Leapin’ Labs

Tonight’s class was interesting. We worked mainly on being able to call our dogs off of obstacles directly in front of them. For example, the first set had three jumps in a row. After they jumped the first one, we were to call them to us, then they could jump the first two then come to us, then the first three and come to us. It’s so they don’t assume they just take the next obstacle in front of their noses.

Midas has this completely mastered. In this photo you can tell how quickly he was turning to respond to my Here command:

We also were supposed to send our dogs out in front of us with the command Go Out! and they were supposed to jump the big jump – that was more difficult for most of us but I had our little treat container to toss over it so Midas hopped right over no problem. He got distracted on his way back to receive his treat because one popped out the end and he treated himself lol.

The first time we went across the dog walk it wobbled a little and Midas didn’t care for it but he went to the end:

So, I steadied him the next time after we firmed up the frame:

At the end of the dog walk he had to Wait and then hop up onto the table and Lay Down and Stay.

After that we worked on our A-frame and Waiting at the end:

We also got a chance to work on the teeter-totter some more. We’ve added another command for Midas, he has to Wait while it lowers and then again when he comes off the end – hopefully to help him quit barrelling off the end and whacking himself:

We worked on weaves again but it was…eh – he’s still not clicking…

We had some tunnel work:

This photo would’ve been awesome but the stupid tab got in the way

After we had practiced everything, and calling them off of everything a couple of times each, we each had the opportunity to “run” the course, hitting as many obstacles as possible. I had my route all worked out in my mind.

We’d start with the series of jumps:

From there we hit the A-frame, the tunnels, and then the table, released from the table to the dog walk and…Midas fell off. I half-caught him, scraping the skin off my pinky finger in the process, but that didn’t phase him. He tried to jump right back on…Instead I grabbed him and our instructor picked him up and placed him from his jump-off point so that he could learn he was safe and could be balanced there.

Midas, once he trusts you, trusts you implicitly so he plopped down and leaned over on the instructor, to the point where if she moved he would have toppled off:

He went down fine after that and we finished up with the weaves and teeter:

The rest of this day’s photos are here. Watching the new person and their dog made me realize how thorough our instructor has been to teach each of the obstacles separate, in a separate order and to make sure our dogs are listening to us and following directions, not just rushing through where they think the next obstacle is. Pretty neat to see.

Tonight was the beginning of Midas’s third round of agility classes. It went…ok. We worked mainly on having our dogs work at a distance to us – something that Midas does not necessarily excel at.

We did a lot of jumping:

Here he missed the next jump – you can tell because he’s so close to me:

This series he made it

We also worked on a different style of Big Jump than we’ve used in the past:

And of course the Tire Jump:

From the Tire they were supposed to go right onto the Teeter-Totter. Our first time with the dogs working on it without having someone holding them on. Everyone’s dogs were really nervous and ended up being handled. Mine? Heck no! Midas flew up and down the Teeter, then whipped around and did it again and when he missed it once, he jumped in the middle…needless to say, he made our instructor nervous being so overzealous so we had to stop

The A-Frame was a snap – in fact, we had more of a problem keeping him off of it when running by…

I was supposed to send him to the Table from a distance, he did ok on that, sometimes he did it, sometimes he didn’t…and once he was treated by the instructor for going there, he didn’t want to come back to me. Dang difficult dog!

And then our worst obstacle…the weaves. I can tell Midas is just following my hand/treat through them and not paying attention to what he’s actually doing. It’s so frustrating, I can’t wait until he “gets” it!

So, the instructor suggested we try the peanut butter on a stick again, while holding him back slightly by his tab so that he was really wanting to get it and barely weaving through with the stick, making him do it on his own.

That worked fairly well, I’m still not seeing the “click” in his eyes though, although it was easier for me to lead him with that. His favorite part was after:

Tonight capped off 8 whole weeks of Agility – they’ve flown by. Midas has come along so incredibly fast and we’re having so much fun! He started off being totally distracted, unable to be off-leash and going crazy every time a dog ran by. Now he’s totally focused, off-lead almost the entire class period and rarely will even so much as whine.

Then:

Now:

Then:

(bad blurry photo, I know…)

Now:

Then:

Now:

Then (just look at the height of the dog walk):

Now:

Then:

Now:

Isn’t that awesome?! Thank goodness for Eric, without whom I would not have these amazing photos to remember our progress by!

Tonight was Midas’s last agility class and it was SO much fun!! We started out splitting into teams. The instructor and I were on one team and the people with the two Goldens were on the other. Then we were timed while we raced our dog through 1/2 of a “course”. Midas got first place!

He was the fastest and that made my bad handling even more obvious. We had to practice on a jump over and over for him to make the tight turn to the next jump. At first, I was telling him too late and he was already rocketing past the turn.

I also had to practice crossing in front of the tunnel when he went in:

The dog walk was not, and never has been, a problem:

For “graduation” we got cake (which was delicious) and a group photo:

I LOVE this photo!!! He was soooo good too. I backed him into the tunnel and he just stayed there, checking everything out What a good boy!!

Tonight was our third agility class and it was so much fun! We had everything set up again and we each got to move to a “set” of equipment to try out and then move onto the next thing. Midas was on a roll tonight! He was on the commands well, he was fast and he was focused. Several times another dog ran up to him and he completely ignored him. One time, we were coming through a series of 4 obstacles, he was on a run for the 5th and another dog came and stole his treat off of it! I made a huge leap and snagged his collar, but he wasn’t even getting upset, he was looking to me like, “Mom, where’s my treat?!”. Our instructor commented that she was impressed with my fast reflexes and that she had thought that a train wreck was coming.

Since Midas was doing so well she had me try a couple of more complicated things – and he passed with flying colors! Our only little glitch, was when I tried to run him from his left, he would sometimes try to switch sides so that I was in the “proper” position, but we kept working on that until he had it down so I was happy . He was one of the few dogs that has absolutely no issues with the teeter-totter:

The weaves are still rahter rough, so we worked on that:

We had another “course” to try at the end of the class. It started off with two jumps:

Then a tunnel:

(Eric had to stand kind of right in the way for this one, and Midas never even looked at him, he was totally focused on me and the next object *so proud I could burst* )

Then we had a “Big Jump”:

The table was next, he can’t go flying off the back-side and he has to lay down, with elbows touching for five seconds.

I moved around behind him to get to the next obstacle for his release, and he spun to look at me, lifting his elbows and so we had to start counting again.

Next was the dogwalk:

We worked really hard on the “wait” command tonight so that his contacts were on – tonight is the first night that he consistently did it

Then we had a circle of jumps, including a tire jump, that we had to do 1.5 times:

Then was the collapsed, chute tunnel, which he mastered with no problems tonight, then we race down to the A-Frame, up and over and the “wait” command again. Then through the weaves. The weaves are the only area that Midas is behind the other dogs, I still have to lead him through every time. He always wants to take shortcuts, the little brat.

Then we’re done!

Tonight I was supposed to have Mom, Dad, Adam and maybe Eric going to class with me…but I ended up going alone instead. Midas was being kind of a brat when we first got there. He wasn’t focusing on what I was asking him to do at all so I took him into the middle of the room and made him quietly watch everyone else and when we started again he was much more focused.

We had a full teeter-totter this week, all the way to the ground and he had no problems with it at all. The instructor tried to soften the bang to the floor, until she realized that he didn’t care and then we just let it hit.

I worked on sending him to different obstacles from a distance but the only one that he does consistently is the tunnel (and only from a left-entrance) and the table. Everything else I have to guide him or be close.

There were four jumps set up near each other and I was supposed to guide him over the first two every time and then the third one would differ depending on command. I really don’t think he noticed the difference in commands and that he just jumped the one that I was pointing to.

The chute was set up in a shorter version this week and he did fine with that. The dog walk was no problem. The A-Frame was 4 feet tall and he didn’t have any difficulty what-so-ever with that either.

At the end of the class, in the last 1/2 hour we played a game called Snooker. Everyone else had to be off-course and one at a time every one else got to try their best for the game. There was a tire jump, two regular jumps and a tunnel to work with. We had to enter the “course” by jumping the first jump and exit the “course” by jumping the second jump – pointing out. The rest was up to us. Each obstacle was worth 1 point and we had 30 seconds to try to do as many as we could.

Midas did great! He didn’t hesitate and I only treated him once I think for the whole time. We had to race to get to the last jump in time but he was rushing right alongside of me so we made it – we got 9 obstacles. We got beat by two other dogs. One was disqualified because she knocked over a jump and then they kept using it – although she did get 13. The other dog only beat us by one so that was pretty cool. Overall, a fantastically fun class!!

Tonight was the start of Midas’s second round of Agility classes. There weren’t anywhere near as many dogs enrolled. There were a couple of new things including a chute tunnel and a teeter-totter.

The chute was a little difficult for us. He would lift his head up and then run in a 90 degree angle straight into the teeter-totter. We practiced with that for a bit and finally got him running straight.

He did well on the teeter-totter, not really any fear of going on it. But, once he got the hang of it he would hop off the last couple of feet, which is bad because it’s a contact point that he has to hit. So, we worked on going “easy” the last couple of feet and that worked well for us.

We had a couple of tunnels that we had to work on sending from really close and farther and different angles and through either side. He did really well except for one of the tunnels he didn’t really like to go in the one side if I was farther away. It wasn’t facing us, he had to go around to the end to reach it and for some reason he didn’t really like that.

We also worked on a taller A-Frame, 4 feet. He didn’t do well when I was walking too slowly, so I took him off-lead and let him go and he did great, he even did fairly well with the “wait” command at the bottom.

(tunnel facing out of this photo is the entrance he didn’t like to go in)

At the end of an hour we all got off to the side and got to go through everything on our own. I love that part. He’s so responsive and he doesn’t even glance towards the other dogs that are off-course. I love this class!

Tonight was Midas’s last agility class, but I also signed him up for Agility II which will start in a couple of weeks. He was being a handful when we first got to class tonight but everyone was running all over working on random objects on the course. So, I took him to the very center and worked on him being calm and quiet – it was quite successful!

We got into partners again and worked through the different obstacles. There were a couple of new ones that included a collapsed tunnel, a dog walk, pinwheel jumps and a bigger jump. Midas excelled at all of the old ones, including the tunnel in a U (it was yellow and under the lights, and therefore brighter). He had a little bit of a hard time with the pinwheel because after every jump he would look at me expectantly to get his treat and falter for his command to the next jump. We didn’t get to work on that a lot but I think we can make it cleaner. The Big Jump was no problem at all. The dog walk, which I was expecting to be a slight issue, was not at all. In fact, he took to it so quickly that I had to jog to keep up.

He’s doing so great in all aspects of his training right now and it just makes me so pleased. At least one person each lesson comments on how much his behavior has changed and how nice it is to see someone working with him by being optimistic and proactive with his training. Very flattering!

After class, the instructor had everyone stand off the course and we each got to go through it one-by-one, practicing on any or all of the obstacles that we were comfortable with. Some opted not to try it, but we did. He did great. His only problem was that every single time we would walk BY the A-Frame, he would jump on it – I had no idea he loved it so much lol. Other than that he was totally willing. Very cool class!

Tonight was Midas’s third agility class and Eric came with. We had an interesting time tonight. This guy and his little terrier tripped me and his dog growled and attacked Midas while we were running and trying to do jumps. His response? “Oops” and then to walk away. WOW.

He continued to crowd us and our space for the rest of the evening, totally oblivious. Needless to say that Midas was riled up after this (and another incident involving the poodle in the class careening into him) and we had to take a time-out in the corner so that he could refocus.

On this one, I tell him to “walk it” and then after he gets off the board he has to “wait” and then he gets his release word and gets a treat from the target (which is just out of sight of this photo).

We practiced with four jumps in a row tonight. We started off on-leash and worked up to off-lead. He did fine. His only problem is twisting to make sure he’s supposed to go over the next one. I think he would have eventually caught on but we only got to practice this one once.

This is the other jump that we practice, the tire jump. Some dogs try to go under it but Midas has no problem going through

He had a hard time with sliding off the table last week. But, this week there was some carpet on there to help out. His lay down upon hitting the table was, for the most part, much quicker than last week.

The A-Frame was new this week. It’s about 1/2 the size of the A-Frame he’ll have to climb in real competitions. Some dogs were scared to go up it. But, from lots of practice of us posing him and coaxing him into odd positions and onto odd things, Midas took this totally in-stride. His footwork isn’t very smooth yet, but we only did this twice, so I think it will get there.

We practiced the weave-poles again this week with a little twist. We were supposed to do some homework during the last week: teach our dogs to go around an object on their right shoulder with the command “Go Right Around”. I practiced with Midas almost every day . So, this week instead of just sending them through the weaves, they had to go through and turn Right Around and come back around the last pole. He did GREAT at it!

We had two tunnels this week. A straight one and one in a U-shape. The U-shaped tunnel was also a dark purple. Midas did it fine the first couple of times and then seemed to forget when we tried to tie the two together. So, we’ll have to really work on this next week. Here is the straight tunnel:

After class I had an extensive conversation with the instructor about our upcoming dock jumping event and how to handle Midas’s behavior. We also signed up for another month of agility classes!

Tonight was Midas’s second agility class and I think there were three more people/dogs added. It was nuts. One black lab, another terrier (in heat, complete with diaper) and a black poodle. Needless to say, a very full class. Midas had a little dog aggression moment which resulted in the instructor having everyone walk past him. He got a click and treat when he did nothing and a yank and reprimand when he was naughty. It was effective.

We worked in pairs tonight too, which was interesting. Me and my partner (who has a Golden and is also in my Rally class) started out on the tunnel. Tonight the tunnel was stretched out full-length. Midas wasn’t so sure about it to begin with but once he got the hang of it, he loved it. I could hear and see his tail thwacking the side as he rushed down it to pop gleefully out the other end and then race back to do it again

Next for us was the board-walk with the wait command and walking the ladder. Midas had a little problem remembering the wait command but caught on by the end. The same with the ladder, he had to go over it a couple of times before he remembered what he was supposed to be doing.

We moved from there on to the weave pulls and a table. Midas’s first time running up to jump on the table resulted in him sliding right off the other end, which was humorous, but not good. His lay down on the table is very slow (also not good) so we need to practice this one more. The weave pulls were fine.

The next set of exercises were our favorite. Two regular jumps and a tire jump. First we practiced going over one jump and hitting the target while on lead. Then we did two jumps, with the target after the second, still on lead. Finally, we worked up to off-lead and over both jumps. Midas caught on right away and completed both jumps extremely quickly. I could tell he really liked this one. The tire he was less sure of, but once he understood he went right through, not once trying to go under or around it.

This class was really neat in that we worked off-lead a little and it was great to see Midas completely focused on the exercises we were doing. His concentration used to be horrible with other dogs running around and having fun, now he has great focus. I loved it! We had an absolute blast!

We had homework assigned this week, we need to teach the command Go Right Around and have him know to round an object, turning to the right.