Agility training

Thanks!

Oh my gosh! You totally should! I'm sick of sitting alone with my dog all day at trials. I mean, some people are nice but I don't have anyone to bench with and just chill between runs.

And I'll be sure to get a picture of my outfit. I guess most people only dress up on Saturday, so there are a lot of boring pants here today.

If you haven't seen it already, the whole first chunk of this thread was on running contacts I think. May be some stuff that interests you if you go back.

Though it should be noted that at least one of the most pro-running contacts people ended up retraining stopped contacts last I heard, haha.

Having places that allow you time to get back into position seems invaluable to me... But I'm pretty slow so... HaHa.

Agreed. I'm fast... but not as fast as my dog. When she's on her game I end up doing a lot of rear crosses where I had intended to do blinds or fronts. I'd be screwed if we trained running contacts. Ha ha.

Do you mean people on the thread, or people out in the big wide world?

I'm not too concerned on the dog being faster than me count, she certainly is but I've seen many people handle it just fine, obviously you have to have great verbal cues and/or get ahead somehow. Having running contacts seems like fun, and I don't mind if I'm running all out on a course.

On the thread, haha

Yes, my dog is faster than me too. And me not being able to get into position in time actually resulted in us both getting frustrated with each other and him slowing down. Since I decided "screw speed I just want to have nice fun runs with my dog" and started training things the "slower" ways I was able to get in position and my dog actually sped up bc I was in place to direct when he needed it. We're both back to enjoying agility and I learned a very important lesson.

I really like a lot of the ideas here, especially training the turns and the deep hit at a slower speed so there's more defined criteria:
(I think she uses quite a bit of Daisy Peel stuff, like rewarding from the manners minder)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa4TzB2Nud4

And I also will be implementing Silvia Trkman stuff.

YES YES YES!!!! Jari not only was able to get IN to the building with no real reactivity issues, but we also waited until everyone was done running for the day and he did some work with a practice jump off leash!!!! AHHHHHHHH babydog might actually do things one day!!!! We did some racing to a target/wrapping around a cone stuff too before we were able to get in to use the jump and he was just awesome. I'm so happy <3

Kimma and I picked up two more Masters JWW Qs. We actually should have Qd in Standard yesterday but the judge called a DW contact that she didn't miss. So yeah. That made me really annoyed. I had people I've never even met before come to me as soon as we left the ring and told me. I thought we Qd because yeah I SAW my dog hit the contact and lo and behold.... I'm hoping that might come back in a nice way someday so yeah. Standard today was great, but she got too excited and took a line where she should have turned hahaha. But she was HAPPY so that's all that matter

Summer got her TIAD (intermediate standard) title FINALLY! We just did one day this weekend. I'm pooped with all the stuff going on. We ended up with 2 Qs and had a nice day.

Hank handled the trial FANTASTICALLY. I'm really pleased with how responsive and confident he was. Not so pleased with the crate shrieking or the jumping up on people or wanting to chase fast dogs but he improved a lot over the day and it was his first trial. i'm impressed with this guy and a lot of the agility folk were impressed as well with his focus and temperament.


On a sadder note I am seriously considering retiring Summer from agility completely. I just... I don't know. I love it and it would suck to retire her now because we'd be looking at a year or two before competing with Hank (hopefully). I don't know when the next set of classes start up so no telling when Hank will actually start up.

But Summer has been aging a lot this last 6 months. I've only noticed it the last few months. Both her seizures (she's had 3 now, had another in September) and also just some other factors here and there. Sleeping more, grayer, snoring more, etc. She peed in the ring once and inside the tunnel once too. I'm seeing some signs of incontinence and also she just is running slower and acting less enthused. I AM going to wait a few weeks. We have a ring rental soon and also classes. I don't know if the stress of the move + Hank is part of the reason or not. 3 weeks ago she was flying in class. The last two weeks have not been good. This trial was ok. The morning was good but the afternoon not at all. At the least I think we may be done with big dog agility and just stick to doing a couple runs at local teacup trials. One lady gave me a supplement name so I'm going to test it out. She says she used it with her 13 year old ACD and she's gotten a lot more active since.

But it sucks. It's not something I wanted to think about for at the least another year or so.

Two of my friends are retiring their dogs soon too. It sucks. I hate it.

I hope that Hank likes agility. I think he will. I really do. I hope he does.

I've seen a lot of people in real life either switch over to stopped or train the dog for both, because the stop is generally easier. Both for training and maintaining, and for handling.

BUT there are people doing super running contacts and handling it well. You are fast and young and you are a great trainer. I'm excited to see your running contacts develop!

I've been retraining Gusto's dogwalk (he has a stop) and as part of the training have been doing running dogwalks as well and holy crap I am too old and slow for that! Luckily he's just running to a dead toy, so me being there at the end is irrelevant. Because there is no way!

Congrats to Kimma on her Qs, and to Jari on his handling the trial! I know that feeling of being so thrilled that they are happy and running that you barely care that they are running the wrong obstacles.

Good dogs should be excused from aging. I do hope it's just all the changes she's had lately causing it. I know Meg goes through spurts where I think she's really asking to slow down, and then turns around and is crazy and fabulous and active again. Summer's lucky that you are so in tune to her and so willing to listen to what she's up for.

Yeah it's hard. On the one hand, she enjoys going. And I think agility has helped keep her young and fit. On the other hand I just don't want to push her past her limits. She is getting older.

Just don't know what is right to do.

She is such a good dog.

If she is still enjoying going, I would keep going. That's my cut off for Meg. I very rarely practice with her anymore, because she clearly doesn't really enjoy it. When I do bring her to practice, it is big time jackpot treats, and we do stuff I know she likes. And very short practices. If Gusto does 2 or 3 four minutes sessions, she does one. Sometimes half of one, and then eats cookies. She and Summer are both such wonderful, sweet dogs. Whatever makes them happy, right?

What is the supplement that was recommended to you? I've never been a supplement person, but I've been giving Meg everything that's been recommended for Gusto (because why not), so now I'm obsessing over them.

Kestrel earned his USDAA Agility dog title this weekend! Woo HOO! Now we're in Advanced everything - eeks!

Ziva went 0 for 4 for her last 2 legs of her ADCh. All handler error really, and one really tricky Gamblers course where only one dog out of 40+ qualified.

I'm looking into classes again - I really need to work on my handling!

Wirh seizures, peeing more and sleeping more, I wouldn't pur it off as old age before getting a medical check. She's really not *that* old for a toy breed.

She had a full blood work up less than 2 weeks ago plus a vet check. Came back normal. I'm supposed to journal any additional seizures for now.

Let me look up the supplement when I get home.

She is happy so I guess that is what matters. I just want to keep her happy.

I do see tiny dogs running at 10-14 sometimes. 8,9, 10 often. Above that is uncommon. She is old for an agility dog compared to most.

She's 10 now, right? Meg is 10 as well (give or take). Obviously it isn't young, but there are certainly plenty of other dogs in the double digits out there running. I wouldn't let the number be the judge, just how she seems to be doing and feeling. I think one of the Cavaliers we train with is 10 as well, and just barely bumped down to veterans.