Kozmo had a great night at his agility class. I am still beaming with pride. It was our last class of the session and we had a very special guest. One of my oldest and dearest friends happened to be in town. Being a dog person she didn't think it was odd that I invited her to go to class with me.
Our trainer was very impressed with Kozmo. It was a great way to end this session of classes. Kozmo worked on some new skills. He did the chute, which is similar to the tunnel. The dogs start through a barrel but there is fabric on the end that they have to push through to get to the other side. Kozmo went right through when his trainer held the fabric up and he could see through the chute. He tried to back out once she left go of the fabric. I stood behind the entrance so he couldn't back out and he quickly realized there was nothing scary about going into a dark chute and finding his way out.
The next new obstacle was a broad jump. Boards are placed on the ground and he had to jump them without touching. He's good at the high jumps and got the broad jump on the first try.
The dog walk was set up. Koz and I struggled at first. You have to approach the dog walk perfectly straight because it is so narrow. I was moving my arm and leading Kozmo at an angle and he wanted to jump off the ramp. It took a few tries, but we figured it out. Below is a video clip our special guest managed to capture with her iphone. Kozmo did the dog walk perfectly and the best part of this video is that you can hear our trainer's praise and enthusiasm.
Kozzy really impressed his trainer last night. Not once did he decide to run around the room and be the class clown. He did everything we asked him to do. Now that we are practicing the weave poles with a wooden spoon and spray cheese rather than holding a treat in my hand and having Kozmo's sharp teeth nipping we are both doing much better. Kozmo is starting to get the hang of weaving his body through the poles. It won't be long until he can start to pick up speed.
Kozmo learned another new skill last night, the bump out. We did two jumps in a row that were on angle. The second jump was placed at a 45 degree angle from the first jump. I had to set Kozmo up to do the first jump on an angle then quickly place my foot so he knew to shift direction, say "out" and then send him over the second jump.
Because my friend was sitting beside me I whispered to her that this looked really hard. Our trainer said since I was talking I could go first. Just like Kozmo, I get in trouble in class. We entered the ring and I was nervous. To my surprise, and everyone else in the room, Kozmo did this perfectly the first time. He did it again three times just to make sure it wasn't a fluke.
Kozmo finished this session of agility classes by doing a course from start to finish. He did tunnel, dog walk, weave poles, jump, and teeter consecutively. It was so much fun. We can't wait for the next session of agility classes to begin. We are also going to try a rally class at the suggestion of our trainer. I don't know what to expect but our trainer is really excited to get Kozmo into rally. I'm sure it will be fun.
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