Monday, August 22, 2011

Agility Class

We enrolled Pickles in the Humane Society's puppy agility class which is 4 weeks long for an hour once a week.  The class is geared towards puppies with age appropriate equipment, i.e. no high jumping.  We have been to two classes so far.  It's been a slow start in part probably because Pickles is not afraid of any of the equipment and he already has a jump and tunnel at home, the two pieces of equipment he has been introduced to.  So far we have gotten our puppies used to going over a jump and through a tunnel and walking on a wobble board and other flat boards.  They did have a tire jump which he hasn't seen before but had no trouble going through and they can bend their tunnel so that it isn't straight.  This also didn't phase him.  On the boards, we were supposed to work on him pausing at the end with front feet off and back feet on.  This is the easy way to make sure the dog puts at least one paw in the "contact area" a yellow portion at the bottom of the A-frame, dog walk, and teeter totter that is aimed to prevent dogs from leaping unsafely off the equipment from high heights.  We're still working on the contact part.  Hopefully, in the next two weeks we'll actually get to see a dog walk, teeter totter, and A-frame.

The best part about class is that there are other puppies there that are really good distractions so that we can work on keeping his attention and getting him to focus in the face of real work distractions.

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