It's hard to believe that our four-legged baby is turning 1 this week! He's grown and developed so much - and I couldn't be more satisfied with what a good (adult) dog he's turning in to. Recently, we've started doing
dog agility with Jaxon. Now, for those of you who haven't met Jax (aka the
Entlebucher), let me tell you a little about him. He's not a sprinter, and not a super-fast dog like an Aussie or Jack Russell, or Greyhound. But what he is, is a
good listener. Agility is not necessarily about time - but more so the relationship between dog and handler. It's that relationship and mutual trust that lets you blaze through the course.....the dog's ability to quickly process your commands and respond correctly.
Here's an
update on how we're doing with the different stations/maneuvers.:
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Weaving the poles: Enhhh, still working on this one. Apparently it is the hardest one to teach. My guy isn't skinny, so sometimes he just knocks the poles around and makes his own path :)
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The tunnel: he's come a long way on this one! He more readily goes through rather than having a buildup of uncertainty in the beginning. David and I are still tag-teaming this - one of us at the other end so Jax is more certain of the goal.
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the A-Beam and the Dog Walk - Jax loves both of these, and hits all the markers well. I barely get the whole command out before he's already doing it!
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Jumps: He's improved a lot on this as well. He'll actually jump over (as opposed to stepping over, or just walking around them) about 80% of the time. Occasionally, I still have to jump over them too for him to follow.
Below are a couple of pictures from our last session. It's pretty neat that we can do private gym time and get the whole area to ourselves just to work with Jax.
The above picture is Jax going over a set of
double jumps. My finger is a guide for where I want him, so that he always knows what I expect (so he gets a visual and verbal cue). The command here is "over".
This is the
dog walk - sort of looks like a balance beam. He has to touch the blue and orange areas on both sides for it to count. At the end of the walk, there's a little disc (aka the "target") that he has to stop at before moving on. It usually has a treaty on it to aid in the training. So here I'm preparing to say "target" to let him know that a) that's where I want him and b) yes, you can have that treaty.
More to come this week - I'm experimenting with pumpkin in the kitchen. 'Tis the season.
Eat well. Love well. Live well.
