Every Border Collie needs a job to keep them busy and out of trouble. Meg and I play Frisbee or ball several times a day. While it is fun and provides a physical outlet, I don't feel it is mentally stimulating enough for either of us. That's where agility comes in.
In August, Meg and I started taking a Foundation Agility class with Penney Morse of Sunara Dog Training. Meg has loved it right from the start, so much so that I decided to enroll Bear too so he can join in on the fun. He has bad hips so won't go farther than the foundation class, but he can benefit from learning something new.
In our first class, we started working on direction changes (switch - turn away from me, here - come towards me), targeting (touch), and getting comfortable working on both the left and right. Our second class expanded a bit more on direction changes as well as working on sit-stay and 'keep your eye on the dog while jogging'.
Meg has done great with everything I've thrown at her. She's very quick and eager to learn new things. We started clicker training new tricks a few weeks ago. This is the first time I've used a clicker...I love it!
We had to tweak Meg's targeting. She associated the touch command with my hands. I had no problem getting her to touch the target while it was in my hand. I tried and tried to get her to touch the target while on the ground, but she just wouldn't do it. Every time I said 'touch' her eyes (and/or nose) would go to my hands rather than the target like I wanted.
No biggie. I just retrained the action of touching the target using the clicker and treats, only this time starting with the target on the ground. Once she understood what I wanted, I gave the action a new name: 'target'. Problem solved in about five minutes (after several days of trying to get her to associate 'touch' with the target and not my hands....*sigh*).
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