As many of you may know, I have been taking agility classes since early Spring this year. I’m having so much fun learning how to navigate a course, and one of my very favorite things to do is work on the contact obstacles.
Contact obstacles refers to such objects as; the A-frame, teeter-totter, dog walk, and tunnels. They require the upmost concentration and braveness.
Watch as I expertly navigate the teeter totter at class yesterday:
You may notice that when my mom says “mark” as I approach the base of the obstacle I stop and wait until she gives me the ok to move forward. This is so that when I’m racing around at top speed on the course I don’t forget to take all 4 of my feet across the yellow portion of the obstacle – or else it won’t count.
Last week I had my regularly scheduled dog agility classes at DTCCC, only this time was special because my dad was home from work so he got to come watch me!
Of course I was super excited to show dad all the things I’ve been learning in class – and I went so fast that he could barely capture it on camera!
One of the things I have been learning at class is my agility contacts. Contacts in dog agility refer to a specific contact zone at the base of an object (like the A-frame, teeter, dog walk) that you must place a paw in during competition in order for it to count. Most of these contact zones are marked by a yellow strip at the base of an obstacle.
Being that I’m a small dog it is much easier for me to not miss a contact (because I’m not big enough to soar over it), but it is still best to learn how to do each object properly by entering and exiting it at the very base.
Below is a short video from class that dad took of me working on my contacts with the a-frame. You’ll see that I have a verbal cue (“mark”) that mom gives me as I approach the base of the a-frame, this cues me to pause at the bottom of the board until I get the ok to move forward. As I progress in my training my “mark” won’t be as obvious as I race around the course.
Looks pretty fun right?
Here’s some pervious posts from my adventures in agility training incase you missed it:
P.S. Don’t forget to vote for me in the 2012 Petties! I’m nominated for best blog design, and winning will earn $1,000 to one of my favorite pet charities!
If you follow along with my adventures on Facebook, then you probably already heard that on Sunday I became a Certified Therapy Dog! Yippee!
For the past 6 weeks I have been taking classes at the Dog Training Center of Chester County to prepare to take my Canine Good Citizen and Therapy Dog International tests. One of my goals this year was to pass both tests and my Mom was super happy when I did so on my very first try!
As you can see in my testing video I was SUPER excited to be performing. What can I say, I’m just an overly happy guy! I may have forgotten a bit of my heeling a few times, but I was just so pumped to be meeting new people.
One of the hardest parts of the Therapy Dog test is to walk past a pile of cookies and not eat them! Do you know how hard that is when your nose is 2″ off the ground!? I was very tempted to eat those cookies when I walked by them in the beginning of my test, but when my Mom said leave it I happily obliged and didn’t eat a single one. (Phew, close call, because mom said I would have failed had I eaten one).
Even though I’ve passed my tests, my training will never be done. Mom and I continue to take agility classes and I know I’ll never stop learning and improving. I’m excited to see what comes next for me – I just hope that for any future tests they let me wear my Super Hero Cape – because we all know I look WAY cooler with my cape on!
If you would like to check out all the requirements to pass a CGC and TDI test, you can check it out here.
P.S. Thanks to all my pals on my Facebook page who congratulated me on passing my tests, you guys totally make me blush!
On Tuesday evenings I attend two dog training classes. First I make my way to class at the Dog Training Center of Chester County where I’m learning to be a Canine Good Citizen and Therapy Dog. Then it’s off to Wagsworth Manor where I’m in the Intermediate Agility Class.
This week there was a big storm rolling in when mom and I pulled up to Wagsworth Manor, so instead of running around outside like normal we headed inside. I was kind of unsure about the whole situation, considering there was thunder and lightning, strange barking dogs, and a whole new environment to contend with. But soon I was put to ease, because my dad was waiting there to watch me get my Agility on!
Mom says I have to work on paying attention better, even when there are distractions, but how can you not be excited when your Dad comes to watch!?
As my facebook fans might know, I’ve been taking an Intro to Agility Class at the Dog Training Club of Chester County. So far it’s been a lot of basic stuff to get me prepared for the obstacles, but this week I actually got to practice walking over some low jumps in class.
I don’t have any videos from class (where I’m of course a super star), but I do have this fun video of me and mom practicing at work yesterday.
After learning how to target my nose to spot with clicker training, my mom is having me complete an obstacle and then touch my nose to the target. We haven’t really progressed this far in the class yet, but mom said I’m so far ahead in my “homework” that it wouldn’t hurt to make it a little harder for me. I’m not complaining, I can’t wait to show the big dogs what I can do when we get to class next week (to be fair there is one corgi in my class…..but I’m by far the tiniest).
And since it’s Friday, I thought I’d show you another video. This is just to make you smile.
Yeah, that kitten is crazy. I don’t know whether I should play with her, eat her, or be afraid of her. It’s a conundrum.
