All About Agility

Recently Maverick came to visit and over Memorial Day I had gone to pick up the new agility training equipment that I had ordered.  This is a contact trainer which is half dog walk and half mini a-frame and the idea is to use a home sized piece of equipment to train your dog on their contacts.  Well, I had been working Sage on this for a couple days and with Maverick over I decided to play.  After just a few attempts he was getting the idea.  Such a smartie pants!  He sat down as I took this picture but I thought it was fun for both dogs to show how awesome they are!  And, they really are!  :) 

Of course, once we went inside both dogs totally passed out.  This is just one of the things I love about doing agility with Sage, it wears her out both mentally and physically!

Sage and I are going to attend an agility clinic to work on our skills and thoroughly wear both of us out.  It's mandatory to have a crate so the dogs get some down time during the breaks and at lunch.  Well, all I have at home is a wire crate that isn't even mine and that's heavy to bring to something like this.  So, my instructor recommended that I go pick up this lightweight, portable crate at Walmart for use at the clinic.  I got her the X-Large size for the low price of $26.88 and even better it's pink!!  Here's a picture of the cat getting crate trained... he is always the first to try any sort of crate!

Sage and Jen performing in the ACES demo at Ella's Walk

Here's what we've been working toward for several months, it's the demo that Sage and I were a part of for Ella's Walk at the Longmont Humane Society.  It took a lot of time to learn all of the behaviors that you see here and link them together but it was so much fun!  I hope that we get more opportunities to show our skills over the summer!
 

ACES is what I've been striving to get to since last year at Ella's Walk, it stands for Animal Continuing Education Superstars and is a really fun class with great teachers!  If you're interested in the training that the Longmont Humane Society offers, visit their training page:  http://www.longmonthumane.org/dogclasses.php

Check out Maverick and Sage wrestling in the backyard. 

Agility Leage is back on for another season!  Here are our first two runs from March 22nd which was the second week of league. 

Run 1:


Run 2:


Of course Run 3 was our best time and clean but I don't have anything on video for it.  Oh well!  You can also follow our progress on Zoom Room Longmont's facebook page. 

Jen

Maverick so wanted to play with his soccer ball. The only problem was that it was frozen in the snow! He tried hard to get it but finally settled for a Frisbee.

Dancing Dogs

Many of you who read this blog already know that I'm into dog training with Sage and you've seen the agility videos to prove it!  Well, the other part of my training that I've done with Sage is obedience.  In fact, we started our beginning obedience class within a week of my adopting Sage and have moved on from there.  We take classes at the Longmont Humane Society and I have been very impressed!  Sage and I are now in the ACES class which is their highest level of training and it is so much fun! 

Each year at the big fundraiser for LHS the ACES class does a demonstration of dog training skills.  Last year I could only watch as they played musical chairs.  That looked fun but what we're doing this year will be even better!  This year's demo will be dancing dogs, we are training behaviors that will get put together as a dance routine with all the handlers and dogs.  No video of us yet, but we're having a lot of fun!  I just wish all this snow would melt so we could work more in the back yard! 

This week with class, we were sent a video to watch of a similar routines.  I just loved this, doesn't the first dog look a little like Sage and the second dog look a bit like Maverick only smaller?  I would love for Carrie and I someday to do something similar with our two pups! 

Funny Girl

One of the things that I love about my pup is the way her ears work.  When she is really into playing ball or playing with her favorite Shark toy her right ear flops like a regular aussie but her left ear stands straight up!  I am always trying to capture these moments of Sage because it's just one of the many things that makes her special to me.  :)