Devon’s agility update

Devon has made huge strides in agility. Last week we had an agility lesson with Jenn Crank, Devon’s first since her iliopsoas muscle pull in March. Devon was successful on a new teeter, and other than a slow, testing first attempt at the dogwalk, she was fine on all the equipment. Jenn reminded me to continue to use all forward cues as I class and do Devon’s first few trials in Novice. She also picked up that when I’m a little unsure about what Devon will do on a sequence, I tend to let my voice get really high and baby talk Devon. Jenn reminded me that I need to be confident and sure of what she’ll do and reflect that in my voice.

This great lesson was followed by a great training session at Dogwood in Ohio. I was able to rent the building for an hour, working Connor (he was delighted) and then Devon. She was so excited to be in another new building to do agility! She cantered over the contact equipment, going faster across the dogwalk than I’d ever seen her. I could tell her speed increased, because I had to move faster. She also was successful at not only sequencing every set of 6 weave poles, but she was also successful at two sets of 12 weave poles.

I also did run thrus in Lafayette last week. Devon did a really good job, even getting 12 weave poles. She did bail off the teeter the first time, mainly because the entrance was awkward and didn’t allow me to support her from behind onto the board (I had to post around and be parallel to the end of the board). Even though she bailed the first time, she was successful the other two times over the teeter with that entrance.

We completed our week-long tour of three new training buildings by working at Pawsitive Energy on Saturday evening. Devon really liked the dirt floor to do weaves and was flying through them. The speed decreased the accuracy, but she did well even though she didn’t hit every pole. She did struggle with this new teeter. This was the first time she’s really been unsure in a new building. Even though she bailed off of it, she went right back on and was successful. She did bail off the first three times we attempted the teeter, being successful on the second attempt. We went off to do other things, and when we returned to the teeter, she was successful on the first try for three more sequences at the end of our session.

The thing I was most pleased with at Pawsitive Energy was her dogwalk performance. If I thought she was speeding up earlier in the week, it was only shades of what was to come Saturday. Devon RAN up the dogwalk so fast she bounced the up ramp. I could barely keep up with her, and I was running as fast as I could to the other end. I’m thinking I’m going to be very glad I stayed with the 2o2o contact! I would have never imagined Devon would be running over the dogwalk!

So we’re still training daily on various handler positions in the weaves and getting her on equipment at local training clubs. We head to Queen City for run thrus this weekend, and yet another new training facility. This will be her 8th new agility facility in five weeks, and she’s done the teeter at seven of them. I’m so proud of her! I think we’re really ready to start trialing in December!