Old(ish) Agility Photos

These were taking waaaayyy back in November 2010 at Dottie's first show. Being that I have a bit of time on my hands here in MS, I got them all ready to post.

First, one of Fancy.



Then one of Pie, who takes agility seriously. But not so seriously that she is unable to have lots of fun!





And all the rest are of the baby puppy because it was her first show! Once again I've censored my last name out even though there is enough information about my dogs in this blog that any determined Google user can probably find it in about.... 1 second. Oh well.





Whee!!! Dot seems to say that a lot.


On the start line.


On the teeter.


Weaving like a pro.


And this one really is an old photo.



At least, as it relates to Dottie. Taken on a rainy day when ffluffy still lived in CA and we would meet in pet stores to train our puppies when it was raining outside. Dottie was practicing being shaped to get into a basket. For those who don't know the lingo- in the simplest terms, shaping is when you reward the dog for offering a behavior, rather than luring them into position or positioning them yourself. So when Dot looked at the basket I would reward, then stop rewarding that and wait for her to move towards it, then put a paw on it, then in it and so on. Shaping is useful when you need a behavior that is difficult to explain to the dog- for example, poking a stick with their nose. Sure, you can push a dog into a sit, say "Sit!" and reward, but it is much harder to maneuver a nose onto a stick. Plus, shaping has the benefit of the dog choosing to learn and thinking about what they are learning. That seems to get longer lasting results from one session to the next, over luring or physically manipulating.

That was your 10 second training tidbit of the day.

Looking at pictures of my dogs isn't nearly as good as being with them, but it is better than nothing! Plus, I realize I am lucky in many ways: this is only a training TDY, not a real deployment to a combat zone, it is only 2 months instead of a regular AF 6 month tour or the Army 12- 15 month tour (yikes!) and while I miss my dogs, I know of people who have left new born babies behind and come home when they were a year old. 2 months away from my dogs is a lot easier than any of those things.