Starting up Agility classes again

Riley just went back for his first Adv. Beginner's class last week after 3 months off. I have some stuff for home practice, a couple of jumps, an old tunnel and an old set of the slant weaves... No contact stuff although I do have the base for a teeter now, and the board - just need warm weather so I can paint/sand it.

Riley did better than I thought he would; instructor had us run a short 7 obstacle course so she could see where everyone was. In the last session, we had trouble stringing more than a couple of obstacles together. This time we made it to the next to last obstacle (tire jump) before he missed it. Can't blame him, we didn't get much practice on the tire jump last session, and this was the first time he'd seen one in 3 months. He took it on the redirect and didn't miss it after that.

He was real cautious about the dog walk, too, but that's what he hurt his leg on last time, when he almost fell off. I think it's going to take awhile to get him back up to speed on it...

We're back at square one on the teeter, as well... but overall, the instructor was satisfied with how he did, compared to the last session. Onward and upward!

Well...despite that ^^^.

I'm excited for you, Quinn is just starting her foundation classes now, atm we are doing once a week and starting next week we'll have 2 agility classes a week.

i"m sure Riley will cruise right through.

Congratulations to you and Riley for such a good re-start! Sounds like you both had a good time. I look forward to the next update!

Having a teeter set up at home should be a big help. My Libby was really spooked by the teeter, especially after experiencing a particularly loud, scary one in class one night a few months ago. Once I got my own teeter, I set it very low and lured her across with a lot of chicken liver 2-3 times each day. It only took a couple of weeks to get her confidence back where it had been, and about another month to get her to full height and ready to brave the scary teeter in class again. She still doesn't love the teeter, but she's become reliable on it.

I recommend that you don't lure a teeter performance because that often backfires and you are not rewarding the teeter but rewarding the negative emotional state that your dog is in.
If you want the best results then free shape the teeter and work within the dogss comfort zone and make sure they always have the choice of turning around and leaving the teeter. Which then gives you the opportunity to work on your contact criteria.

I do a lot of work with dogs that have confirmed teeter issues, dogs that wont even go within a 100 ft of one and in a very short period of time we have them happily blasting to it and offering to do it.
If you want the step by step instructions let me know and I'll post it.