Training Frankie in agility is a challenge. Well, it's a challenge no matter what dog you have, but Frankie poses some unusually challenging challenges. She's very fast, and outpaces me quickly. I started her on distance training early. I spent last summer working on a beginning distance class using Frankie and three agility friends and their dogs as test subjects. She hates to be drilled, and more than a couple of repetitions of a skill will frustrate her. She is heedless of personal safety and has taken out jump wings more than once. She drops bars, but I think that I'm the biggest problem there with late commands and getting in her way. She's a little dog but she needs a lot of room!
Because she is so resistant to drilling, I try not to spend too much time correcting mistakes. It works better for Frankie if I keep moving and circle back to the place where she had a mistake. I'd rather keep the speed and enthusiasm and focus on teamwork.
Her start line stay was initially nonexistent. She'd stand up and walk or creep up to the obstacle, and she would break her stay if I took too long to get into position, moved, or even just took a breath. That's getting better in part because I have been working this behavior into our daily routine. But honestly, as Frankie gets older, she is showing a better understanding of her job.
Frankie and I took two sessions of Rally Novice taught by another instructor at the club. Rally allows the handler to verbally praise their dog and use a lot more hand and body motion (with some limits) than formal obedience. Dogs and handlers navigate courses with stations. At each station, a sign indicates some sort of skill, like "dog down, handler walks around" or "270 turn to the left" or "about turn." Dogs are on lead for the Novice level. And it's like formal obedience in that the dog is worked from the handler's left.
Frankie came into her first Rally class with no loose lead (that means she pulls on lead), no heeling (she forges ahead of me and often turns into my path), and no down. She's still not really got those things even now after two 8-week sessions, but she's getting better. And she has her moments of brilliance. Her left turns (dog on the inside of the turn) are just lovely. Seeing her excited to work with me for the full hour of class, and putting all of her energy and focus into this very non-agility activity, is a lot of fun.
Like most smooth fox terriers, Frankie went through a final growth spurt at about 18 months old. She got very lean and muscled almost overnight. She also got a little taller. She's lean, fast, agile, far too smart for her own good, opinionated...in short, the perfect smooth fox terrier.
Despite having significant reservations about whether Frankie was ready and concerns about her leaving the ring, I entered her in a trial a couple of weekends ago. One run, one day. This particular class could be run as FEO, for exhibition only. I could take a toy into the ring with me. I have 60 seconds to do what I want--run part of the course, all of the course, one obstacle over and over, you get the idea. FEO runs don't count for anything. It's an opportunity to train in the ring. Everyone kept asking me what I was going to do with her. I said, well, that depends on what happens at the start line. If she holds her start line stay, I will run the course.
First things first, however. Frankie got measured for the first time. At home, I had measured her as 15 1/2 inches at the shoulder. But now she had to be measured by a judge with a wicket. She did great! And measured out exactly at 15 1/2 inches. This puts her in the 16 inch jump height class as I had expected.
So how did Frankie do at her agility debut? She was magnificent. She exceeded all expectations. Her start line stay was amazing, never took her eyes off me despite the commotion in the gate area just feet behind her. She was a little worried about the new teeter but got right back on and performed it perfectly twice! Her weaves were blazing fast. Not one knocked bar. I could not be more pleased with her performance.
Video? Why of course, I have video. It's still on my iPad. It's enormous. I'll figure out how to get it dumbed down enough to slap up on the blog.
In the meantime, I've got some agility training to do.
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