Our new adventure--backyard agility

Lili is entirely too smart for her own good--and she has sooooo much energy! The Pack always had each other to play with, but Lili only has Grace (who's not so interested in wrasslin' at the age of 14) and JD (who would love to wrassle but is too small). So we've decided to take up agility as a way to wear Lili out and keep her mind engaged.

I ordered a tunnel, a hurdle, a hoop and some weave poles and we gave them a try this morning for the first time. Pictures courtesy of hubby...but he missed the most entertaining part, which was me belly-crawling through the tunnel, trying to convince Lili to follow me... :o Oh, well...that's probably for the best, anyway! :laughing:

We did one set of weave poles, then walked over the hurdle (which is hard to see because it's set to grass level to begin), then through the hoop (also set to grass level):

81602

After that, it was time for another set of weave poles:

81604

81603

Good girl, Lili!! :highfive: (Turns out she'll do almost anything for a treat! :laughing:

Oh Hazel Agility is sooo much fun. Sophie learned it when she was a puppy and they told me not to bring her back cause she was wayyyy tooo fast LOL
She would not stop and pause just run through everything like a lunatic and finish looking for more LOL...

All you need to finish the course off is a teter toter wher they learn to pause when they go down the other side they are supposed to stop at the bottom on the other side then go....:thumbs up.

Lili will have it mastered in no time.

The question is will her humans LOL :)

Lili sure looks like she's enjoying herself (& the extra treats ;):D) :highfive:

Oh, man, Winston, we could use a little Sophie magic! Speed is not an item here! LOL Course, we're just starting out, so maybe it'll get faster as we go along. I'd settle for them being able to walk the weave poles by themselves, and go over the hurdle, through the hoop, and into the tunnel on command. The tunnel we got is a long one and it doesn't lend itself to being shortened for training (it's too springy and wiggly to be compressed and staked) so we're going to have to train it the hard way, by coaxing the dogs through with thrown treats. So far, Lili has attempted a two-body-length foray into the tunnel to retrieve treats, but Grace will only go in up to her shoulders and declines to put a paw into it at all. :D

Speaking of treats--yep, Lili's surely enjoying that part of it, g~G! She's already gaining a little fat layer, so I'm going to have to start withholding some of her breakfast and using that as her training treats. Otherwise, she's gonna be rolling through tunnel like a beach ball! :o :laughing:

If Lili and/or Grace take to this, I'd love to get a teeter! And a dog walk and an A-frame! They're a little pricey, though, so we may have to look for plans to build our own. :thumbs up

I see the treats, Ma, but I'm not goin' in there!

81606