Sunday, January 28, 2007

Finally

Finally! Agility play!

Met with J for a private lesson with both Holly and Mikey this afternoon. Mikey went first and had a great time, and was doing a great job of ignoring distractions (my mom came to take pictures, and my dad came for a lesson with his young dog Meg, as well as several dogs in the runs of the boarding kennel right on the other side of the fence). He also was following my hand cues very well, great progress there! One funny thing was his airheadedness with the tunnels today. He has been rocketing through tunnels, but today kept stopping and looking at me like 'Huh?' Really strange since most of the tunnels he has been doing recently have been after dark, with dark colored tunnels, which makes them look like black holes to nowhere. Today with bright sunshine, and bright yellow tunnels, he was hesitant. Go figure.

Holly went second and really struggled today. She did have a little diarrhea last night, and so maybe she was just feeling a little crummy still today. On the other hand, she does have a bit of a history of really enjoying a new sport (tracking, obedience), and really excelling, and then after the novelty wears off, just not being very interested anymore. Holly has considerably less drive than Mikey, which frankly makes her generally easier to live with, but also makes training with her more of a challenge. I really have to play cheer leader with her to keep her interested in what we are doing, which wears me out more than trying to keep up with speedy little Mikey. Holly has been doing pretty well in our Thursday evening class though, so I hope she was just off today, and not turning off on agility in general. She is really hard to figure out sometimes; she has a complicated personality and sometimes I just feel clueless as to what really floats her boat. Of course she's still my little doll.

Thank goodness we had the chance to play today, since the forecast is calling for rain all week and we will probably miss our Thursday evening class (and yes, it is still Mikey's turn). Both of the kids are sacked out on the couch (nice thing about those short legs, we all fit on the couch without crowding). My hips and knees are throbbing (someday more on the round about with my health). Too, too sad the weekend is over!

My mom got some great action shots. Enjoy! Also notice the great way both dogs are following my hand signals! Progress!!

Holly and Mikey say 'Hi'.







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