Author: Susan

Some Battles We Just Can’t Win

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  • Walking to heel – check.
  • Coming when called – yes, even that…usually.
  • Heelwork to music – no problem.
  • Letting us go through the door first – no probs.
  • Giving up a stolen sock without protest – it took a while, but yup.
  • Sitting and waiting until he’s told to dive nose first into his dinner – absolutely.

But there are some battles we just can’t win:

Some Battles You Can't Win

Beanie at least knows she’s not allowed on the table. She jumps off quickly as soon as she see’s us coming. Or at the very least she respects us enough to run FAST after jumping up onto the table and swiping the food off our fork as it makes it’s way to our mouth.

But Biggly Boy….”It looks nice up there. I think I’ll get up there”. Then FLOP. “zzzzzzzzzzzzzz”. He never touches our food – he just likes to be on the table.

You Jump – I’ll Just Sit Here.

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Biggles had his first and only agility lesson almost a year ago and did so well that we thought he might be the agility star in the family. He’s certainly capable and judging by the speed his tail wags he seems keen. But when we try to teach him any skills he just doesn’t get it. It’s not that he can’t do what you’re asking of him – it’s just that he seems to look at you as if to say “OK, when are we getting started on the fun stuff then?”. It goes a bit like this:

  • Throw the ball over a jump – Biggles jumps after it tail wagging furiously. Reward him well.
  • Throw the ball over two jumps – Biggles jumps after it tail wagging furiously. Reward him well.
  • Do it again – Biggles sits by your side, tail wagging like a propeller but does nothing. Then he snuggles up close to your leg and makes himself comfy.

OK, he’s bored (although he doesn’t look bored). Move onto something else.

  • Call Biggles over a jump. Biggles jumps, tail wagging furiously. Reward him well.
  • Call Biggles over two jumps. Biggles jumps, tail wagging furiously. Reward him well.
  • Do it again. Biggles sits looking at you excitedly, tail wagging like a propeller but does nothing.

This isn’t completely out of character for Biggly Boy. During games of fetch he lets Beanie go get the ball. After she’s dropped it at your feet he picks it up and instantly drops it then looks at you as if to say “I did it too!”. At lure coursing he makes a beeline for the home straight and lies in wait for the lure so he can grab it on the way past.

It’s not as if he’s got a short attention span. At Heelwork to Music classes (which he loves) he’ll give me his undivided attention for a solid hour and he never seems to get bored.

We’ll give it a little bit longer – maybe we’ve just not figured out how to motivate him. But I’m beginning to think that Agility just isn’t his thing.

Beanie on the other hand is coming on in leaps and bounds in agility (literally) – despite next to no practice in the past year. Obviously skills from other activities are transferring to agility. I set this course up for her yesterday morning for the first time. She hadn’t practiced it – or anything similar yet she managed it first time. We still need to use a ball as a target to send her away from me, but not for much longer the way she’s going!

Core Stability – AKA Any Excuse for a bit of Fun!

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Beanie and Biggles keep themselves fit with all their rough play and chasing. They also take part in lots of sports. They tend to really ‘push the envelope’ so we like to do some gentle activities specifically designed to build core stability and protect the joints.

Both have had a monthly swim session from a very early age. They’re both very comfortable in the water so we’re starting to introduce some little tricks and drills to keep it interesting and to really work their muscles in all directions. Today we practiced some of our basic heelwork to music moves in the water (just spinning left, right and swimming around me in both directions) and next time the hydrotherapist is going to see about getting some weave poles in the water!

We have a little gym at home and we both find that gym balls are great for building core stability. We figured if it’s good for us that the dogs would probably benefit. I was very surprised at how quickly and easily they jumped up onto the ball. They make it look easy but if you look closely you can see their muscles quivering with effort. I’m not sure what we’re going to do with them now they’ve learned to get up there but I guess we’ll just see how it goes.