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DRAFT TODAY, POST TOMORROW: Some posts may be in draft status until I (aka procrastinator extraordinaire) get around to posting them.



Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Agility class and stuff

Teka stayed at A's house today.  When I went to pick her up, I had a chance to talk with A and D.  A thought that Grade 2 on Cassi's biopsy definitely warrants a trip to the oncologist.  She went through something similar with Deacon, and she thinks she would not have done all the chemo with him but just the naturopathic treatment.  If we don't find another, she will give me a vet in the Arrowhead area.  She also talked about Dr. Julie--a lot of the agility crowd take their dogs to her office.  After putting Teka in the truck, I was able to visit the puppy, Flirt, for a few minutes before heading to class.

Since Cassi was not in class, we went with the 16 inch (jump height) dogs.  The first sequence was set up in three rows, first a tunnel, then two jumps (long-wise, same direction as the tunnel), then the weaves.  There was also a jump on each end of the grouping.  We sent the dogs over the end jump, through the weaves, over the other end jump, into the tunnel.  While in the tunnel, we only came halfway, to pull over the jumps in the middle, ending with the end jump.  (The three jumps made a serpentine.)  Teka had trouble going in the tunnel if I didn't get right there with her, but she did her weaves just fine.

Next, we worked on a jump sequence.  Teka had trouble with the around-out section on one end (pushing)but not the other (pulling).  All of the dogs were having trouble with sniffing in this exercise; it sounds like puppy class (lots of treats on the ground) is the night before.

Our last exercise was a distance exercise.  A dog walk and a teeter were parallel, with a tunnel on one end and a jump on the other.  Teka wanted to skip the jump every time.  I have trouble with distance on the tunnel with her, having to go in closer than anyone else does.  But she does the dog walk and the teeter without any issues, no matter what I'm doing or where I am.  I should get my tunnel out at home and work on this more...

The instructor (I'm not sure of her name but I think she used to be with Jumping Chollas?) was running her dog in our group too and not paying much attention to what her dog was doing at the the end of the leash while she was watching the other students, so I told her that Teka is not polite with other dogs.  What a huge mistake.  She spent the rest of the class asking if we tried this (Cesar Milan method) and we tried that (socializing) and on and on.  At one point, I commented that people don't believe me when I tell them about Teka, until she snaps at their dog--and then they won't let their dog around her; the instructor commented and acted surprised that people would do that.  Then she walked around Teka with her dog (without asking me) and then declared that Teka was fine, see, she didn't react at all.  Well, actually, yes, Teka did react--she was giving me that look that means she's nervous.  I tried to give the instructor a bit of a brush-off and I guess she finally got the hint.  She said that she wasn't trying to nag, so I interrupted her and said that we have been dealing with this for a long time (which she already knew from the original conversation that she partially or completely ignored) and we don't want to deal with it in her agility class.  It's Teka's time to have fun and work with me on agility training.  I don't know if she really got it but she acted like she did.

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