enjoy just him and I tackling one after the other. First we did 4 jumps in a row, me on either side of him and running both ways. He screwed up only once but did great the other times. The tire jump was smoother this time, he is having some problems with his sit/stay though, we need to practice that!

Next we moved onto the collapsed tunnel – he shot through with no problems! He seems to have forgotten he was nervous last time. I love that about him, once he’s done it, it’s old news and he can do it over and over. We did the regular tunnel next with no issues. I even practiced standing in the middle of the two entrances (or exits depending on how you look at it) and sending him with a hand motion. His biggest problem is anticipating and leaping to do what I’m going to ask before I actually do.

He did fine on the weaves, although I’m not really enjoying sending him through the shorter ones when I know he has the concept and we just need to practice. The A-frame was new tonight, he never had an issue. He nailed his wait commands at the contact points too. The dog walk was smooth and simple, same for the contacts. He’s got the Wait command down, I can leave a treat on the target and he won’t touch it unless I tell him to.

Then we all got to run a mini course. It was pretty neat, I don’t remember starting out the courses this early with Midas. We struggled with our teamwork because we hardly worked off-lead during the stations, especially over the jumps, he was unsure of what I was asking but he sure tried. We started off with a tire jump and a very sharp turn to the 4 jumps in a row (that’s where we struggled), he did fine on those, he walked the dog walk and the A-frame fine, but broke his Wait on the A-frame. Next was the table, which we didn’t get to practice beforehand. He was a little hesitant getting up there but stayed in a down just fine and then into the tunnel was rough, he was going to fast and didn’t catch my command fast enough but he got it. Overall, I’m very proud of him!

Another great night with Midas. He was rather loud but given the opportunity would rather behave then thrash around at the other dogs. I attribute his loudness at the beginning of class with being amped up and ready to go!

We had stations set up again. A tricky series of jumps, at awkward angles and including the tire jump and the collapsed tunnel. I went through twice to figure out the best/cleanest way to do it, and the way we were told was definitely easier. It was still difficult – it was tight and close and I had to call Midas back from going to fast a couple of times but he is so intune with me when we’re working that it was actually fairly smooth.

The next station we worked on included the weaves, which he’s really starting to get the hang of. Instead of having my hand right in his face, I was able to just go next to him repeating the command, which is progress!

We had one station with the dog walk, a tight turn to the A-frame and then the table. He did super on that, no problems at all. Another station involved calling them off of a couple of jumps, including one that faced right into the tunnel – he never even glanced over at it once the command was made!

The teeter was incorporated and we still had to take it slow, I’m still using heavy pressure on his collar but he seemed to have slowed down a tad coming off the end, which is terrific. At the end of the class, we ran the course, the first time we were doing amazingly good, until I directed him at the wrong jump and cut off 1/3 of the course . Oops.

Then we had to start over again, he was antsy on the table and we had a couple of breaks and then I was bad at signaling the jump. We finally got it though. He’s so fast and his strides so long that we have trouble on really tight courses like tonight. But, it was challenging and fun so we both loved it!