We Graduated!

Tonight was our last class for our beginner agility - and we definately signed up for the next level.

Things went quite well tonight but boy did the trainer work us hard! It must have been 90 out there in the sun today - I was dripping sweat & extremely hot by the end of class. We started right off doing the Tetter-Totter. Mocca does this well, but the problem is she just bolts over it as quick as she can and at some point it is going to "teeter" when she doesnt expect it. So we worked very hard on making her SLOW DOWN going over & stop at the point it goes down. Finally we did one pretty well.

Next we moved on to a rather large sequence - Tunnel, jump, jump, jump, climb(a-frame), jump, jump, climb (plank). It was REALLY HARD. Mocca was FLYING through everything and going way to fast for me to keep up. THen when we got to the plank at the end she flew across it as fast as she could up jumped off then ending missing her target at the end that she has to hit. We had to do this several times to get her to do it right finally. Then we ran through again & did much better but I was out of breath by then!

We tried out the weave poles a few times - all 12 and did well so started on another complex sequence of all kinds of jumps, the chute, and the weave poles. The twist was that we had to go in a fairly tight circle with the jumps and go around the correct side of the chute otherwise you wind up running around the LONG way which you dont want to do (but I did repeatedly!). We did finally get it going pretty well though! Mocca was doing excellent at the poles by this point.

Because both Mocca and Koa were doing so well with the poles we moved over to the REAL set of 12 that dont have guides along the sides. Mocca zipped right through! Weave! Weave! Weave! Weave! She did great & our trainer complimented her on the weave poles.

We tried another complicate sequence and by then we were all exhausted. Our trainer was chuckling at us running around all over trying to get the dogs to go in the right spot & she told us how finally at one point it will just "click" with you and your dog & you will be able to just point & say the command & your dog will know where to go. She said she could stand in one spot & have her dog do an entire sequence without moving an inch whereas we were out of breath & exhausted from running around. That was very helpful to hear!

I think this week I finally figured out how to get Mocca to go a little slower. If I slow down, she slows down. We were getting much better at being more controlled at commands rather than frantic calling & running around.

Excited to start round 2! We get a new trainer next week and I wonder how many of these dogs will be in that class also.

Roo roo!