Zulu Visits a Ranch & Starts Agility

Zulu's been a busy pup the last few days. Besides his usual play time at home, I've also had him accompany me to one of my client's home.

My client has 2 children, a very intelligent young lady who loves animals and her younger brother who is so curious and loves to be a part of things. Perfect training for them to handle a young and obedient pup and excellent training for Zulu to learn that kids = food!

Today we expanded Zulu's horizons when I brought him with to the arena where I teach Agility. The bonus is that it is on a working ranch so there was a ton for Zulu to check out.

Zulu's favorites were the chickens which are pictured in the first two photos. As you can see, he thought they were WAY, WAY, WAY interesting. Next were the sheep. He was interested when they moved and showed some beginner interest, but since these sheep are pretty tame (they're quite used to dogs and humans), they didn't move so much and were not as interesting as the chickens who were always on the go.

While I don't have any pictures of Zulu's first introduction to Agility, I was so proud of him!

In preparation, this past week I've been working on his body position relative to me. Since Zulu's habit is to come around in front, I'm teaching him to be comfortable next to me so the two of us are parallel and in close proximity. I also did a quick lesson on a flat board for a beginner 2-on-2-off contact performance. He's a quick and eager learner and it's a pleasure to work him.

Zulu has also taught himself the tunnel which was out in our Agility pasture. It's funny how my last two dogs have initiated equipment training on their own...makes a Mom proud!

In the arena, Zulu followed a friend's dog up the very low a-frame (approx. 3' off the ground) and later followed her into a tunnel as well. Ah, Border Collies are so darned easy to train (y'all know I'm going to eat those words later...).

In all seriousness, my only goal for Zulu this evening was to work attention and to see how reved up and excited he would be with the other dogs running about.

The answer was 1) Yes, he was very excited by the other dogs running and 2) He had beautiful attention. Another benefit was that his recall was to die for! When I called him, he spun around on a dime and came in for his treat.

I began some tugging on the leash as well (which had been done previously) so I could fade the treats and have another means to interact with him.

Zulu was very excited to be there and working. He is a very happy dog with us and as expected, we're so enjoying him.

The last picture is of him after he fell asleep laying next to me on the chair. As you can see, he is a tired little puppy!

Night-night Zulu...