When Roo gets up in the morning, Darwin hops up and takes his spot in bed. In the daytime, he usually snuggles by my pillow but this time I caught him cuddling up to Roo's jammies.
So agility class 2 has come and gone & once again I'm so pleased with Darwin. He's focused, attentive and not too worried about things so far.
We've only had small jumps, the pause table and the tunnel so it's not like there's been much to be scared of, but......Darwin is not too sure yet about the tunnel when it curves.
Which is all sort of funny because about 2 weeks ago I got a tweet from CleanRun about their tunnel overstock sale & since I had birthday money burning a hole in my pocket, I considered getting one. But experienced agility peeps suggested other equipment would be a better purchase & I didn't get it. Now I'm not sure if I should be regretting it or not because if I had it here, I could work it every day.
It's just something he needs more time with - and in a class, there's just not that much time to spend on a piece of equipment. That's one of my concerns with the class: too much luring and a teensy bit of strongarming dogs onto equipment.
I think Darwin is balking partly because of his vision problems. While I can't make a real tunnel, I'm wondering if I can make a sort of approximation with gardening hoops & a tarp draped over, to practice a behavior: get in that dark hole and run until you come out the other end. I don't think it's the footing that's the problem for him, as he's running through a straight one with no problems. I'll see what I can create in the yard.
3 comments:
This may be an animal lover's inappropriate suggestion but perhaps you could put one of your ratties through a home made tunnel. I'm pretty sure that would be positive reinforcement for Darwin and he would come to love the tunnel! Just a thought :)
Elka balks at putting her head under the coffee table to get a toy....I'm not sure how a tunnel would work out for her, if we ever get to agility!
Your idea to replicate a tunnel with gardening hoops (I'm thinking of the pieces of waterpipe I have shoved into the soil to make a long hooped mini greenhouse) and a tarp are a great idea. That way you can make the rate of progression suitable to Darwin.
Sounds like the instructor is curving the tunnel too soon. If a dog has an issue, it should be done in the tiniest of increments so the dog gets lots of practice with the view out the other end gradually getting ever so slightly smaller. But then you as a good dog trainer, you know that:)
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