Nala went to an agility trial

I took Nala to her second agility trial last Saturday. It was a very small match, which was nice. The first one she went to was last May, and she was only 12 months old so it was just for practice. I brought Bonnie along with us this time as well.

Nala was only running in two classes. The first one was all jumps with one set of weave poles. She did okay, although it was very sloppy. She kept getting distracted, so we were 12 seconds too slow. Added to one fault (off course, I think), it was too many faults for her to qualify (which means the run doesn't count toward any titles or anything). During the run, I had a friend holding Bonnie for me. When we got back to her, she apologized for not being able to keep Bonnie from crying. I told her I didn't even notice, but she said NALA noticed. Apparently, every time Nala got distracted and stopped, she turned and looked directly at Bonnie.

So the next run was a full course - teeter totter, A-frame, different jumps, tunnels, weaves, etc. I put Bonnie in the car so she wouldn't distract Nala. Nala ran perfectly!! She had a little trouble with the weaves (she always does, because we never practice and it's the hardest obstacle) but we made it through them. She finished under time with no faults, so she got a perfect score of 100! It was a qualifying run and she got first place in her class.

Not bad for going to class once a week for a year and never practicing at home! Good doggie!

 

Thats great! did you happen to get any photos?

Way to go Nala! Big bone for yoU!

 

Woohoo, go Nala.

Congrats on your first placeand the perfect score.

 

Congratulations Nala.
Freckles finished his beginning course last night and we will continue with intermediate later in the spring. In the meantime I am going to build a weave pole set in my back yard and work on that and jumps. Hope he can do as well as Nala in a year.

 

I'm going to set the weave poles back up in the backyard and make her weave for her dinner. I bet a week or two and she will have it down cold.

Another easy thing you can do with Freckles is to just set up a course using orange traffic cones. Put them down so they are like the uprights on jumps and then practice directing Freckles between them all. If he's like Nala, jumping is no problem - it's figuring out which one the silly human wants them to jump next. You can add commands like "turn" or "right" and "left" or "away" and "here" if you want him to learn directional voice commands. If I weren't so lazy, I would do that with Nala.

No photos, Sams. I can't take photos while I am running with her. I do wish I had thought to have a friend video tape us, though. Sometimes they hire a guy who tapes runs, but you have to notify him in advance of the run and you pay for it whether you did well or not.

 

That sounds like such fun! Way to go Nala!

 

that does sound liek a lot of fun and luve the work for dinner routine

honeybear

 

Nala- You go girl!

 

AwEsOmE jOb NaLa


---When Nala first started what commands did she know and how well?---

 

Nala started at about 8 months old. She knew things like sit, down, stay (sort of), come (sort of), leave it (supposedly). She wasn't terribly reliable. The beginning class we never really let them off leash - they would drag it or you can put a very short tab on them so you can grab them. The intermediate class you are supposed to have off-leash control. They let us move up, but it was questionable how much control I really had. I think working at agility has actually helped her along in that regard, because it has given her practice in listening to me.

 

Go nala Practice makes perfect and with an owner like you she will do great.

Wish mitzy would do things like that she just wants to play with the other dogs she has no concentration hehehe..

 

There is a beautiful German Shepherd in our class. His name is Hans and he is a big teddy bear. He usually runs the courses very slowly, like he doesn't want to work too hard. He also does obedience and is a very good boy.