Backyard agility

Well we had a few successful training sessions since our last post. The most recent was today in our beautiful back yard. He's really starting to settle down out there. He was very focused on the equipment but still a little stressed. He hasn't really taken to tugging out there yet, so we need to keep working. I did, however, manage to get him to chase the bait pouch if I put a treat inside where he could get to it.

So today we worked on the chute; unfortunately there was enough breeze that it kept blowing over so he'd run in it and it wouldn't stay flat. So he kept running back out. But whenever it was flat he gladly went in it, which I'm thankful for. I guess I need to modify the chute a little so that it doesn't blow away.

We also did a brief session with weaves. 2 sets of 2x2 were used open. I got him to run with me twice on each side. He wasn't really aware that they were there so I think my goal this week will be to do weaves three times this week.

We did some work on jumps as well, actually we did the first two jumps of a pinwheel (jump to tire at 90 degrees) and then we worked on set point grids. He did so well on these that I kept adding jumps. It is clear that he is very comfortable with these at home, we got up to a cross rail (or more like cross plungers) and two jumps. So a total of 3 :). His lead outs were going really well, and he was looking down his line at the bait pouch perfectly.

Lastly in between set-ups and moving jumps we worked on the table. I flipped a rubbermaid container over and put his mat on it. Any time he was not working he was being praised for lying on his mat on the container. During clean up, I laid his mat on the ground and he actually stayed the whole time :) he got a few jackpots for that.

Below is a picture of our beautiful backyard. The tree is also perfect for circle work.

We also had some other success stories this past week. Saturday was agility class, we changed a few things up. I didn't bring his house and he was pretty quiet. I think we may try without the house for a while and see if I can get him quiet, then re-introduce the house. We worked on the teeter as well as set point grids. Harley was a little more focused, but we still haven't gotten him to stay calm and de-stressed in there. We are making some progress though.

Wednesday was tiny dog class, Harley played with his buddies and we worked on sit-stays. He did pretty good with that. We also worked a bit on name response and recall.

Tuesday, we ventured out to visist our friends Kobi and Scout. Scout is a very quiet therapy dog so we thought that would help Harley work on his reactivity. Kobi is a beautiful boarder collie who is very hyper. We let Harley and scout meet first. Harley barked quite a bit, but did settle down a little. We then introduced Kobi and let them play. This was good because Harley got a reaction every time he barked, Kobi wanted to play! We did a bit of work with both dogs walking by the fence as well, this is to work on Harley's need to bark every time he hears dog tags, but can't see a dog. We did good. Lastly we went for a walk, which I was very pleased with.

Overall it's been a good week, let's see what the next week brings.