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Sunday, February 17 2013

Fae the Fat Fairy learns Agility Episode 14

By Raewyn Saville on Sunday, February 17 2013, 08:03 - The Adventures of Fae the Fat Fairy

Well what a busy fortnight I have had. My person is now my boss and I listen to her a lot better than I used to. She has taken me out of the Agility sequence class and put me in the Agility Equipment class which is much more fun for me.

When I started at Dog Sports Rotorua I was in Puppy class and learnt tunnel and how to run around with other dogs and how to follow the boss and how to sit and how to stay and how to come. But most I learned more about tugging.

Then I went to Control Class for six months and I learnt even more about walking alongside the boss and sitting when told it was called heelwork and I learnt to sit with all the other dogs for one whole minute and not move. I learnt a downstay for a whole minute as well. I learnt to wait until I was called and sit in front of the boss and I learnt to send away and come back and to do a toy retrieve and it was a blast. All the dogs in my class were awesome and they all kept coming so that they could learn more about Agility equipment. The boss sayes that the Agility equipment teaches the handlers to bond with their dog really well. They learn to communicate. Whatever, I really like communicating. It was about this time when I noticed that there were a few bunnies jumping about and they always seemed to be jumping about when I was running through the flat hurdles, so I could do the hurdles and then run after the bunnies. The boss told me this was not what she wanted and I kinda knew that. I am allowed to chase bunnies and rats at home, but not when I am learning the work with the boss. I just couldn't stop doing the bunny run even if I played tug and really loved it, as soon as I started running through the Agility Equipment the old bunny pull just kept happening.

By now I had started going to Flyball Thursdays as well and I just love touching the box and catching the tennis ball and bringing it back to the boss so we can play tug, I can do this when the bunny is around pretty well as the ball and the tug are just such high value things to me. This week I ran 25 meters on my own to the flybox, hit it, grabbed the ball and ran really fast back to the boss to play tug, even though the bunny was hopping around just outside the fence right by me. My poor old mate Astro just couldn't keep his eyes off the bunny and his boss Dave was really annoyed with him. Gee I just know how he feels.

So this week for the first time instead of doing the Agility Sequence Class I did Agility Equipment class and we learnt Crossover which is a contact piece of equipment with four down ramps. It was so much fun and I can stand two feet on two feet off for ages now and the boss was so proud of me. So now I know how to do all the contacts properly, no sloppy work. The A frame, the dogwalk, the crossover and the low seesaw. I am a good fast tunneller and I love the hoop and the longjump, so it is really just the hurdles I have to get a handle on. They are more like hard work than all the other stuff but my boss says I will get it eventually if it takes two years. I am only 15months old and I am learning fast.

I still love my Obedience Class, I am in beginners and I really love it, I look at the boss all the time to see what will happen next and the food treats are really nice. This is the only time I get food treats now so I want to make the best of it.

I am still a bit fat though and the boss has told me to stop eating the chook food, but it is hard, I see those horrible rats eating the chook food and I kill them and then I can eat the food with the chooks, they are such good dining companions. The ducks are a bill silly and squabble but the chooks are neat.

The boss says I am probably trying to learn too much at once, but I love being busy. Tonight just on dusk me and Paddy the Cat had a real big flat out run around on the farm, in and out of the birds, through between the goats legs, we were going for it, rest time now. I will keep letting you know how my Agility and Obedience are going, I hope I have some more adventures soon as well, but right now I just don't seem to have time for Adventures.

from Fae the Fat Fairy

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Saturday, January 26 2013

Fae the Fat Fairy learns more Agility Episode 11

By Raewyn Saville on Saturday, January 26 2013, 08:43 - The Adventures of Fae the Fat Fairy

It is a whole week since my last Saturday Agility lesson. Nala and Bree didn't come today because they are in Fielding with the Young Kennel Club doing Junior Dog Handling Camp. I hope they are having a good time. Big Dennis was there though and Tyson and Bella the Greyhound came today as well.

Today we learnt fast tunnels and fast hurdles and fast weaving and s l o w crossover. It was great and I forgot about the Bu....ies all the way through the whole hour. My person was rapt with me, I really concentrated and I did lovely walk down the plank contacts and jumped my full micro height hurdles. I actually had a good time. I was able to play monkey on rope tug for ages and I got really into it and it was a laugh.

Tyson was good today too, although he does like to go around the hurdles some times. Tyson has got quite a lot of Aussie Terrier in him and he kind of pre-jumps the hurdles which risks him landing on top of the bars if he takes off ways too soon. So sometimes when he isn't sure he runs around the hurdles, and it was really hot again today. But Tyson did lovely contacts on the crossover and his weaves are really good, he is starting to do proper white weaves now, but the rest of us can't do that yet.

Big Dennis has now had seven lessons and is able to do just what the rest of us do pretty much which is really amazing, but he gets a bit excited when new dogs come into the training ground and can't concentrate on his work, its a bit like me with the bunnies some times. He is learning the focus work as well and he will get it right when he understands.

It was lovely to see Bella the Greyhound at class today, because Bella pretty much specialises in doing Flyball on Thursday nights. Last Thursday she beat everyone at Flyball and had 41 points. I only got 34 and was second to last, but Bella has mega long legs and a very racing body. So coming to Agility is not something she usually does. I think her person hopes it will help Bella to be able to do better curves on Flyball courses. Bella is best when everything is straight. She worked really hard today, zooooomed off a couple of times but came straight back to her person. Her contacts are a bit shakey as she really doesn't like going slowly, but her fast tunnel and fast hurdles and fast weaves were just great.

This is long weekend time and on Monday me and Chan and Tyson and Boston and Bootz are having a morning training session to do little special bits to make us all better at our Agility Courses. I love working with Boston and Bootz. My brother Chan is a bit of a show-off though so I get a bit embarrassed and try not to watch him running, he skites but he is good I guess. Anyway I will write some more after Monday. Love from Fae ;@)

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Saturday, January 19 2013

Fae the Fat Fairy learns Agility Episode 9

By Raewyn Saville on Saturday, January 19 2013, 20:57 - The Adventures of Fae the Fat Fairy

Remember me I am Fae the Fat Fairy who wants to fly but my person wants me to do Agility classes. All through Christmas when she didn't have other classes she spent time teaching me the equipment bit by bit whew that was hard work, now she wants me to start putting it together.

Maybe I had better go back a bit. When I was little my person played games with me with my toys, every day she played games and I chased little blue mouse on elastic and grabbed it. Then I got too big for little blue mouse and I got monkey on a rope. This is a toy soft monkey on a long string and we played tug and chase with monkey on rope. Then my person made me sit and wait to play monkey on rope, just for a few seconds, then I had to lie down before I could play monkey on rope and then when the game was finished I got this treat food prize. Fried liver and bacon, yum yum.

By the time I was about eight months old I could chase a ball through two sticks about a meter apart and pick up the ball and run back and play monkey on rope, then I would do it again and again, then through four sticks like two hurdles without cross bars. I had to do it fast and then at the end I would win the treat food prize again. Oh boy it was starting to be fun.

When I was about 10months my person taught me how to stand on a piece of wood. I had to touch a plastic lid with my nose, sometimes there was food on it and sometimes not. But I liked to hop up and walk down the plank and hope there might be treat food prize there. Then after I stood still on the plank with my two back legs on the plank and my two front legs on the ground, my person would roll the ball and I would run after it.

Then I had my first birthday and we had all that adventure at the dump stuff and I met Tyson and now here we are in 2013 and I am nearly 15 months old and I am allowed to be in a class with Tyson and Nala and Bree(my sister) and Dennis (who is BIG) and Max Big and Max Small so that I can learn how to do everything.

I really love chasing bunnies, like I really love chasing bunnies, bunnies are fun and they are my best friends and I really like chasing them, as you can tell they kind of take over my life a lot because I love bunnies and chasing.

At the Park we were learn the Agility and other stuff there are lots of bun...... I am not allowed to say that word any more in this diary. My person wants me to play with my monkey rope and play tug and chase ball, but it is sooooooo hard when my nose hits one of those bbb spots. All I can think of is the b...........y.

While the school holidays are on Bree and Nala's people came for a full training day with me and with MaxSmall. We spent four hours learning beginner weaves which we have to do every day. How to do the hurdles on flat, how to walk on the dog walk slowly and not fall off and how to stop on the bottom just like the plank my person taught me before. How to do the hoop and what a course was and the people had to walk around the course and decide how they would be on it. Don't understand that stuff so will leave it to the people. Then we had to do the hurdle the hoop, the tunnel the dogwalk and the weaves one after the other. Wow that was really hard. And it was hot and I got sick of it and was allowed to sit in the truck. My sister Bree got sick of it too and had a break, but Nala was able to keep on working for ages, but she is older and goes really fast. Max just got tired, I think his legs are shorter than the rest of us, although as we are all micro dogs, we will be competing in Agility in the smallest dog section, eventually.

So I have caught up on my Agility Diary now and today was the first day of the new year classes in the 2p.m.Agility Class, where we do all the same things but they are different every time if you know what I mean. Today we did our weave work and everyone is weaving really well on open weaves. We can all go quite a long way back and run through to our marker or toy or ball. I had a slight b....y problem at the start but then I saw the prize food at the end and decided I would go there first. Then we did our plank standing stuff and then we were allowed to run on our own over the dog walk and wait at the bottom where our plastic lid was and then run off when our people called us and jump over a hurdle. My person was so pleased with me. Then we did some tunnels work and by then I was over it, cause I am only little still. Bree did a bit better than me and managed to lollipop around the whole set up course, but heck it was hot and I had been at class since 9a.m. because my person has classes for everybody all day. Nala was awesome she is so fast and she did everything just like going to a real show, where I have watched the competing dogs run around. I think Nala will be a star. Tyson is the oldest in my class. I love Tyson and he really went fast today too and didn't hit the hurdle bars like he usually does and he did the whole course like a real agility dog too. Max Big is a bit like me, he kinda gets tired, so about now he went to sleep on the grass. Good on him. Dennis has only had five lessons but he just loves Agility and worked really hard for the whole hour. But Dennis is a really BIG guy and I don't think he notices the distances between the hurdles and things. My little legs do seven steps and Big Dennis does two. Big Dennis has a wacky sense of humour though, I think I will have to keep an eye on him.

Oh I am so tired, so that is my Agility Diary so far. I will try to write it each time I have a lesson and see if I get better and get over the b..s. See that word is getting smaller and I am not thinking about them half so much, but I think I will have a big sleep tonight and dream about chasing the bu.......s because they are so fast and so much fun the bunnies - oops it just slipped out.

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