Agility 101

We headed to Jake's first beginner agility class last night. He seemed really disappointed when we drove right past the river. He threw himself down with a great big theatrical huff and rolled his eyes. But once we got to the instructor's house and he heard all the other doggies, my husband and I were totally forgiven. There were three German Shepherds, one Golden Retriever, one Cocker Spaniel, one Boxer and one Sheltie to join us in the class. I had no idea that Jake already had a fan club -- one of the instructors had already seen Jake's blog and thought he was an "adventurous soul". Two of the instructors have herding dogs (Border Collies & Australian Shepherds)so we haven't encountered any herding dog prejudice. Besides fighting the swarming mosquitos (which seem to have the best knack for biting the small spots I missed with the bug spray) and trying to keep Jake from invading the other dogs' personal space until better acquainted, everything went wonderfully. Jake zoomed right through the tunnel, hit the contact spot on the A-frame, walked across and turned around on the lowered balance beam, flew over the jump bars, and raced through the weave poles -- all in the name of CHEESE. Jake doesn't get cheese at home so we pulled out the low-fat string cheese for the occasion. He kept running over to the instructor that normally held the bait to lick her fingers. The husband of one of the instructors told us that Jake was a natural. I know I was proud of him. Most importantly, Jake was totally pooped. Besides Ellen's sheep, we haven't found that much that can wear Jake out in an hour and half (at least not something that he can't recover from in a ten-minute power nap). Yeah, agility! Hopefully we can get some pics of him doing his stuff up here soon!