Goldens Love Games – Agility Trials and Tribulations

I have high hopes that 2010 will be Rankine’s year to shine. Rankine just turned 3 in November so we should be through the puppy stages (although the Golden Retriever seems to mature at a slightly slower rate than other breeds). This weekend was the first test of the New Year as our dog club held the first USDAA agility trial of the New Year!

In the fall of 2009, Rankine and I took a handling course focusing on jump sequences and timing. Our efforts paid off as we had a beautiful Jumper and Snooker run on Friday. We also managed to earn a Gamblers qualifier – although it was a close call as his lack of dog walk contacts (both up and down) cost us 14 points.

Unfortunately, our success at the agility games did not carryover to the Standard agility course where we are battling issues with the pause table. In theory, he is supposed to jump on the table and immediately lay down wait for 5 seconds and then go on to the next obstacle. Rankine has decided that instead of laying down, he prefers to sniff the table and completely ignore the world. Of course this is 100% frustrating for me who (a) cannot touch Rankine and (b) never sees this behavior during practice. On Friday I managed to get Rankine to lay down after what seemed like an enternity of begging. On Saturday he ran to the table in the middle of the run at which point I elected to leave the agility ring. My suspected reasons for this behavior (a) he’s an intact male interested in the wonder smells or (b) he is stressed because I am so frustrated by the behavior that he is using the table as an avoidance technique. Whatever the reason, we have our work cut out for us!

agility