# Agility Training Today



## Maxs Mom (Mar 22, 2008)

My agility trainer is sick. So our classes this week have been cancelled. The bigger bummer is that last week Gabby couldn't play because she was sick. On Tuesdays, I set the weekly course and lately hubby has gone with me to help (another person helps too) We took Quinn and Gabby to practice before we headed back home. 

It was a jumpers course. Had some interesting pieces. Art and Quinn did really well. Art really needs to work on timing his queues with Quinn, and today was a good exercise for him and he could keep repeating stuff without interfering with other classmates time. The middle piece had a serpentine, down and back. He struggled with that, but something we can set up at home until the snow flies and we can practice. 

Then I did pieces of the course with Gabby. I did the opening piece which consisted of the first two jumps offset line to the right, followed by a left turn (front cross) jump, right turn jump, another right to a jump not really a pin wheel but started like one, then straight to the next jump wrap, back to the previous jump. I broke it down into pieces so she could understand the exercise then we ran it. Gabby needs to learn to respect my space. So when I did the first two jumps I stopped her on the turn to make her stop and think the process. That seemed to work. However by the time we ran the full piece she was flying again and using my body as a guardrail on the front cross to bounce off of. :doh: Not really part of the game Gabby. However she did the piece very well. 

Then we went and worked the pinwheel into a small serpentine left turn straight run home. She nailed that. I left the big serpentine alone as she needs more serpentine training. We followed that with some channel weave work. Worked in a simply jump into the entry. She did great. Lastly I did the opening piece one more time. This time she rocked the exercise. Still bounced off me on the front cross (we are working on that) but when she completed the piece, the next obstacle would have been the weaves. We stopped because she is not doing full weaves yet, but this time she ran to them on her own, and NAILED the entry. She pulled out but I was ecstatic she found the entry! We called it a night had some treats and went home. 

Gabby is going to be an AWESOME agility dog. She just has a few things to work on and my space is one of them. I need to do a lot of front cross work with her until she gets the exercise. I have a tool I was taught and it works great, but almost too well with Gabby. I need to figure out how to tone it down. Art was told with Quinn to put his arms up like he is going to push her backwards. Quinn it works well. I tried it with Gabby and she FLEW backward as if I did push her. So now I just lift my hands up and she seems to watch that. I just have to learn to use it more often. 

I can't wait to run this dog. I know she is far from ready, but she is so much fun to train.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Whee - sounds like she will be a blast


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Gabby is an awesome everything dog, LOL! Love that girl!


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## Maxs Mom (Mar 22, 2008)

:--heart:Me too. 

Even if she is a major stinker! It's what makes her who she is.


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## sammydog (Aug 23, 2008)

Sounds awesome, she is going to be trialing in no time!


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Maxs Mom said:


> :--heart:Me too.
> 
> Even if she is a major stinker! It's what makes her who she is.


Isn't it great having a dog that just really loves the work being asked of them?


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## Maxs Mom (Mar 22, 2008)

Loisiana said:


> Isn't it great having a dog that just really loves the work being asked of them?


Not only that but you can't work her enough. She is always ready to do more.


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