Swy begins his agility journey!

Swyatt and I started agility basics. The class is meant to help teach focus and get you ready for agility. We do no work on equipment, its all agility on the flat as the instructor says.

I am thrilled to be back in class. I love flyball's team aspect (most of the time) but the one on one working relationship that agility fosters with your pup is priceless. Sophie did well in it but her drive just wasn't there for agility so we stuck with flyball. I think the one on one bonding with Swyatt will be really good for both of us!

To be honest, I went into class expecting to spend the entire class trying to calm Swyatt down and if lucky maybe get him engaged/focused. But I did not give him enough credit for how far he has come.

The walk in was what I expected, he barked a lot and was pulling. But once inside, he saw the three other dogs and didn't flip out. We walked to the far side of the crating area, and put our mat down in front of a crate. The instructor had us work with our dogs as everyone settled. We did some nose touches and overall Swyatt did pretty well focusing on me and the cheese. I could tell he was nervous as his nose touches were turning into mouthing but that is also impatience for his food as much as nerves since he does it at home too.

I eventually settled him in his crate and he was able to relax. We did various focus exercises with our dogs and he did really well. He got to be demo dog for teaching a release cue. I was a little worried he wouldn't work for someone else, but he immediately offered his default behavior which is a sit and then was given the release and cheese. He went back and offered another sit and so forth. Glad to see our work on default behavior is paying off!

The hardest part of class for him was circle work. Not the sit stays/down stays that we did outside of the circle as others ran. He did those like a champ, because that is something I have been working with him at Flyball. Sit next to the ring and watch dogs fly by while giving me nose touches or other commands. But actual circle work with him trotting or running was very hard for him. Something to work on in the upcoming classes.

Very excited to see how the next six sessions go and for future progress. :-D