New Agility Dogs!

I have started two "puppies" in agility. Rider, my avatar, and his little cousin Leela, started agility training a couple of weeks ago. To my surprise, Leela (the shy one) has taken to agility like a duck to water. She really loves going over the equipment and after only three lessons is beginning to understand what the names of the pieces are or what the action she is supposed to take for a command. I'm sure that she thinks that all jumps are "hups" and that the dog walk and teeter are "walk its," but that's just fine with me. Yesterday we did a beginner course, on-leash: single jump, triple jump, triple jump, wing jump, (turn to), the dog walk, the hoop jump, (turn to) the teeter, (turn to) the A-frame, and the pause table. Except that it was on-leash, lowered equipment, and virtually all straight lines, it was nearly a novice course! We also practiced the weave poles (she had no clue what she was doing, but humored me) and the broad jump (she tiptoed on the boards till I put a single jump across it). I can't believe how well she's doing!

Rider is another matter entirely. For all that he is playful and brave at home, he is timid of the equipment. While Leela sails over 8" jumps, he quivers at doing 4" jumps. While she confidently strides across the dog walk, he timidly puts his paws on the up-ramp and needs to be coaxed up till he reaches the level portion. He is literally terrified of the hoop jump. He does, however, love the tunnel, the pause table, and the A-frame--and he loves going to the agility field.

It's funny how dogs relatively close in age, of the same breed, and from similar lines will respond so differently in similar situations. I suspect that Leela will be a quick learner who blazes through Novice and Open agility levels and will find it difficult to settle down and get the control needed for Excellent. She'll probably do great in "Time 2 Beat" classes and not so well in FAST classes, since "FAST" requires her to work under distance control. She'll probably be ready for her first novice competition by the end of the year, as long as she has some idea of what the weave poles are about. Rider, I suspect, will take longer to catch on and longer to train. If he decides to do agility, though, I think he'll probably be my MACH dog, while Leela goes on to pick up several layers of T2B titles. It's going to be an interesting year, that's for sure.

 

Nice updates about them and they could get better for more agility trainings.

I do believe that dogs even same breed and same trainings have different "personality" or behavior, interests and level of intelligence.

 

That is so cool! I've often thought about trying something like that with my dogs but I haven't been able to set aside the time to train them. Good luck to you!