Monday, March 30, 2009

Wall-e's last agility class

Wall-e had his last beginner agility class yesterday -- and he also turned 10 months old yesterday! He's growing up so fast and doesn't look like a puppy anymore. (but still acts like it!!) Here's a sequence that we ran:



He was great! Not as fast as last class because I was rewarding him more so he didn't have a chance to really run, but he was still fast. The PVC poles (stride regulator) and jump bar on top of the lowered A-frame are meant to teach them to jump over the apex of the A-frame to help them learn where to stride. I love Wall-e's A-frame performance :D





Also, almost all of the snow in the backyard is melted! There's enough grass to actually do agility now. Today I practiced rear crosses with a low jump in the backyard with Wall-e. It was his first time training rear crosses with a jump (we've done a lot of work with rear crosses on the flat, with no obstacles). He made the connection between rear crosses on the flat and rear crosses with a jump REALLY quickly, only making one mistake (a spin after the jump)! I gave him one treat for the mistake, to keep his speed and confidence high, but jackpotted when he got it right. He's really such a fun little guy!

~Nat

4 comments:

  1. Way to go Wall-e. It sounds like you will make your mom proud.

    Essex & Deacon

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  2. Wall-e is great...he will soon be one of the best :o)

    //Bente

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  3. OMG, Wall-e's aframe is awesome!!! Wish I had been taught the aframe with that method!

    Thanks for your comment about keeping going if I make a mistake - we will try pretending that there are no mistakes and see if that helps my confidence!

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  4. Thanks :)

    Thanks Ricky! I'm planning on using a jump bar to teach Mika how to jump over the apex too. And, no problem! This has worked really well for Mika (who used to be Ricky's speed when we first started), so maybe it'll work for you too! :) Glad that you're going to try it.

    ~Nat

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