Real Life Applications

Please bear in mind that I wrote this offline nearly a week ago, but kept forgetting to send it to a blog-friendly computer to post.

Having done so much work with my dogs, especially in agility, I can certainly see where sports training and ‘real life’ intersect. We all want our dogs to pay attention to us. We want them to come when called, to be able to work near threshold arousal, and to stay with us on the move. But what about the other stuff?
It’s easy to think of the vast majority of agility training as exactly that: agility training. After all, how often do you need to have your dog walk across a 12-inch-wide surface safely and at speed? Or how about jumping through a hoop? Or wrapping around an object? Never? Thought so.

On our last trip to the Adirondacks, I had the thrill of seeing what happens when normal life and agility coincide. We were taking a hike in the woods, following an old logging road, and Sadie was off-leash. As usual, she was running ahead, then doubling back to make sure we were keeping up.

This road crosses a handful of small streams. The first crossing is an old wooden bridge, well worn but still sturdy. The second has been reduced to a trio of widely spaced rotting logs, the actual surface of the bridge being long-gone. To gain the far bank, Sadie had happily splashed through the creek, taking the opportunity to have a quick drink. She raced ahead, then dashed back to the far side of the crossing perhaps 8 feet away.

The humans in the group felt rain, and decided it was time to turn for home. Sadie started to follow, this time putting a paw on one of the logs. It moved. That log was rotted through, and probably wouldn’t hold her weight. Sadie froze when I made an alarmed noise, staring intently at us. I pushed my hand hard in her direction, palm out, and said “Git!” Then I swept my arm around to one side, indicating a path across the creek. Sadie obediently moved away from me, then charged across the creek to the safety of our bank.

I didn’t realize what I’d done until she had taken off down the path towards home: I had used her agility training to move her away from me and along an indirect path. It was the same cues I would give on course to indicate a push to a jump followed by a gentle curve around the handler.

While I wouldn’t be so melodramatic as to say that agility training saved her life, it certainly made the crossing much safer. So remember, agility training is not done in a vacuum!