It's official, we are going to try agility!

It's official, Kozmo is registered for a beginning agility class that starts later this week!

Kozmo didn't get to share his adventures from class last week because his human left right from class to go to the airport. The most exciting part of last week's class is that his current trainer and upcoming trainer agreed to let him start basic agility before completing the Canine Good Citizen class.

At this point, I'm pretty sure that I am much more excited than Kozmo. I think it's going to be a lot of fun and a lot of work, but a rewarding way to spend time together and use up some of Kozmo's excess energy.

Last week Kozmo's class started like a basic agility class. He had a jump, tunnel, and a second jump. We were asking him to do three things in a row before he got a reward. Kozmo went through the course like he had been waiting his entire life to do agility. He had his leash on and knocked down one of the jumps with his leash. On his second try the trainer asked us to try the course without a leash. Dependable Kozmo demonstrated that we both need a lot more education and practice. He would NOT do the jumps or tunnel without his leash. For some reason, in Kozmo's head he thought no leash meant it was a good time to tug on my pant legs and do everything except what I was asking. Eventually, Kozmo's other human came to help and we got him to do the tunnel.

We did learn that Kozmo's recent behavior is quite normal. Lately no matter what we ask of Kozmo he does "down". I was really worried because he seemed to have forgotten the basics like sit and his cutest trick, high five. The trainer said it's very common for dogs Kozmo's age to either regress and only do the first thing they learned or a new skill that was heavily rewarded. I guess we gave so many treats to teach down that for a while all he would do was down. We are working on reviewing the basics and relieved to know this is a normal phase.

One of the most difficult exercises for Kozmo is impulse control. The trainer put a stuffed toy with a squeaker at the end of the room. Kozmo had to walk politely without pulling on his leash the length of the room and the toy was his reward. It took several tries and eventually Kozmo got to the toy. In one bite he had some of the stuffing!

In another exercise we worked on recall. I had Kozmo on his leash and he started to walk up to the trainer and, in theory, I would call him and he would ignore the trainer and come happily to me. For the other dogs, they worked on this and added toys to the distraction. This proved challenging for both Kozmo and me. Kozmo's other human took a turn. Of course, Kozmo listened much better to him and the other human even got lots of praise from the trainer.

We are making progress slowly but surely. When I get frustrated I think back to the crazy puppy who didn't know anything the day we met. We are going to keep working really hard and are very excited to try agility!