Agility Competitions

[darci]

THats such a great thing your are thinking of doing. I think therapy dogs in nursing homes and mental health facilities can be so good for patients. My grandmother is in a nursing home and I have taken Darci to visit her we sit outside ( nice picnic area ) and take walks, it really lifts her spirits and seems to bring her back to reality a bit.

And of course Darci isnt in any short supply of kisses for Granny, they both love it.

[glencorgi]

Originally Posted by gailkate

She's 15 weeks, weighed 14.4 lbs. at the vet on Wednesday. As I read and look at various breed sites, I expect her to get longer and heavier, but not a whole lot taller. To be honest, I haven't measured her, but I'd say maybe 8-9"?

Oh she's got a lot of growing to do. Her height will likely be between 10 and 12 inches, and she is way too young to think about jumping over agility jumps now. IF you make jumps, do NOT set the bars up over 2 or 3 inches off the ground for now.

Originally Posted by gailkate

Oh heck, I really don't know. The Cocker is taller than she and always will be, but I've just looked up the breed standards and suspect neither of these dogs would qualify for show. Which, of course, is why their breeders sold them.

In the case of the corgi, with the background she has already had - show was never a glimmer of the reason she was bred. That in no way means she isn't a delightful puppy and will not make a first rate pet and potential therapy dog.

Originally Posted by gailkate

But I think they'd be a perfect pair for bringing withdrawn people out of their shells. I'll definitely see what I can learn from other sites about training for gentleness and CALM responsiveness. I was just thinking that all training helps a dog focus and obey, so agility might be helpful.

You are right about it being helpful. Can't remember now whether it is TDI or Delta or maybe even both, but some of the tests include - response and recovery to a dropped bed pan, reaction to wheelchairs and walkers. Agility helps build confidence and a confident dog takes unusual things more in stride than a less confident one does. There is a relatively new thing that is growing in popularity called Rally Obedience. Lot of team work involved and it combines obedience with a touch of agility (or that was the original description of it at least). Basically signs are laid out along a course and the dog/handler team has to perform the task designated at each point along the way. It is a lot of fun for both handler and dog. All of this will help for any future therapy work you might do. Basic obedience though, is the cornerstone for going on to any other of the endeavors.

Debbie

[corgimom]

I think having a therapy dog would be great.

I decided to sign Cody up for puppy class starting the end of this month -
it is for pups 6 months and up. Even though he knows, sit, lay, come and
a few other things, the trainer said "he is not trained if he will not listen
to those commands with other distractions around such as dogs and other
people". So even though he listens to me in the home, I think he will be
much more distracted with others around.

She said You have to be able to get a dogs attention in those situations -
so we will see how well Cody does - actually, it should be my husband taking
him - my husband could use training also.

There are other classes also, after this one and they do eventually offer
agility classes.

linda

[gailkate]

Agreed absolutely, the first thing is obedience. Ours have been to 2 classes, and the difference between the first and the second for Tosca is astounding. She took off after bigger pups, rolling and goofing around, hugged and kissed every human in sight. But on the first day, she spent most of her time under chairs.

She's smart, but she's very stubborn. Goes where she wants to and looks around to see if you're coming. Knows to sit before coming into the house, but not if there's something interesting on the other side of the fence. Is stubbornness built in?

And I love the story of Darcy. My own mother adored the cat a man brought around to visit. I wished I could have brought our dogs, but they would never have been calm and well enough behaved.

[glencorgi]

Originally Posted by gailkate

She's smart, but she's very stubborn. Goes where she wants to and looks around to see if you're coming. Knows to sit before coming into the house, but not if there's something interesting on the other side of the fence. Is stubbornness built in?

Sounds like Tosca is coming along very nicely. Consistency in structure and boundaries is going to help her a lot given all the bouncing around she's done in her short life so far.

One thing I caution people to remember when they begin the "corgis are so cute" type gushing, (especially with Pembrokes) is that these are tough short working dogs. You have an approximately 25 pound dog (give or take) that was bred to move cattle which outweighed it about 50 times, and the dogs won. So yes, tenacity, willfulness and stubborness are just a part of the breed(s).

Debbie

[corgimom]

GailKate

I know positively that my Cody will not be under a chair - he thinks he is
everyones friend and that every dog he sees wants to be his friend. My Cody
goes after the neighbors big husky mix who is 10 years old and the husky
runs from Cody. I can't wait until the first day to see how Cody behaves, but
I think he is going to try and make friends immediately with each dog he
sees.

Linda

[gailkate]

I'm sure he will, and that will be a help to the other dogs, too. Our class has all sizes, the smallest a Min Pin who went back and forth between snappish and cowering. Now he's getting better at plain old playing. They're all gaining confidence -which makes them neither bullies nor wimps.

[Michael Romanos]

I have been taking Taylor to rest homes/retirement villages/hospitals/schools since he was 8 months old which was well before agility ever came into it. So on that basis I'd say that, no, agility has never done anything for Taylor as far as these kind of visitations go - even before the start of agility training, he often went around the facilites off lead. But maybe the opposite took place: I attempted to show a very interested group of rest home residents and staff how Taylor can go through a tire (as in agility competition). Out came a hoop in the lounge and I lined Taylor up and away we went but Taylor would not go through the hoop no matter how low it was. After several attempts I gave up. And was Taylor pleased about that. He knew I never had any treats with me as an incentive for him.

[Jhemphill]

Well my husband and I went to the Agility Competition in Mocksville NC this last weekend. The weather was miserable, it was cloudy, rain/sprinkling and cool (I can not say cold as I have lived in North West Illinois and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State). We watch a couple of the novice trials and an advanced trial. The novice trials were very entertaining. The dogs seemed to know where to go more often than the handlers, some of the dogs had to be coaxed to go the right way and were distracted easily. One dog was doing very well until it (I do not know if was a female or male) spotted a Pem and took off out of the competition area to go play with the Pem, of course it was disqualified and the handler seemed a little bemused as to what came over the dog, I believe that it thought what ever the Pem was doing was a lot more entertaining that what it was doing. There was also a poodle not a standard, that was running in the advanced trial and went in the collapsed tunnel got near the end and stopped, after some coaxing by the handler the poodle came out and continued the run with out any faults. There were mostly Pems, I did not see any Cardis, Shelties and French Bulldogs, some larger dogs, although we were there early, and the 8" and 10" heights were the only ones running. One of the cutest sites I saw was a beautiful sable Pem, larger than the others that I had seen, run when it got to the weave poles it sort of bunny hopped through them with its head held high and smiling all the way. It ran the course (Novice) with only one fault, it knocked down a jump. I would have to say that it was one of the most enjoyable mornings that I have spent even though the weather was awful. I thought is was run very well and everyone was very nice and loved showing off their dogs. My husband and I agreed that we will be attending more of these in the future. My husband said he thought there were at least 20 Corgis there, but we could have counted wrong because it was Corgis Galore, they were every where.

[Michael Romanos]

Corgis dominate in success rate, most, if not all the three or four national organisations that run agility in the USA. BUt I would certainly love to see even a handful of Corgis competing. Cardis are a little slower than Pems but that shouldn't deter Cardis from participating. Taylor's improvement over the hurdles is really something - he's building up his leg muscles and he is probably trimmer in weight - and that's very important for Corgis to successfully jump over every hurdle and not knock down a pole. Taylor has been in 15 events where he's only been faulted once - and in 12 of those it's been a hurdle pole - and not always the top one. Taylor weaves very very well though his speed can vary a little depending how he's feeling.

If Jh enjoyed watching then it's a small step to competing. I don't know what an unenthusiastic agility Corgi looks like. To me they are all go. But so much also depends on the handler - I honestly feel that I'm holding Taylor back. Almost without a doubt his mistakes have been my mistakes.

[glencorgi]

Great report Jodi! Glad you guys had fun and got to see lots of corgis. After I got to thinking, I began adding up more corgis that could possibly be running and it sounds like they were all there and then some.

Sounds like the poodle got caught in tunnel suck. It is thought there is a bar inside the tunnel along the lines of the one in the first Star Wars where they met Hans Solo and Chewbacca. Dogs are known to take a break, have a beverage, enjoy a tune, before they make their exit. Now there isn't any human documented "proof" mind you, but there have been glimpses and music has been heard by a few handlers waiting outside the tunnel.

Debbie

[Jhemphill]

Debbie,

If you know of any competitions coming up in NC, will you let me know. I will keep checking the AKC and other agility clubs for more events. We are anticipating are next competition.

[glencorgi]

Will do Jodi. I'll be glad to pass along any info I get.

Debbie

[Michael Romanos]

Jh - interesting you mentioned the Corgi you saw doing the weaving with his/her head "held up high." When Taylor weaves he keeps his head low to the ground. You may not yet understand this but when he weaves from the left (ie I am positioned on his left), he retains perfect concentration with his head down - and yes that happy, smiley, joyful look that other people sees when he competes - and I never do - but when he weaves from the right (ie me positioned on his right side) he might complete half the journey correctly then put his head up, lose concentration and "blow" a perfectly executed weave.
So naturally, in competitions I have to manuvore him so that he comes into the weave on the left.
I'll ask the experts about this head thing.