Maine Millers

It’s spring time and that means that agility is just around the corner.  Once the yard dries out we will be setting up the jumps again and classes start next week.  I hope to have new info and photos coming up soon!  Meanwhile here is a photo from last fall’s agility.

What a busy few day it’s been. We are starting to lose daylight in the evenings here on the coast so we are almost done with agility for the season (on a formal basis) and we have started to look at more sheep herding. Today was our third herding outing (say that 3 times fast ) and I guess Scout has finally realized that the sheep are in the same pen with us. It’s been about a month since our first outing and he has really started to show some interest. I need a sheep herder dictionary to learn all the commands but it will come eventually. I hope.

On our second outing we did a lot of circling the sheep and work on a long line. I was worried about some rope burn on my hands but he never pulled much on the rope. He was, on the other hand, busy eating sheep poop more than paying attention to the sheep. (thanks Fran for the photo).

Today, was a whole new ball game! We started on the rope, and then after he started to notice the sheep I dropped the rope and let him drag it for a while, of course that is just an invitation to chew the rope that is dangling from his neck (a bad leash habit I still haven’t broken ). So, off came the rope and he was on his own out there (with me fumbling around). The language is all new to me, for example:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xx
xxxxxx Scout xx Me x
xx
xxxxxxxxx 1 x
xxxxxxxxxx sheep x
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 2 x
xx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The sheep were heading towards the “p” in sheep and Marcia told me to “get in front of the sheep” So I went to “1″ Nooooo, that’s not in front of the sheep their heads were towards “2″ now if they were facing us then in front of the sheep would be “1″ This is as clear as mud I am going to dig out my old herding book and see if I can re-learn some of this terminology. “Go-By” is clockwise (go by the clock) but if the dog is behind you I think it’s “Away-To-Me” which is counter clockwise. I do know “Down,” “Out,” “Walk up,” and “That will do.” We’ll see what happens in a few weeks when I go back.

On the agility side of things. We ran a full course and Scout hit all his contacts so it was an awesome thing. Now if I can figure out for the best path to handle him we should be pretty good. We might even enter a CPE trial this winter? We’ll see.

Today we were at a picnic for the dog training club and since it was at our agility instructor’s house there was an agility ring set up.  Scout got his turn and the first run was not bad but many handler errors.  We did the teeter with the help of the instructor spotting and led Scout up with a Hansel & Gretel treat trail.  Scout missed the treat in the center of the teeter and kept going on to the rest of the course.  Well when we were done he remembered that missed treat and charged up looking for it, it wasn’t there she had picked it up after he left the area but he sure remembered it!

The second run was better, I figured out where I should be and that made a world of difference.  I was able to keep him on my left the entire run and things were quite a bit smoother.   Don’t know if it would be a qualifying run but it was fun just the same.

Last night we had agility class and Scout was introduced to the chute or collapsed tunnel. He runs the regular tunnel just fine and with plenty of gusto, but this was quite nerve racking. He kept trying to dodge out of the barrel and it took some work to get him inside. Once he did get the guts to go into the barrel there was no stopping him from running down the whole chute. I wish I had video, it was like a red (the fabric is red) lump cruising at full speed to push his way out of the end, about 12 feet long.

So now we have tried all the obstacles with the exception of the teeter, just about 5 minutes there and it didn’t move very much so that will come with time. Now it really comes down to my handling and body language to teach him where he should go and not go. Marcia thinks that I might be ready to try a trial in the winter…We’ll see…

Our agility training is coming along fine. Last week we started to learn the weave poles. One of the hardest obstacles to learn, so our teacher recommended setting up a set at home. I chose to work with the slanted poles, also know as weave-a-matic poles. Idea being that the poles start laying on the ground and you gradually raise the angles until the poles are straight up. Here is a video of Scout working on the poles about half way up.

The other methods are channel poles that are always vertical but spaced apart to make a channel and then start to close the channel over time, and the poles set up with the standard straight line. Hopefully he will get this all figured out over the next few weeks.

Ok, I’ve been MIA for a few weeks. We got the agility bug and it’s a blast. Scout is doing very well at his jumps and if I can figure out a way to get some photos or video while training him in the yard I will post them. Next weekend I am planning to travel to an agility trial in Skowhegan, Maine to be just a spectator. We went last year and had fun but now that I understand things a little more I think I will get much more out of the trial. One thing that I have found it that agility can be expensive and after seeing a post on the tiptail blog for a contest to win a $30 gift certificate to doggonegood.com I figured I would enter. So, Cynthia, this is my entry to your contest and that $30 would go to good use at dogggonegood.com most likely in the agility catagory

So we went to see our first agility trial this today. It was in Skowhegan which is about an hour and fifteen minutes north of Brunswick. It was the most beautiful day weather wise we have had in a long time, 80s and low humidity. The only down side was that there was no shade, unless you made your own. Poor Scout was hot in the shade not to mention the sun. He did manage to squeeze himself underneath the chairs to escape what he could. He was one hot dog.

Agility is pretty fun to watch in person, We have only seen it on TV up until now and it’s very different when you are not competing for the top national honors. It was very refreshing to see that people were allowed to retry obstacles that were giving them trouble. I think there is hope for us to be able to run in a couple of years give or take. Looks like the weave poles are the toughest to master, a good 75% of the dogs had to try more than once to get past them.

Hopefully I can start some basic puppy and obedience training soon, he is catching on with what I am doing at home but the formal setting will help reinforce some of the commands for me.