Sister's dog Katie "singing" at Christmas

Christmas 2009 - a dog agility book as gift

Although I didn't spend Christmas with my dog Lucy, I thought alot about her and our fun plans for dog agility. In addition to the hand made agility set from Stuart, I got a dog agility training book from my sister for Christmas, which I proceeded to read at lightening speed. The title is "The Beginner's Guide to Dog Agility" by Laurie Leach. In that book, I learned of a few associations for dog agility like:

Northern American Dog Agility Council(www.nadac.com)

United States Dog Agility Association(www.usdaa.com)

Dogs on Course in North America (www.docna.com)

Based on a search on the website www.usdaa.com, I found a local dog agility training center. Their classes start up again in mid January for 8 weeks. Due to the very cold winter we are having, I think I'll wait til spring to get Lucy started in that class.

In addition to the long list of dog agility associations, I was surprised that in the author's bio, she listed membership in the "Dog Writers Association of America". I had to check out their website to find out more. I have to admit that I did chuckle to myself at first thought, but upon further reading, found it a very interesting association. There are many dog lovers and animal trainers and animal behavior specialists who love dogs and love to write about their experiences and share their knowledge.

I'll need to re-read the book in sections as we work with Lucy on her new agility set that Stuart built for her. She's fine with the jump, but jumps too early off of of the "teeter", doesn't quite go into the tunnel the first few tries and hasn't been trained yet on the weave poles. I've heard that weave pole training is the most difficult.

I really appreciated the gift of this new dog agility book and found it a very fun and inspiring read. I can't wait to get Lucy into training for dog agility in 2010!

Lucy's first adventure on her new doggie agility set

Stuart surprised me with a hand made doggie agility set for my birthday!!! It includes a see-saw, a jump, a round tunnel and the weave poles.

We introduced Lucy to the agility set for the first time this past Sunday. To my pleasant surprise, she literally jumped right into the whole set. The cheese treats didn't hurt either. Check it out: