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Quick Go Lightly

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Tonight was one of those nights that just make you love Agility. It was fast, it was fun, and other than nearly having a potty incident on the course, it was flawless.

A Hoop was brought out for us to play with. They’re much harder to teach than I’d thought, and just as fun as I’d known they would be! Quick’s so big he keeps breaking the hoop apart. Someone is going to have tire issues, I think… I sure hope not!

After we played with the hoop, Quick was introduced to his first half-height A-frame. He was fearless, charging up and running down, spinning himself around, and leaping over the apex. He scampered up and down, demanding his cookies.

Speaking of cookies, thank God for an understanding trainer! My cat had broken into my dog bag without me knowing, and eaten all the treats! I didn’t realize it until we started class and it was too late to do anything but throw myself on the mercy of my trainer, who laughed and sent me inside to fetch treats. Crisis averted! I’m thinking of trying out a new treat, Quick’s not bored with his Zuke’s and liver, but I am. Any suggestions?

After the A-frame, we worked on a lowered dogwalk! Again, Quick surprised me. I hate dogwalks. They scare me. I can’t let that show as he works on them, but honestly I just want to hold on to him every minute he’s on it. What if he falls off and hurts himself? He’s got good landing skills if he jumps, but what if he falls? Yes, I’m a worrywart. Thankfully, Quick is not- not about heights, anyway! He loved the dogwalk, but he’s already getting a bad habit of ditching the down plank halfway down. We’ll be working on that next week, I’m telling you!

The class discussed who could learn running contacts, who could learn two on, two off, and what four on the floor was. I’m not sure, I’d like Quick to have running contacts, especially after reading that Clean Run article about how it can be hard on their shoulders, but I also am not sure he’ll ever get an effective running contact. We’ll see!

I took my camera to class to get pictures of him being cute, but I totally forgot to take pictures! I’ll try to remember next week.

5 Comments on “Quick Go Lightly”

  1. I like to use cooked beef heart for training treats. Before we moved I was near a small slaughter house where I could buy hearts for a buck or two. Now I have to special order from our grocer and they cost a little bit more, but still cheap. I throw it in water and boil it, then chop it up into training size pieces. I like the firmer texture and the smell better than liver, it “seems” healthier to me than the popular hot dog option, dogs love it…I just have to remember to put it back in the fridge between training sessions.

    • I hate hot dogs so much personally that the smell makes me gag. I can’t use them. Boiled beef hearts sounds like a great thing to try- that or dehydrate it…. I do have a dehydrator!

  2. I know, sometimes I forget and swallow the cheese, but that is better than swallowing a dog treat. I have seen conformation handlers put real dog treats in their mouths, I have never been able to do that. YUK!!

  3. You asked for suggestions on treats. The most favorite treat/reward for all three of my dogs as well as most of the 50 or so dogs in our dog club is low or non fat mozzerella cheese. We buy the sticks and bite or tear off a small bite at a time. I don’t mind putting a larger bite in my mouth and biting off pieces at a time so I don’t have to keep going for my pocket.

    My dogs will choose the cheese over anything pretty much except maybe chopped up baked chicken breast which I don’t always have available. They only get cheese when we train.