Let the Handling Begin!

I have frequently lamented that I wish I had a better concept of what I'm supposed to be doing with my arms, legs, and hands during agility class. I've studied books and videos but, when you're racing willy-nilly after your dog just hoping to keep your feet under you, books and videos go right out of your conscious thought. This Tuesday's agility class began to cover the issue. It wasn't until after class that our teacher let us know that she had snuck some handling training in on us. She said the lot of us are over-thinkers and she didn't want any of us to panic. But, wait, I'm skipping to the end. So back to the beginning...

Jake had been kept in his kennel for most of the day because we were working in a gated community that doesn't allow dogs on the construction premises. I got home in enough time to change, grab Jake's treats and newly painted travel plank, and get to class. He was a tornado on the other end of the leash whenever another human tried to say hello. Fortunately, we did some calming plank exercises first. I took Jake's plank far from the other dogs and Jake repeatedly did 2 on, 2 off for me. When Jake got bored, he simply laid down and sniffed the grass. I was able to comvince him to show the teacher at least once when she made her way to our plank outpost.

The teeter totter was a little scarier this time with a bit of banging but nothing a lot of cheese couldn't overcome. Our second set of obstacles was the tire, jump, and chute. All of the dogs like this set and were jumping around and shrieking impatiently. Jake was last to go. We backtracked the obstacle as usual with much success. I was hard-pressed to keep up with him and not bowl the teachers over. Jake would slam on his own brakes when he reached the target and his rear end would come off the ground. The fourth go-round Jake came leaping out of the chute to land on the target. It was so hysterically funny that all of us were amused. We shouldn't have laughed, in retrospect, because little did we know the fifth time around was the charm -- the zoomies erupted the minute he shot out of the chute. It took us quite a while to get him back under control. I dreaded the series of three jumps coming up after that horrible display. We limited Jake to two and pretty much quite while we were ahead when he got it. Last but always time for another zoomie was the jump, tunnel, jump combo. (Insert sneaky handling lesson here.) We handlers were to learn a back crossover for these obstacles. Let me begin by saying that I never had a chance to practice it. Again, we went last. We went straight for the tunnel and then the jump (altering the route to suit Jake's attention span happens often). Jake skipped the jump as often as he could to run straight for the treat, which he didn't get. Finally, we got him to understand that the jump was an integral part of receiving that treat. We added the first jump back. He took the jump, flew through the tunnel and ran off into the yard. Yup, zoomie time. I was able to coax him back into the tunnel to come to me for a treat. I was trying so hard to remember to breathe at that point. I know being in his kennel for such a long time without our normal daily routine of focus games and a way to shed some energy had a lot to do with it but it was disheartening all the same.

Zoomie-Free Zone

Taken a few weeks ago, this picture is of Saki, the Sheltie, in Jake's agility class who is demonstrating running the dog walk.

We missed agility class last week because we were out of town and Jake was at my in-laws. It made us very nervous to leave Jake for so long. Jake loves my in-laws and their two dogs, a miniature dachschund named Stymie and a German Shorthair Pointer named Sadie. Still, we had never left Jake for that long loose in someone else's house and yard. Fortunately for all of us, Jake's report card came back with lots of gold stars -- he was well-behaved, "fit right in", and quietly crawled into his kennel every night. Small sidebar discussions later revealed that Jake routinely stole socks and took up residence under the beds with his contraband, shot out the front door of their office but returned when called, and abused his riding privileges in the car when he discovered himself seatbelt-harness free. He wouldn't be a cattle dog if he didn't try!

Jake greeted us with wiggling, wiggling, and more wiggling -- an action only interrupted by sloppy wet kisses. Jake stayed on my feet throughout dinner. I found myself with an audience during my shower because he refused to take his eyes off me and kept his head in the shower but as far away from the evil bathwater as possible. He finally relaxed a little at bedtime when he flopped down on my legs. Every once in a while he would get up to give me a nose bonk and then lay back down.

Then last night, just two days after picking Jake back up, we headed to agility. I had no idea what to expect and kept my hopes of Jake behaving well to myself. Jake proved me wrong! We began class using a traveling plank, a training device designed to help dogs learn the "two-on, two-off" positioning of the feet for safety purposes. Jake was a little confused by the first use of a clicker but quickly learned that the clicker signaled treats. It took me longer than him to coordinate my body and my brain to the new exercises but I wasn't alone. Luckily, this is something we can and will work on at home and anywhere else we can imagine. Our first sequence of obstacles was the tire, one jump and the chute. All of the dogs charged into this sequence with gusto, including Jake. We repeated our gameplan of starting with the last obstacle first and then backing into the next obstacle. Once we had gone through the entire sequence twice, we stopped while we were ahead and I still had Jake's focus. The teeter totter was next on the menu. The teeter is currently positioned just a hair above two tables so that it only moves an inch or two up and down on each end. Jake got to be the guinea pig for the class and no amount of bang or bump seemed to bother him with buffalo jerky and string cheese waiting on the other side. Last but not least was the weave poles. Jake did them so well the first two times that it was hard to be disappointed by all the total cheating he used for the next four turns. To end on a positive note, we opened the weave poles a little more and sent him through the last two sets. It was nice to have a zoomie-free class without all the total-gym experience I normally get from wrestling with Crazy Dog on a Leash.