AGILITY WEEK 3

This week Winston went to his third Agility Training class at Four Paw Sports Center in Lynnwood.
http://fourpawsports.webs.com
The instructor is Eric Sanford, a sweetheart, who has deep experience in Agility training and participation with this dog, Savannah. Winston has two classmates, Ruthie, owned by Jan, and Sophie the Poodle, owned by Ann. Both Sophie and Ruthie have a least a year experience with Agility, and it’s really fun to watch them tackle the courses with expertise and gusto.
What Winston lacks in experience, he makes up for in sheer brains, talent, athleticism, and the desire to get a treat. This week we (Winston and I are a team) ran a circuit of five jumps, then to the “table” to finish and wait. He hits the afterburner when he heads for the table. That’s where he gets a treat. We ran the course a couple of times straight on, then ran it backwards, then we took a deliberate detour. After that we worked on taking a jump a number of different ways, straight on, then cross ways. This involved some coordination on my part, so anytime Winston got confused, which wasn’t often, it was my fault.
After that we worked on teeter-totters, one small, one large. Winston had trouble on both of them. Normally, he’s very brave, but today he didn’t like the alarming movement of the boards. He’ll do better next week. He also had trouble with the slalom course, managing to make it through only about half-way. But by then it was late, he’d had a long, eventful day, and a little dog can only be expected to do so much. Also, he had to pee.