Roundabouts

It's Sunday so that means agility day.

A sign of our beginner status is probably that while we're improving with every class we're also very inconsistent as a team. After some runs I'm about to do a victory dance and then after the next I am despairing.

I jokingly suggested that the instructor do one dog-free session for us owners to learn to do the turns and twists around the items correctly. At one point today I leapt over Bella, which on hindsight was very stupid. Alas, the quickest lessons are when owner-misjudgement results in the dog going around items or stopping. Like the leap I did, Bella was left confused about what she was supposed to do.

Another aspect is seeing the other dog/owner pairs do their runs. I'm taking a class with two other dogs, a Chihuahua and a Papillon. They are very different characters and face different problems. The Papillon specifically seems really unmotivated, it has made me wonder if some dogs just aren't cut out for agility or if motivation is something that an owner can work on. Maybe the bitch just doesn't see the point in any of this.

Bella is however a bit of a terror. She has calmed down but after dominating the Chihuahua two sessions ago she took the Papillon on today. Of course the poor dog just rolled over but I do feel ashamed that Bella behaves this way. When it happened she was focused on me and we were doing a weave, then the next moment she's gone to take on a dog less than half her weight. Iceland is very dog-hostile and I find it a challenge to socialise her properly. We have come a long way but I really don't want to own the Border Terror.

Finally for a funny moment, when me and Bella did the bag-tunnel we were supposed to do a U-turn coming out and do the bridge. I don't quite know what happened but it seems she didn't spot me and looked around like she was lost, then she ran back to the opening and went through the bag again! Came out and still had that lost look and went to the opening again. I came back to her and she came to me and we crossed the bridge, then she took a beeline to the bag-tunnel and ran through it two more times before coming with me to complete the course. I think I know what her favorite item is! Must be those terrier genes talking.