YES? Wheeeee!
Darwin went to his first ever agility class last night & he was more than fine. He had excellent focus, wasn't too scared by things falling over (wobbly jump equipment & big puppies & leashes led to several bangs) and for me, the best thing of all?
OMG - he's a normal dog.
He's like, normal.
He doesn't bark. He doesn't lunge. He doesn't cower....though he actually does not like having his butt sniffed & he'll just spin away. If someone insists, he spins around and tries to hump them. OK, not quite normal, but normal enough for me.....
And I was the prize idiot in the class who let her dog approach a dog w/ space issues & minor reactivity. Oooops. SO sorry little cute Boston. I should know better but OH MY! It's so fun to have a dog who, you know, if you drop a leash, they just run around, say hi to a puppy & then come back. And the Boston sort of looked like he wanted to say hello but then after a few seconds he said "GET YOUR STINKY DOG BREATH OUT OF MY FACE". Which is amazingly cute when a Boston says it, by the way.
The only problem I see so far is that Darwin watches me possibly too much. Like, when running. And since he's blind on one side, he'll just run right into things if his head is turned away from them. So I'll be trying some exercises to get him to look forward while running. It also means I'm not sure if I'll be able to handle him on both sides. We'll have to see how that works as we go.
And I'm already thinking that this class is ok for getting our feet wet but I won't be continuing here so I'm keeping my eye out for something a little bit different. Recommendations welcome.
5 comments:
Yay! That's pretty impressive. I don't know yet what it's like to have a "normal" dog so I am kind of jealous. Okay, a lot jealous. ;-)
I hope Darwin keeps having such a great time and you can find a new class that works for you!
Congratulations Darwin! We want to see agility tricks when we come up to BC next time :) Meanwhile, our behaviorist just left after determining that yes, it probably is best that Baby stay on Prozac for a little while longer if not the rest of his life. lol We can only dream of normal!
Welcome to the wonderful world of agility! Too bad you're not in my area, I know lots of different places to train. What didn't you like about this place?
Oh I'm excited for you!
Just looking at that picture of Darwin jumping, made me think that if liked frisbees he might make a good frisbee dog:)
But I love agility, and I'm sure you will too. So I'm interested as to where you are taking lessons now. You can email me privately. I've probably got some other options for you.
Look forward to updates on Darwin:)
Thx everyone!
Darwin MIGHT love frisbee if I ever found a big enough fully fenced field (I still don't trust that recall around birds, though we've been working hard on the whistle recall) that I could throw one for him. The ones I throw in my yard just hit the shed or the fence or go over the fence...
The class is more of a recreational class rather than a class for competition, even relaxed competition kwim? It's ok for getting out toes wet (& it's close to me!) but I'll want something else after :D
Karen - thx for the offer, I'll email you!
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