matildasmom (matildasmom) wrote,
matildasmom
matildasmom

Agility

I have the day off today so I can take a little time for an agility class report. Last night's class was a good one. The class is down to four students now. Two weeks ago there were just two of us. Last night we started off just practicing the teeter which we haven't done for quite a while. Matilda was a little skittish. She hopped off part way up. The equipment was wet. Barbara thought that could have been the reason. We worked from the left and from the right. I gave Matilda a treat at the tip point. She seemed to regain confidence. Then we worked two sequences using the teeter. The first one was a fairly straight line. The second had several front crosses. We worked on positioning ourselves to give the dogs the right line to the next obstacle. The wrong line sends them to the wrong jump. Next we worked on weave poles. They're channel weaves, slightly apart. Even though Matilda can do them straight, I can see the advantage of working on them slightly apart. She zooms through them with gusto. When they're straight, she slows down and has less enthusiasm. We worked poles from left and right. Then Barbara added a jump. Matilda took the jump. Then I pivoted and immediately called her back to take the poles.

I'm thinking of buying some poles from Affordable Agility. They have some regulation type ones that can be channels or straight for $200. My sticks in the ground that I'm using now have been OK, but they tip and bend and get out of alignment which makes it rough on Matilda especially when the idea is to be working on them straight. Barbara thinks it's important to have poles that can work as channels.

The woman with the Irish Water Dog had taken her dog to her first match over the weekend. They're about the same level as Matilda and I. Barbara said she thought we were ready to wet our feet. She suggested starting with "Show and Go" matches. CPE also sounds good, too. They have lower equipment height requirements.



These, of course are old backyard shots, but I thought I needed some pictures.
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