Agility Class #2

Sadie had her second Agility class, this time in a more advanced class. She again amazed me. She also showed me just how much I have improved as a handler over the past year. Recently I am able to tell when *I* am doing something wrong, and figure out how to change it. We started out by doing some loose leash walking which is something Sadie is actually horrible at. We worked on start-line stays and having the dog following our hand. Then we got to do Sadie’s favorite part, obstacles! We did a few times through the tire, then did a tire, jump, tunnel, table sequence. The first time we did awful, because I wasn’t sure she was going to go through the tire. I think she could tell and she got stressed. So I had her staying at the start, I was standing by the tire and I released her and told her “tire” – I was so focused on that one that I completely forgot what was next and had no idea what to do after the tire – so Sadie got confused and stressed. Same thing with the tunnel! So after that I decided to stay farther back so I could see everything and think of the big picture, and Sadie sailed through everything. I called out the next obstacle as she was doing the one she was on, and she did amazing. After that we were on the same page. We did a jump, jump, tunnel, jump sequence where I was able to put a lot of distance between us and she did everything great. Sadie just loves jumping and running, and you can tell she is enjoying the courses.

We then worked on weaving, the only thing Sadie hasn’t done for agility. We are using the 2×2 method. Today I learned to shape her going through the first two poles on the right side, and start at about 4 o’clock and work my way to 6 o’clock. Sadie is great at shaping so she picked it up quick. We practiced at home a bit and she was going through pretty well but I think I did it too long because she eventually just started jumping around and barking, I guess she was bored 🙂 Kyle offered to make more of the 2×2 so we could do more in a row and I said no, because I don’t know the steps to the method and this was all I was told to do. So we have two weeks to perfect this step!

Reed’s rally class is on Wednesday!