As you know, Princess Beanie has taken a liking to agility and is proving to be quite good at it.

The most difficult bit of equipment for a dog to learn is the weave poles as it’s nothing like anything that a dog would do naturally. I’ve included weave poles in our practice sessions at the barn, but I’ve got Beanie through them by holding a lump of sausage in front of her nose. It’s not really much use, as although she negotiates the poles she’s oblivious to them. All she see’s is sausage. She needs to learn to tackle the weave poles on her own without my help. Our teacher, Carol, introduced us to the weave poles last Saturday, and Beanie’s Dad made us some out of pvc piping on Tuesday night so we could practice at home. Here’s a little clip of Beanie after just five days practice….

What a little star! I think that by the end of the week she’ll be flying through them on her own. Those Collies think they’re smart, but they won’t be a match for our little Beagle!

And yes, that’s the Biggley Boy you can hear in the background. He doesn’t like to be left out of anything!

p.s. Excuse the floor – we had a washing machine leak in November and the floor has been up since then. Still waiting for the insurance to get sorted out!

We took Beanie to Janie’s Agility Barn on Thursday for another practice session. We can’t believe how well she’s progressing. I’d love to see her running a course with an experienced handler as it seems to me that she never puts a foot wrong. It’s me that’s slowing us down!

Here are one or two video clips showing her progress. I think Beanie has now had 7 lessons – what a star! And that wheezing, middle aged bag lady huffing and puffing along beside her is me. Time for me to get into shape I think !!!

Firstly, here’s Beanie doing a trick that I only taught her a day or two ago. I thought weaving between my legs while I walk might help her when it comes to learning the weave poles in agility:

A little fun warm up session with Beanie running a few obstacles in a straight line:

And finally, a course including the A frame; several jumps; the tunnel and the chute tunnel. This was her very first run of this course. She hadn’t practiced, and was being guided by me every step of the way. She didn’t put a foot wrong, and as you can see she was slowing down considerably to allow me to keep up:

We’ve got another class tomorrow morning and if the weather holds out it will be in the park. It’ll be interesting to see if she is as well behaved outdoors as she’s been in the barn recently.