For The Love Of The Game

Maxwell joined the Intermediate Agility class two weeks ago. We switched to Friday nights for a variety of reasons, the best of which is the small class size. Including Sadie and Maxwell, there are four dogs. They each get lots of course time, and I can really work each one to their full potential.

Sadie is, as usual, running beautifully. She follows my cues, has great self-control, yet shows drive, and smiles her way around the room. She is oblivious to the change of time/day/classmates. Though she still occasionally drops bars, it is no longer because she drops her hind feet or mis-judges her distances. Instead, she has begun to hug her turns, sometimes so closely that her body pushes the standards out of the way. I believe it is a good problem to face. Her increased confidence is letting her push herself, and she has swung to the opposite extreme. Now I think she will learn how much she can drive and cut, and ease off again until she is running in balance.

Maxwell was a nutcase the first class of the session. He is soooo obstacle-focused that he pretty much ignored me. He was fast, smooth, and clean, but would not follow my lead if it wasn't the obvious line. The most drastic example was actually pretty funny. There was a curve of A-frame, broad jump, bar jump on the left lead, with a sharp rear cross at the bar to take a tunnel to the dog's left. However, a set of weaves followed the tunnel, and happened to sit across the visual path of the rear cross. Maxwell repeatedly charged the jump and threw himself into the weaves. I had to step back and click/treat just for a head turn at the cross.

Happily, he is an extremely fast learner. He ran much more attentively last week, taking full courses with hardly a blip. I still need to regulate my handling (I'm so used to Sadie) and slow him down, but he understands his 'job' very well. He loves agility, and it shows. We had a make-up lesson on Sunday, and he improved even more! He followed my cues, stopped 99% of his contacts, and ran with joy. I actually found myself rewarding him less and less as the class went on, because it seemed like that extra pause in the course was more of an annoyance than anything else.

Sadie was bouncy and happy as well. In the warm-up jump grids, I was able to send her to the target from the second jump (of four), from 5+ feet laterally, and other challenging positions. She may have stepped on a facilitator jump or two, but she drove forwards hard and straight. Distance work is probably our biggest challenge at the moment, so this was a definite win.

Mr. Trainer's comments for the day:

• On Maxwell - Watch out for Mad Max! (noting his eagerness and drive)
• On Sadie - She has really learned to love this. (given her history, a huge compliment)

I'm already looking forward to this week's classes!