My Men Doing Agility

[Anneke]

I am soooo proud of my two men!! Especcially the four legged man!
My boyfriend and I were talking about Cooper's behaviour and how much it has improved. Henk(my boyfriend) thought it was time to take training up a level, but we can't do this on our own, as we need well behaved dogs and knowledgable owners to do this.
So I asked my agility trainer if it was ok if we brought Cooper to class. Since Cooper loves agility, it would be a very positive palce to meet other dogs. She said it was fine, so today we took Cooker along.
Henk left about half an hour before me, on foot, to burn off a little energy. I picked them up on my way to class. As we were a little late, everybody was already there, which I was hoping for.
Because the other dogs were playing offleash, we stayed behind the fence. Cooper wagged his tail, when a few of the dogs came to meet him. He only growled at the shepherd(he has a thing for them, just doesn't like the looks of shepherds), but he wasn't getting too upset.
During the warming up, which is basicaly walking a few rounds to get attention and loosen up the muscles, he did great.
Henk is a first time handler in agility, so things didn't go very smoothly He doesn't know the cues(or doesn't remember them) but Cooper knows what to do. I'm sure, that they will do a lot better, once they get a little practise.
The lab behind them is a male!! He only reacted when they passed by really close, but not in an unacceptable level. He looks a bit awkward, but he just sat down

And this is how reaxed he was, with another male lab behind him...

And here the vid! Pleas excuse my yelling, I held my phone up in front of my face and it was very windy...So I yell a bit loud...

 

[Amateur]

Ha ! I love it when they mess up but I also think they did great !

 

[Ripleygirl]

They did great! If Henk is a first time agility handler then he has a natural flare for it... normally the handler has NO idea when its their first time! Good job Henk and Cooper.

 

[SD&B]

Henk did really great for a first time handler. A little practice and Cooper and Henk will be a great team.

 

[Dogster]

Wow, they did GREAT!!!!! For their first times in a while, very good!!! Anneke and Jinx.... and Henk and Cooper!!!!

 

[tigerlily46514]

AWESOME!! I'M SO SO PROUD AND HAPPY FOR ALL OF YOU!!! JUST VERY WONDERFUL!! I'm so so impressed with your progress with having Cooper be calm with an unknown dog BEHIND him, wow!!! AWESOME WORK ANNEKE AND CREW!!
(that is always super challenging for Buddy, he so dislikes an unknown dog behind him)

Just wonderful to see this, just made my whole day!! that is one wonderful thing about having a gangsta dog, is, the thrill we can get when they do very well around unknown dogs, it might be hard for some to appreciate the amazing photos there of Cooper being calm be unknown dogs, but i can appreciate it very very much!!

(interesting that Cooper dislikes GSDs, too, so does buddy!)

 

[Anneke]

He hasn't lost it all, this afternoon he had to go slightly nutts over a dog in the neighbourhood...
And I do find it very, very helpfull that my trainer always pays extra attention to the personal space of the dogs. As agility is a very excitable sport and some dogs do turn easily from excited to agressive. Our little group knows exactly how close we can get and we respect each others dogs. That is why I wanted to bring Cooper here and not put him among strange dogs in a park, where some owners just don't get it.
We all have our little problems with our dogs. Little Sara(west highland white) has a problem with larger dogs, who play rough. She has been hurt by rough play a few times.
Ingo(tervuren shepherd) is a nervous, insecure dog.
Bikkel(one of the brown labs) is a rescue, who hasn't had much training.
Buddy(another brown lab) is very social.
Ginger(aussie) has a very big personal space. She's not agressive, but she doesn't tolarate any exitement near her and will correct it.
There a two medium schnauzers who are very dominant dogs, both males.
Even with all these "problem dogs" there are hardly ever any conflicts, because the owners know their dogs.

 

[jackienmutts]

Woohoo!! Your men did a great job!! I'm so proud of both of them!! I love how dogs are so forgiving of our mess-ups (no matter what they are) - they can make us look good in all kinds of circumstances, can't they? If they keep practicing, they'll be great! For it to be Henk's first time, and Cooper's first time in 2 yrs, they looked terrific!! I would never have thought that. And it sounds like you've got a great training facility to be so focused on everyone's dogs/space issues. I'm very lucky, my facility is the same way - many aren't -- it makes such a huge difference. Four paws up to both of them!!!