# Just enrolled in puppy agility!



## Naturelover (Nov 30, 2013)

Well I have no idea where this is going to go... I certainly didn't shop for my Havanese with Agility in mind, but certain people around here are infecting me with the interest in agility by sending me great books and being inspiring! (Ahem, Karen!)

So we're gonna start a 6 week intro this Friday.  If nothing else it will be more obedience training and fun to learn more about the dog training world in Vancouver. The good news is it is Fridays at 6:15 p.m... right during puppy witching hour. Bet he will be ready to run!


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## morriscsps (Aug 17, 2010)

Let the hysterical laughter begin.. ound: I think I spend my first puppy agility class with my head in a tunnel, pleading with Jack to come to me.

I would suggest not feeding him dinner. If you can't get away with that, give him only half.


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## Celesthav (Mar 20, 2013)

You're going to have FUN! Maggie's in obedience class. We just had our 1st class yesterday. There were several other classes that were going on at the same time. I had a blast watching the agility. Such fun. These dogs were made for agility. But first Maggie has to finish her class and then an advanced, then it's agility. 
Enjoy the great time! 
Jeanne & Maggie


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Naturelover said:


> Well I have no idea where this is going to go... I certainly didn't shop for my Havanese with Agility in mind, but certain people around here are infecting me with the interest in agility by sending me great books and being inspiring! (Ahem, Karen!)
> 
> So we're gonna start a 6 week intro this Friday.  If nothing else it will be more obedience training and fun to learn more about the dog training world in Vancouver. The good news is it is Fridays at 6:15 p.m... right during puppy witching hour. Bet he will be ready to run!


Have a great time! And "just say no" to any jumping of anything more than "jump bumps". (like a half PVC pipe on the ground)


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## Naturelover (Nov 30, 2013)

krandall said:


> Have a great time! And "just say no" to any jumping of anything more than "jump bumps". (like a half PVC pipe on the ground)


Yeah I asked them about that and they said that's all they use for the puppy one so that's good. Archer is definitely very mobile around the home (& outside! Gotta have eagle eyes to keep superman here grounded) now so that is probably more than enough...


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Naturelover said:


> Yeah I asked them about that and they said that's all they use for the puppy one so that's good. Archer is definitely very mobile around the home (& outside! Gotta have eagle eyes to keep superman here grounded) now so that is probably more than enough...


Great!


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## Ollie"s Mom (May 23, 2014)

That sounds like fun.


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## Naturelover (Nov 30, 2013)

I just found this adorable pic of Archer at age 4 months running in my friend's back yard. Figured I will post it here since this thread had no pic yet.  And it is sporty.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Naturelover said:


> I just found this adorable pic of Archer at age 4 months running in my friend's back yard. Figured I will post it here since this thread had no pic yet.  And it is sporty.


Love it!!!


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## Naturelover (Nov 30, 2013)

So it was an interesting evening. Managing 4 excited young dogs in close quarters was probably the better "lesson" over agility. Gotta keep on your toes as the owner of the smallest but I managed to keep his focus and keep him relaxed more than the other dogs & owners. Not that it's a competition (yet). He also got to learn to focus and relax with a whining shepherd and a barking australian doodle (I think) in close proximity.

The agility set up seemed pretty complete and Archer had no prob with the tunnel except he started marking all over when we arrived despite my walking him first! well at 7 mos. un-neutered I guess that was bound to start happening sometime. I do think I will get him neutered soon! that wasn't the best. He also wanted to stay in the tunnel right as he got to the end. I think he liked the safe feeling especially with the other dogs around but he did come out, albeit slowly.

Anyway he was a star on the floor and chose to stay with me rather than zoom back to the other dogs, and even turned himself around to make that decision at one point. Yup a total show off. The instructor asked if I knew what they were bred for to which I answered "companionship?" and she said I had got myself a miniature border collie. Interesting point of view.

I liked the feeling waiting for our next turn and kinda waiting to show off what we can do. I can see the enjoyment one would get from it!

I think we will keep attending. He is such a fast learner on the targeting or anything like that.


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## sandypaws (Aug 8, 2012)

Don't feel bad about the marking. Tyler's PT is the agility instructor for our local kennel club as well as another training facility here on the Cape and her own adult dogs have been involved in agility competition for years. Recently she had an embarrassing experience at a trial when her intact male Golden decided to mark inside the tunnel. She was mortified, as she was also the chair of the trial. Thankfully it happened on the last day of the three day event. Talk about being red faced.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Dogs will be dogs!


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## Naturelover (Nov 30, 2013)

Wow this week's class was totally different. Archer was a space cadet. I had taken him in the morning to visit his half brother as it just happened to work out to meet them on the same day. I think he was too fried from playing as he often spends most of the day napping.

Eventually the instructor offered me some ziwipeak and that caught his interest to follow the scent and even begin to listen to me, and he did our first "wrap". Of course us humans always want to make a simple movement more complicated than it needs to be! Almost as hard as aerobics which I always sucked at. But I started to get it. And we had a good end run but he has been tired for 2 days since!

Watched some Crufts on youtube. OMG those dogs are FAST. And the whole time during and after they are barking. Would be hard to live with a dog like that but good for agility. My guy is a lazy bum who can usually turn it on when needed. Hehe.


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## miller123 (Aug 13, 2011)

Who are you doing agility with? I'm from the Vancouver area as well.


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## Naturelover (Nov 30, 2013)

Cool to meet another Vancouverite on here! We just had a mini Havanese meetup at Charleson park on the weekend. If you're not on meetup.com check it out- we are the Westcoast Havanese meetup group. The more the merrier!

I'm doing the agility with Dogsmart training centre up on Marine drive. They also have a small shop attached with some pretty nice goods. Pretty much every class I have been to has been different in terms of Archer's ability to focus. We are still managing 3 young dogs in tight quarters in between turns. I think a lot of it may have to do with the 7 month old hormones kicking in strongly. He is doing a LOT of sniffing and getting very distracted. I take him out ridiculously frequently to let him mark outside to diminish the chances of inside but it still seems to happen once a class as I can't keep him on leash from some of the obstacles and he runs off. D'oh. 

Sooo the other thing that happened was I helped another owner be less embarrassed! Clearly out of the goodness of my heart. How did I do this? Her pup had grabbed another dog's bully stick and was whipping around the course and could not be captured for quite some time. And when the gig was finally up, her dog peed. She was feeling really bad. We all know they are puppies and it is not a big deal but still one can't help but feel disappointed of course. Well I took Archer on his final run and I think the quantity of treats I fed him counted as a meal. I should have noticed the signs earlier (inattentiveness, wandering off, not interested in more treats), and I had literally just been outside with him... but when he went into one of the tunnels... he wouldn't come out as he was busy "making a deposit". Ohhh my. 

So! Aside from that incident.. he did have some moments of brilliance and seemed to start feeling his inner Havanese- he got that joyful little run going and started going through the tunnels quickly instead of dawdling in there, and did make the correct choice to return to me several times instead of going back to the other dogs. He also doesn't bump into the small jumps, whereas many of the other dogs are much more gangly and seem to just walk over it or into it, and knock stuff all over. He seems to be pretty aware of where his body is. He was also pretty good on the plank/bridge. A bit hesitant at first but he figured it out quickly. 

It's certainly been interesting getting a taste of the agility world. Only time will tell if it's something we decide to pursue. The instructor assures me things will be significantly easier once he is neutered. So did his acting class instructor. He went in for his pre-neuter exam this week and I have booked it for the end of the month. I wanted to try to wait longer, but given the amount of humping and marking going on, I'm thinking it may be a good idea to nip the source of these behaviours in the bud and not let them settle in to more permanent behaviours. I am teaching him "not there" about the marking and "no humping" at the dog park, but I have to constantly watch. It is good if the other dog he is playing with can hold their own but not all of them can or seem to be willing to.

Anyway that is my update about agility and other stuff!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

You might want to concentrate more on obedience classes for now, and skip agility for a while. IMO, agility done on leash is not agility training, it is just fun for the owner. And if he can't stay with you and come when called pretty reliably, he's really not ready to be off leash on course. You don't want him practicing bad behaviors, and it can get awfully frustrating if a dog learns that once you're on course, you no longer have ANY control of the situation.


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## Naturelover (Nov 30, 2013)

Yeah, that is definitely part of my thought process right now. If he were on leash I could control the marking and wandering, but can't do the obstacles properly. We are still in an obedience class too and working on that a lot independently. There are only a couple classes left, & I'll likely be missing the last one due to neutering. I think I will probably give it a break after that until we are back on the same page with off-leash commands.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Naturelover said:


> Yeah, that is definitely part of my thought process right now. If he were on leash I could control the marking and wandering, but can't do the obstacles properly. We are still in an obedience class too and working on that a lot independently. There are only a couple classes left, & I'll likely be missing the last one due to neutering. I think I will probably give it a break after that until we are back on the same page with off-leash commands.


They don't have any continuing education classes? Most of the better places around here have a couple of levels of puppy classes, then have "continuing education", which is more of the same, but gives you the "eyes on" of a professional trainer. This can help you make sure you are working with your dog (or puppy) correctly. So often, what we THINK we are reinforcing for the dog, and what we are actually doing are pretty far apart, especially when we aren't experienced trainers.

I know that when I was starting with Kodi, I'd find something very frustrating, only have the trainer take him and have him doing (whatever) perfectly within seconds. Experienced trainers knew how to hold criteria and time rewards SO much more effectively than I could. Here we are, Kodi is 5, and we still go to obedience classes AT LEAST once a week, usually twice. My brother laughs at me and says, "Isn't that dog EVER going to be trained?" 

Also, you are heading into the very hardest period with Archer, even after he's neutered. Kodi was neutered around 7 months (though I'd wait longer if I had to do it again) and he was doing things at 6 months that he couldn't do again consistently for another year and a half. It had nothing to do with being neutered or not, it had only to do with "adolescent puppy brain". Now that I've been around dogs longer, and talked to many MUCH more experienced dog obedience people, I realize that they really ARE "teenagers" from about 7-8 months through 2 years, sometimes longer, depending on the breed. It's just hard to be patient.

Some are easier, some are harder, but MOST will be harder during that period than they were either before or after. If you stop working with them consistently during that time, though, it's hard to get back on track. Even the "baby Einsteins" can have a tough time working through it, you just need to keep chipping away at it. Like with human children (and I know you haven't been there yet ) it happens so slowly, you hardly notice, until one day you realize that your dog really DOES listen when you ask him to do things, and DOESN'T get distracted by every crack in the sidewalk.


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## Ruthiec (Jun 18, 2013)

I completely echo what Karen says. I really do think it's about maturity and not neutering. It almost seems as if Charlie has flicked a switch in his head and is now much more obedient than even a month ago. He was neutered at 12 months and is now 18 months.

We go to Obedience training once a week and have just progressed up to the class where everything is supposed to be off lead. This is a big deal for us because 2 months ago he was very unreliable. I could do off lead commands such as drop stay and recalls but as soon as the exercise was done if I didn't clip the lead on he would immediately run off to smell anything and everything. He never runs for the hills but used to play "catch me if you can". But in the last month he's really stepped up a gear. He's beginning to walk to heel off-lead and when he get's his "free" command he goes off to sniff and play but then will either return when called almost every time and if not, the "stand" command means he stands still until I get to him. At least that's what happened this week - next week who knows cos he's still a fluffy teenager  So I really think it's about maturity much more than the result of neutering.

People make the same comments to me - "are you *still* training him?" But I'm not sure we'll ever stop because we both love the sessions so much.


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## Naturelover (Nov 30, 2013)

Hi guys, thanks for the words of encouragement. I think I did have a baby Einstein here and yup now he is going into teenage mode. I will stay the course! I had the pleasure this afternoon of working with his half-brother who is 2 years old. I am taking him through an outdoor obedience course for his owners. While he has his own issues to work with, his attention span is SO refreshing and nice to work with!!

Right now I have been learning a lot from my training mentor at one of our local puppy schools where I have taken a couple of courses. In fact, I have been enjoying it so much I have signed up for a few of her courses where she trains people to become trainers and be able to obtain the CPDT-KA certification eventually. I have been thinking of a career switch and want to try on "dog trainer" for size as I have been having such a blast and have learned so much in the process so far of training Archer. I figure it will make me a better owner even if I don't pursue it professionally, as she is now videotaping and critiquing our work with the dogs! May need a glass of wine before I open that e-mail.  I am also sitting in on her puppy classes to watch her teach as I can take in a lot more when I don't have my hands full of puppy and liver treats.

So yup I will be using those skills with Archer too. I just completed the Problem Behaviours and Aggression course and now am going through Basic and Advanced Obedience which has a hands-on component that I am borrowing the older brother for. She also offers a course on the business of dog training which I intend to take. There are a couple others too that I am not going to take for now because of the cost but I may take in the future. Stuff I feel I can get from my reading though, e.g. theory of animal learning and so on. I like her philosophy and she is a crossover trainer who was trained in traditional methods back in the day but soon realized the power of positive reinforcement based training.

I have found that with my baby Einstein to show off (when he is show-offable!!), many people have been asking my advice on how to deal with their dogs, and I want to be better qualified to offer advice and possibly even help them in a more professional setting.

Well we'll see where it all goes, but in the meantime I am working hard to make little Archer an awesome dog and hopefully a potentially awesome fluffy resume too. 

Thanks again to everyone here for the ongoing support!


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## sandypaws (Aug 8, 2012)

Best of luck with your training and possible career change. It sounds exciting for you. Years ago when my daughter got her first dog and attended training classes with her, she was told that she should look into becoming a trainer, as she was a natural at it. She never did persue it, however, and just worked with her own dog with whom she did a great job.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Naturelover said:


> Right now I have been learning a lot from my training mentor at one of our local puppy schools where I have taken a couple of courses. In fact, I have been enjoying it so much I have signed up for a few of her courses where she trains people to become trainers and be able to obtain the CPDT-KA certification eventually. I have been thinking of a career switch and want to try on "dog trainer" for size as I have been having such a blast and have learned so much in the process so far of training Archer. I figure it will make me a better owner even if I don't pursue it professionally, as she is now videotaping and critiquing our work with the dogs! May need a glass of wine before I open that e-mail.  I am also sitting in on her puppy classes to watch her teach as I can take in a lot more when I don't have my hands full of puppy and liver treats.


Good for you! From time to time I've thought about training professionally, since I trained horses and riders professionally for so many years. But (and I had this experience with horses too) most people come to you with "problem animals", and the majority of those problems have been created by the people themselves. I often felt like I was re-training horses just so their owners could screw them up again. I know that a lot of what my friends who train deal with is reactive dogs, something I have NO interest in at all.

But you're much younger than I am, and probably still have more people-patience than I have.  i just want to work with NICE dogs doing performance stuff. If my husband wasn't so anti-dog, I'd happily take in a few of my friends' show Havs and put performance titles on them, just for the fun of it.


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## Naturelover (Nov 30, 2013)

Yeah, I see so many problems already and indeed many are created by the owners. Most of it is well-meaning, and I have the idea that with the knowledge I have (and will have) I could help them to see a better way by producing results and helping them repeat it. I've already got a couple people with reactive dogs asking me things so I expect I would potentially be dealing with that as a professional. My trainer mentor tells me she thinks I would be good at it because I think before I speak and have a non-confrontational attitude. I've been educating folks on aquarium stuff for years, so I think it taps into that skill. Only time and more experience will tell if it's something I can really succeed with and keep patient with. 
The other thing is that as long as the bills are paid I wouldn't have to take on every client, if it wasn't a good fit. There are so many dogs in my area of the city, and with all the new condo buildings going up I think there will be many more coming so plenty of opportunity...

Anyway Archer was super in the class tonight! Maybe because I used nuclear-grade sausage treats and his australian doodle girlfriend wasn't there. We did a sampler of rally stuff which he rocked at, and he learned to do the chute and get some speed in the tunnels. So I'm feeling more positive about it again! I did keep him on a loose leash to try to control the marking but his focus was very good anyway.


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## Ruthiec (Jun 18, 2013)

Ha ha - I'm all for killer treats. For Charlie it's cheese - I've never tried sausage but will remember if he ever gets bored with cheese (not likely Mum).


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