Last night Nikon "graduated" from Beginner Agility. Even though I like to spend a lot of time on each obstacle (various entries, driving away, etc) people who aren't really serious about agility want to run courses so the graduation day always has a simple course. Last night it was 8 obstacles arranged in a circle and we backchained from the final two. Nikon did super! His first go through the tire he actually knocked the entire thing over (see pic below) but he untangled himself from the mess and ran on to finished the other obstacles. The trainer said he was the best dog for that to happen to, since he finds that sort of thing fun and doesn't get scared of the obstacle (Coke would never go through the tire again if that happened to him!). They also said the tire was too low and pulled it up for him after that. He had so much speed off the previous jump and the tire was set so low he just jumped at it rather than through it. Aside from that his only other mistake was again brushing the tire as he went through it, which unfortunately happened on the run that DH taped (below) and really slowed him down for the jump and table (all the other runs he gained speed and would nearly slide off the table). He didn't miss or refuse a single obstacle, I don't count slamming the tire over a refusal, lol! He also did really well driving to the next obstacle and being less focused on me. He always checked the target lid at the bottom of the dog walk, which is GOOD because he will miss contacts if he's not checking the targets. We still have some work to do with the A-frame and making the contact at the bottom. The trainer showed me how to introduce the 2 on, 2 off so we will be using that method in order to differentiate between the agility A and doing a retrieve over the wall for Schutzhund (where the dog usually jump off the top of the A). I have not been picky about his contacts on the A yet because his only real experience with it is from SchH. After class they invited Nikon to skip Advanced Beginners and go straight to Intermediate starting on Tuesday. I'm also entering him in a CPE trial (Level 1) at the end of July, no expectations but I want him to have fun and I personally would like more trial experience.
Anyway, here's the easiest course ever, with him running about 50% as far as his drive level (I've really held him back for this class because the more drive I get, the less he is really *thinking* so we've been keeping him really slow and calm while learning the obstacles): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Wi4XUIGP8
His epic fail
[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4023/4689945164_15976a37cf.jpg[/img]
Graduation
[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4058/4689937618_a19e95f2a9.jpg[/img]