Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Griffin in Beginner Agility Class IV: The Teeter

We left really early...and so, we stopped for walks. A new part of our week is going to be Adventure Walks. We just walk and walk and walk in new places. And I reinforce attention if I happen to get any. The only rule is I don't allow marking.

First time around: Barely any glances my way.
second: Some more looks. He gave me a leaf and we played with it. He carried a stick for a while.
Third: Lots of attention and several places we stopped to play. We ended up in front of a building with a few steps... I'd send him up. Ask for a Down! And then release to play. It was bitey-growly cute. And adorable. He was so wound up!
It was a lot of fun other than the rain part.

And we got to class, just in time. But no one was there. So I drove past a few times... and it ended up that yes, we did have class....

Tonight we only worked on the teeter. Griffin is great at the teeter. Goldens are supposedly notorious for teeter problems, I keep hearing this. But both of mine are great with it. Luna is afraid, but, she's afraid of everything.

We started with it low and gradually raised it. Initially our instructor gave us a hard time about running it... so I stopped Griffin a few times. And that was cute. But we were told we could run. And apparently our instructor was impressed with how Griffin runs and waits and runs.

Between our turns... we did some heeling like usual. And some stays. We tugged with the bear. And we tugged with the frisbee! And the tugging was GREAT. He wanted MORE MORE MORE of it. His outs were poor. We used a toy as a reinforcer for our last set of teeters and it was great.

I think part of his high interest in toys was that I wore a scarf. And he REALLY WANTED to tug it. But he knew to leave it alone.

At the end of class while waiting for a turn, we went around and sticky touched lots of things. Number cones. Standards. Dogwalk base. Tunnel. Jump bars.

And we played 1-2-3 RUN TUG.

No off leash work...so I don't know how that would have gone. But the shelties were always about 30' directly from the end of the teeter and he didn't think about visiting them. The other dog in class was a challenge at first, but by the end of class we could sit 15' from where she was working.

What do we need to work on? More time around different dogs. More recalls in varied locations. More being adorable. No...he has that one mastered!

2 comments:

Kristine said...

Good job! Griffin sounds like such a joy to play with. The teeter may be my favourite obstacle.

Kristen said...

Thanks. I think I'm too biased to say... but he is very fun and so easy in most ways.

The teeter is definitely his most competition ready obstacle performance!