We are true novices. Our first run felt like a circus act. Troy actually runs out of the ring and then comes flying back over the ring rope to finish the course. I was relieved he came back. At practice, he would run out of the ring and pilfer everyone's treat bags. We completely skipped the weave poles because he didn't know them at all.
Later, we did very well and qualified in Jumpers which means we ran it under a certain amount of time, did all jumps in the right order, and did not mess up on any of them.
I can't see video but I appreciate the update. That sounds like great fun and for real novices it sounds like you did pretty well on those jumps! Congrats!
Cool, I watched your other vids too. How fun, it's nice to see how dogs start out in those contests. I've only seen the ones on ESPN and Animal Planet, so it's neat to see regular people can participate too.
Loved the cheers at the end of the "First Run" video. I gave it 5 stars. Thanks for sharing.
eta: Embedded video for those who weren't able to get to You Tube
Ya, I was worried about the loading time. Thanks for embedding Lindsay Oh god - the teams on the TV channels are incredible. One cool thing is that I recently went to an agility seminar by a woman, Stacey Peardot-Goudy, who is a world champion more than once and also won in an ESPN-sponsored show. She is sharp as a tack - and funny. One thing I've been told over and over is that you must have a sense of humor about all of it.
NKB - not my husband. My feelings were quite hurt that he decided not to go. He made up for it a week later. He surprised me when he researched how to set up weave poles on-line and then actually set it up in our backyard.
I had thought about agility perhaps for Sadie after she passed her second level of obedience, but the place didn't seem as keen on mutts participating. (They didn't mind training, but to be a member to help with costs and know when events were, you had to have a AKC dog)
But I am always impressed with agility dogs...and their owners.
CF Scorpio Wrote:Very cute! Congrats to you and your pet! That looks like great exercise for both of you! You sounded out of breath at the end, LOL!
How long did it take to train him to do that?
Thanks everyone for all the nice compliments. Sorry I didn't check back on this post very well.
CFScorpio: We've been going to dog agility classes for over a year. We started in the puppy agility class, then beginners and intermediate I and II. There were a couple of months off during winter.
I really like it better than obedience. The premise is that the agility field is supposed to be "always fun" for the dog - like Disneyland. And yes, I was very out of breath. Everyone is always out of breath. Even the really good people don't usually run back to back courses because it is just too much.
Gingerzing: Try NADAC, North American Dog Agility Council. No stupid AKC-only rules. They allow all dogs, including mutts.
Thanks for sharing.