Do Go Chasing Waterfalls

Buster and I love hiking to waterfalls. We are so lucky to live in a state with 1000+ waterfalls. 
Highly recommend this book for planning waterfall hikes. A new edition will be available Summer 2016.

Fall Creek Falls
The roads to this waterfall in Mayodan had me crossing in and out of NC and Virginia. There's not a parking lot or well-defined trail to this little gem. I parked on the side of the road and hoped nobody would tow my car. This link has a lot of great info about getting to the Falls. 

Fall Creek Falls. At the top of the falls on the bottom R

Lower Cascades (Hanging Rock Park)
This is my favorite waterfall we've been to so far. Hope you like stairs because there's about 40 flights of em! The waterfall flows into a shallow pool and then there's a much less impressive cascade. So you could wade in the pool out to the rocks like that couple on the right.

Lower Cascades

 

Hope you like stairs!

We also visited the other waterfalls in the Park: Upper Cascades, Window Falls. They're less impressive.
Hiking to the peak of Hanging Rock is worth it. It's a moderately difficult trail, uphill all the way there.

It started raining when we got to the top. We took shelter under the trees popping out of the rock.

Tory's Falls/Den
This is a short hike with a lot of history. Torys hid out here during the Revolutionary War. The waterfall was not impressive. It might be worth seeing in the winter after a lot of rain/snow. I've seen other photographs of the falls that are more impressive, but I don't know how they got to that vantage point. We were on top of a cliff at the end of the trail.

See the waterfalls? No? Because it was more of a trickle.

We enjoyed the cave though. I don't know how several men lived in that tiny cave, though. 

Tory's Den

To enjoy Tory's Falls you should go after a big rainfall. Other hikers have seen a much more impressive fall. The last three photos on this page are from Tory's Falls/Den.

Stone Mountain State Park
Stone Mountain Falls are usually crowded. There's also a lot of stairs, but benches along the way to rest.
I enjoyed Widows Creek Falls a lot more. Less crowded and prettier. No hike at all. Just park and walk.

Stone Mountain Falls on L, Widows Creek Falls top R, Yadkin River bottom R

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Advanced Obedience Week 5 & 6

Ongoing series of posts about what to expect in a Petsmart Advanced Obedience Class:
Week 1 & 2
Week 3 & 4

For weeks 5 & 6 we continued to work on long distance stays. I was able to put Buster in a down-stay at the back of Petsmart, walk to the front door, around the edge of the store and all the way back to him. People passed him while he was waiting on me, there were plenty of distractions, but he stayed put.

We worked on heeling with distractions, including next to another dog, with people squeaking toys, bending down to talk to him, and doing wild motions like jumping up and down. And he continued to heel every time.

We worked on "heel up". He is sitting in front of me I say "heel up" and he walks around my right side, comes from behind me to sit politely to my left so we can heel. 

We didn't have a graduation ceremony since Buster and the other dog had already taken this class before, but I did ask for a diploma.

I taught him to make his eyes green in pictures. Smart dog.

 We will be taking the Therapy Dog class at Petsmart in the next few weeks. Very excited.

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Advanced Obedience: Week 3 & 4

This is a continued post chronicling Buster's Advanced Obedience class at Petsmart. Weeks 1 and 2 are here. There was a 2 week interval between week 3 and 4 due to the holidays.
Week 5 & 6

Week 3: We worked on 

• long-distance, out of site stays again. 
• heeling side by side with another dog
• leave it using high value treats
• come when called with distractions (yummy food on the floor) 
• bow

Buster did excellent with all of this. The Shiba Inu in class with us was very jealous when it was Buster's turn to be called to come through the "valley of yummy treats" (which he had to ignore. The Shiba let out a scream to express her displeasure at not coming with Buster, which scared him but he came to me anyway after giving the Shiba a 'what the heck' look. Very cute. 

Week 4: We worked on

• heeling side by side with another dog, with distractions (next to the aquariums)
• come when called with distractions (yummy food on the floor) 
• back up
• "heel up" dog starts on opposite side he heels, then goes behind you and sits down on the side he heels

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Lost and Found

While at my parent's house tonight, Buster was outside in the fenced in backyard. My mom opened the gate to bring the trash can in and Buster bolted. He's never done this before. My mom came and got me, my dad joined in and my neighbor and we walked through the neighborhood, I drove around, we called and called for him and nothing.

Why would you ever leave this amazing yard?

As my dad and I were driving around again, my mom calls. She says "I was outside and the fence was open. I turned around and he was sitting in the backyard like nothing had happened." Clearly he hadn't been in the yard for the past 30 minutes, but the little punk knew exactly where to come home. He was just in time for his dinner, got some special treats and lots of love, play, and attention. Why would any dog want to leave that?!

Our New Years kiss last night at a party

The thing I was most upset about was that I had just bought a Whistle GPS Monitor. The kit had been missing a part and I had waited 20 days to get a new rubber collar attachment and when that came the Whistle wouldn't work. I was frustrated with the situation, the lack of communication around the holidays and my nearing the end of my 30-day money back guarantee. So I returned the Whistle. If he had it on, we could have tracked him immediately.

Below you can see the spike in Buster's activity as he did some unsupervised exploring:

Buster's Activity with his non-GPS Whistle.

 So what can you do to protect your dog? 

1. The first thing I purchased is a QR Code Slide-On Dog ID Tag from dogIDs.com (I don't get money for this review). I chose the collar slide because it had less chance of having the code rubbed off by a collar tag and the slide is more noticeable.

 

QR Code Slide-On Dog ID Tag

Your QR Code brings up a detailed personal profile for your dog, where you can list basic contact information and even health concerns/special diet. But the part I liked best is that you'll get an email notification if anyone scans the dog's code and if they have GPS enabled on their smartphone, you'll receive a GPS location map of where the scan occurred. The downside is someone has to actually find your dog and scan it. This doesn't help if your dog is stuck somewhere and can't get to a person for help, as happened with my friend's Jack Russell Terrier.
(If you prefer a regular dog tag with a QR Code, they have those too for the same price: https://www.dogids.com/product/round-qr-code-dog-tag/)

      2. GPS Monitor: As I talked about above, Whistle has a GPS/Activity Monitor. You are required to sign up for GPS service (you can't just use it as an activity monitor like the previous version). It's $9.95/mo for month-to-month payment, 7.95/mo for a years service (which works out to $94.50), and 6.95/mo for 2 years service. So you're looking at almost a $200 up-front cost if you do the year's service plan because the Whistle is $79, although if you order directly from their site they often have specials.  I wish I could tell you how well it worked, but I never got to experience that. I love my Whistle Activity Monitor, so I know that feature is great. It allows different caretakers to have separate profiles linked with the dog's profile and syncs with the person's smartphone to show who spent time with the dog, as you can see in the picture of Buster's activity, above.
App available on iOS and Android.

Pod 2: This corkscrew sized tracker seems pretty cool. It uses AT&T and T-Mobile 2G cell phone service to monitor your dog's whereabouts. The first year of GPS service is free and the next year is $49, which is one of the cheaper prices. It also monitors activity & sleep, which is a fun feature. 

Pod 2

This one uses AA batteries which last up to 6 days, so hope you have rechargable batteries. App available on iOS and Android.
 $199, which ends up being comparable to the Whistle GPS once you've bought their GPS service. 

DogTelligent Collar As of right now, this is a pre-order. It replaces your dog's regular collar. It has an optional GPS service, which is nice if you decide you just want the activity monitor. There's a built-in ultrasound, vibration and speakers to talk to your dog, train him/her, and deter barking.It allows you to keep track of your dog's vet info, including storing photos of vet records. $120 preorder, $179.95 regular price. "Exact pricing for the service is yet to be determined but estimated at $4.95/mo." That'd be the lowest price yet. You can see some of the app screens for different features here.
Their IndieGoGo page is more informative than their website. Battery life is 7-14 days and is rechargable with their charger. The collar is aluminum and it looks like your dog would still need to wear a regular collar since there seems to be no place to attach tags or any leash but their special magnet one.

Nuzzle This is a pre-order as well, but this one promises no service fees for the GPS. It comes on its own collar, but is detachable so it can be placed on your existing collar. Monitors activity and location, comes with charger, attachement and base station. Battery life is 5 days. $189, but never any GPS service fee.
Their IndieGoGo page is more informative than their website. App available on iOS and Android.


I haven't decided what I'm going to do about a GPS tracker. I like the no service fees of the Nuzzle, but I hate to be a guinea pig on a new product. Will update once I decide.

Do you have an activity monitor or GPS on your pet? Tell me about it in the comments.

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New Years Resolutions 2016

1. Get a job! I've just graduated from PTA school and REALLY need to get a job. I've applied to 5 jobs and no word so far.
   
2. Buster becomes Therapy Dog Certified: It's kind of a main theme of my blog here. We're working on it! Right now the earliest Therapy Dog Training class is in April '16, but hopefully we can find something in Feb or March so we can get the ball rolling.
   
3. 30 Days of Yoga: This was a previous unmet new years resolution. Yoga classes are up to $20 each so this will be done with videos/books at home.
4. Move: I want to move back to my childhood city and rent a home there during my first year of work. My must-have is a fenced-in backyard for Buster.
5. Zumba Once a Week for 2 months: There's so many cheap Zumba classes (as low as $4) so there's really no excuse.
6. ASL Class: I'd like to become fluent in American Sign Language. I've always been fascinated by the language. I still remember (and have) my Sesame Street Sign Language book.
   
   I also read a great non-fiction book in 2013 about sign language called "Talking Hands" by Margalit Fox. I will most likely never become fluent in a second (speaking) language, but I think I would enjoy becoming fluent in ASL and it would be a valuable skill to add to my resume. Not many PTAs could treat a deaf patient. I'm considering taking classes through a local community college in Winston Salem, a church I don't belong to whose classes are free, or through the Communication Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Greensboro. Will blog about my choice later.


7. Bustle Reads Challenge: I found a website that posted a reading challenge to encourage readers to read out of their comfort zone in 2016, but also to explore more women and non-white writers. The book world is still dominated by white, male writers. And there are some excellent books by them. But I find that I rarely read books written by non-white people or from a non-western country. I read books about other countries, but they're usually by Americans. There are 20 challenges and I've done many of these, but not in one year. So here it goes:
1. Read a book by a woman under 25
2. Read a book on non-western history
3. Read a book of essays
4. Read a book about an indigenous culture
5. Read a book before you see the movie
6. Read a young adult book by an author of color
7. Read a book set in the middle east
8. Read a book about women in war
9. Read a graphic novel by a woman
10. Read a book about an immigrant or refugee to the US
11. Read a children's book aloud
12. Reread your favorite book from childhood
13. Read a memoir by someone that identifies at LGBTQIA
14. Read a work of post-apocalyptic fiction by a woman
15. Read a feminist sci-fi novel
16. Read the first book in a series you've never read
17. Read a book set in Africa by an author from Africa
18. Read a book in translation 
19. Read a contemporary collection of poetry
20.  Read a book by a modernist woman writer

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Advanced Obedience: Week 1 & 2

Ongoing post about what to expect from Advanced Obedience classes at Petsmart:
Week 3 & 4
Week 5 & 6

Buster missed the first week of Advanced Obedience at Petsmart due to me having a prior engagement. But we made it to week 2 and had a makeup for our missed class the next day as well.

For week 2 we worked on:

• Stay with distance: Buster prefers a down-stay over a sit-stay, so I put him in a stay at the back of the store and walked around the aisles our of sight and came back. Buster remained in his stay the entire time.
• Heeling side by side: Buster had to heel, pause, and continue heeling with another dog nearby.
• Bow & Crawl: Buster already knows these, so I'm working on being able to give the hand signal from a standing position (me, not him) and not having to get so close to him and the floor for him to perform the trick.

For our week 1 makeup we worked on:

• Impulse control games:
• I offer a treat with an open palm and Buster has to leave it until I give him permission to eat with a "take it" command.
• Buster has to leave food on the floor/tables/bowl/etc. unless given the "take it" command.
• Buster has to heel/loose leash walk towards a line of food on the floor. If he lunges, we go back to the starting line. When we get to the food, he must wait for me to give the command "take it" to be able to eat the food.

Buster is extremely food driven (even more so since he's on prednisone), a fast learner, and eager to please me. All this makes him very easy to train. 

THERAPY ORGANIZATION
I had mentioned in a previous post that I was considering different therapy organizations to test with. Buster's trainer says she can not administer the test, but she teaches her class to the Therapy Dog International test because it's the most difficult. It also seems to be the most respected and requested. For example, if you want to volunteer at Baptist Hospital, they request dogs that are TDI or Delta (now known as Pet Partners) certified. I'd like for Buster to be accepted at any place he wants to volunteer and I'm not sure our previous choice of Love on  a Leash (LoaL) would allow that because it's the easiest test to pass.

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Therapy Dog Training

As I stated in my previous post: "I decided to get back into blogging because I couldn't find any blogs about the journey to become a therapy dog. Buster and I are about to begin that journey." So here is the plan for the journey to make Buster a therapy dog. 

(*Note: I often say "we" and "us". It's a habit of speaking for both myself and Buster that's just stuck.)
 
Buster and I tried Agility training. It was fun and we might have kept up with it if PTA school hadn't got in the way. It just wasn't possible to have anything scheduled outside of school. Upon reflection, I don't know if Buster truly enjoyed it.

 This is Buster's best run during agility.

As I get close to graduation and have seen therapy dog visits during my last clinic in a nursing home, I've decided to pursue therapy dog training. I kept saying I'd do it "when he gets older and slows down" but why not now?

Thankfully I was crazy about getting certificates when we took obedience classes the first time around in 2013/2014 and he got Canine Good Citizen certified.

AKC CGC certified

 I think we've decided to get certified with Love on a Leash which has a local chapter (Winston Salem, NC). I went to a therapy dog event with my godson where he read to a dog at a library and they recommended LoaL. It helps that their requirements are more lenient than Therapy Dog's International. ;-)

On  12/2/15 Buster joined me at my clinical at a nursing home for a visit. He was well behaved in the therapy room so I took him on a tour to visit some patients. He did very well and showed no fear. He tolerated people coming at him from all directions, including behind, and tolerated patients grabbing at his face. Two patients patted their laps, asking my 60 lb dog to sit in their lap. Luckily he knows not to get in laps. I was so pleased with his visit and his good behavior. I contacted his old trainer as soon as I got home and said "Let's fast track this!"

Here are our steps to becoming a therapy dog:

1. Beginner Obedience
2. Intermediate Obedience
3. Advanced Obedience
4. Canine Good Citizen test
5. Therapy Dog Class
6. Therapy Dog test

We have completed steps #1-4 already, but I decided to have Buster re-take his Advanced Obedience class to refresh his obedience with distractions in busy places and around other dogs. Because we took all our obedience classes through Petsmart, we can retake any of the classes again for free. We had to miss the first class last night due to a prior commitment, but we will be there for the other 5 weeks and finish 1/17/16. Had I gotten Buster as a puppy (he was 2 when I adopted him) we would have taken a puppy obedience class before beginner obedience. Buster came to me already knowing 'sit' and 'shake'.

For #5 & #6, if Petsmart offers the therapy dog class we'll take it there because I love our trainer (Dulcey Trimble at Petsmart on Lawndale in Greensboro, NC) otherwise we'll go to the Winston Salem Dog Training Club. They are the home of a Therapy Dog International Chapter so they might require you become TDI certified. We'll find out!

So Buster and I are looking forward to him following in his mom's footsteps and being a therapist. Hopefully we'll be both certified/licensed therapists with jobs by Spring 2016!

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Agility 1: Week One

We've started the next agility course before we've even finished our pre-agility course, but that's what the weather gods had in store for us. I think we suffered a bit because of it.

None of the dogs in our previous class were in this one. Buster was very excited and agitated to be around a bunch of new dogs. He wanted to meet them and play so badly.

The first thing we did was learn a front cross. You cross in front of your dog as he is walking in a straight path. Not hard.

But then we tried a front cross while our dog went through a tunnel. That would have been fine if Buster remembered tunnels. He would go in and as I'd run to meet him at the other end, he'd pop back out the entrance and follow me. This proved to be a problem over and over throughout the class.

After we all did the tunnel exercise, we then did a full sequence involving two front crosses, 2 jumps and 3 runs through tunnels. Buster did pretty well on the first run and completely fell apart on the second. He did so awful we had to go back to basics where the instructor held him at one end of the tunnel and I called him from the other end, and even then, he still just wanted to run directly towards me and not go through the tunnel.

So the lesson for me is to buy a tunnel! I'm trying to find a cheap one ($20 or less), but even on ebay that's hard to do. 

Update: I purchased a Pawhut 16.4 ft Tunnel on ebay for $28. It was sturdy enough for a 65 lb dog to run through and came with a carrying case. Buster's trainer could tell the next week that he had been practicing. Never had trouble with tunnels again. Highly recommend.

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Pre-Agility: Week 4

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 5
Week 6

It's been a while since I've posted about agility class because it's been a while since we've had agility class. Thursday evenings seem prime time for rain (which means cancellations).

Week 4 was a lot of fun. We started with sequencing, which Buster and I had been working on at home with our equipment. We did a pinwheel sequence. 3 jumps were set up in a semi-circle, like below.

Pinwheel sequence: person follows red lines and dog follows yellow

 Buster had no problems with this since we practice at home.

We moved on to some new equipment: the seesaw. But we didn't actually get on the seesaw. We got on what the instructor called the "teeter board". It's an unstable board that is very small and low to the ground and moves as the dog walks on it.

Teeter Trainer

Buster did SO well. I thought he wouldn't like the movement, but he walked right across it. We lured our dogs across with yummy treats and the instructor pointed out that when Buster walked across the first time and felt it move, he looked down at the board to see what was going on, then refocused on the treat and continued on.

Then we finished up with practice weave pole entry. We stood next to the weave poles and pointed at them to get the dogs to go through. Nothing too hard, but weave poles are extremely difficult to teach.

Week 5 will be a private review since I couldn't go to the class make-up date. The 6th and final week will actually be AFTER our next class level begins.

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DIY Agility Equipment: Tire Jump

Previously, I built an Agility Bar Jump.

Next on the list of Do-It-Yourself Dog Agility Equipment is the Tire Jump.

There are a couple different plans for the tire jump. I sorted through all of them and tried to weigh the pros and cons of each.

The Tire

An AKC competition tire jump should have an opening diameter of 24" and the wall should be 3-8 inches thick. The most popular material for a do-it-yourself tire is drainage pipe. This is lightweight so if a dog knocks his feet against it, it will not injure him. It's also easily shaped and commonly duct taped together. (More about duct-tape at the end).

The Frame

As I mentioned above, there are many different styles of Tire Jumps. I will show you what I found and then discuss what I chose.

This is what a competition tire jump looks like and retails for upwards of $130:

Courtesy AffordableAgility.com

It looks more complicated than it is. The wires allow you to adjust the tire height. The tire should be almost to the ground, regardless of dog height, when introducing this equipment to your dog. Gradually go up to full height (which is measured from the ground to the bottom of the tire opening).
I found several instruction pages similar to this style:

These directions are fairly simple:

Finished product from dogplay.com

 This instruction page is pretty popular. Not being mechanically inclined I found it to be confusing.

Finished product from Campbandy.com

The final instruction page is from a message board, but had the instructions I liked the best.

Finished product from dogden.proboards.com

The next style of Tire Jump is much simpler. It does not involve hanging wires, just a frame and attaching the tire in whatever way is convenient, often bungee cords or duct tape if your tire will be in a fixed position.

These instructions are just for the frame. You would attach the tire inside the rectangle.

Finished product from caninecrib.com

These instructions attach the tire with bungee cords. It's not hanging from wires.
 I wouldn't go through the trouble of building the tire like they did, but if you use drainage pipe, your dimensions for the PVC frame may be different than theirs.

Finished product from make-and-build-dog-stuff.com

Weighing the options

Since we are building our own equipment, it's all much cheaper than store bought. We could build a very affordable competition style jump. It's best if your dog uses equipment that looks like what he will be competing on.

However, Buster and I do not have a fenced in backyard of our own. A friend here in Greensboro has offered to let us use her yard and we will also be using my parent's yard 45 minutes away in Clemmons. Therefore our equipment has to be lightweight and easy to transport.

After much thought, we settled on this style, which is not competition style but will allow us to travel with it.

$75 from AffordableAgility.com

With a little experience under my belt building an Agility Jump I was able to eyeball this and see how simple it is. It retails for $75 at Affordable Agility.

Here is how simple it is:

I have awesome MS Paint skills

How to build
1 inch PVC pipe in the follow lengths:
four 15" pipes
two 50" pipes
one 30" pipe

6 1-inch cap ends
two-four bungees (or another way to secure 'tire' to pipe)
2 4-way tees*
8-feet of 4-inch diameter drainage pipe

*Note: The 4-way tees can be difficult to find. I bought them online from home depot and had them shipped to the store for free. Two 4-way tees with tax and free shipping cost me $4.93. (They come in different sizes. Be sure you order the same size as your PVC pipes)


The 15" pipes are the feet, the 30" pipe is the bottom cross bar, and the two 50" bars are the vertical bars you attach the tire to.

Attach your tire between the two 50" PVC pipes with bungee cord. The tire height can be adjusted by just sliding it up and down the poles.

Price
2 10' 1"diameter PVC pipes    $6.80
6 1" PVC caps                        $3.96
8' Flex Drainage Pipe             $5.78
2 4-way tees                         $4.93
8-pack of Bungees                 $2.47
Total price                            $19.40

(The blue and yellow duct tape was $3.57 each, but I didn't apply it to this project's cost because the duct tape is being used on several pieces of equipment.) *see below about colors*

As you can see in my finished pics, the tire is not perfectly round, but it's pretty darn close. It was very difficult to get it rounded and stay within the 24" diameter guideline all around. If you have better luck with a perfect drainage pipe circle, comment with your secret.

Undecorated

Decorated (with Buster in the center)

Tire Jump In Action
Here's a video of Buster using both his (as yet undecorated) tire jump and bar jump in a sequence.
 

 Decorating your Tire Jump (the duct tape info I mentioned earlier)

Dogs can see colors. But whereas we have 3 cones (red, blue and yellow) and can see the whole rainbow, dogs only have two (blue and yellow) and can only see those shades and some brownish and gray. 

Human color spectrum

Dog color spectrum

When decorating any of your equipment, you want it to stand out and be visible. This is why so much dog agility equipment is blue and yellow. And these are the colors I use for all my equipment.

More about dog's color vision in the sport of agility here.

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DIY Agility Equipment: Bar Jump

Buster is doing well in his agility classes, but I feel that he would get more out of them if we were able to practice at home. So I've been googling how to make your own equipment (because store-bought equipment is expensive).

So far I've found a do-it-yourself for jumps, A-frame, tires and weave poles that I think are doable.

The easiest seemed to be the jump, just required fitting together PVC pipes, so I started there.

I used this as my guide:
Instructables Dog Agility Jump 
Video Here

The guy from those instructions did all his own cutting. I just went into Home Depot with my list and asked them to cut the 1" PVC:

two 4-foot pipes 
two 3-foot pipes
four 18-inch pipes

I even got the guy to cut the tee-joint. I had him cut the back off and then cut it in half. These clip on to the pipes and make cups that hold the jump bar, allowing it to be knocked off if the dog's foot hits it (thereby preventing injury to your dog).

My tee-joint doesn't snap on like the guy's in the video. I'm using a metal clamp. I can tighten and untighten when I want to adjust the jump height. (Buster's jump height is 24" AKC and 26" USDAA.)

I added some blue and yellow stripes with duct tape for visibility (see this link for info about dog's color vision and agility).

The materials I used (all 1" PVC) and prices:

two 4-foot pipes 
two 3-foot pipes                             $3.44 for 10' of pipe
four 18-inch pipes
6 cap ends                                     .66 per cap
1 tee (cut up for the jump cups)     I didn't get rung up for this...so free!
2 4-way tees (special ordered from Home Depot's website for $2.31 each + free shipping)
2 clamps                                        .97 each

The cost for building this regulation sized* jump was about $15. Even I can afford that!

*This jump is within AKC standards. Regulations state the jump must be made from 1" PVC, 4-5 ft long (mine is 4 feet), and at least 32" tall (mine is 36"). (Pg 36) *

Dimensions. Notice the 6 cap ends as well as the metal clamps.

Here's a picture of the jump in a much prettier setting than my back patio. Please excuse my ghetto duct taping.

And a video of my dog, Buster's, very first agility sequence, also showing the tire jump.
 
Next up is the Tire Jump!

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Agility Workshop: Foundations & Fun Tricks

Buster and I are serious about Agility so when we saw his instructor at Dog-Gone Fun was offering a 2-hour workshop for beginners, we signed up real quick.

There were two other people in the workshop, both of whom had more experience than us, but we held our own.

We worked on handling (directing our dogs with our hands) as well as accelerating and decelerating. We get into a runner's stance, leaning forward with legs apart and bent, and this is the body signal to let your dog know to accelerate. Then we stand upright with legs together to signal deceleration.

When it came time to having our dogs back up onto an incline Buster fell apart. He refuses to back up straight, or to get on that incline. We ended up having to put barriers on both sides of him so he couldn't curve his body. Eventually his back feet made contact with the incline.
We've been practicing this on the stairs at my house. It's a little difficult because of how little space there is. But he's put his back feet up on the stairs, although not consistently. He seems very stressed when we try to practice it, too. His ears go down and he wants to get away. We'll see how he progresses.

Not Buster but an incredible likeness

We also did some exercises where our dogs had to step onto a paint can and into a box. Eventually our dogs should put both front paws on the paint cans and then step in a circle around it, as well as putting all 4 feet into a small cardboard box.

This workshop has given us a lot to work on. We're progressing very slowly in Pre-Agility and doing things Buster and I can't practice at home, so we're glad to have more things to work on. The goal of the workshop was to teach our dogs body awareness and conditioning.

I also told the instructor that we are serious about competing and she said that it takes at least a year. I told her we were interested in participating in the Triad Dog Games next year. We have a lot to work on in that year, though. But Buster and I worked hard and excelled at obedience and we will work hard and excel at this.

With some equipment at home to practice on we will definitely progress faster. Check my other blog posts for instructions on DIY agility equipment.

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Pre-Agility: Week 3

For week 1 click here.
For week 2 click here.
We missed last week because of weather, but this week the weather was great, although hot.

We worked on the chute again. Buster had trouble remembering what to do at first. But after we showed him, he RAN through the chute as fast as he could.

Then we did the tire again. First I put him on one side, stood on the other side and called him through. But then I stood next to Buster and ran with him and tried to signal for him to go through the tire. He went around the obstacle, not through it. After some work we got him through.

Then we did some more 2-on-2-off work on the obstacle, which Buster excelled at because we were able to practice that.

example of 2-on-2-off

I think it's time I attempt to make some backyard equipment so Buster can practice at home. More posts on that later!

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Pre-Agility: Week 2

Week 1
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6

The weather held out so we had agility class tonight at Dog-Gone Fun in Kernersville.

We did some review with the tunnel. Buster didn't do as well as he should have because I didn't give the right signals. But he did go through it enthusiastically once he knew that's what I wanted and that's what counts, that he has fun.

Today we were introduced to the tire and the chute.

Agility Tire

Agility chute

The tire was lowered until it was barely off the ground. So I just put Buster in a sit-wait, walked to the other side of the tire and called him through. Again, he came to me enthusiastically.

I thought the chute might be scary, afterall, it's closed at one end. You can't see where you're going. But we put our dogs on one end, then went over, lifted the chute up so they could see us and called them through. Buster came right through and even when the chute was down on the ground (as pictured above) he ran through it blindly. I was so proud of him. My baby is fearless!

We ended by doing some contact work on the A-Frame. It's important that their paws touch certain parts of the equipment for safety and so they don't get disqualified.

As we started this, a light rain started, so we hurried through and went on our way.

Before we left, Buster and I signed up for an Agility Foundations Workshop. It's 2 hours and we'll learn "backing up/backing onto an object, step onto/circle an object, beginning shadow handling, flat work, acceleration & deceleration." I hope this will help us advance faster and give us an edge. My goal is to participate in the June 2015 Triad Dog Games.

(Buster already knows the command "back up"; we learned it the last day of Advanced Obedience. We practice that one a lot. It's very useful.)

There's a lot about agility that confuses me. Some of the terminology is confusing, especially regarding cross-overs and handling and whatnot. When I was at the Triad Dog Games I saw teams go on some equipment more than once during their run. There was a confusing mixed-up pathway. Why is it all mixed up? Does someone give the participants specific instructions about what path to take in the course?
The description for the Agility 2 class at Buster's school says: " Handlers and dogs will learn how to maneuver serpentines, threadles, wraps, 270′s, lead out pivot’s/reverse flow pivots and layering of obstacles. " I don't understand ANYTHING in that sentence. (I'm sure I'm gonna read this post in the future and think I was dumb for being confused.)

Stayed tuned for Week 3 (halfway done) next week, if the weather holds. Hope there's no midterms!

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