Lexi's beginner agility class.....

We went to Lexi's beginner agility class last night, even though I've been sick all week.  I'm glad we went, as we had a good practice.  After restrained recalls that is. :)

We started with restrained recalls.  The idea is that the instructor holds the dog, the handler takes off running and calls the dog.  The dog is supposed to drive to your side and play with you.  Well, Lexi's idea of a restrained recall is more like a buzz by.  She comes running at me as fast as possible, then does a fly by into large loops of the zoomies.  After a few wide loops, she comes back in and plays.  *sigh*  Boxers and their zoomies.  Thankfully my instructor is understanding.  She told me after class last night, "She has the potential to be a great agility dog, we just have to understand that she will have the zoomies sometimes and we can work through them."  The idea is to gain control without stifling her speed.  As a result, my personal homework for the week is a lot of nose touches, collar grabs, recalls, and tug work.  I want her to enjoy working with me, and come back because (to her) I'm awesome. :)  As Susan Garrett says, "You be the cookie".

After the recalls, we worked a few short sequences.  Jump-tunnel-jump and tunnel-tunnel-jump.  Lexi did well, with only one episode of the zoomies at the end of one of the tunnel-tunnel-jump sequences.  We're trying to strike a balance of her focusing on me, but still being able to drive ahead to the next obstacle.

After that we did stations with partners.  We worked on chute, which she was fabulous at, a pinwheel of 3 jumps (she's only jumping 8-12 inches right now, as she's still a baby dog), and a teeter board that was basically lying on the ground with a very small fulcrum.  We were pretty successful at the pinwheel, with her being able to complete it a couple times, and after being introduced to the teeter board and realizing it's similar to the one at home, she excelled on that as well. 

The last thing we did was work on contacts.  We did several dog-walks, with her driving ahead nicely, and her 2on2off is looking good.

All in all, another great class!