Class last night was a hard course, with lots of back-and-forth all over the ring. We were indoors in a not-so-huge room, but once I remembered the course, it went really well for Stan and me.
Working on low hands and keeping an eye on him really helped, and he barely wandered away from me. He did the teeter with no problem at all. I was a little overwhelmed when I first saw the course and afraid I wouldn’t be able to memorize it because of all the twists and turns, but we broke it into two parts, then put the whole thing together, and it was actually really fun! Stan did great!
Practice today with Tammy was so good! We went back to the gym where the last trial was held and rented the room for ourselves. I got there first and practiced a little on my own, and it went well. When I remember to use a low hand and eye contact, it makes all the difference for Stan.
Tammy noticed that Stan tends to nip my ankles when he wants my attention or gets nervous. She had me work on planning ahead and calling out obstacles as early as I could, and it really helped! So the bottom line is that Stanley is fine. He’s doing his best, and I’m the problem. If I stay connected to him and let him know where we’re going, he knows his job and he will do it!
So: keep eyes on Stanley, use a LOW hand to guide him, and call out obstacles as early as possible to support him. Talk to him while he’s in tunnels so he knows what’s coming next.
Another suggestion from my trainer was a special command to call him to me in the agility ring. I use “Here” every day, so I wanted to train something with more excitement that I can hopefully transfer to the ring. I came up with “Zip,” and I’m teaching him that coming to me when I say Zip is fun and exciting! Hoping it helps keep him with me and focused for our next trial. Yikes, it’s only 10 days away!
AND I love my pet stroller! It makes it so easy to lug my stuff around, and Stan is even getting used to hanging out in it. He is barking so much less. It’s really well made, easy to push, and holds my stuff in the bottom. I think Stan prefers being up high in the stroller to being on the ground in a crate.
