January 11, 2010

First Agility Class and exercise ball

.
Dazzle went to his first agility class today.  Since we have mostly trained alone, seeing the other dogs doing the agility equipment was very stimulating to him!  We worked a bit on focus on me while the other dogs did the tunnels and jumps and he was much better by the end of class.  We worked on a tunnel to table combo with focus on sending the dog ahead of the handler, proper jumping form, 2 on 2 off contacts (he had some brain farts on this), stays, recalls, and some "being calm on a mat" which he was only able to do for a few minutes before he got bored and tried to create his own games. :-)
.
It was not the regular instructor since she had a death in the family, so it will be interesting to see if the class format changes when the regular instructor returns.  I think having him work with the other dogs in the class will be very helpful for him and his ability to focus with such exciting distractions.
.
He LOVES the equipment and I hope to have him compete in the future, but I don't know if I'll be able to be the handler or if I'll need someone else to "handle" him in the ring since there is a fair amount of running involved.  I'm hoping I can teach him the names of the obstacles and directions so I can do minimal movement as I verbally direct him around the course.  But we're a long way from that right now :-)
.
We still haven't worked with the exercise ball/egg because even though I ordered it on Dec. 18th, it hasn't arrived yet.  Well, I had it sent to my parent's house thinking it would arrive while I was there (& it was scheduled to arrive today).  But since I wasn't there, I now have to wait for (& pay for) additional shipping.  So while the price was good, I'm not very impressed with the Allegro Medical service.  I don't think they would have gotten around to getting it in the mail yet if I hadn't called to inquire about why it was taking so long.  When I called, I explained the situation and asked if I could change the "ship to" address.  The curt person on the phone said she would check on my order and email me.  She did email me, but the shipping address wasn't changed, she simply let me know the order was now in the process of being shipped. :-( So I'm sure it will get here eventually!
.
I still haven't gotten to the videos.  Class took more of the day than I expected, along with some errands I had to do.  I'll post here when I have them uploaded.
.