Edumacation. He Has It.

Duncan graduated from his pre-agility class last night. We should have had a couple more weeks of class, but there were only two of us taking it, and the other girl dropped the class two weeks ago. Since Duncan was essentially getting private lessons, he was able to get more time on more equipment, so the cut the number of lessons. Which is fine – this way I can quit worrying that we’re going to miss a class because work is sending me off somewhere. When we took it the first time, about a year and a half ago, his certificate said he attended the class (we didn’t pass). But last night, he received a certificate that said he successfully completed the class. One of the instructors even tried to get me to sign him up for the next level of agility. I don’t see that happening – agility doesn’t set his tail wagging like sheep herding does. I was very proud of him, though. Everything he had trouble with last time – the A-frame, dog walk, and teeter-totter – he sailed through this time.


Since it was only us in the class last night, they let us do three small courses, and the instructors took pictures and video. During one of the runs (and I use that word very loosely, as he certainly didn’t run at any point in time), he actually fell off the A-frame, but he got right back on it and didn’t show any signs of stress. They put up a two jumps for him, too, but what you don’t see in the video is that he keeps knocking the bars off. They didn’t want to make the jumps too high, but they were so low, he could barely exert himself to pick his feet up. He’d just walk over them, and forget to get his back feet up a bit higher. But that’s okay. And for some reason, the goofball decided that he would only go through the chute if I was on his right side. If I was on his left, he wouldn’t do it. One thing we all laughed at was that he’s clearly realized that he gets a cookie for touching the pad on the end of the dog walk. Two weeks ago, he wouldn’t touch unless I pointed to it first, so last night, I went ahead and pointed as he got close to the end. He would touch, I’d give him a cookie, and then he’s supposed to get off the dog walk. But last night, he decided to try multiple touches, and see if he could get multiple cookies. The big stinker.