Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Agility update

Reilly and I are continuing on with our agility classes. But on top of our group classes, I have decided that we need some private sessions to work on some issues that Reilly and I have.

He loves agility, he loves the running and jumping and all that goes with it. But in his exuberance, he does NOT pay attention and starts running around, willy nilly and missing key contact points, which will kill us when we compete. Plus, sometimes it gets too much for him and he can't wrap his little brain around what we are doing and he gets stressed out and shuts down.

So in our private lessons we are taking things slow, and building on some basics trying to get him to a point where it does not stress him out.

Bless his heart - he's a SMART dog - I mean really smart - but I think he's just still immature, even at 3.5 yrs old. I can see him thinking so hard and the wheels are just spinning away when Sonja or I ask him to do something. Then when he FINALLY gets it and gets rewarded, it's all sunshine and happiness.

Now, not to say that he tries to get away with the minimum to still get a treat, but those days are now over. It's all black and white.

I will keep you posted on our progress.....

Monday, January 12, 2009

Long Time No Blog!

I know, it's been AGES since I have blogged, but between the holidays and year end close at work, life has been a little nuts( and if you live in the South, a little WET!).

I can tell you that as much as we need the rain here in GA, I have had ENOUGH. I have especially had enough of standing in the pouring rain in agility class. The kicker is it's never raining when we GET to class, but about 10-15 minutes into class it starts to pour. Now, we all stand in the rain, by our choice ( why not, we're already there) but it's still annoying and bone chilling cold.

Reilly had a wonderful visitor on Saturday night. Angela brought Pixie over. I was hoping they would play, but Pixie was intimidated by Reilly - he was probably the biggest dog she's ever been around, so she was a little shy around him. She was NOT shy around the people though and we got some good cuddle time with her on the couch.

What else? Oh yeah! Reilly and I have entered an agility trial on March first. We're doing tunnelers, which is basically running a course of tunnels, but we are VERY excited! Hopefully there will be pictures.

That's it for now....