|
Location: Devon, UK
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 2,515
|
|
Week Six - 10.05.10 - Session Six
We're back after a couple of week's break due to Monty's rear end and my stupidity of thinking agility would be on on a bank holiday monday!
We have used our two week break wisely though and we're starting to make a breakthrough on the running thing - or we were until I tripped over the other day and hurt my foot. Not sure what i've done to it but running is out of the question at the moment especially when it comes with the risk of being flattened by 30kg of Monty!!
So aside from running we have practiced left and right turns, waiting, target touching and release commands. The work on him doing more on the left is going well and he's now managing left turns with minimal confusion so i'm pleased with that.
However I wasn't expecting much from agility this week as Monty was uber pumped up for some reason. Even dangling liver sausage near him wasn't enough to gain his focus!!
There were 5 dogs in our class this week, a few familiar faces and a couple of news ones. Monty unfortunately had a bit of a run in with two dogs - one a very excitable golden retriever and the other a scottish terrier i think. I am starting to get a bit concerned about the fact he seems to get into scuffles with other dogs more frequently but he never seems to instigate so i'm not sure what's going on but this is probably for another thread!!
So the class started off with the usual warm up and first activity was to do three jumps. When it got to my turn we practiced releasing him from end to end between myself and Pauline just to remind him of what the jumps were about. Then we tried getting him to sit and wait at the start and for me to wait at the second jump, release him and then run onto the third jump with the hope that he followed me but followed me by coming over the jumps and thankfully he did!! I think Pauline wanted to check this wasn't a fluke so we did the same again twice and he did it perfectly both times again. I was super chuffed and beaming with pride - Monty got masses of praise and fuss and seemed quite pleased with himself too!!
Next was the tunnel which he still struggles with sometimes as he tends to just follow me so he thinks "well if you're going round the outside, why should i go through it?!". We started this by putting him in a sit and wait infront of one jump. I then move in front of the jump close to the entrance of the tunnel. The idea is that he comes over one jump from my release and through the tunnel. I have to admit I didn't have high hopes!
So I get him to sit and wait, he was bobbing a bit at this point so i just remind him he's supposed to be waiting and he does. I release him, he does the jumps, i shout "tunnel" and he runs straight into it. Great i hear you thinking, unfortunately when i say he runs into it i mean literally and not that he ran through it. He crashed straight into it!
Second attempt and he gets it this time although he's not waiting for my release and goes when he wants whether i'm ready or not!! He still managed to do a succession of jump and tunnel a few times though and again I was pretty pleased with him.
On the basis of this homework for this week was to get him to sit and wait but don't always release him to come to me instead I have to alternate it so that sometimes I go to him whilst he's in sit and wait and sometimes I do call him. This is so that he nevers knows what follows a sit and wait command and that it doesn't always mean for him to come, it sometimes means to sit and wait for me to come to him. This should stop him running off too quickly before i've released him.
Finally we were asked to attempt a full lap round the outside of six jumps - three straight, one round a corner and then two straight and then finish up with the tunnel. He still isn't very good at combining a run but he did a lot better this week and for the first time since we started he wasn't hell-bent on flattening me. We are still definitely bottom of the class though but we have fun and thats what matters most!!
We've got a couple more weeks so two sessions before Monty's operation and then we'll be on a break depending on how long the vet thinks will be neccessary but i want to give him a decent time to heal properly.
Thanks for reading our progress again!!