Agility Update

I got an invitation to train at an indoor, heated facility on Sunday. There was no way I was passing that up so I went. Imagine my surprise when 2 of my friends that I haven't seen for awhile showed up. One of them was just as surprised to see me, I think. I see Rosanne more than I see Jen because I am taking an agility class this Winter and she is the instructor. But I haven't seen Jen for 3 months and I have not seen her work her young dog, Fever, much at all.

Fever has had a lot of issues, mostly fear related. She would charge random people and dogs and get stressed out in new situations. Jen wasn't sure she would ever be able to do agility with Fever and many others wondered if Fever would work out as an agility dog too. Jen has done a great job helping Fever learn to cope with her issues. I got to see a very fast enthusiastic little Border Collie work yesterday. I was very pleased for Jen - she has worked so very hard to help this dog so it was nice to see the results starting to show up away from home.

Gusto was very controlled for not having worked much away from the small quarters of my unheated building. I was very happy with him and look forward to our upcoming trial season that starts in a month or two.

This was Robbie's first time working away from his normal locations. I wasn't sure how focused he would be or how well he would work. He is 14.5 months old and still has a puppy brain much of the time when I work him but he is super smart and willing to please. Initially, he was acting strangely - apparently he had to really go - as in explosive diarrhea! After he emptied his system which seems to be from the car ride, he worked really well. He came off his dogwalk and teeter incorrectly from excitement so I had to work him through that but otherwise, I was very pleased with him.

Not sure how fast he will be in agility - I'm so used to the fast-twitch, high speed crazy Gusto. Robbie just feels slower to me. But his stride is impressive so I hope that will make up for his more methodical approach to life.