We went to an agility seminar!

What a fun day!

Mom and I attended an agility seminar given by Mike Wagner of K-9 Athletes. Mike (I like to call him Uncle Mike) is a USDAA judge and the husband of our trainer. He has years of experience training agility dogs and gave a great perspective on handling from a judges point of view.

We got to time some sequences to see time differences in how we handled - with rear crosses, front crosses, post turns and more. Great info! And we got to learn some new handling skills, very interesting stuff.

We also were able to run one of his more difficult Grand Prix courses - one that only 15% of the dogs Q'd in at a recent trial he judged. Guess what! We would have Q'd! And we got it timed both times we ran. That is such testament to how great our trainers are.

One of the best things we learned today is how to drive to the next, next and next obstacle. Mom and I are really still considered beginners, so this is great info to keep me moving as fast as possible through the course. It can definitely mean the difference between third and first place, for sure.

We learned how to correctly do a post turn and with that, drive to the next obstacle. Mom and I don't do post turns nearly at all in competition, so that was great info - remember Mom, leave the turn with your leg nearest to me - gives me better clues to go!!!

Overall it was a great day to do agility. The seminar was four hours long - kind of long for a young dog like me, but I handled it like a pro. The last seminar we attended was about 10 months ago, and I got so worked up I threw up all the treats Mom gave me. I think both Mom and I were much more relaxed on this one. We're looking forward to doing more stuff like this - great learning experiences!!!

Thanks Uncle Mike!!! We had fun today and learned a lot!