Ever since Charlie entered our lives, I am constantly looking for new ways for Tim to engage with Charlie and recently I've become a bit fixated on the idea of agility training. For dog newbies, agility training is basically obstacle course training for dogs. Wendy the Trainer is a decorated agility participant/judge/trainer so I bounced the idea off her and not only did she she fully embrace it but she invited us to her training ring where she set up a complete agility course. She also brought two of her accomplished goldens to use as demonstration dogs for Tim.
First, I've got to say Wendy was terrific with this. She had obviously given much thought to this outing and even had the brilliant suggestion of comparing the agility course to a Super Mario game where the dogs played the part of Mario and Luigi. And that was just to get Tim's attention. Then she had Tim join her as she discretely gave commands to her dog Renegade (a seasoned agility competitor) and prompted Tim to give the appropriate commands.
This proved to be an excellent strategy as it gave Tim a feeling of success while at the same time giving him the natural reinforcement of the dog responding to a VERBAL command. (It's all about language folks!) Tim had Wendy's dogs doing the A-Frame, leaping over jumps, running through tunnels, ...
... and doing the weave poles. This particular part of the course really seemed to pique Tim's interest ...
... so much so that he had to give those weave poles a try for himself!
After seeing Wendy's dogs flawlessly perform many of the obstacles on the course, Wendy crated her gang and brought Charlie out to the ring. It was great fun to watch Tim giving commands to his beloved companion ...
... and equally exciting seeing Charlie happily looking to Tim for his next command!
Tim was able to work with Charlie on the tire, the tunnel, the teeter totter and the A-frame ...
... and all of this on our first agility outing! This felt like an extremely productive session.
After about 45 minutes of this fun, Wendy started working with Charlie directly on some of the more challenging obstacles. It was entertaining to watch Chuck bend and twist his long torso through the weave poles ...
... and absolutely glorious to watch him effortlessly fly over the jumps.
As a charter member of the A Club, I'm always in search of activities that give Tim opportunities to participate, have fun, and practice some of his developmental goals. Today's session provided all of this and left me thinking that maybe, with more exposure and hard work, agility training might be a great hobby for Tim.
Of course, I can't finish this post without making a reference to Wendy, the self-proclaimed non-kid person. She's obviously a big fat liar as she definitely thinks about Tim and always makes an effort to connect with him whenever we're together. Seeing all this, how can she really expect us to believe that she's not a "kid person?"!!
