3rd Intro To Agility Class, Sat Evening Setup

Saturday Morning:
Intro To Agility, only 5 of the 8 dogs showed up.  I brought Max and Lucky to work out afterwards, and left them nearby, on leash to watch.  At first they were barking, whining and complaining that they could not participate, but they settled in.  Guess what?  That's an important part of training!  Mature dogs know how to wait their turn with patience.  They have to learn to trust you, that you haven't forgotten them.  They have to learn assurance that you'll be back.

Barrels:
Loralie introduced the Barrels -- I had never seen these.
You stand between and a little out front of 2 barrels (or trash cans), and ask your dog to go around the barrel to your left.  They have to pass around a space where they can't actually see you.  Big step!  Then to the barrel on the right.  Maxie was called to demo this, off leash.  The new dogs do this on leash.  Even an experienced dog didn't quite understand it at first, but he quickly caught on.  It is the same as a figure 8 around a jump, but without being able to see H at all times.  A new experience, and good practice for H with directional arm and foot signals, much like the exercise sending thru the tunnel which I charted in an earlier post, here.

I took a lot of pictures, not sure what to use them for, but maybe for the club's website. I'll have to review them when I get home and see what message they convey.  Maybe I'll upload them to LCCOC's Picasa Web Albums and invite all the students to see them.

Saturday Evening:
I met with Nedra and Polly to set up the courses for the Monday night Advanced and Beginners classes. Got there at 8, it was hot but not intolerable.  We really need more people to go help with the setup.  It's hard for 3 old gals to move the A-frame, 2 gals to haul those 20' tunnels without dragging them across the yard.  I suspect the students never wonder how the courses they practice on get chosen or set up, just take it for granted.  For a long, long time, I did.  Then again, it was never explained to me

After setup, Lucky and Maxie ran the first half of the course.  Doesn't seem too difficult.  I played with Butchie, Nedra's retired border collie.  We had fun with the Touch Container and some basic commands.

In the middle of the day, Judy and Thom came over for Cucumber Soup and we finished watching Julie and Julia.  Judy brought me an onion so I could make my Beef Stew, which we had for supper at 10 p.m. when I got home from the field.  John had waited to eat with me, sweet thing.

And that was, mostly, my day.