Puppy Agility Training

As you guys know, I'm enrolled at Obedience Skool where the trainers attempt to train my mum into doing the right things with me. It's slow going.... but she's gettin' there!!

The GREAT thing about being enrolled at Obedience Skool is that we get to do "Puppy Agility". We have to be under 12 months of age for this bit. Today I want to show you the kinda stuff we get up to.

First things first..... we do two laps of our course to warm up our humans.....they get sore legs and stretched groins and so forth....... (rolling schnauzer eyes heavenwards)

These are the "cantalever jumps" - four little jumps in a cross pattern, we jump over each, then reverse direction and jump them again.....if I do it right....I get a food treat!

Here's my mate Jazper doin' it too - you can see all four of the jumps in this photo. We rock this.

This rampy thing is called the "scramble up" - we have to get up it (note ear positions) - and then go down it in a controlled manner, and do a "drop" at the bottom once we hit "terra firma".

I'm about to control myself - you are not supposed to jump off any of the down ramp.

And here is Jazper at the "peak" of the "scramble up".

We get to do each piece of equipment two or three times. Some doggies need this to get it right.... I just get to perfect my technique! 

This is FUN - I get to run thru the tunnel - the official command is "tunnel through" - we race our humans to see who reaches the end first - we doggies ALWAYS win! Humans are so slow!!!

I loves this photo - It's an action shot of Bailey going for it - the tunnel that is..... and his mum tryin' hard to control/keep up with him..... see Bailey almost pullin' her over!! He's pretty strong!

This tunnel can be made to have a curve or bend in it.... that's fun too!

This exercise is called "jump training". We have to "heel" and "sit" by our mums and then we are told to "wait". They walk to the other side of the jump and we wait till we are called - I wait to hear "Okay...Over!" I'm really good at this one too.

This photo shows Jazper, me and Bailey..... all doin' the same task - teachin' our mums!

Here I am doin' the "walk on". Again we are supposed to be fairly controlled and on a loose lead...and not run but just walk in a controlled manner. Boy - it's tempting to run!

This is a mid-way action shot - the trainer is watching me closely, and mum is unable to catch up with me when I'm off-lead! (see her arm).......(sigh) She's so slow!

This is "tyre-up" - where we jump thru a tyre.... it's another action shot... I'm flyin'!!

This is called "table-up" - we run up to the table - jump on -  get told to "wait" and must then wait for a release word to move off - my word is "okay"! I'm very good at "wait" - see how I am watching mum closely for the command.

This is Bailey having a baby lie down while waiting for his release word! He's showing off again!

So I think that's most of the things we do at Agility Training. I can't show you a picture of us doin' "the weavers" coz my dad didn't get a picture of that. It's essentially sticks that we weave in and out of.... and they are bound by lots of yellow plastic so it's a kind of a tunnel. When we go into the next level, we won't have the plastic anymore. 

I love Agility, and I love to catch up with my friends, Jazper and Bailey - my close buds. We have to work on the fitness of our mums though....there is a lot of puffing and weezin' goin' on!!