Sing along with me — ye, of the Mr. Rogers generation. These are the contacts in our neighborhood … in our neighborhood … in our neigh-bor-hood. One of my made-up strategies for getting Lilly used to performing agility in public settings is to use things we find on our walks (especially in town) as obstacles. I figure if I can get her to do various agility-like things while other people and dogs are walking by, while cars are zooming past, that it may someday translate onto the training field or the competitive ring. So, here’s a photo tour of a recent walk.
There’s a loop we often walk down in town, along a major creek. It’s a nice paved path in small-town America, with various things we use as obstacles along the way.
(Keep in mind that Lilly is still not keen on the camera, so she’ll often look away from me, when I point it at her. She really *is* having fun. I promise.)
I know it doesn’t look like it in the photo, but this is a pretty good-sized rock. It’s steep on one side, so I use our A-Frame command “fly” to get Lilly to climb it.
. This one is kind of like a table, so I use our command for that “Table Hup!” This one is mere feet from the road, so she’s being very brave with cars right there. Plus, there were 2 fluffy, artic-type dogs coming up the path toward her. So, I snapped the photo, released her and blocked for her as they passed.</p>
<p><img src=)
/images/77380-67752/Small___Lilly_on_table.jpg” border=”0″ width=”626″>
Here is a brick wall that’s about chest height for me (so maybe 3.5 feet high … I’m only 5 feet, 1 inch tall). I use our Dog Walk command “Walk it,” and Lilly easily leaps up and runs the whole way across. It’s probably 30 feet long.
After she ran it, I asked her to “Freeze,” which is her standing stay command. So, this is as close to a free stack (for those who know what that is) as we get. In other words, this is Lilly’s impression of a “Show Dog.” Look at that muscle tone!
/images/77380-67752/Small___Lilly_touch_1.jpg” border=”0″ width=”700″>
