Ruby and I have now done three weeks of our foundation agility class and we started our domestic Good Basics class this week too. We’d had a pretty quiet week apart from that as I’ve not been feeling well.
I’ve also been a bit slack about keeping her occupied with food toys, and have had to confiscate a few items of contraband as a result.
Ruby also got to enjoy her first few 1-2 minute off-lead micro-walks this week, during one of our walks at Knottingley. Unfortunately it’s been quite hot so most of our walks are near twilight, when there is too great a chance of hedgehog-hunting antics to risk a repeat just yet.
Agility Fun
We have some good moments in foundation class but also a lot of not-so-good moments. I am struggling to get her to consistently chase and pick up any of her balls club. She will happily play fetch at the dog park (yup, I’ve become one of those people!) but there are so many more interesting things at club that the ball doesn’t rate a mention.
We had our first introduction to weave poles this week (one set of two poles) and she very quickly picked up the idea of going between the poles to get a treat that I’d throw ahead. A couple of stations later I was trying to get her to wrap a cone – something she’s learned with several different props at home – and every time I released her she’d wander up to the cone and wander right on past…
In between classes I am rationing myself to one session of training with agility equipment at home per week. We have plenty of other skills to work on so while I love doing “real agility”, it isn’t the main focus right now.
Continue reading “The Ruby Project, Week 8: Fun with Foundations”