Agility Foundation I - Class 3

This week was a fun class. We spent the first few minutes working on targeting, which Bailey does really well. He loves that little white circle. :-) She also did an exercise where we put 10 treats into our hand and set the timer for 30 seconds. We had to target, click, treat at least 10 times in the 30 seconds. We did it, but it wasn't easy. The hardest part was figuring out how to hold the clicker, treat, and target. We also showed off our new tricks this week. We showed Through, where Bailey goes between my legs. Once that was done, we were divided into three groups to work the stations.

Our first station was working on circle work outside. We've been working on the spinning left and right during the week, but Bailey still has a really hard time spinning to the left. The right spin is really easy for him though. Next we started a basic rear cross. Previously, we had done some work where the dog turns into you like the following:
D ----------\
        <---/
        <---\
H ----------/

This week, we changed it up a bit so it looks more like the start of a rear cross:

        <---\
D ----------/
        <---\
H ----------/

I'm not sure that my picture really explains it well, but basically you are going along with your dog and you ask him to spin away from you. While he's spinning, you also spin towards him and pick him up on your opposite side. Bailey seemed to understand that pretty well. The idea behind this exercise is that eventually, we can get the dog to understand our shoulders so that he can do a serpentine in front of us with just the turn of your shoulders. I remember seeing a clip like this in the Success with One Jump DVD. Finally, we worked on the static retrieve and the 1-2-3 Game. Static retrieve is where you put a toy out in front of you and send the dog to go get it. 1-2-3 is just a way to rev up the dog. You say "Ready, 1, 2, 3" as your dog gets more and more excited to go. Then you release the dog to the toy. I think Bailey already knew that a little bit because I've played this game with him before.

Next we went inside and worked on the ground exercises. Buja, boards, and ladder were here. The table was also set up here so that the instructor could check our quick downs. Bailey did a good job and the instructor said he has the fastest down of the dogs she had seen before. Good boy! We also added the A-frame to this week's ground exercises station. It was mostly for familiarity, so we didn't practice any 2O2O behavior or anything. Bailey LOVES climbing on the A-frame and dogwalk, so we were pretty excited about that. The contact zones were a different color (red), so that threw off Bailey at first and he balked the first time. Once he realized it is the same, he had no problem.

Finally, the last station was working on the beginning of jump work. Claudia did a demo with her dog showing us how the dog should look going over a jump. Then she brought out a mini jump with what she called a spider. This is a device attached to the jump meant to encourage collection. Bailey totally missed that concept and was convinced he could just jump the whole thing. I think it would have helped to put a bar on the jump instead of just a speed bump, but I think eventually, he caught on. Next we worked on shaping the dog's body over a jump. Bailey tends to jump with his head up too high, so this is going to be a lot of work for us to practice.

We have no class next week because of the holiday, so plenty of time to practice between now and the next class. :-)