The start of agility

I've been working with the dogs on learning how to do some agility things. I have some new bicycle tires that I haven't put on my bike yet so I pulled one out and taught the dogs how to walk through it. I didn't know how hard getting a dog to walk through a hoop would be!! Bear wasn't too put off by it so he started pretty quickly. Jasmine was freaking out about it but finally did it after a few minutes of working with her. Then Jack had to be leashed because he kept running away from the tire. Finally, he braved it for the hot dog treats I had waiting on the other side. I tried raising the tire slightly and we were back to square one, except for with Bear. He acts concerned about it but will walk through. I haven't gotten more than a few inches off the floor with anyone.

I set up a couple of bars, at different heights, in the back yard last night and leashed up Bear and ran toward the bars and jumped over them. We kept running back and forth. I gave Jasmine a turn. She stoped short and pulled right out of her collar. We worked from a stand still directly in front of the bar. She hopped over it. A couple more times around and she had it. Jack will only do it if there is food involved and when he jumps over, he turns toward me at the same time to get his treat so we only could do one jump at a time. All three of them still have to be leashed or else they go around the jumps instead.

Some of the other equipment will be hard to do make shift. I don't ever plan on doing competitions it's just for exercise and fun. One thing a dog has to have to enjoy agility is a love of running...being brave helps too. Mine aren't too brave but Jasmine and Bear both love running so maybe it will work out. Jack...I doubt he will ever enjoy this kind of thing but he will learn how to do it anyway.