Just before Beanie & Biggles’ old wooden agility jumps rotted away completely, I made a new pair using fresh pressure-treated wood, and then I completely forgot I had them – until last week that is.
Monkey has only had a handful of jump training sessions, but he still remembered how it all works. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten just how high Monkey jumps – even when the bar is on the lowest peg – so I got a lot of shots of Monkey almost out of the frame.
I have a sneaking suspicion that he jumps so high because he deeply mistrusts the bar; it’s clearly a potential agent of Monkeycide. The same goes for the little streams that sometimes form on the beach as the tide is changing – they may only be a couple of inches wide, but he clears them by two feet, just to play it safe. It’s impressive for sure, but at the same time just a bit silly, but then so is Monkey.
Daisy seemed to be watching Monkey’s jumps carefully so I was hopeful for a first go triumph, but when it came to her turn she just limbo-danced under the bar. I realised I had to block this to make any progress, so I lowered the bar onto the feet of the jump and used her favorite fetch ball as a target just for good measure. This time she hopped over the bar as I wanted, grabbed her ball and brought it to me. Perfect! I popped the bar back up and gave her another go, and this time she executed a proper jump! I was very chuffed at her performance so I rewarded her well, and for the next few minutes she was going back and forth over the bar for the joy of it.
It seems Daisy’s a very quick study, albeit with a blindspot for the whole “this food is yours, but this is mine” principle. I mean even Beanie showed us some respect when we were trying to feed our faces, although there was that time with the cake and that amazing prehensile tongue of hers…