First agility class tomorrow!

Cain is off to his first agility class tomorrow. He went for a trial session back in April to see if he was suitable, and he was He seemed to really enjoy it, by the end if the trial he had gone through the tunnel, through the weaves and over a full height A frame. I decided to give him a few more months of dog socialisation classes before starting agility in the hope he'd be calmer around other dogs. Well the course I booked him on starts tomorrow. He has to complete a 6 week beginners course, then he goes up to intermediate which is run on a weekly "come as you please" basis. So it's dog socialisation classes on Saturdays and agility Sundays, busy weekends ahead

My dog socialisation class were a little concerned that Cain might be reactive to all the dogs running around but it doesn't seem to bother him, we'll just have to see how he goes. The first few classes will be very slow and all dogs on lead anyway. They focus on getting technique right and only later work on speed. Plus Dave keeps us all well spread out and has had reactive dogs in his agility class before. We know Cain might have to be kept on lead longer than other dogs but that's ok, we'll still have fun.

Just hope it doesn't rain tomorrow as it's outside and will have to be cancelled if wet So excited!!!!!

If I remember correctly you are going here:

http://www.capablecanines2002.com/

Dave will take good care of you, he is very thoughtful and capable.

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

Yes we are going there. Dave's been our dog trainer and walker ever since we got Cain, he's been though the highs and lows with us and knows Cain's personality as well as he knows his own dogs. I have every faith that he will ensure everyone enjoys the class and keeps safe

Thank, I can't wait. I'll post some photos tomorrow.

my dog loves agility and goes regular. my dog agressive dog also used to go and believe it or not was fine running the course off lead even with the other dogs around he was just really focused. but unfortunately he now has arthritis so i take him rally and hydro instead. good look for tommorow im sure cain will be really good

Thanks, that's great to hear. I have heard of other DA dogs who are so focused on agility that they can go off lead. He has shown me that he has the ability to focus around other dogs and he seemed really into the agility during the trial, so I am hopeful that I can get him under control and off lead at some point. I have the Baskerville ultra muzzle so he can wear that if he goes off lead but I can still treat him through it. But of course that's some way off now. Pity one of yours had to give up, but hydrotherapy can be pretty good fun too

Got utterly drenched at dog socialisation class today and ominous black clouds still hanging over head. Oh please don't rain tomorrow....

Sorry this us a bit long, i just feel the need to spill it all out.

Well we just about got away with it, weather wise. Showers on and off but enough that we could continue

The class went.....so-so. It was a lot of hard work. The was another reactive dog in the class, a collie, that was quite starey and barky and lungy and his behaviour kicked Cain off. Dave kept telling the guy to take his dog away when it reacted, walk a short loop to calm it down and bring it back but the man didn't seem to be listening much I was a bit unhappy with how the guy was handling his dogs behaviour. I mean I have total sympathy for someone with a reactive dog, I can relate, but he wasn't really doing much to handle him or keep a sensible distance etc We made an effort to keep them apart so it wasn't too bad. Cain did lunge a few times, nearly always at this collie.

But on the plus side he did all the equipment without any problems. We got to spend a LOT of time practicing non-reactive behaviour. So doing "Watch Me" and also loads of playing "Look at That", I think some of the owners thought I was mad and had no idea what I was clicking and rewarding him for Almost all of the other dog owners were sensible and understanding of Cain's issues.

Despite some reaction, Cain was happily eating and was able to concentrate so I don't think he was too stressed. I used Ttouch on him throughout and this did seem to be calming him down. He did very well with his focus work so I think that can only be positive. Every time we did "Look at That", he turned back for his treat, not once did he get fixated

I did speak to Dave afterwards and said I was concerned maybe it was a bit much for him right now and that I didn't want it to harm his socialisation progress (especially as we've put so much effort into encouraging calm behaviour on the lead). However Dave said for the first week, he thought Cain did very well and wasn't too stressed and that we should stick with it and see how he progresses. To be fair, he was displaying a lot of focus and self control for much of the time and it'll be great practise to get him to focus on me and follow my direction when around other dogs.

No photos sadly as it was raining sometimes so didn't want the camera to get wet, plus my mum is utterly useless at taking photos

So we'll see how it goes next time....

sounds really succesful well done

woo hoo well done cain and all the best for next week

That sounds great Moon's Mum.

The reactive dog class I attend with Polo is based around agility and they are ALL reactive dogs plus stooge dogs.

We get the odd reaction sometimes. In fact, we had a 'mexican wave' in one of the earlier weeks whereby 4 collies parallel walking reacted in turn to the dog next to them.

However, Polo can now do agility with a stooge dog present in the paddock and remain focused and he is not bothered about the dogs around the paddock either. He struggles watching a dog doing agility as there is the combined reactivity and frustration as he wants to do it! That is fine though as I can set the distance that he can watch without reacting.

Good luck with it - I'm sure Cain will do just fine.

Congratulations, as for the other reactive dog, try and remember that the owner may not be as skilled as you in handling him and this has to be learned, maybe others thought the same of you and Cain when you started classes?

It always helps to remember that when we learn we move from:

Unconscious Incompetence
Conscious Incompetence
Conscious Competence
Unconscious Competence

You are never going to be in ANY class where you are happy with ALL owners and dogs at any level, so the best thing to do is concentrate on how well YOU can do DESPITE them!