Agility in KSA Weeks 13 and 14

With such a full class, I haven't had time to take any pictures the past few weeks. Fortunately, PM brought her camera for the week 13 class and shared these pics with the group. I've scattered those photos in this post so you can see more happy handlers and dogs doing agility in Saudi Arabia.

And yes, I admit, I've been a bit lax about posting the past couple of weeks. Check back soon--I'll put up some posts explaining why in a few days.

HD and her desert dog mix Savvy. Savvy is very cautious of new things: new people, dogs, situations, obstacles. But HD is very patient and helps Savvy be quite successful.

Having handlers of two different skill levels in the same class is a bit easier than I thought because it isn't like we are dealing with Masters level versus Novice level. They are all still novices but some are a bit more advanced than the others. The new handlers are progressing forward very quickly because they can watch the more advanced handlers and get a clear mental picture of where they will be going. When I instruct the handlers on what they will be doing for that particular class, I talk to the entire group at the same time, no matter what their level.

For the past two weeks, I've had the more advanced handlers work RFP challenges such as obvious yet off-course tunnel entries staring their dogs in the face. After a bit of practice last week, they managed that very well! Because I decided that their dogs knew what the RFP move meant even if the handlers were a bit shaky on the concept, I upped the ante on them this week: I introduced the serpentine with three jumps.

For you non-agility folks, a serpentine is a sequence of three obstacles oriented in a line such that the dog's path is away from the handler, towards the handler, and then away from the handler. In the olden days it was done with only three jumps but now you can find serpentines in Master courses that include teeters (seesaws), tunnels, tires...any obstacle is now fair game for judge to design into a serpentine. But you will only find serpentines in Masters courses--they require sophisticated handling and solid communication between handler and dog.

It took a while but we convinced PM that she didn't need to babysit the obstacles! Look at Nellie's focus!

So this morning, as I said, I decided it was time to challenge my more advanced handlers, because it is important that you train at a level above where you are actually competing (not that we are competing, but you get the idea). As I described what they needed to do to handle this exercise, my advanced handlers were skeptical to say the least. One of them said rather emphatically, "that's all well and good but my dog won't send over jumps." You agility folks know how that went, right? If we train with consistent body and verbal signals, our dogs figure this game out long before we do. And I had really been working their RFP for the past two weeks. I knew they could do it with the right coaching and encouragement. Thank goodness both of them trusted me enough to give it a go.

A serpentine can be handled in several different ways but the most efficient way is for the handler to do a RFP at the second obstacle to turn the dog into them, over the jump, then return to regular handling with the inside arm for the last obstacle. In other words, the handlers sends the dog over jump 1, does an RFP to get the dog to turn into them for jump 2, then sends the dog over jump 3. The handler runs down a line parallel to the obstacles while the dog does all the work. There is still some fancy handler foot- and armwork involved.

I had the two handlers practice this footwork on their own without their dogs then I pretended to be their "dog." I know this sounds really silly but playing "dog" is a more effective training tool than I thought it might be. It helps a lot that I don't give a flying leap if I look stupid--I'm jumping 8" jumps saying "oh boy, mom, here I come!" I go into the hole, I veer off course, I run past obstacles, and by doing all of this, I can correct their timing and position. A dog that can talk! Okay, maybe it's good there is no video of this. Still, it's proving to be an effective training tool for these two handlers because they listen. Plus it provides a lot of laughs for the class.

CJ and Webster. Look at that attention on his handler!

CJ and her agility star Webster. I had to put in a second picture of him because he's so darned cute!

So you can probably guess what happened. On second thought, I'd kill for video of this, I really would. Those two handlers and their dogs totally nailed that serpentine exercise! It was amazing and beautiful and awesome. I am so proud of PM and her lab Nellie and JH and her old terrier mix Aris. They may not realize that I am feeling my way through the "how to be a fun and effective agility instructor" maze or that they are my guinea pigs, but I will always remember the joy I felt this morning for being able to give them such a fun and successful agility experience!

And what about all those newbie handlers?  We've been working them on tunnels for a couple of weeks, culminating this week in the ever popular jump-curved tunnel-jump sequence. This sequence is used in every novice agility class on the planet. Now just pause for a second and think about this...I've got totally green handlers and dogs successfully sequencing in just three weeks! It's amusing to see all of the typical newbie mistakes: repeating "tunnel! tunnel!" over and over; putting their hands into the tunnel then pulling them out, which pulls the dog out; not having reliable stays and lead outs; running out of room and coming to a halt which causes the dog to stop too. But we help them improve by showing them that they need to give the dog consistent signals with handler body position and timing of their commands.

Cherie and Xena. I keep the leash on the new dogs for a couple of weeks until I see how they are going to behave towards the other dogs. Nice drive to the tunnel!

We had some major breakthroughs this week with a couple of the dogs. One of our returning, but relatively green, handlers has a dog who was very reluctant to go through the tunnel. MH, my co-instructor, had him doing full length straight tunnels this morning after just a few reps with a shortened tunnel. I'd also mention that MW wasn't able to get Mr. B into his crate either... but this week he was happily going in and waiting his turn quietly! She's clearly been doing her homework! And one of our brand new handlers, HD with her desert dog mix Savvy, actually got her pup to sequence from a jump to a shortened tunnel--a miracle given that Savvy wouldn't even put more than front paw in the tunnel last week.

Sometimes MH and I hold dogs at the start to help teams be successful. Here's Cherie with her other dog Jake. That's me with a mug of coffee in my hand, thoughtfully provided by my co-instructor MH every week!

I'd also like to mention S and her yorkie mix Abby, graduates of my basic obedience class. S was really worried about Abby running off but it was pretty clear to me that Abby was totally focused on her handler. So I convinced S to leave the leash behind and run a jump-jump-tunnel-jump-jump sequence "naked." Once again, the handler trusted me enough to try it...and of course it went great. Abby never took her eyes off S (sorry, no pics of Abby; we'll try next week).

CM, one of our new handlers, and her JRT Obie. He loves this agility game and is doing great!

In the end, it's all about sending home each week happy dogs and handlers who are more confident, more trusting of each other, and always feeling like they've accomplished something really significant!

No team is happier than me and Mimi!