It all started with an "introduction to agility" course in 8 sessions last year in May and June. At the end of it there were still 3 hurdles that Lucy wasn't doing: the chute, the see-saw and the tire jump. After a break for the summer, we started practicing fairly intensively for 60-90 minutes each thursday from August through January. Mostly it was one on one training with Julie Danbolt and her dog, Bajnok. It was Julie who introduced me to clicker training (leading me to take the e-course in clicker training from Canis), 2X2 weave training (she lent me Susan Garrett's DVD after which I have become a Susan Garrett convert), and shadow handling (the Greg Derrett system). She also showed me that Lucy can do it all with Julie handling her, thus proving that any problems we might be having lie in my giving wrong or unclear signals. After Lucy mastered the chute, see-saw and tire-jump, the main focus of training has been for me to learn how to guide her through the course. Since February the time I have had to train Agility has been limited, and I have mostly been forced to train alone. I almost prefer it as I feel I can train much more consistently when I'm alone.
First Trial
Our first trial was on April 12th. By this time Lucy was taking all the hurdles without trouble, but had started going under the highest jumps, instead of jumping over. Therefore, they let her run in the class for medium size dogs. It was just an informal club trial, but I was so nervous that I led Lucy over the wrong second jump on both runs, thus disqualifying. The lesson learned: I needed to learn effective briefing. Plus Lucy was surprised that there was a strange man (the judge) standing in the middle of the course, and had to go investigate. After training alone for so long, she was also a bit distracted by the other dogs whining, barking, and howling at the moon, but allowed herself to be refocused surprisingly well.
Second Trial
April 26 was our second trial. This was a club trial held by a neighboring club to which my club was invited. Lucy still competed in the medium class. This time I didn't lose my head. The beginners agility course was super easy. Much easier than anything we had trained on, so that went well. The open jump course was more of a challenge, and I had to hold up the chute, as it was heavier than she was used to, so we probably got disqualified there. It was great to see that Lucy seemed unphased by running in a new environment. We sat with Julie and Jan Eric, whom she knows, while waiting our turn. What we need to work more on: the chute, and high jumps.
Third Trial
June 16. Our third trial, was also a local club trial, this time hosted by my own club. This time we entered in class 1 for large dogs, as well as the open jump class. A step forward. The trial went very well. We had 2 chances on the agility course. It was a challenging course with several places where I had to think hard about how to approach the next hurdle. Then when we ran the course, I didn't do what I had decided on afer all, causing Lucy to miss the tunnel entry. On our second run through I placed myself properly at the tunnel. And indeed, Lucy went straight through it, only to make a mistake on the weave, which she had done perfectly the first time, even starting to get up some speed going through. The jump course was, by contrast, very straight forward. One of the jumps was very high, and several dogs knocked that bar, but I think Lucy got through the course without any faults. Any time we lost was me, suddenly uncertain of which is the next hurdle. We placed 6th of 6 in agility, and 8th of 10 in the jump course.
Lucy is a pleasure to run with. She was focused, in spite of being in heat, and obviously having fun.I think I too am making progress, though I need to work harder on memorising the course. I'm finding it hard encompassing 16 to 20 hurdles with my mind. I tried something new which i think improved both Lucy's focus and her start line. It was a few minutes of contact training (shadow handling and sit-down-stand's).
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