Beanie’s Agility Class

Posted on February 7, 2009 by Susan

It was a busy day for Beanie and Biggles today. Beanie had her agility class in the morning while Biggles went for a good romp around the park with his buddies. Then after a quick lunch we headed off to Allers Farm for another “Hydro Fun” session (a kind of doggy pool party) with the Glasgow Dog Training Club.

Beanie is turning into a real water baby. I jumped in the pool and she dived straight in after me . She didn’t even wait to be led down the ramp! We had a hard time getting her out when her half hour slot was up. Biggles loves the water too, and was a bit miffed that he was only allowed in the pool for a couple of minutes. He’ll start building up his swimming time in a couple of weeks time when he turns 6 months.

Last week at Beanie’s agility class our instructor filmed the dogs during the training. The following short video features dogs from the beginner class (that’s Beanie’s class) through to novice and intermediate. Beanie’s little moment of fame is near the start – second dog to run. It’s interesting to watch the more advanced dogs as this is what Beanie will be doing over the coming weeks and months.

http://www.clearrunagility.co.uk/apps/videos/videos/view/1990603-training-classes

More Agility Fun

Posted on January 23, 2009 by Susan

We took Beanie to Janie’s Agility Barn on Thursday for another practice session. We can’t believe how well she’s progressing. I’d love to see her running a course with an experienced handler as it seems to me that she never puts a foot wrong. It’s me that’s slowing us down!

Here are one or two video clips showing her progress. I think Beanie has now had 7 lessons – what a star! And that wheezing, middle aged bag lady huffing and puffing along beside her is me. Time for me to get into shape I think !!!

Firstly, here’s Beanie doing a trick that I only taught her a day or two ago. I thought weaving between my legs while I walk might help her when it comes to learning the weave poles in agility:

A little fun warm up session with Beanie running a few obstacles in a straight line:

And finally, a course including the A frame; several jumps; the tunnel and the chute tunnel. This was her very first run of this course. She hadn’t practiced, and was being guided by me every step of the way. She didn’t put a foot wrong, and as you can see she was slowing down considerably to allow me to keep up:

We’ve got another class tomorrow morning and if the weather holds out it will be in the park. It’ll be interesting to see if she is as well behaved outdoors as she’s been in the barn recently.

Roaming in the Gloaming

Posted on December 18, 2008 by Paul

Beanie’s agility classes have stopped until after Christmas and the New Year, so we got a half-hour slot in a barn full of agility equipment to keep the momentum going with her training.

Looking at the videos below, you might be forgiven for thinking that they were filmed in the evening, but in fact it was just after 2pm. As for the horrible noise on each clip, well that’s just the sound of rain on the barn roof. Fortunately the poor lighting and rainfall didn’t distract Beanie one bit:

That was the very first run of the day, and Susan was just making up the sequence as she went along, but Beanie was really paying attention to her commands. I think that’s pretty good going for a Beagle who’s only had six full lessons! Admittedly she’s not too hot on the weave poles as yet, but she certainly has no fear of the apparatus – not even the shrouded tunnel..

The object Susan throws at the end of each round is just a container filled with sausage. It helps to keep Beanie focused, and of course makes her easy to catch afterwards – ‘cos she’s not going anywhere until she’s got her sausage.

Another thing that contributed to Beanie’s solid performance was the walk she’d had earlier in the day. Ever since Beanie and Biggles went on a little unscheduled walk of their own, we’ve been working extra hard on recall with the two of them, and try to spend most of our park time playing hide and seek and puppy ping-pong (rapid-fire recalls between the two of us). It’s not as physically demanding as the usual run-about with other dogs, but it is more mentally stimulating for them and does seem to make them more attentive towards us. And it still gives us a bit of peace in the afternoon!

Two tickets for the Land of Nod please…