Agility...in Saudi Arabia!

I have been bursting with this news for months but have waited to post on the blog until I had photographic proof...of the first ever performance of dog agility in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia!

I've been working two years for this! Two years of teaching basic obedience through Aramco Community Education (I've taught well over 60 dogs and owners now), two years of earning gold stars (mine are among the most popular Community Ed courses), one year of making do with Rally Obedience, two years of dog classes without incident (neither poop nor aggression), two years of being patient (not really), two years of planning and scheming and false starts.

And here we are at last. The photos in this post are truly historic. Oh, I know they look pretty tame to you North Americans who can attend an agility trial or visit your trainer just about any weekend you feel like it, or simply step out into your backyard. Oh my, we are certainly starting small.

But it is a start.

I had goosebumps when I started class this Thursday.

I won't burden this post with a lot of text. That can all come later as the course progresses. But I'll give you a short outline here: we are meeting from 6:30-8:30am on Thursdays (our weekend). We will move to a huge, grassed, fenced soccer field at the end of October. The course will meet every Thursday well into December. I continue to base my dog training within the securely fenced confines of the Dhahran middle school. Aramco Community Education has made this possible and I can't speak highly enough of their willingness to help me make it all work.

I am basing my handling system on Greg Derrett's system since it is the most logical one (to me; let's not get into an argument about that here, my agility readers). In addition, I've incorporated all sorts of training bits from Leslie McDevitt (Control Unleashed), Sandy Rogers (One Jump Two Jump), and Jane Killion (When Pigs Fly).

For this inaugural class, the entire equipment set will fit in the back of my Honda CRV (along with Mimi's crate): two tunnels, a chute, tunnel bags for them, stick-in-the-ground weaves, seven jumps, and a table with two heights, 4" and 12". I made the jumps and the table here (there are many adventures associated with those activities; the tales are best told in person over a glass of wine or two). I bought everything else and either had the items shipped in (i.e., jump strips and tunnel bags from J&J and tunnels from NTI Global) or hand-carried them to avoid Customs TFW (i.e., the special PVC connections for the jumps).

Purists, beware. I am cutting and pasting as I go. I don't have to follow any rules except those that work in KSA. Our goal isn't competition but the doing of the thing itself--and hopefully some more refined training of our dogs in the process. Oh, and having fun!

Enough of my blathering. Please enjoy these pictures of our first class.

I do have to make one final comment: Mimi was indeed present and she and I did a demo of serpentines, threadles, and other crazy stuff. I think some of the other folks might have pics of us.

It's important that I mention this because in the end, this is all about Mimi. It's all about what I will do for my dogs.
 

MH, my co-instructor, and her PWD Austin showing some of their moves.

MH and our first morning's demo setup: 5 jumps in a circle and a tunnel. Baby steps, baby steps.

The brave handlers who signed up for DOG-301! Big dogs, little dogs, young dogs, old dogs, and handlers who have no idea what agility is.

Skipper is an old, arthritic lab but Marion really wanted to find something that allowed her to have one-on-one time with him (she has a much younger black lab who is as wild as they come). Here, Marion is introducing Skipper to the jump (bar on the ground, of course)--rewarding him for hopping over the bar without touching it. I don't have the luxury of only teaching people with Ferrari dogs. I have to figure out how to ensure that dogs like Skipper and handlers like Marion are successful, and most importantly, have a good time.

Here's Cheri and her boston terrier mix Xena being introduced to the jump. I used Sandy Roger's method as described in her DVD "One Jump Two Jump." All of the dogs were successfully clearing a low bar for a click and a treat after about 6-10 reps.

Introduction to the tunnel. Where's Mom??? Jeanette is doing her best to get Aris' attention by crawling into the tunnel while MH is doing her best to simply hold Aris and let him figure it out. I keep telling the handlers, stop worrying about looking stupid. Nobody is looking at you--they are all looking at your dog. Might as well instill this in them as early as possible.

Oh, there she is! Aris figures out the tunnel and runs towards his mom.

The tunnel provided the class lots of laughs. Here's Webster, one of my Rally Obedience stars (he has a heel to die for) being handed off to MH by his mom Crystal. We did four reps for the tunnel introduction; most dogs got it by the third rep although half had to have a shortened tunnel to start out with. Webster is a mini dachshund with truckloads of confidence--he had no problems with the full 12 feet of the tunnel!

Kris and his lab Kanga (the angle of the photo is not too flattering but she is unfortunately overweight when viewed at any angle). She has just shot out of the tunnel to her handler.

So raise a toast to our intrepid little group and wish us well!