Adventures in Training the Beagles

Sunday – First Run - JWW

We were clean except for the weaves, and I forgot that they judge them in Open.  We had two refusals and time faults.  Just a bit too much for Open.

Everyone said she was more attentive than usual and faster.  By the way, the time faults was the weaves.

So I what to work on.  She also did not hesitate on the Triple so that’s a plus!

It’s the closest we’ve come to Qing in Open.

Modeling

We got our first check for modeling---$50.00 –- pretty good deal!

Second run – Novice Standard

She got everything but the stay on the table.  She had the table, had the down, got up on two and wouldn’t lay back down. 

So basically today she did everything but ran out of time.  Of course, 90 seconds is a heck of a long time, and wouldn’t make for a Q.

First agility run – Open JWW

She was with me the entire way, but her nose got caught a bunch of times.  Really need to work on that this week!  She did refuse the triple but eventually got over it.  Time ran out when we were in the weaves.

But no wandering off!

Rally Class

We went to Rally last night, even though I was exhausted.  Did get three turns in, and had two decent runs at the course.  As always, we’re having problems with stays.

Today we’re waiting our turn for Agility, I really want to be out of Novice this weekend, but whatever goes, goes.  Nothing I can really do about it, but do my best handling.

I’m planning on doing some facility rental and work on her sniffing.  It’s really bad there now, and I am going to work on clicking for walking with her head up and finally walking around, with her head up and paying attention to me.

Off Switch

Had a decent Rally class but have to tell the funny first.

Three other dogs were in Rally class tonight.  All of the herding breed variety.  The instructor was commenting on how calm the Terv was (Belgium Tervenan for the non-dog people).

I mentioned that it was much calmer than BC's and I'd had three.  I then said, the reason I like my beagles is that they had an off switch, and Macy immediately dropped into a down, rolled over on her side, with her ears spread behind her.  She did everything BUT fall asleep.

She actually quit working in the middle of a try at the Rally course, so I put the food away, and sat down and watched the other dogs.

We had a dog that was new to training, and the instructor was trying to talk her into clicker training.  I offered to do a demo, since she volunteered me at the beginning of class to show the left about turn.

I did a few touches with Macy and the target, then tried the new dog.  Ended up handing Macy to the instructor so Macy wouldn't grab the other dog, and then handed the stuff to the other student to try.

Man, oh man, did Macy hate that and she did a fabulous job at the next two passes.

Was a good night and I learned something really important.

Last week kind of sucked in general

Actually her classes were good, but she and I were both off for the trial.  We did have sunshine and I did stay outside most of the day, BUT it took forever to get to our turn.

They started with FAST and I had no idea how long that would take and left an hour later.  Even ended up taking my cold weather gear off it was so warm, but we didn't get in our first run until way after 1:00 pm.

Next trial will probably be longer, can't remember if they are doing fast, but they are doing a Parade of Veterans.  That's weekend after next.

Needless to say, no Qs and we're still in Novice.  But I think we'll be out of Novice soon.  She missed only the teeter -- got on it and bailed, and then on Sunday, got the teeter but forgot the word "Sit".  Said it thirty or so times, tryed getting her to down, tried getting her to touch, nothing worked.