Thursday, April 14, 2011

Agility Class and Outdoor Trial

Tuesday night Ike and I had agility class. Overall it was a good class with some nice moments from the P-man.

The A-frame was set up between two tunnels. On one side there was only 3’ between the tunnel and the a-frame. I kid you not!! The a-frame was also set at full height. Often times in class the a-frame is lower because people are working on their contact behavior.

Ike’s a-frames were very nice all night. Ike’s a-frame and dog walk are modified running contacts – meaning I manage them and we are trying to firm them up with a hoop. I have spent too much time getting Ike excited about agility and movement to ask him to stop on a contact. I don’t have access to contacts at home so I can’t train them the way they would truly need to be trained to be independent running contacts. Hence the “modified” running contact!

The last run of the night I forgot to put the hoop at the contact and we had our nicest a-frame all night. Kathleen commented on it and the fact that Ike came flying out of the tunnel at speed. He hates tunnels and they are on our list of remedial things to train once the weather stays nice.

He did repeatedly pop out of the weaves which is unusual. He was hitting his entrances, but around pole 9 or 10 he would skip a pole. He saw Cheryl last night and was very crooked – he had lost an adjustment/phase. Hopefully he will be back to tip top shape on Tuesday.

This weekend is Act-Up’s NADAC trial at the outdoor site (Yay!). I plan on bringing both boys and crating them in the car. I will volunteer in the morning and take them out intermittently. I really want to work on Ike being comfortable enough to work in new locations. I will also work with Bug on attention and down stays in the stimulating environment.

After the trial we might go for a hike with Kathleen depending on the weather and how beat she is. There are tons and tons of trails in Wrentham, but I don’t know any of them yet!

3 comments:

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

sounds like a great class and good deal about the aframe! Have fun this weekend, hope you get a nice hike too, that sounds great!

Sara said...

I always love to hear about Ike having good classes!

Have a fun weekend. Fingers crossed for good weather!

Blue said...

Glad Ike had a good time at class! I hope the chiro gets him feeling all better on Tues.

I think I'm going to bring Iris down to the trial tomorrow morning (to show her that not every dog she sees is going to explode at her...) Hopefully I'll see you guys!

Personally, I really like F. Gilbert Hills State Forest in Wrentham (in late June the lady slippers flower!)