The Agility Diaries - Mina meets the A Frame

It's fair to say that my agility training isn't going quite to plan!  The wettest April, June and July have dampened my spirits and as Mina doesn't *do* rain, it's somewhat hampered our agility training sessions.

Now, I knew that training a 10 year old greyhound/lurcher would not be without its challenges.  Firstly, the main one is to keep Mina injury free (so far, so good); secondly, I needed to make sure she was fit enough to do this (she is & has been ok'd by the vet); thirdly, I need to get my coordination working (sometimes my brain doesn't seem to communicate to my feet what I want them to do) and finally (and this is the biggie) I need to maintain Mina's focus.

I have no illusions over my agility training with Mina. I have absolutely zero plans of competing with her - it simply wouldn't be fair to expose her to the stress/excitement levels that an agility competition would bring.  I need to pass my practical module for university and I want to have fun along the way for both Mina and me.

Thankfully, we have a great agility instructor - Bob Sharpe, from Field of Dreams. He is very patient with me (especially when my coordination goes to pot) and is full of practical advice.  However, the biggest thing that has both of us stumped is finding the prime motivator for Mina.

Motivation's the name of the game...

Unmotivated? Me? I'm just taking a break!

Mina can switch from being motivated to completely un-motivated in a nano-second.  She can have been enjoying a sequence, a set of grids - getting food rewards, tug & toy rewards - and then; hey presto! Zip! It's like an invisible magic wand has cast a 'unmotivated spell'!  I have had some great advice from Jennifer of Never Say Never Greyhounds, who runs her greyhounds in agility competitions in the USA, and I'm reading 'When Pigs Fly' - a great book by Jane Killion about training the more 'challenging' breeds. Despite all this, I'm still struggling to find that elusive top motivator (or motivators) for Mina.  I'm now considering a rabbit skin and will be hitting ebay/amazon/online retailers to see if I can find one.

Anyway, today's agility session was all about sequences and contacts.  I've already mentioned how lousy my coordination can be and today just proved it. I was doing some simple sequences and attempting to get a front cross executed correctly. For some reason my natural reaction is to do a blind cross and whilst this may still work with a seasoned agility dog, it's not ideal for Mina.

I ran Bob's dog for this and was doing well until my splendid lack of coordination struck - I either tripped or slipped and ended up doing a less than graceful swan dive to the floor, twisting my ankle in the process... ouch! Despite that Meg still made the jump, however it did mean I had to rest up and not do any more sequences.

So, we moved our attention to the A Frame. Due to Mina's age we'll be running a course where all the obstacles are at reduced height. When Mina was younger she used to amaze me and my hubby with her mountain goat like tendencies.  Where we used to live was a very steep escarpment that Mina regularly ran up and down at lightning speed. After several repetitions on lead, we moved to off-lead and she really enjoyed it, as the video shows.



She may have missed her contacts but at this stage I just want her to enjoy going over the A Frame.  We'll finesse her contacts in forthcoming sessions.

In the meantime, my ankle has started to swell up, so I think it's time to put my feet up, apply a bag of frozen  peas, have a cuppa and start searching for that rabbit skin.

The Greyhound Agility Diaries - Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Our agility training continues apace... The weather has taken a turn for the better (long may it last) and as well as our regular 1-2-1s, we've joined an agility club (more of that later). The lovely Jennifer from Never Say Never Greyhounds has provided us with some great insight and ideas for rewarding Mina - thank you Jennifer - and both of us are enjoying being out on the agility equipment.

Last week was particularly exciting as I took delivery of our rigid agility tunnel (I don't get out much any more - so to me, this is exciting)! It arrived on Wednesday, a university day, which meant that I had to wait until 9pm to try it out.  I managed to remain focused on the lectures but come 9 o'clock I was out of the virtual lecture theatre and into the garden.

Mina had tried a tunnel at college and, at the time, needed a lot of encouragement and positive reinforcement just to put her nose and feet inside it.  Fast forward a few months, a heap of training sessions later (and more lessons learned for me) and you can see the result in the video clip below.

"Look at That! " We've joined an agility club

Tonight marked another first for Mina and me - we went along to our first ever dog club.  Mina has been (and occasionally still can be) a reactive dog. She is a definite DINOS (dogs in need of space) and now I understand more about dog behaviour, I've worked extra hard on helping Mina become more relaxed and comfortable around other dogs.

I live in a very rural part of England, so we don't always get to see other dogs on our daily walks. I make a real effort to take Mina out to see other dogs and to keep her sub-threshold - that is not reacting (barking, lunging at other dogs).  With all this in mind, I decided I'd give the agility club environment a try.

I knew it would be a busy environment - lots of other dogs along with lots of action and movement (sure fire way to spike a sighthound's interest) - but I was confident we would cope.  So, I arrived at class with a vast array of treats - chopped cocktail sausage, homemade liver cake, cod bites, venison sausage and chopped chicken thighs - and my clicker.

The class was in an open field with zero fences, so I wasn't comfortable with having Mina off lead. My main aim for the lesson was to get her relaxed enough to function around other dogs and by using Leslie McDevitt's Look At That! technique, slowly but surely Mina relaxed enough to focus on me and on doing some jump and tunnel work.

Mina - just before flopping on to her side for a belly rub

Admittedly, the grid work and jump/tunnel combo were all done on a very long line but Mina completed them with gusto and drive.  I have to say (although, I'm extremely biased) her startline stays were rock solid and by the end of the night, she'd relaxed enough to lay down for some belly rubs.

I did have to reassure the trainer though - as she didn't think we had got much out of the class as we hadn't participated as much as the other class members! To me, the class was a great success (and I told the trainer so). Mina was sub-threshold for 99% of the class and when she was over threshold it was minor barking and a quick recovery.  We completed 4 reps of the grids and 4 of the jump/tunnel/jump combo.

Baby steps, maybe, but certainly steps in the right direction...we're both tired out now. Mina's been sleeping ever since we got back and I like to think that if she's dreaming, she's dreaming of a fun time at agility.