First Agility Class

[Belinda Stevens]

Stella’s first night of Agility class was last night Aug. 5. I was incredible nervous…why… I don’t know. I guess I was worried how she would take to it. After the first 10 minutes had passed I realized I had nothing to be worried about. She took to it like a fish to water. She actually seemed like she was having fun and not like work at all. Her first step was to walk the plank (I am too new to this to know all the terms). The plank as I call it was maybe 4 feet long and fairly narrow. With Stella only being 9 months old she is still VERY clumsy. But she soon figured it out once I sat her on one end of the board and put a treat on the other. We then moved on to the moving table. A 3 by 3-foot piece of plywood that held a tennis ball under it in order to make it wobbly. This was a breeze and probably the easiest for her of all the tasks last night. She sat, she downed she would have done cartwheels had I asked her to. We then moved on the larger plank that was about 12 foot long and 12 inches across but higher up this time. It took about 3 tries and then this was old hat for her. She was prancing down time after time and leaping off at the end just to show off. The trainer then took her and turned her on the board. She asked Stella if she had been studying already. My clumsy as could be dog was acting like a ballerina up there. It made me want to chuckle but I just kept moving her along. The finally task for the first night was the jump. The pole was set maybe 5 inches off the ground and this I did chuckle at. Stella is a leap-er, probably like most doodles. I think that I have never seen a dog jump as high as the night I met the big beautiful black poodle at dog obedience class. So I figure that Stella gets her leaping ability from her father…. Kane the big beautiful apricot poodle. So needless to say once Stella got her legs together and figured out how to gracefully jump the pole this too was a snap. We had the plank, the wobbly table, the big plank, the jump and then the second jump. We ran around them by the end of the hour going from one task to the next and she was having a blast. Almost as much fun as the beach last weekend. I had nothing to worry about. Stella once again let me have as much fun with her as she was with me. God, I love this dog… she is so much fun!

[Adina P]

What a fun time. Next year you'll be posting photos of her at agility competitions with her ribbons and medals!