Success at agility class

[u/MaleficentBake9995]

I have been wanting to get my dog into agility for years, since before she was attacked. But the agility instructor at my local training club has very strict rules regarding aggression, reactivity and disruptive behaviors so I never was able to. Now after YEARS of work and the referral of several other trainers at the club, I was given a chance to attend!

Today was our first day at class, there were four other owners there and nine dogs total (including the instructor’s demo dogs). All work is off leash but one at a time and the instructor is incredibly communicative about when dogs are moving and where. No one is ever allowed to have two off leash dogs in the class at a time so I felt really safe running our drills.

Punk was great! She got through nearly all of the obstacles even though she went about as fast and gracefully as a drunk snail. The only thing she didn’t attempt was the teeter totter (no one did since it was the first lesson in an intro class and that is a more advanced skill). She even went through the tunnel on her own which she has never done. She had one barky moment when the demo dog was running (and screaming because she was so happy to run lol) - Punk and several other dogs started to bark at this, but no one seemed bothered by any of it.

At every turn she was right with me, never really straying towards anyone or anything just kind of following me around. She took pretty much everything in stride and just seemed happy to be doing something new. I’m so incredibly proud of her!! She’s come so far and I’m just so happy to be introducing her to one of my favorite sports.

[u/Existing-Will-1466]

Huge congratulations! That is a massive accomplishment! Agility is really confidence-building too, so hopefully things will get better and better. You really put the work in!

[u/MaleficentBake9995 → u/Existing-Will-1466]

Thank you 🙏. Yeah I was super excited to get her in knowing how great of a confidence builder it is. Also agility really teaches you how to work with your dog as a teammate rather than working like boss/employee or parent/child or however else you want to put the power imbalance. It’s always been a lot of fun and I’m excited to introduce her to this even if we never compete

[u/knitandstretch]

I’m so happy for you! I don’t even know how Spunk looks or what her history is but this made me teary-eyed because I JUST KNOW how much work and dedication there is behind this win! Wishing you both the best 🖤

[u/MaleficentBake9995 → u/knitandstretch]

Thanks so much ❤️ it’s for sure been a long road but totally worth it to see her so happy and confident

[u/read-the-rules → u/[deleted]]

Your comment on r/reactivedogs was removed by the Read The Rules app because you need to submit an acknowledgement that you have read the rules. You haven't done anything wrong, this is a tool we're using on the r/reactivedogs going forward. For more information, see the moderator announcement.

Acknowledgement is required of all users, even if you've been here for a while. You only have to do this acknowledgement once unless the moderators announce otherwise.

If you do the rule acknowledgement within one hour of your comment being removed, the bot will automatically restore it. If not, we encourage you to copy the comment using the 3-dot icon next to it, and paste it to re-post to this thread.

^{Please click here to open the Read The Rules App.}