Sounds like Monty's having great fun learning agility. I've always thought with the Boxer wiggle they all do, that they would be great doing the pole thingy in agility.

Please dont shorten down your updates though. I've really enjoyed reading the posts, and the way you've described things, your's and Monty's enthusiam shines through on the posts

Sounds like you're both doing really well and its great that you're both having so much fun

None of mine liked the tunnel to start with. At least when I had Tip I could cheat - he loves Hoki so much that rather than me having to crawl in there, I just sent Hoki first and Tip followed her If Monty's like mine, he'll go from hating it to loving it so much that he'll head for the tunnel any chance he gets

Looking foward to next week's installment

Wow, it sounds like it's coming along great and I've really enjoyed reading your updates!

Bet you can't wait for next week now. Well done you two!

Sounds like you both had a great time don't worry about Monty not being too keen on the tunnel, some dogs just take a little longer than others, there's a dog in my sons class (he's the teacher) that started off doing anything but going through it, he went round it, over it, along it, but he's just starting to go through with confidence know and he's been doing it for 8 weeks, there is always something that takes them longer than usual to get, so don't get disheartened, persevere, keep positive and never let Monty know you're frustrated, upset, annoyed, or he'll get a complex about it and find it harder to do One thing, how tall is Monty compared to the tunnel, when he comes up to the tunnel, does he look over the top of it, he may just not be too sure of having to duck his head and go through something he can't see through, this was the other dogs problem

As far as the dog walk and touch points go, find a word to use that means you want him to get it, Christopher uses 'get it' others use 'touch', 'hit', 'on' anything like that, use it every time and only for the contact equipment (dog walk, A frame, Seesaw), there's another lady who's just recently joined the club, but has done agility before who used 'wait' for her contact command, and also used 'wait' for leaving the dog at the start of doing some jumps, and couldn't understand why the dog wouldn't do either

Don't worry about him misbehaving on his warm up, he's just exited at what he's going to do, any obedience training seems to go straight out the window at agility

Please don't shorted your post, it's lovely to hear how you are both getting on

His head height is above the tunnel so he probably is a bit wary of ducking to go through it. He did start to get the hang of it eventually and seemed to gain confidence as he went through.

I've making a solid effort to ensure I only ever use one command word. I normally use "ok" or "go on" as a release but need to make sure I stick to one and make sure OH does the same.

Started teaching him left and right turns last night and he got pretty good at right but is still struggling with left but he'll get there with practice.

I can't wait to go again next week.

Monty sounds like he is having a great time and you too.

The pulling you about when you get there seems like he is really happy to be there so I shouldn't worry too much I am sure as he gets more use to going he will calm down.

Glad you are both enjoying it so much.

Oh yes, I dispared that Ben barks and pulls when getting to his class and it takes a wee while for him to settle down when he is waiting for his turn, then I saw a dog at Olympia, a championship dog, walking round the ring playing tuggy with his lead, bouncing on the handler, barking his head off and basically being a crazy boy - but WOW was he great and focued at agility

I also worried (and still do a bit) about Mia running off and doing crazy zoomies when our trainers daughter who has a grade 7 dog said to me that for her first few shows her dog ran off and was out of control, she was in dispare but her mum said it would get better, it did, the dog is AMAZING now, so happy and focused

Told you he was smart
I think he has done so well after such a short time.

What worried me was when you said you had beans on toast for tea, I wondered what was coming next

Week Three - 31.03.2010 - Lesson Three

It's Wednesday again - where does the time go? - so it's Monty's agility night!!

Last week went reasonably well and I was really looking forward to tonight. Monty seems to have cottoned on to Wednesday night's routine now and as soon as I start cutting up pea-sized pieces of meat and cheese he seems to know where we're going and paces round the house constantly until we leave.

This week when we arrived I did the usual of helping to set up and then got Monty from the car and boy, was he raring to go this week. He wasn't interested in the other dogs this week he just wanted to get into the barn and get going on the equipment.

We warmed up as always and Monty was doing ever so well at not peeing on the equipment until another dog did it right in front of him and then he obviously had to put his scent over the other dogs and he got told off again.

We practiced our left and right turns during the warm up and Monty did his perfectly which was good news and I was very pleased with him.

So warm-up finished and we started off on the jumps and working towards targetting something at the end of the three jumps which was a large orange bowl with treats in it. Simples or so you would think.

There were 4 dogs in our class this week and Monty went third so he'd seen the other dogs enjoying the treat bowl by now and was raring to go.

So I lined him up in front of the first jump and got him into a "sit and wait" which thankfully he did perfectly - i have been determined to prove that he can do it and does have some discipline!! I moved to the second jump and used the command "go" to release him from his wait and over the jumps. Or that was what was supposed to happen. Monty did all the jumps and cleared all three and arrived at the treat bowl for his reward except just one problem - he went under all the jumps instead of over them!!

He got a laugh from the crowd which seems to be a regular thing now and he's in danger of adopting the Class Clown tag now!

Thankfully he managed all three jumps in the end and it was amazing to see his face as he jumped through, he looked like he was having so much fun!

Next up was something new - the Seesaw. I'd been dreading this almost as much as i'd dreaded the tunnel but thankfully with this I couldn't see any way that i'd have to crawl half way through a tunnel with my a**e hanging out the end!

Our trainer started off my getting Monty to stand near the seesaw whilst she rocked it up and down in front of him so he could get used to the fact it moving. She tapped it down a few times with her hand and Monty was fascinated - so much so that on the third time she tapped it down he put his foot on it and patted it down twice himself! He gets yet another mark for Class Clown.

The trainer was now satisfied that there was no fear regarding the seesaw so we practiced walking round to step him up on to the end to practice targetting so he knows he has to come all the way down and not jump off early. Targetting works by getting him to put his nose down to a marked spot and rewarding when his nose touches the target spot. Eventually he should be able to do this without a food aid!

He was now ready to attempt the seesaw whilst still on a lead. Pauline (trainer) stood at the raised end armed with treats and I had to walk him up the seesaw to her. He had no problem walking up but didn't watch where he was walking and slipped one leg off but made a nice recovery! When he had made it to the top Pauline gently lowered him down and got him to target the marked point.

We repeated this a couple of times and he seemed to really enjoy the seesaw and even Pauline seemed pleased with his approach to it.

We then practiced more targetting with another trainer whilst the other dogs were doing the seesaw and learning to use release commands to come away from the target. It's really difficult to explain targetting in words so i hope i haven't confused people with it!!

Finally we were given the chance to try 5 jumps and then the tunnel. I got Monty into the "sit and wait" and positioned myself at the second jump. I felt confident he would do well but unfortunately he only managed one jump out of the first three - however Pauline pointed out his was my fault and she was right. I was on the left side of the jumps and originally had the treat in my right hand so it was closest to the jumps but once i'd released Monty with "go" i'd moved the treat to my right hand without even realising it! This caused him to come out of the jumps and run to me. Lesson learnt!

We then tried the last two jumps and finally the tunnel. He managed one jump then missed one and missed the tunnel! We started again at the tunnel and he went through no problem and then we were allowed to go back and do the tunnel one more time and he was spot on second time too!

There were a lot of aspects I know could've been better this week but i'm glad his focus is now switching to enjoying the equipment rather than playing with the other dogs. My mission for the next few weeks is to improve his focus on me and hopefully that will improve things. We're still both really enjoying it though and i can see an improvement each week.

Unfortunately there will be no update next week as we're not going due to me being on holiday but we're hoping to go on the wednesday I get back so we don't miss too much!

Another great update

I do so hope that Rich can go with you one week soon so we can get some action shots

loved Monty's reaction to tapping the seesaw himself - ooh how I wish that Stumpy was like that!