Beating the Late-Summer Heat

43 Comments on “Beating the Late-Summer Heat”

1. My Jack Russel Chainsaw just turned three! We Just got out of open and to exallant A!!! I am 12 and LOVE doing agility! O ya Chainsaw is not mean I got the name from an old disney movie. WAIT not The Chainsaw Masicare. From Charlie the Lonesom Couger. We do realy good I think. He was jumping 12 inch and I will tell ya those jumps are way bigger than him!! So I decided to put him on a died FINALY we got down to 8!! He runs sooo fast! I think we can go far if he well keep the bars up!!! We are going to a show comeing up! We have been working on the A-frame a little bit more. He comes down like a slug!! He has learned to realy read my body! He saves me from the wroung obsticle all the time!!! One day I will have veislas and and more jacks. The weired thing about Chaunsaw is he would rather sleep ALL DAY!! I guss he is not like his relitives at all!! Hope we can get a mach one day!!

2. My 19mo. old, Averie & I are working on holding contacts as well as being left in the weaves. The heat is definitely affecting our training but we still manage a some time daily.

3. This summer we’ve been working on going out to jumps. Digger doesn’t like to work away from me, which can be a problem. So I’ve working on her going out to jumps. She also have been working on her weave pole entries when I’m on the left of the weaves. She’s getting better.

4. My two dogs are working on start lines stays- or should I say I am trying to get them to work on it. They are both so fast when they run and as I get slower I could sure use a lead out. They don’t realize how much more fun it would be if I wasn’t slowing them down.

5. Well, Zosia and I are retiring. She will be running a victory lap for retired agility dogs at the dog club’s upcoming trial, while her bio is being read. Another Aussie of ours is doing contact training with clicker, and our latest rescue Aussie is working on staying focused on the course… she likes FAST.

   • Congratulations, Zosia!!! And way to go with all of the others! 🙂

6. We’ve worked through 2x2s, and are now working 2 sets of 6 poles. I expect he’ll be doing 12 straight poles very soon! I’m so proud of Archie, my BC mix.

7. We have been working hard on our weaves, and improving very well, he is now charging ahead and hitting all twelve. Also working on our focus, getting better, still a bit of a social butterfly! We have a trail next weekend, very excited, going to have a great time!

8. My 4 year old male BC and I are working on our 1st NA and NAJ titles this summer – we have 2 legs in each. And I started Foundation training w/my 15 month old female BC. They are such different dogs. My guy & I are a team, and I’m so looking forward to seeing how my little one is on obstacles.

9. I have a golden that loves agility especially the contact equipment. We have been working on focus and distance. We will start competing in September again. She will turn 7 and can do veterans – she as some arthritis in her feet and I don’t jump her full height.

10. My new rescue Bernese Mountain Dog/Austrailian Shepherd cross, Magnum – aka Maggs -, and his 2 Berner “sisters” have done the best they (and I) could to practice our agility in this NON Berner friendly weather. We don’t compete but take classes and are slowly creating our own private agility field — thank you AFORDABLE Agility for making this possible. Skye and Trina (also a rescue) have taken classes with me at Camp Dogwood in northern IL and Wagg’n Tails Dog Training near our home. Maggs came to us in January and had no previous agility exposure so I have been SLOWLY introducing him to the obstacles. Agility provides such a fantastic oportunity to bond with a rescue (and all dogs). They learn trust and confidence and how to have FUN — often all too absent in their lives prior to “rescue”. I had been meeting with a friend and her 2 Berners at our agility field in the EARLY mornings (because of the heat)and had finally remembered to take my camera. We were sitting and enjoying a coffee and muffins – Berners sharing the muffins, of course – when Maggs strolled over to the Dog Walk, and went right up. I couldn’t believe it! He went across just as nicely as one could want, paused to look and make certain we were watching, and descended beautifully. I was so happy to be able to capture his “walk” and will treasure the image series. What a guy!!! Life IS good!!!!

11. The aussies have been working on focus, discrimination and distance work. I’ve been working on course memorization, handling and having backup plans for when Plan A gets scrapped. Emme and I earned our C-ATCH and are well on our way to C-ATCH2.

12. We’ve been competing only lightly the summer, and focusing on skill sets instead of running whole courses. My 3 year-old had a litter of puppies in April, so she and I been working on general fitness as well – hiking, running, and swimming. My two older dogs have benefited from “Get On The Ball” work, which strengthens core muscles, plus this is a great activity to do in the living room during the heat of the day. 🙂

13. I’ve had my high drive ACD rescue for just over a year now. Right now we’re working on focus and running contacts along with running tougher sequences! Tarra is a great dog, and super fun to work with! 🙂

14. Tough start! I’ve been thinking about attending an agility event with my therapy dog, Maximilian but NOT in this HOT, HOT weather. Max might hold up, but I’m not sure I could! Meanwhile, he loves the makeshift course we have in the side yard and I like that I can sit on the bench and point to the weave, teeter, walk, jumps. Then we both cool off in water. Max always hits the pool after the course but now I know I need to get a portable one to go with us. Because he’s a therapy dog he loves the agility as a release, but am not sure he’ll ever be a “GREAT” agility dog because sometimes he’s fast and sometimes he’s slow–but who cares, sometimes I’m fast and some days I’m slow–we just complement each other I guess. Some good days, some not so good days and just enough fabulous days when we’re both deleriously happy with each other!

    Have fun!!

15. Gracie is a 3 year old border collie. we have been working on a couple thing this year. One is for me to know where I need to be to have more controll.Because she is so fast I have a attendence to push her too far. and some times not far enough. plus working on hitting the weaves right on. thats a 50-50

16. My almost 8 year old Bernese Mountain Dog and I have been agility training since the winter. He’s pretty mellow and doesn’t go very fast. As often as not, he knocks all the jump bars down because he wasn’t actually jumping… just mowing them over. Just recently, we raised the bars and now he’s jumping! So cool. He really loves the classes, but he is such an galoot compared to all the little zippy dogs. We don’t mind

17. Roxy (a chocolate Lab) and I will be entering our first CPE trial this September. As part of our preparation, we entered an agility demonstration given by our dog club at the local county fair. The day of the fair, the temperature reached 96 degrees! There were more than a dozen hot dogs competing with their trainers. Unfortunately, out of the hundreds of people at the fair ground, only three (3!) came to see us. 🙁

    On the plus side, we decided to use this as a “training opportunity”. Roxy had a great run and got to hit the pool that some thoughtful person had filled!

18. What says Summer like swimming in the homestead’s pond for seasonal conditioning? That’s exactly what Finesse, my 6 pound Pom, and I are doing in lieu of walking in the heat. Actually, Finesse and I start out on a raft. My friend is also on a raft. Fin swims back and forth between us – kind of a wet version of a recall – and requires interference. Otherwise he would be swimming to the shore post haste leaving us, well, high and dry!

19. I have a Boxer Akona and she is GREAT!!! She does wonderful in practice and in classes and is very fast:). But when we get to trials, she stresses with the crowds and other dogs and then zooms after the first 2 or 3 obstacles. We have been working on some Control Unleashed exercises to see if I can calm her down before going into the ring at the trials. It is beginning to work, so we will continue this training and hopefully be back in the trial ring soon 🙂

20. After an accident last Fall which kept me in rehab for the winter, I returned to the agility field in an electric chair. Daisy was doing well in agility practices before this. She took to running the course with me in the power chair quickly. Weaves were a bit of a problem since I could not get close enough to guide her through. She is now running alongside for some obstacles and working out away from me for others. From this I have learned that agility can be fun for everyone and dogs can relearn handling methods. We have not tried a competition this way yet but may after some more practice.

21. My rottie Peaches and I have been working on a teeter issue that Ive been trying to overcome for a while now. We have one leg left for our open title in standard.
    She is such a cute site getting to the pivot point and acting like a small breed with her head and upper body down, butt up inching till it starts to go down. It eats up time and goen into ex standard I know I need her to speed it up a bit 🙂
    Good luck to all and heres to many green ribbons in all of our futures!!!!!

22. Earlier this summer I was diagnosed with a problem in my knee that is going to need surgery, so I haven’t been able to do as much training with my dog as I would like to. I have a purebred, blue Merle, Shetland sheepdog named niko. About 7 months ago I started him with some basic agility. I have to be really careful not to push him to hard or he just gets totally overwhelmed. I really hope I win this draw, because I also have a Newfoundland that LOVES to play in water! I want to get back to training niko as soon as possible!!! I want to turn him into a winning agility dog!

23. Me and my dog have non stop trained all this summer and I love it he is about to compact soon

24. Muffin and I have been working on her weaves this summer. First we took a focus course to help us in a few different areas–weaves being the main one. I had a hard time starting over and trying to reteach her. I finally decided not to reteach, but to really put some effort into it. I have 2 x 2 weaves and started with one set, then started adding one additional set at a time. It has helped a lot, but the best effort has been to practice with her every morning before breakfast, and most evenings before dinner. She really is motivated watching me take her kibble out of her dish and feeding her for each perfect run–especially because I am not stingy with food after each good run. If she misses a pole, I tell her, “No cheating!”, and then she must start over. She is doing much better, but never does quite as well when the pros of our group are watching. So we will just keep practicing!

25. Maiya and I have been working on 2×2’s and teeter. She had a scare on the teeter so we are going back and retraining, very slowly and lots of treats and toys. I realized I was expecteng too much of Maiya too soon and forgetting she is not yet fully trained, so we slowed down and are having much more fun…lo and behold she thinks this is a grand new game! We used the 4H dog competition at the local fair as a fun match and had our first real run with a broad jump. Maiya flew over it, cleared by several feet with a huge smile. The 4H kids loved seeing her run because they have watched her grow up and have trained with her.

26. I’ve been working on adding distance preparing with Copper for some NADAC trials coming up in the fall. He’s nailing his pole entries well, now I’m just hoping he maintains his contacts.

27. Hailey is a 5 yr old Boggle who has been challenged to speed limits on agility courses as she is so fast. Due to her speed start line stays and contacts are definately an issue that we need to work on. During the summer we have been varying our study habits by mixing tricks in the agility ring to throw her off and get her anxiety refocased. Haily sometimes does a “puppy handstand” for her start line stay changing her thought process. We play frisbee in my backyard and it only gets tossed if she goes over the A-frame, see saw or dog walk with a 2 on and 2 off contact. She loves the game and eagerly runs to a contact to see if she “won” the frisbee toss. Varying the start line stay and contacts by changing her thought process to a “game/tricks” mode instead of an anxious agility mode has been making her successful in her endeavors. Hailey successfully had not only a start line stay but also achieved both high in trial and 99 points in CPE Jackpot recently. Judges have commented on the creativity of her start lines.

28. Well, we SHOULD have been working on weaves but we were working on obedience & doing Grad Open instead. I have incredible dogs who cover for me, so we managed to pick up an MX leg, an MXJ leg and an MJP this weekend after not doing any agility for 6 weeks.

29. We’ve been working on Contacts and Sequencing this summer even with it being really Hot! He is showing a bit more initiative doing the weave poles now that I use jump and Weave poles .I’m still working on he’s (2-on/2-off ) he is making a huge strides this summer with that and See-saw .

30. Moka my dal and I have really been working on our weaves. She zoomed through Novice and Open but we got stuck on our weaves and getting them on the first try. We just clicked this last weekend and got our 1st B leg in JWW, and me limping on a twisted knee. GOOD GIRL MOKA!!!

31. I have been training a new dog for agility. She is a 15 month old chocolate lab named Qwick. Qwick has been a delight to train since she has a ton of drive, great willingness to work and lives up to her name. We have to take a month off from training since I just got her spayed. Qwick is very small for a lab measuring 19″ and weighing 42#. For her first trial I will be jumping her at 16″ perferred. I will probably keep her at the lower height until she matures some more. We live in the mountains of Western MD and take advantage of the cool early mornings for our training.

32. my aussie bryce has just turned 2 yrs. we have been training diligently on agility (especially weaves and focusing on mom)(very social boy! ;0)), and also working on dock dog diving! he loves the water! i get the hose out and he’s waitin!!! turn that hose on mom, i want to get that water!!! :O) he’s such a great red merle aussie

33. It has been so……hot this summer that we’ve been taking it easy, but since there is no end in sight to the heat, we got out and started working again this week. We’re concentrating hard on distance. Mattie is a big Mama’s girl and doesn’t like to get too far from Mom. We also need to do some conditioning after being couch potatoes this summer!

34. Due to finances my dog and I had to take a break from agility over the summer. However right before that we got our Novice Standard and Novice JWW titles. Because of this we have been working mainly on weaves over the summer as we have had some trouble with those at trials and will now have to do 12 in some classes at AKC. Over our 2 year agility career we have won 48 ribbons which include 17 Qs and 3 Novice Titles (2 in AKC and 1 in NADAC)!

35. We’ve been working on sequencing and contacts with Dahlia this summer. She’s really starting to get it! She’s showing a bit more initiative to take jumps without me being right at her side. And she’s starting to run her contacts (with 2-on/2-off). She’s made huge strides this summer!

36. My ACD boy Jake got his Novice Standard title right before the summer heat hit really hard so we’ve been using the short training sessions outside in this intolerable Carolina heat to work on moving up from 6 weaves to 12. Because Jake finds them so boring in general, the short training sessions have been perfect so I’m not tempted to overdo it. We have a trial this weekend and we’ll see how the summer work paid off!

37. Bindi and I have been working on tighter turns and more focus. Weave poles have also been tough for us, so we are working hard on improving there. We just placed first in Nov JWW at the Santa Maria Kennel Club Agility Trial – yeah!

38. Novice dog and novice handler here. Rescue dog, mixed breed, dog aggressive, Chico has been going to agility classes for a year now and he is a much happier, calmer, better adjusted guy today. This summer we took the big step of getting some equipment at home. I’m hoping that soon he’ll be brave enough to attend a trial and keep his cool.

39. Sprocket and I are working on his weaves, distance, and discrimination. We just finished our second ever trial and had a blast. Its so hot outside we have to have very, very short sessions (2-3 mins) which actually works pretty good!

40. We have been working on Novice agility this summer and have now started a get-fit program for both of us! We are doing run-walks with an eye on eventually competing in a Marathon (me) and eventually making it to a MACH (him)! The heat has been tough to train in but an inevitable part of summer anymore, so we are diligently training through it while having a great time!!

41. We are on day 40 of temps in the triple digits with no end in sight. So training is limited to just before sundown with very short sessions of 4-5 min per dog followed by 30 min cooldown for me before a second rotation.

    Baby dog Scooter has been working on 2x2s. River is working on teeter fears and a little weave issue that’s cropped up. Zubie is working on Rachel Sander’s running A-Frame grid. The grid work is starting to pay off, this past weekend, Zubie was entered in a 3 day AKC trial and he only missed 2 A-Frame contacts, both in the same FAST run.

42. With my newest dog, Dax, we are working on focus, focus, FOCUS!! We tried an outdoor trial as our first off leash experience (we’d been doing CPE FEO for three previous trials), and that was probably a bad idea – he’d do one obstacle and then go zooming off so fast he looked like a hover dog! While others might have been discouraged, I was not – he was a previously abused rescue dog, who was having the time of his life in a strange situation, surrounded by strange people and strange dogs. Our next off leash trial experience is going to be INDOORS though! 🙂