# We had our best day by far!



## Jennifer1 (Mar 31, 2012)

I've taken Kenzie through a 6 week beginning agility class followed by a 6 week intermediate agility class. She's been doing weekly drills with the club for about 2 months now. The drills usually consist of 3 different courses consisting of 12-20 obstacles that we all run through.

I've been having issues with Kenzie getting into the ring and just running around like a maniac. I've gotten her into a recall class so her recall is now pretty solid. She now comes back to me every time I call, but was still running away a lot. 

In the last few weeks I've been doing a lot of the off switch games from control unleashed as well as doing Dr Overall's relaxation protocol. I've also spent the last week doing a few jumps at home every day. I started out just by doing 1 jump than having a game of tug or some hands on play time. I'm now up to 3 jumps before we break for a party. I think she didn't actually understand what "jump" meant.

We had our weekly drill this morning. The first run was pretty typical, we did 2 jumps and she went zooming around the ring. While waiting for everyone else to run the course I spent time just calming her down with some massage, some breathing games, and just staying low key. During our next run she did great. I slowed down from a run to a fast walk and gave her a few treats after each obstacle. I took each obstacle as it's own thing rather than thinking of it as a full course, I think that helped both of us. I repeated the relaxation stuff during our next waiting period and she did just as well during her final run, with the exception of jumping off of the A-frame before the contact.
Everyone commented on how well she did. We still have a very long way to go, but that was easily her best 2 runs ever!

It's been a tough road, but I could tell that she was having fun so I keep showing up every week. I think it's just a matter of me figuring out the best way to communicate what I want her to do. She's eager to do it, but doesn't always know what to do.


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## quilter (Sep 12, 2011)

That's great! Loved reading your post, it was so encouraging to me. Casper would be that maniac. I just wish I could find a class were we get to do runs in the ring, but so far all the classes have been group exercises. That means if your dog does any zooming around - you're out. But we've been going to Rally class and that's been going really well.


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## Jennifer1 (Mar 31, 2012)

Thanks
I have both the original and the puppy version of control unleashed, and I think it has really helped. That is odd that they are doing agility as a group like that. Even in our beginning class it was one dog at a time on the equipment, although in that class we stayed on leash. The intermediate class was off leash. Still one dog at a time, but all the dogs/owners were in the ring together. And yes, Kenzie was the zoomer!

I've been wanting to try Rally. I'm just waiting for our club to offer it.


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## Jennifer1 (Mar 31, 2012)

Kenzie had agility again yesterday.
We were only able to stay for 3 of the 4 courses they planned, but all 3 were good again. I think we've finally clicked!


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