Agility Classes

Our favorite little mini aussie is going to agility class! Romeo and I completed our second class on Monday at Jump City Agility. It's a bit far, but I've heard the best things about this class. Everyone said that Romeo would be so good at agility, and I'd rather not introduce him to herding until I have better control over him, so Romeo and I drive 25 miles each way to The Valley once a week to learn agility!

I'm frankly surprised at how well Romeo is doing. First off, there a GAJILLION dogs there and Romeo barks like mad. The trainer told me on Monday that Romeo's stressed and a bit scared of everything going on. But there are pretty long moments which I'm able to get his attention and get him to do obedience commands AND rollovers. For those of you that don't know anything about dogs, dogs do NOT like to show their undersides (it's puts them in a weak position) when they are stressed, nervous, or scared. That he will do a rollover (or three in a row) for a treat means that he's absolutely focused on what I'm asking him to do and not the environment around him.

Second, we could not for the life of us get Romeo to even go near a hula hoop. I think he thinks he will most certainly die if he walks into the center of a hula hoop or walks through a hula hoop. So I was pretty concerned about the agility obstacles such as the tunnel, the chute, and the tire. But Romeo's done these things no problem so far, which is delightful and a little freakish all at the same time. The funny part of it all is that when we went hiking after the first class, Romeo saw a sewer pipe and ran up to it and looked at me as if to say, "You want me to go through?? I'll do it!" I don't know how he'll do with the see-saw and the A-frame, but we'll see. The ladies that run Jump City seem to know what they're doing!

Also, I really like Sue's furrmom (I'll get her name next week). We stood next to each other in line the whole time and talked about our dogs and training. She was very nice about my barking Romeo and suggested, probably correctly so, that we should just stand by each other each week so he gets used to the same dogs and gets less nervous.

We don't have any pictures yet of Romeo in agility class, but that's just because no one's come with me to take the pictures. Hopefully some day, Beth, Dena, or Joel will come by and snap some pictures of Romeo and me in class.

Starring: _Romeo_