3 Agility Class Update - Sorry I'm A Slacker

I have yet again failed at updating this blog...

OCT 27th - Our 3rd Beginner 2 Agility Class:

Bailey and I just started our 2nd session of beginner 8 week agility classes. This class was disappointing. She spent most of the time with her nose in the grass looking for food. I even put her in the car alone for 5 minutes as a time out. She has no interest in paying attention to me. I couldn't even get her to sit in front of a jump. A few times, I finally got her to sit and when I released her with "Ok jump", she just stood there staring at me. Sometimes, she would respond to "ok," but then would walk around the jump. The only way I was able to motivate her was to lure her with food into a sit and keep a treat in my hand the whole time.

I need to motivate her and keep her interested in me and not the ground. I don't feed her dinner before class. Maybe I should feed her dinner before hand? Then she won't be starving and searching the ground for food.

There were times in class yesterday, she didn't even seem like was was having fun. She seemed a little stressed. At what point should I suck it up and realize Bailey is not interested in agility, she's not having fun and maybe we should consider throwing in the towel? How do you know your dog doesn't like agility?

I've been using my painted contact board to practice 2o2o contacts. I've been placing our target lid at the end of the wood. Bailey walks across it and I say "target" when she gets toward the end. She'll put her paws on the target and jump off, turn around to look at me and then wait for me to get there. I've even tried it with her on leash and she does the same thing. How do I get her to not jump off when she gets to the end and wait there? We have practiced on my stairs numerous times and she does it correctly there. Because of "the incident" setback, I haven't gotten the chance to practice 2o2o in class.

Here's a quick video, I got last night of Bailey actually running a small sequence. I had to lure her with a treat to sit and keep the treat in my hand the whole time. She did seem to enjoy this sequence. She does love tunnels.
http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...t=VID00038.mp4


NOV 2nd - Our 4th Beginner 2 Agility Class:

Bailey was a lot better in class yesterday than last week!!!

The week between our 3rd class and 4th class, I set up a jump in my basement. I clicked and treated every time Bailey jumped over it. I played fetch with her, which forced her to jump over the hurdle to get the ball. I also set up a tunnel in front of the jump, so she had to jump and run through the tunnel. My goal was to make the equipment fun, fun, fun!

In addition, we practiced contacts on my contact board. I used K9kreations' suggestions and made "wings" with a beach bucket and watering can I also placed a treat on the target so when I released her to the board, she immediately did a 2o2o. Then, I treated her for as long as she stayed in that position. It seemed to work and she was starting to grasp the idea.

I decided to feed her 1/3 of her dinner 2 hours before class, so she wouldn't act like a scavenger and look for food the whole time. As soon as we got to class yesterday, I started feeding her while we waited for the class before us to finish. When it was our turn, I ran around the field with her and played fetch for a few minutes. I just wanted to get her really excited about being there. She appeared much more comfortable and confident. She had no problem jumping over jumps, running through tunnels, the dogwalk, A-Frame, etc. She even had a few good 2o2o's. We watched other dogs do the teeter and I kept feeding her to desensitize her to the noise. I even got her to stand on the teeter for a little bit, but as soon as she got far enough where it started to move, she jumped off. I think I'm gonna have to make a moving board for her. She did sniff the ground a little bit, but definitely not as bad as last week. She seemed a lot less fearful and distracted and she was a 1000x more attentive to me.

It makes me so happy to see her enjoying agility! I'll continue what I did last week and hopefully she continues to improve.

On a side note...the two times Bailey has shut down in class (last week and the week of "the incident") were classes Joe attended. I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but I've banned him from attending her classes

NOV 9 (yesterday) - Our 5th Beginner 2 Agility Class:

I was hoping Bailey would continue to improve, but unfortunately that was not the case. She wasn't as terrible as our 3rd class, but didn't improve at all since our 4th class. Maybe I'm expecting too much from her? The first half of class, she was pretty good. She didn't seem stressed. We just practiced jumps, tunnel, tire, A-Frame, etc. I even feed her treats while another dog was on the teeter to desensitize her to the noise. She didn't cringe or seem as scared as she used to be. I can even get her to stand on the teeter, but she won't go past yellow mark. We practiced the chute for the first time. I got her to run through while I lifted up the chute. I dropped the chute when she got to the end. So far so good with the chute.
For some reason, she won't weave in class. She'll do it once and then won't do it again. At home, she loves weaving. She is content to jump and weave all day at home.
At the end of class, it was our turn to do some distant jump work with the trainer. Bailey had a some issues with this. Bailey was once again sniffing the ground and appeared stressed. She would do the first jump, but would go past the second. The trainer had me try it again without putting her in a sit/stay and just do the sequence with no pause. Bailey hit it with no problems.
I don't know why she is stressed during agility class. I assume it's because of the other off leash dogs and dogs barking in cars. I really want her to have fun. She has blast at home.
I emailed my trainer to find out if I can rent the field on weekends to practice with no other dogs there. I think that will really help Bailey's stress level. Unfortunately, the training field is unavailable, but you can rent the training hall. I guess that is better than nothing.