Cinnabar - Agility - Next Level
All home agility equipment purchased from AffordableAgility
Cinnabar finally had his first class this fall, although we were almost rained out again.
He's the big boy in the class, with the next largest being 30 lbs (Patches, mixed breed), and all the rest under 15 lbs. Abby was in Cinnabar's last class, she's a sweet little dog with her legs being all of 2 inches long (her daddy is well over 6 feet); Kally (cocker spaniel); Hershey (cocker mix); Molly (Australian Terrier) was in Sebastian's last class.
They had a nice free-for-all playtime together before warmups. Cinnabar remembered the dog walk after his 2nd attempt, and the same with the teeter-tooter.
Sharon is the trainer for this class and thrilled to be able to get to know Cinnabar apart from Sebastian (she sees them in Day Care). He hasn't been in a class of hers since Puppy Kindergarten. She can't get over the difference in their personalities. "Cinnabar loves to please you, whereas Sebastian loves to want to know why on everything". She also noted the difference in them on the sidelines. Cinnabar is calm and quiet, where Sebastian needs to know what's going on with everyone and is mournfully vocal about it.
With the exception of Molly (her 3rd class), this is everyone else's 2nd class. So nice that it's total refresher for everyone and no newbies in class.
Cinnabar did well on his runs through the course, with me messing him up at the weaves because I was on the wrong side of him. He kept running past them, but recalled very nicely to come back and go through them. The weaves are angled out (every other one to the opposite direction) at this point so they can get used to going in essentially a straight line between them.
Our course was tunnel, dog walk, hurdle, weaves, chute, hurdle, hurdle, teeter-totter, hurdle, hurdle, tire, pause box. Several 180 turns in there as well.
I use hot dogs for treats for agility. It's very nice to note that all of two were needed this class, as more gets accomplished for less each time through.
October 2, 2006 - 2nd Agility Class
Had trouble focusing him when we first got there. But, there were 3 dogs in the play yard which is next to the agility class yard and he knew at least one of them. He'd do a hurdle and then zoom to the fence to play - come back and do the tunnel and zoom to the fence.
He settled down nicely once their play time was over and the play yard was clear.
Unfortunately, he did the chute on his own and it was already tangled and he got majorly tangled in it. Took a minute to help him get out of it. So, the chute needed to be held open for him for the first few runs to help him over the fear of getting tangled again.
We worked very specifically on the weave poles. I've moved them closer together for him and he's really getting the whole thing of weaving between them, got the motion going and everything.
The teeter was moved up so that it's higher. Sharon called Cinnabar over to test it and he promptly went up it and banged it down like "yeah, so"
On our runs I really needed to work on getting his attention coming out of the tunnel as he's been blowing by the hurdle after that (as have they all except Molly). I got that, but then he was blowing by the tire on the first two runs, but got it on the next 3 runs.
Except Kalley (who was flipping off her mom), everyone had good runs. It was really nice to see Patches have her tail wagging on the teeter when in the past it's been between her legs.
The fun part was seeing little Abby do the chute without anyone holding it open. There was a slight cheat, though, the breeze needed to hold it open for her to go through, but she did and it's progress for her.
It's a good group, with everyone supportive of each other.
October 14, 2006 - 3rd Agility Class
What a glorious day we had today. Cool temps and lovely blue sky.
Here's a very short video of Cinnabar on the teeter-totter when it's set high. He jumps off a little short in the vid, but would do the whole thing with me walking next to him. It's the highest it's been for him:
Cinnabar Teeter Totter short video
During warmups there were dogs in the play yard so he was distracted by his buds and I couldn't get any shots of him doing obstacles other than the quick video. But here he is playing with Deuce:
We had to select our own course and the trainer setup the teeter to go the opposite way so that the order of things wasn't familiar. Each were supposed to walk through once with the leash on for familiarity and then off leash the first time through. Other than Hershey & Cinnabar, every one was slightly off, either flipping off or just full of beans and zoomies.
Cinnabar was up last and I ditched the leash and went through it twice with him off leash, with him confused at the double jump the first time through, but perfect the second time through. He's really doing well on the weaves and especially his focus on me. At the pause box, we doing our downs and stays with hand signals, which is way cool, no voice.
Our course was teeter, pause box, hurdle, tunnel, hurdle, tire, weaves, hurdle, double hurdle, chute, dog walk, pause box.
We each had two more runs like that and he was once again terrific.
Then we had to pick just four obstacles (not together) and put a run through of that. We did weaves, teeter, chute, dog walk. Coming out of the weaves he added a hurdle on our way over to the teeter, but was just absolutely perfect other than adding an obstacle.
He was the star for this class and had a blast besides. I'm really proud of him.
October 21, 2006 - 4th Agility Class
Pretty sunny day today, very cool and quite breezy. Cinnabar was very focused even during warmups with some of his buddies in the play yard next door.
Short vids
Cinnabar on Teeter right next to mom
Cinnabar doing weaves, again right next to mom
He'd been doing the weaves on his own until I pulled out the cam, so it's upclose and personal :)
Took about 5 shots to get at least a part of him in the tire :)
Like last week we had to pick a course with a slow go thru the first time and then running thru the next. We did dog walk, 180 to tire, weaves, hurdle, double hurdle, teeter, pause box, hurdle, tunnel, hurdle. Too breezy for the chute today :(
Cinnabar was picture perfect on our walk thru & run thru, doing the weaves without my hand in there guiding him through each one.
His third run thru, someone was walking a husky in the parking lot next to the agility yard and his focus was off, but he still was decent.
Picture perfect again on his 4th run. He was just WOW today :)
Improvements for all else in the class, with Hershey getting his jump heights increased with him not even noticing, and Patches and Abby vying for most improved. Patches (a rescue) wasn't socialized for her first 3 years, and initially did everything with her tail between her legs. She's coming out of her shell and her tail is wagging the whole time and she got through her entire last run off leash, really focusing on her mom. Abby listened more to her daddy than she ever has, was much more focused on him than crowd approval, an absolute first. She even waited for him to release her from a sit to run to the crowd for her cheers! It's so great to see the improvements. Molly was really steady on each of her runs, except the first where she thought she'd do the super tunnel, by running on top of it :) Just seemed more fun that way I guess!
Everyone's hard work is really showing.
Only one more class for each of the boys. Cinnabar's progress is way beyond what I expected, I'm very proud of him.
November 3, 2006 - 5th Agility Class
Ah, the last of the Fall Agility classes was yesterday for Cinnabar (Sebastian's was rained out two weeks in a row and he'll get an extra class in the spring).
Crispy perfect weather for Cinnabar, in fact all the dogs seemed to enjoy it. A bunch of them were totally wound up, doing so many zoomies
We setup the course totally different than it's been before with some odd curves, and then picked out our own course. I opted not to do the walk thru with Cinnabar because he was sharp in warmups.
Man, he didn't disappoint. He had three runs and was perfect, perfect and perfect on each! His weaves are better each and every time he does them.
The trainer's jaw was dropping on his runs, and she said she wouldn't be surprised if we moved to an agility club with Cinnabar because she thinks that much of him. She couldn't stop talking about his focus.
Wow, was I proud of him and will consider going further in agility with him!
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