[Kristin Omdahl]

<<One option for the opening to play with: Lead out more laterally so you are closer to 2 and not as close to 1. That will be even more useful when you spread it out more when you are outside.>>
I definitely see what you mean here. I’ll remember that for when I get the Jumping Course set up outside.

Today we worked on the 4 Corners again but advanced to a portion of Sequence 5 this time. I think he’s starting to get it! Granted, I did move the jumps in a bit and I still have my shorter baby tunnel in there (longer one needs a REALLY good wash first and I’ve been procrastinating!) but I was at least able to get a tunnel layer outside for the first time. Video shows all reps.

On the last rep I was probably kind of cheating by blocking the tunnel – unintentionally though – to help him get the jump, but hey, it worked. 😏

I notice I did probably go out more to #2 than should have had to. I also did feel like I should’ve been moving more, but also I felt like I had nowhere to go. He was a little slow again, but I felt he did well when I could tell he’d really much rather be hunting for critters!

Let me know what you think!
Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

I’m sorry it’s so hot for you too! Quite unfortunate timing when trying to do all the agility things outside (or anything except jump in the water)!

I’ll make sure to move the jumps in the next time I can set up the big one outside. I definitely think that will help!

For now, I did have to train yesterday without your feedback so I did the small setup in my basement (more than 1 rep this time!) and then the Jumping pop out. It’s hard to squish in a small space but I think worked mostly okay. These are all reps.

Four Corners Downsized:

Jumping Pop Out Downsized:

Let me know what you think!
Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Thanks for the great feedback. I tried to take that feedback and work into the next FF session and here’s a short clip of the result (using the MM):

So, we’re getting there.

Tried to take that concept into the 4 Corners setup and failed fairly quickly on that. I think I lost some of the starting connection you mentioned and that I’d worked harder at in the FF session and then kind of lacked it again on this setup. And, I realized quickly that I need to break this type of work even more with him. I used the MM (which he loves) as a placed reward to make it more valuable for him, but made it too hard too fast. It didn’t help that even at 7:30AM it was sweltering and so humid I can’t believe it wasn’t actually rain. He just has even less drive under those conditions.

I think I’ll try to cram a really small setup like this in my basement to work the layering skill in the A/C. Things will be in much more close, but I think that’s where I need to start with him anyway.

~Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Well THAT didn’t go as planned!

I had so many mistakes in this morning’s training session. I could not get to the other side of the tunnel as I’d hoped and definitely had more than 2 failures in the session, which means I need a refresher on the nuance of this…so like if we have failures, then I make it easier and he gets it, then I make it harder and he fails again, then we have to stop and go back to easier again or quit the session? I can’t remember when we “reset” that count as guidance.

For this session, one mistake I made was using the wrong wrap cue – I’d put those down for awhile and picking up again recently, so clearly I’m rusty. So that might have been confusing but I still think not enough to have not taken the jump. Thoughts?

Should I have used more motion forward, like even just one step? I think this was another mistake. I also think I should have gone up to the jump to show it, then move into position EVERY TIME. Should I also try a placed reward to help him out?

Will eagerly await your feedback on what to fix so I can be more successful with the lateral starts!

Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

<<Nothing to be sad about! >>
You’re right, I totally had a weird typo. <doh!> I was happy with his focus on the jump!

<<you jogged back to the start and had him chase you, which made it more fun too! You can also have him do some silly tricks at the start line.>>
YES! I have to remember this. I especially thinks he likes the chasing.

<<there was no option to move indoors? The mats are not great there, so it is not a great option either.>>
I did ask about that, and the organizer could not commit to knowing if they would move indoors, so I didn’t want to risk it. Figured it was easier to cancel now and give someone else a chance to get in – and me a refund! 😂 Have thought about going to audit, so we’ll see if I want to spend the time. I can do more LYD CAMP practice if I stay home. 😉 I will say that I’m really trying to practice what I preach to my clients trying to get extreme productivity, and that’s to not say yes to everything even if it seems fun. Right now the estimated ROI has got to be high for me to do a thing! Ha!

We will work on increasing challenge in our next round by putting me on the other side of the tunnel. Should I also be switching sides to turn the other direction, or doesn’t really matter for teaching the skill?

Thanks!
Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Here is the first Focus Forward video, uncut until the very end after playtime, all 4 reps. I thought it went really well EXCEPT my positioning of the camera. 🫢 I’m so sorry I hid him behind the wing as it makes feedback harder. This is where stopping to look at the video between reps, like you told us to, would’ve been very helpful! 😉

But the grass was really wet, terribly humid, and temp rising by the second so I just wanted to get on with it. Sadly though I was pretty proud of how I sent him right away when I saw his eyes acknowledge the jump. You maybe can’t see that, but I thought he had good visual focus. What I’m less proud of is the few points where he was distracted, but given the heat and yummy smells I’m not very surprised. I will also be more fun and exciting next time to try to override that.

Speaking of heat, I did decide to give up my spot in this weekend’s Monica Bush Novice dogs ZoomZoom seminar at Animal Inn because it’s outside and supposed to be 93 degrees here. Honestly I just think Reacher would feel like that’s torture and I have no idea how I would convince a dog with little Zoom to bring it on in that kind of heat when I already know he’s a slug under those conditions. I hope I made the right choice to skip but I don’t want to be tempted/pressured and risk demotivating him because of I just want to do something potentially fun. If you think I should’ve just gone for it anyway let me know – I won’t feel bad – but curious about your opinions on this thought process.

Thanks,
Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Okay, well Reacher has been thoroughly worked over and he definitely had some extreme tightness and vertebrae out of alignment in the lumbar region, which likely is contributing to the poor weaves and teeter jump offs. He’s been to the chiro, massage therapist, vet for bloodwork, urinalysis, and tick-borne illness test. Vet testing was all clear so it’s either just a bit of a training regression or enough pain was caused by the lumbar issues.

I’m getting a second chiro in 2 weeks, and another massage next week because she said she had more that needed work back there.

I did miss class on Monday due to MY shoulder being completely jacked! So he’s not done agility since we started doing all these tests and treatments.

I think I’ll take a step back with the weaves and teeter to ease back into it. Any other suggestions?

Talk to you tonight!
Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Well, we have chiro now lined up for Saturday, massage next Tuesday, regular vet for bloodwork/UTI check next Wednesday. The good news is also that his regular vet works part time now at the rehab clinic my dogs also go (although knock on wood Reacher has not needed them except for initial evaluation and cleared for jumping), so there is some nice synergy there.

I’ll make sure there’s no medical issue and then start making a few things simpler again with weaves and teeter so it’s all happy and fun.

<<He was definitely pumped up! It sounded like some of the barking was ‘yeehaw!’ And some of it was alarm barking? But I don’t really know his ‘voice’ all that well 🙂 If you feel he is tipping over into overarousal, you can add in a pattern game to balance him back to optimal arousal.>>
Yes, he had multiple yeehaw barks and them some alarm barking (that was indeed his voice!) although I’m not sure what he was alarmed about in that case. Maybe just all the movement all of a sudden when people started going into the ring to set bars. He is normally so quiet that I was kind of happy he was feeling confident enough to vocalize that way. I sure as heck wasn’t going to shush him in that moment. And also I will for sure go to pattern games if it escalates too much. Of course I’m still figuring him out and I’ve had previous dogs that barked more when they were nervous, but generally Reacher is more quiet and slinky when he’s worried.

<<There was a jump right on the other side of the weaves – maybe that is a visual he has never seen?>>
Definitely possible. I’ve been thinking back and likely ‘no’ he has not seen quite that setup before. Once he’s cleared medically I can work to set up some more different setups at home first and see what he thinks. Things like that, and working on dog walk confidence, are on my Kanban board to tackle soon! 😉

I’ll keep you posted on all the medical stuff just for funzies.

~Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Thanks for the great thoughts. So much good advice there.

<<Do I recall correctly that he thought it was weird? The food box is definitely something to practice because it can be super useful (and your area uses it a lot more than anywhere else, which is really nice>>
Yes, he thought it was super weird the 1 time I tried it. Like he got scared of it actually and tried to get out as fast as possible. Since then I’ve been too worried to try it as I don’t want to have a bad experience. I do have an idea of how I could bridge that considering I know where the food boxes always go at trials in our area.

<<When you say he’d be brave for snacks (this is relatable LOL) do you think he might normally have some concerns about people?>>
No, I do not think he normally has people concerns. He just doesn’t typically care about people either way. Sometimes he’s curious, but doesn’t love much interaction. Other times he just doesn’t seem impressed with other humans besides Mom and Dad. So, not concerned, just not registering as fun unless there might be food involved. 🙂

<<Yes, on the human side of things – but the dog sides of things should limit failure to scenarios where reinforcement is available right there and almost no failure in the competition scenario.>>
YES, DEFINITELY. I certainly didn’t mean let the dog fail too many times. I think I just meant in experimenting with things I will just learn what works better than other things. “Fail” is probably too strong a word there. 🙂

<<And of course after this class officially ends you can always send me Facebook messages about how he is doing 🙂>>
Wow, I definitely appreciate that and you know I won’t abuse your kindness with that.

<<So I think Reacher is similar to them: he is going to think his way through the puzzle at this stage and we are going to keep making it fun fun fun. Then at some point the switch will flip then you will have to run a lot faster LOL>>
I really enjoyed hearing about your dogs’ stories here. I know you’ve touched on it in class before but this time it’s given me more hope that it can improve. Thank you for those examples!

<<Because of the complexity, I recommend a balance sport which is a bit of what I affectionately call “mindless fun”.>>
I completely agree. This is kind of what barn hunt is for us and I think we might start scent work as my husband is interested in training Ronin in that if he can’t get rehabbed enough to do agility. Even if he is, we might do that anyway!

And regarding the mats, it’s interesting you think he is shorter strided on them. He’s not very fast and they feel pretty sticky to me so I’m surprised at that idea but certainly not discounting it. Especially when you look at hundreds of videos and can see the patterns. I would consider trying to go back up at On the Run to train again like I used to, but this location and timing and instructor works out so well for me I’m not sure that will work. And actually I’d still make the sacrifice if they were a little more friendly toward people with food-motivated dogs up there. I get wanting to keep the turf clean and fully support that, but the vibe is just different and kind of uncomfortable. I was wonderfully oblivious until one time Reacher choked on a Zukes that he’d eaten out of a Lotus ball and it fell out of his mouth and it was like the air got sucked out of the whole place. I was like “What? What’s wrong everybody?” and then I got the talk about how next time I’d have to pay $50 for that. Eeek. Sorry no that’s too much pressure when it wasn’t like I intentionally threw the Zukes on the floor or a big thing of cheese or anything. I already have enough to think about with my young dog! 🙂

But on to some video! So yesterday’s training class was pretty interesting. I tried the teeter again with someone standing kind of close by. He bailed again. But now after watching the video I do not think it’s the proximity of the human that’s the issue. But will be curious to see what you think.

The first part of the video is a bit of our warm up and I was getting him a little excited and there was an exciting dog in the ring so he might have gotten a little too wound up. I kind of didn’t care because he was barking more.

He started off strong and did a nice backside push but then hopped off the teeter. I did digitally zoom in the video a bit to get it closer to see better but it did blur it a tiny bit. So based on the fact that he hopped off the side towards the person, and even wandered closer to her I am not sure that’s it. I think we just have regressed for some reason on the teeter. Maybe there is pain. I’m trying to get massage this week and we have chiro on Saturday. He has no regular vet appts until Oct. but if I need to do mid-year check up of course I will. But…I may have them check that teeter because another dog in class (an Aussie) who is solid on the teeter did it, but I noticed he was really looking at the floor at the tipping point both sides like he thought about bailing.

Regardless, I’ll be curious to see what you think about this, but thinking to do only teeters at home for a bit and start back at the beginning of the training plan for with it barely tipping, etc. and see how he does. I did NOT make him try the teeter again after this session.

Then, he did a nice dogwalk contact but could not get that weave entry. Tried again later and still didn’t get, so we quit with weaves again too. Seems we stopped weaving and now the teeter. Either young dog weirdness or pain or something else. Need to get to the bottom of it either way.

Let me know your thoughts!

[Kristin Omdahl]

Thanks for all the wonderful feedback here.

I took advantage of a great bark training moment tonight as our nearest neighbors were having a party and even though they are not that close the dogs had to call it out several times tonight. So brought the treat bowl out and every time someone barked I was quick to add the cue and throw a treat. Reacher was gently woofing on command by the end of the session. I’m sure we’ll need to keep working it but it was cool to take advantage of an otherwise-annoying situation!

Regarding the seminar:
<<I didn’t see what I would call a lack of confidence –
he probably had some questions about passing all the off course jumps and doing the discriminations (jump versus tunnel versus weaves, that can make dogs very ‘thinky’). He was running in extension with his front end but seemed tight in the hind end, not powering as much.>>
This is quite interesting! I will start to watch for this now…the difference between what the hind and front are doing, I mean. I hope it was him just him thinking hard!

<<I think the main takeaway is that he needs to see more of the ‘normal’ agility trial distractions like ring crew being *rightthere* and the judge doing weird things>>
Okay, this I think I can manage to work through. He is also not super speedy in class without all these distractions, but I’m sure it’s a combination of many factors. The good news is I have a great instructor and helpful classmates, so we can set some things up.

<<Pain or illness can show up with the only symptom being an increase in noise sensitivity.>> Yes, the amount of things one could do to try to track this down is crazy-making. But I think I’ll start with chiro and bodywork since he does need that anyway and then go to the vet if that doesn’t seem to help. I will also do some testing on this at home and make some comparisons to when we are at class/trials to see if I can detect any more patterns in this.

<<he was flirting LOL!! Was he otherwise a bit tense about being around the crowds – not waggy or interested in socializing?>>
No, he was not really waggy or social otherwise, but that’s also not super abnormal for him. He was definitely interested in other dogs and monitoring what they were doing, but not reacting too much (except a couple of times and once when Lift surprised him and then darted away and I’m pretty sure he thought she might be prey!). And he’s never been a bit people person but would be interested and brave if anyone was crinkling a bag of snacks anywhere within 15 feet! 🙂 So, being social is not that normal for him ever, but he’s usually a little more waggy around home or at class. Generally, he’s kind of a serious dude though. I have wondered if perhaps I’m too mellow to get dogs fired up, but since I had Tina (the ultimate party girl) and Ronin, the Party Boy, I think maybe it’s not so much me as I never quelled their enthusiasm! Ha!

I may try the food box again at the next trial we have in May. The first time didn’t go well but I’ll think more about how to take advantage of that. I think I need to slow my roll on bridging the toy/food gap and take more time with that so I can be confident that he understands.

And also, after reading your thoughts and analyzing more about this I need to think of Reacher’s training differently in that if I’m not seeing the drive I want now that doesn’t mean it will never show up. It’s just not happening how I thought it would when he was younger and seeing different things. This is all just learning and growing at HIS PACE. Reminding myself that that this is all about LEARNING, not PERFORMING, at this point (and probably forever) takes a lot of the anxiety out of how it’s going and worrying that I’m breaking my dog somehow or that he doesn’t like this. There is freedom in the learning which gives the license to experiment, fail, try again, etc. Structure in this is still needed, but if I tap more into that learning mindset more it will open up more ideas for me after our class ends and I don’t have your expert guidance all week! Ironically, this year my “word of the year” for myself is LEARN. I picked it because of the freedom it gives, I knew that it’s in approaching life this way, that I would find my center, my real joys, my true mission, my true direction. I would be less afraid to try things in my job, and in building this new business I’m working on. I’d be more assertive. I wouldn’t worry as much about the outcome. I’d be a focused hunter when it comes to seeking opportunities, because the idea of it just being “learning” makes me feel more open and free. So for agility, re-focusing on the learning means that we will still have progress even if the training and experiments within it do not always have the outcome I am looking for. I’m going to work on this mindset shift applied as much to dog training as it I do in other areas.

Sorry for a bit of a weird brainstorm!

[Kristin Omdahl]

So that monkey video was absolutely hilarious!! I laughed so hard! Yes, I think Reacher was definitely the monkey on the right! Younger Reacher probably would’ve just pushed Ronin out of the way and ate his treat. But somehow, the older much more polite Reacher, made do with indignant looks. 😂 I have been practicing bark training moments and I think he’s starting to catch on slowly. I think we’ll get there eventually. I even had him barking a bit at the trial when there were some exciting moments where he woofed and we were not distracting any other dogs. I’ll keep working on it.

The Stephanie Theis seminar was just okay. It was a bit of a paradox. I took quite a few notes about things to work on and try (more than usual at a seminar – except yours. Yours gets WAY more notes!!) 😀 So that part was good. And on the other hand I think short sequences isn’t really what we need right now – I need long lines to get him to zoom!

Here are a few highlights from the seminar. I still see no reason why he does not desire to open up more. We played at most start lines, he didn’t seem uncomfortable, my handling wasn’t perfect but also not horrible. I’m just not sure why the lack of confidence at this point. It must be something about ME though!

In the second rep, I don’t know why I said GoGoGo and also she did correct me after for calling his name out of the tunnel, which she was absolutely right because I wasn’t really doing a hard turn. I don’t want to make that name call ineffective so that was a good tip she gave.

At 1:51 it was kind of interesting that he thought Stephanie was interesting and just HAD to check her out. 😀

On the rep at 2:16 I finally remembered that I should do more to have him chase the toy and chase me with it. She suggested that just when he catches up to it I should dart it away a bit and run faster for a moment before letting him have it. He DID seem to like that game (um, prey drive is there at least).

Then the second to last last rep was kind of funny because at some point he’s like, “I must leave mom and go check out that tunnel. Oh, there’s that interesting other person again, I guess I could run with you.” 😂

On to today’s runs…not a happy day for me but also I can’t blame the poor guy for being a bit weirded out and having some issues today.

Run 1 was Beginner Agility and the first thing that happened was on the dog walk at about :08 he glances at the judge who is waving her arm and saying to start the timer. I am hoping that’s why he was just trotting down the dog walk plank and still hits a perfect contact with no aids. I’m happy with that in that 1) he didn’t freak out at the judge waving her arm 2) got a nice contact hit first time in competition and no aids. I do want him to blast down the plank in the future, but we’ll work on that this summer.

I like our nice playtime with the toy to make up for the yucky turns in the course. He’s even tugging on the toy, so that was good. Then inexplicably until I watched the video, he jumps off the teeter. I think he’s only jumped off the teeter one other time ever, and it was the first time he’d tried that one. This one he trains on every week so THAT WAS WEIRD. But I really think he had a “holy crap” moment when he got up there and realized there was a bar setter RIGHT THERE. She was pretty close.

Then I tried to regroup and get the weaves, but he couldn’t do them. Granted, they were kind of going into a wall and he maybe was thinking about the teeter thing and just couldn’t finish after getting about 3/4 of the way through.

We kept going and he was pretty slow throughout the rest, which included me doing a front cross way too early and him pulling off. I’m having flashbacks of the Speedy Jumpers seminar last month where I did the same thing. Definitely something to work on!

Then, on to Jumpers where all I planned to do was a quick loop around the right and out. I did not bring a toy in this round. In hindsight, maybe I should have considering how the first run went, but I know we have to practice without. He wasn’t too slow right off the start, but not great, then he slowed down and DEFINITELY could not weave.

So, not a great day, but certainly made notes on things to practice. Overall I just still wish I could figure out which button would turn on the motivation and confidence he needs to have fun at this game. It has to be ME. I mean I know he turned into a pretty mellow guy even outside of agility, but something just doesn’t seem like it’s adding up. And then today I notice he did seem a bit more nice sensitive than I’ve ever seen him before. Like a lot more startles at things. He recovered fast every time, but there was often that little jolt of surprise. I can work on that at home too.

We did stay around longer after our runs just to hang out in the facility, get snacks in tight spaces, just being able to watch and hear all the activity. He was probably tired, but did almost seem bored by the time we left 45 minutes after starting that. I think that was good environmental practice, but if you think that was too much after having two runs in the day let me know. I did see him wag his tail once at least. He was stone still but got a wiff of girl in heat who was parked really close to us at one point. That doesn’t bother me, he has to get used to that. But it was pretty funny he thought she was pretty cute and wagged his tail at her but was to shy to do anything else about it (very appropriate) though. 🙂

Let me know what you think of all this!
Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Good news! I got a working spot in the Beyond Novice seminar with you in June!

And for your entertainment, here is a video of me trying to teach either of my dogs to bark. I thought having Ronin there, peer pressure, would help, and I picked this odd location because me coming up the steps and teasing them there gets them pretty riled up. But having the cookies in play so I could be fast on the reward seems to be have been a distraction. It seemed only 1 dog was learning to bark on my “woof” cue.🤣 I did have another opportunity not on video to catch Reacher barking at the neighbor where I started adding the cue and that was pretty funny and I thought he was getting it maybe, but not really I don’t think.https://youtu.be/b5mmNQW20rY?si=Bx8_dDNBRFxjpsgu

We haven’t done much agility in the past 2 weeks due to our weekly class being cancelled twice in a row for odd reasons, but do have a 1/2 day seminar this Friday and trial on Saturday (entered only two runs). If I get some agility practice video from tonight I’ll share it!

~Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

It’s been a few days! Haven’t done really any agility this week since I’ve been busy with business-building stuff, but I’m really glad you mentioned what you did in regards to Reacher missing the weaves last week because it addressed my gut feeling that I felt was right but was doubting myself.

You said:
<<Yeah, it was odd for him! It could have been there was some visual clutter with the weaves near the wall? Have you done any skin rolling with him (gently lifting his skin and rolling down his back with your thumb and fingers)? That can tell you if he is tight anywhere. You have had weird weather lately and I have found that the sudden shifts from cold to warm to cold/ice/snow can make my dogs pretty tight.>>
It could have been some visual clutter but the first thing I thought about when I saw him move there (in the moment) was that he didn’t look right. So after the the second miss I didn’t do any more weaves afterwards. Then, after my post to you I felt like he had more heat in that area when he was stretching up on my like he usually does, but usually there is no heat flooding into his back area. The weather has indeed been up and down and I did do the skin rolling and some massage and while he was not crazy tight I do think that was it.

With all that we haven’t done much running this week I’d still like to capture him in real extension getting after it for comparison sometime soon!

On another topic, since you are teaching these topics in June and if I should be so fortunate to snag a working spot, which would you recommend for Reacher considering where we are and what we need to focus on?
-Turning Tails: Mastering the Handling of a Great Turn
-Discriminations
-Introduction to International Skills
-Beyond Novice
-ISC/UKI Coursework

I have some ideas on what I think would be best but curious what you think!

~Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Had an interesting thing happen in class on Monday, where Reacher missed the weaves twice. He hasn’t messed up any weaves in quite some time and I’m not sure why. Not fretting, but it’s interesting. The video was really far away so I zoomed in in editing so it’s pretty hard to see. I thought maybe it was the color of the poles blending in too much but I’m not sure. The entry was tucked pretty close to the wall back there but I’m not feeling that’s so much it either.

Anyway, kind of interesting.

The other part of the video is just some running to try to do our little test of speed. You’re welcome for the comedy relief of watching me run back and forth as well. 😂

It’s REALLY hard to get video of the running all out moments. He has tons of them but there are very hard to capture. I think one difference between agility and most other times he’s running is that of intensity. It’s not just about the speed, but it’s the desire to go fast that’s missing in agility I think. I just wish he was a little more intense about it. But I’m still hoping that will come. If it doesn’t that’s okay too.

Let me know what you think!
Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Dang, this is the second time I’m typing all this since putting it all in without realizing my session timed out (so sad!) so now I’m not sure what I wrote the first time. Probably won’t be as good. 😂

Thanks for all the great advice on the runs! I am noticing that he’s an energy-matcher and when it’s loud and kind of exciting at the trial he might be a bit harder to get engaged at the start line, but he seems to get amped up and excited by more chaos. I guess that’s better than getting worried as the energy goes up!

<<Was it a ‘real’ run – no toy, using the actual course from the judge? I think it went great.>>
YES! It was a real run using the actual course! And, since I hadn’t checked in for this one (oops!) and didn’t have a toy they counted it as official and he even got a Q. So baby dog is now on the board! Didn’t mean to but the course was nicely designed and I wanted to try without a toy and it worked out. 🙂

I’m going to try more empty hands, but don’t worry, I won’t be getting greedy. I want him to be super confident and that’s going to take more time. I’m not going to be a “fix-it” person. And we have no trials now until the first weekend in May, so might be a little quiet in the forum for a bit.

Oh, I am also noticing that he’s getting a bit more confident about running the portion of the course by the crowd, but still has some hesitation there so I’ll be extra sure my cues and connections are solid on those portions.

I do wish Reacher would find agility more intrinsically rewarding like he seemed to when he was a puppy, but hopefully some of that joy will come back the more confidence he gains. Or, he just won’t be that dog. We shall see. I’m still going to think of anything I can to bring that fun/joy back.

Speaking of fun, last night in class I wasn’t really feeling like doing agility in the traditional sense (just in the mood I guess) and just wanted to see if we could have more fun out there, so mainly we just played around with the toys and did only a few small things.

Here’s a sample:

We mostly just played around in the ring with his toys (no food). Then a bit of chase. Then I tried a couple of distance challenges at the end. For that I wish I’d thrown the toy farther out on the line, but he didn’t seem to have any issue working away from me, so that’s good.

I was also thinking about just keeping him jumping 8″ even though I know he could do 12″. I’m not sure what the norm is these days for running Preferred/Select, but we’re not World Team material and not expecting to compete for super stardom so maybe he’d have more fun at a lower jump height. What do you think?

~Kristin

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