Tuesday Topic, week 35

The subheading here is ‘learn with me’ – because I am a complete novice at this! I have done some reading (of course), including Agility Right From the Start, by Bertilsson and Johnson Vegh, practiced some foundational groundwork like wrapping around cones, cavalletti, and moving under and over stuff in the forest. And I’ve watched loads of youtube, such as:

but the intro course was my (and Fenris’!) very first attempt at actually doing any of this stuff.

So what sort of stuff is there? (Hard to find good pics that are free – so I’m just pointing at the video instead…)

Jumping. Of course. It’s probably the first thing anyone thinks of. But there are open jumps where the dog can see what comes after; the wall, where he can’t so he has to trust (straight after the weave poles in the video course); the ring, where he can’t just jump as high as he wants (first obstacle of the video); and a long jump (right after the see-saw).

Then there’s the tunnel, which may or may not be held up all the way through. It’s rarely straight on a track – the dog has to trust there’s an end, even if he can’t see daylight!

Then the A-frame (Møne for the norwegians), and the Bridge (Stige ditto. Goes over one of the tunnels in the video). These last two have a coloured area at the bottom, where the dog has to touch with at least one paw in passing. Running contacts (run, but hit with a paw) shave off seconds – but the 2 on/ 2 off (stopping completely) is ‘safer’ if you want to make sure.

And the See-Saw (Vippe). Coloured area, the dog has to stand there until the end hits the ground. Can be scary with the noise and movement, for a lot of dogs, but Fenris seems to take it in stride. Then again, he plays with VERY noisy tin-cans, so…

Weave poles – pretty much always 12, and definitely always an even number. Entry from the right side of the first one, always. A million ways to teach this, apparantly. (Well, at least a handful.)