Dogwalk Musings
I finally got the boards for my dogwalk and completed it a couple of days ago. Now it's not perfect (boy, is it not perfect) but I have to say I am pretty darn proud of it, considering my lack of experience and tendency to completely wing projects like this. Very little planning was involved. It was more like "Well, I think this might work." It's not very stable, hence all the cinderblocks!
In other news, Panic's running contacts have regressed completely. At class last night he did a lot of jumping, and even missed a few aframe contacts. Now this is something that I have totally been expecting. Every single behavior Panic has ever learned has deteriorated at one point or another, especially in regards to agility. Even so I'm not sure this is entirely the case here. In my euphoric enthusiasm at finally owning a dogwalk, I think I did a little too much training with him at home. He (and most dogs I think) has a tendency to do worse at behaviors that I train too frequently. I can also attribute it to the fact that both ends of the dogwalk at class had tunnels underneath, something he is not used to. Either way I'm not overly concerned about it. I will however go back to setting him at the top of the dogwalk and having him run straight on to his bowl or an obstacle. I'm off to do a couple reps of that now.
I will say that Panic has no lack of enthusiasm for the dogwalk. In a turn of events I never thought I would see, I was struggling last night to get him into the tunnel in a dogwalk/tunnel discrimination! He kept darting in front of me to get to the dogwalk, which he would perform independently quite well, getting into 2o/2o position before realizing I was still standing at the other end giving him a wtf? look. The boy loves his agility.
In other news, Panic's running contacts have regressed completely. At class last night he did a lot of jumping, and even missed a few aframe contacts. Now this is something that I have totally been expecting. Every single behavior Panic has ever learned has deteriorated at one point or another, especially in regards to agility. Even so I'm not sure this is entirely the case here. In my euphoric enthusiasm at finally owning a dogwalk, I think I did a little too much training with him at home. He (and most dogs I think) has a tendency to do worse at behaviors that I train too frequently. I can also attribute it to the fact that both ends of the dogwalk at class had tunnels underneath, something he is not used to. Either way I'm not overly concerned about it. I will however go back to setting him at the top of the dogwalk and having him run straight on to his bowl or an obstacle. I'm off to do a couple reps of that now.
I will say that Panic has no lack of enthusiasm for the dogwalk. In a turn of events I never thought I would see, I was struggling last night to get him into the tunnel in a dogwalk/tunnel discrimination! He kept darting in front of me to get to the dogwalk, which he would perform independently quite well, getting into 2o/2o position before realizing I was still standing at the other end giving him a wtf? look. The boy loves his agility.