# First Night on Equipment



## RaeganW (Jul 14, 2009)

My club offers agility practice runs in the summer, and tonight I'm taking Marsh! I've been through agility classes with Gatsby, and Marsh has apparently had at least some work done with him because he knows to take jumps in his path. But with me he's had nothing except a little work with 2x2 weaves (he's working at 2 sets of 2, about seven feet apart and open at 7 and 1 o'clock).

These run throughs are the only chance he'll get to work on equipment for a while, since classes aren't an option at this point. What are somethings I can do to make the most of the time we have?


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## Indigo (Mar 31, 2011)

Are these like mock trials? Or is it just doing runs on the equipment?

If it's a mock trial/fun match, it depends where you are in your training and what the mock trial allows for you to do. If he was closer to competitive level I'd say treat it like a real trial, but it sounds like he's still getting up there. It's a good chance to work on the equipment with additional distractions for sure, especially if there are ring stewards on the sides, a small crowd, and a judge in the middle. Personally if my dog was just starting to put it all together and this was a mock trial I'd focus on keeping his or her attention amid the new distractions, rewarding choosing to follow me at any point rather than worrying about dropped bars or missed contacts. Work on keeping your handling consistent the whole run as well, it's really easy to forget all the stuff YOU the human knows in the middle of a trial when suddenly everyone is watching.

If it's just open practice on the equipment, focus on anything you couldn't replicate at home. For me I had a few pieces of the smaller equipment, but nothing like a dog walk, or a-frame, so contacts were what we focused on.


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## RaeganW (Jul 14, 2009)

It's more like an open practice. If it's like it was last year, an Excellent level Standard and JWW course is set up and you get a 3 minute turn to do whatever. I don't think they even set up ring gates. They're pretty sparsely attended, only a handful of people regularly show up.


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