Ivy went to her first 2 day agility trial last weekend - in fact a weekend of 'firsts' as it was also her first stay away from home and her first time at the beach. She took everything in her stride and especially enjoyed the beach, her highlights being ............
........... the water (straight in as soon as the lead came off !)
.......... the impromptu training sessions (especially when she got to chase her ball as a reward)
...... and of course the digging .............
Did I mention how much she liked the digging?It was a big weekend for her and she coped with it extremely well, confident around the accommodation, walking around the town, on the beach and at the trial grounds. She got to play with a couple of other puppies around the same age, (one just a day older) sat at ringside with me for a bit watching other dogs run and of course got lots of human attention from other triallers.
Warrnambool have a fenced exercise yard which was great for letting her run free with the other puppies. L. also came in with me at the end of each day and we did some restrained recalls, restrained running to a toy, tugging and some circle running. I was delighted with her circles as this was the first time I had done them in an unfamiliar location off lead. There were also a ton of distractions going on outside the yard and her focus was brilliant. I was also impressed with her circles, although we are still only running outside circles at this stage.
I have started training inside circles with her, but still need her on lead for these and we are not going much over walking pace until she has a better understanding of me putting pressure on her line.
Most of the training we have done over the past couple of months has revolved around circle running and crate games - with a bit of rear end awareness thrown in for good measure.
She loves working on the balance disc, will happily jump on and off the wobble board - plus loves to tug on it, and has started perch and ladder work.At just on 5 months, she has nearly all her 'big' teeth and is really developing a strong tug, which I am very happy with. She is also happy to switch back and forward between a toy and food when working - a quality that I have struggled with before with all my previous dogs, so I hope she continues to prove to be the exception.
I will document her foundation training some more next time, but for now here are some more photos from a couple of weeks back - just because I can !
