Dog Agility

Australian Shepherds are very good at agility, so I wanted to try it with mine. They are smart, and of course they get bored...so why not try an activity they might like that would give us something fun to do together? Agility on television looked like something we could manage and enjoy with training and practice, so despite having no experience and knowing no one who did agility, we decided to give it a try.

It took awhile to find a trainer in Boise, but we did, and we are very happy with her. She has Dogs A'Flying agility in Eagle, Idaho and a great course in her back yard. The dogs love running the obstacles, and I love it too. When they get something right, it's a ton of fun to celebrate with them it's as close as I'll come to seeing my kid graduate from college or participate in a school play. So far, we can't run a whole course, but we can do five consecutive pieces of equipment. Callie excels at this, but surprisingly, so does Simon. He avoids the tunnel (picture of him doing so above) but generally speaking does better in agility than basic obedience. Callie listens for the command or watches me like a hawk to see what is next and I love watching her think things through.

I highly recommend giving agility a try. It's a great family activity - much better in my mind than just dog obedience training. The dogs genuinely seem to look forward to it. Since I get more than enough competition at work, I don't plan to do it competitively, but it would be fun to one day run a full course.