Red Gate Arena practice, May 10, 2009

Trial fever & weaves nightmare

Ok, after all these months of training and spending money in agility classes, the first real trial is at the horizon. On Sunday the 17th of May we'll be at Guides Canins in St. Lazare with Nat. We entered only to runs, jumpers and gamblers, under the advice of our trainer BH. Well, at first I thought that the standard course was a better idea than the gamblers, considering how Pongo behaved at the fun match at Red Gates Arena in April. Now I am starting to think that BH was right...
A few days ago Pongo started acting out doing the weaves and skipped poles. So I restarted training him from scratch, using the 2x2 method I believe (2 poles at a time). And I also started clicker training him. He did great and yesterday we were up to six perfect weaves, but today, after adding other 2 poles, we are back at skipping the next to last pole. Sigh....
What should I do? Go back to the perfect six. Do two perfect sixes one after the other and plug them together as 12 poles?!?!
Conclusion: let's wait for the standard runs, jumpers and gamblers can do for now...

Practince makes you perfect...

So we keep practicing, because we are not really perfect...not even close to it!!!!
With Nat, we built an A-frame, a teeter and a tire...or, should I say, I helped with a couple of coats of paint, and I paid my half of the cost, but she built the whole thing with her father-in-law's help!!
Yeah, let's be honest, I am no good with saws and nails!
Anyways, the equipment is great, the teeter is very safe, the A-frame too. And we can now set up a mini agility course in Nat's backyard (mine is way too small for it!).

Shade tent/gazebo

On saturday I bought a beautiful shade tent/gazebo. It is foldable and when fully open is 10'x10'. I figured it's a good size to enjoy the K9Kup either in the shade, or dry, if it rains! Actually, this is the reason why I bought it. What if it rains cats and dogs during the trial??? Ok to get wet durning the run, but I do not want to stay in the car waiting for my turn to have fun!
Pongo thinks I am crazy, he does not care about the rain.

Red Gate Arena Fun Match - April 4, 2009

Agility weaves

Today is the big day!
We went out in the cold, I managed to reset the weave poles (they were stuck in the frozen snow) and I placed them on a straight line.
I had Pongo sit besides me, then I told him "go get your weaves!". And he did!
I could not believe it. So I tried again. And he did it again!
I think he finally got it that even without the guides to keep him weaving, he has to do it!
Good job Pongo!