Friday, October 26, 2012

Agility Season in KSA! Weeks 1-4

It's agility season in KSA again! The class has met four times already so as usual I’m behind on my updates. We have a really big class this time with 10 handlers: five novices, four returning intermediate level, and one new but more or less intermediate level (she took some classes in the US but never competed). And I’ve got a new partner in crime (co-instructor) as well: CJ, the handler of the crowd-pleasing mini dachshund Webster. 

It's a full house! We've got shade! And dogs and handlers galore! Read on for more details.

When MH left the Kingdom this past spring, I knew that I’d have to find someone to help me with the classes. None of these folks has ever competed so I couldn’t use that as a criterion. And most of the intermediate handlers have made good progress and show a fairly good understanding of the basic handling moves and the overall objectives of agility. All of them have the occasional setback (dog getting the zoomies, dog not recalling, handler muddling crosses) but all of them show excellent patience and perseverance. In other words, some of them that are becoming rather decent handlers so I couldn’t pick one solely on the basis of skill level.

One of our intermediate handlers PM (on the left) and her yellow lab Nellie (Azza's BFF). They are setting up for a tunnel exercise.

I chose CJ because she has shown a good understanding of fundamental handling and because she and Webster made a lot of progress in their first six months. It was an added bonus to me that CJ works in education and understands techniques of instruction and methods of learning—important things when you are on the other side of the instructor-student relationship. I also chose her because she has a big car so she can share equipment hauling duties! And because I knew that I could work with her. And because I thought that she would agree to do it! 

CJ in the foreground watching LF set up her golden retriever Amira for a send to tunnel exercise.

We’ve been dividing the class up into novice and intermediate groups for two reasons. The first is the obvious one: the two groups are working on very different skill sets. And dividing them up reduces the time everyone has to wait for their turn. CJ and I are alternating between the two groups to spread ourselves around as much as possible. I heard from three of the intermediate handlers that they thought that she did a “pretty good job” the first week! I was pleased to hear this because I know from experience that they are a tough crowd! I sort of tossed her into the deep end of the pool but she seems to be offering the students consistent and gentle guidance.

CJ and I are doing a good job of managing the division of labor. The limiting factor is still our fairly paltry collection of obstacles. To add some new challenges, I made four jump wings (enough for two jumps) out of scrap PVC, a piece of white plastic garden paneling that I cut up, and a bunch of zip ties, and introduced those to the intermediate handlers along with pinwheels. That went so well that the second week I had them work on 180s with and without wings. Because some of the equipment is used by the novice group at the same time (so far just a couple of jumps and a tunnel), I have a reduced set of obstacles to use for the intermediate sequences. But this is giving me great experience in designing challenging sequences with limited equipment. 


Waiting patiently. From left to right, LF with Amira, MW with Jack, SS with Abby (intermediate team), BW with Jake, and MC and M with Seamus.

Here are two course maps for the intermediate group to give you an idea of what I mean by limited equipment. Those of you who know agility will immediately see many more sequence possibilities in each arrangement. That's by design, of course. I designed the two set ups using the equipment I had available then worked out 4 to 5 different sequences for each. That certainly kept that group occupied for the full two hours!




Another new element I’m incorporating is a group sit/stay exercise at the beginning of each class. MH and I got tired of holding dogs who wouldn’t hold a sit/stay no matter where the handler was (1 foot away or 10 feet away). It was clear that people weren’t doing their homework. So I decided to make them do a group sit/stay. At a minimum, they now get some practice in class each week and perhaps some of them will be shamed into doing some practice at home when they see other dogs holding their stays in the face of all sorts of distractions. 

Getting sorted out in the group sit stay. From left to right, MC and her daughter M with Seamus (yes, he's a wire fox terrier!), JW with her small mix Jack, BW with her poodle mix Jake, JJ with her daughter H and their terrier mix Rocket.

And a brand new feature of class is the shade tents you see in the photos. We nearly broiled ourselves the first week so PM called in some favors with some friends in high places and arranged with Recreation to set up the tents each week. I am well aware of what the weather is like elsewhere (I have weather widgets on my computer at work for various spots around the U.S. and Europe); in short, everywhere else the weather is suitably fall-like. Here, it is still topping out near 100F most days. We don't have normal trees with leaves that turn colors. We have trees but they are desert-adapted and/or what I'll call primitive species that don't have that kind of seasonal behavior. We don't have frost or a nip in the air. We certainly don't have rain. Instead, we have 85% humidity from sunset to noon every day. There isn't much sign of the weather cooling down so the shade tents have been an extremely welcome addition.

With so much going on during each class meeting, literally a two-ring circus, it's been hard for me to take a lot of photos. I am going to try and videotape parts of a class in November so maybe that will compensate a bit for the lack of photographic evidence.


HD and her daughter (holding the leash) running Savvy, a desert dog of probably Canaan dog origins. Savvy arrived in class terrified and ready to either bolt or kill every dog she could see. She now accepts petting from most of us and is actually jumping jumps with enthusiasm. HD doesn't want to let her off the leash for fear of her either running off or attacking another dog, both always a possibility with these desert dogs.

After four weeks, the novice handlers have been introduced to recalls and sends over a jump (with variable handler, jump, and dog spacing), the jump-tunnel-jump sequence in its various permutations, and left and right FCs using two jumps but with the third off-course obstacle a jump or a tunnel. Their dogs really aren't showing much signs of tunnel-sucking yet but it's never too early to start working on your handling in front of an off-course tunnel.

MC and her daughter M with their wire fox terrier Seamus. I am quite excited to have TWO junior handlers in the class. Good experience for them, good experience for me.

I would like to integrate the two groups in a couple of weeks. This increases wait time and I may have to pull out one jump to have people work on jump skills while waiting, but it will allow us to throw more complex sequences at the novice handlers that are embedded in the intermediate sequences. I've also got plans for a cross clinic since a few of the intermediate handlers are a bit rusty.  A jump box and jump circle would be perfect for the clinic and excellent set ups for the novice handlers as well. There is no lack of things to work on each week, that's for sure!

1 comment:

oldgraymare said...

Always so good to see happy people and happy dogs! Have fun!