Wish I had a video I could share with all of you as this morning was Dazzle's first agility class. I worked all night last night and it was sooooo busy at the hospital that in my 12 hrs I did not even get a break then I was over an hour late leaving so we arrived at class, One middle aged very tired owner with one young excited fast dog...not a great combo.
The first thing we did was run up and down a line of the poles for the jumps to teach the dogs to pay attention to where their back feet are...Ok There I was wanting to be asleep but finding myself attached to a rocket. Take off that rocket did as he is a sight hound so can get a good 40 MPH if he so desires. He was trying to be kind and keep it down maybe 35mph????
I was thinking Oh dear what am I doing with a rocket? He in turn thought this is great Mom wants to race me!
Then we walked over a flattened A-frame did great with that so we move to the dog walk at about 1 ft off the ground that frightened him a bit as he would loose his footing but after enough practices he started to get it. Then on to the Tunnel. It was collapsed up so only a few feet long but most of his classmates were not really willing to do it the first time. Rocket boy Dazzle shot right through it and had a huge grin on his face" that was fun!!". I have a feeling he will be a dog that gets sucked into the tunnels
Then we did the tire jump. He loved that too and sailed through it on his first try. He was so pleased with himself. He had a ball which is what I was hoping would happen so hopefully he continues to enjoy this and in a few months can be out practicing with the club as I do miss that being that Jazz and Dash are too old now.
I have a goal to show any of the sighthound owners that laughed when I said Dazzle would be doing agility just how wrong they were. I think as long as he thinks it is fun he will do fine and this first class sort of backed it up . He does it more for my saying "good boy" then for treats as he seems to be very motivated in making me happy.
If any of you are looking for a way to have lots of fun with your dog give agility a try. You do not have to do competitions or have a fast dog to have fun as just going to class and learing to work as a team is so much fun for you and your dog.It can be a real confidence builder for the shy dogs.
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