I really enjoyed going to the NADAC trial in North Smithfield. It was great seeing all the agility people I know and talking and seeing agility after having not done it for so long.
I was quite impressed by Buckley, Cindy's JRT who came to be acclimated to a trial situation, by the end. First that he could settle in the crate. I am soooo jealous! And that he was able to focus after maybe an hour and half, and reasonably calm by the end for a 1 yr old high energy type of dog.
I also realized how much knowledge I have about how agility trials work and the dog world in general. There are so many terms that are quite confusing if you're not in the know. I was a bit confused by the new leash runner protocol but figured it out by the end.
One question that I thought about is how much Tom enjoys agility. My gut feeling is that he does enjoy it when he's not stressed by it. Not as fun as tricks or clicker games (yesterday with ten treats I shaped him to put one foot on a ball, cute!) but still reasonably fun.
I think for the moment I'll probably have to focus on getting my driving hours done which will give me more time and more options for going to agility training events and the like. Bleh. Not like there isn't plenty I can do at home, fun trick stuff and not so fun stuff (come work, handling work, crate games, cough cough should work on that).
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Nah, she's a good dog mama in her own right. I was just lucky to hitch a ride. I invited her to an outdoor trial last year that she enjoyed. This might have been Katrin's idea?
ReplyDeleteMy influence came out more in some basic ideas about getting him focused. A lot of that comes from keeping Tom from getting reactive by redirecting his attention to me. Much higher consequences for keeping his attention!
Yeah, I've also read tons of dog stuff and I love it so whenever I hear a new term I tend to remember it. But I'm reminded of how much of it isn't intuitive when around new people. My mom has done quite a good job of picking it up, though! Remembering what the jobs at an agility trial entail and terms like classical conditioning.
I probably overthink the leash running. :-) Not coming close when the dog is starting and making sure I'm not making any eye contact or moving when they're in the part of the course close to me. I did notice when I was on ring crew behind a tunnel that pretty much all of the dogs glanced at me, which I was thought was kind of interesting.