Clean Run - May 2011 - 43

speed and drive with their dogs. At the end of the class I decided to let Molly have a go. She went around a couple of times, looking back at me and clearly asking “Really, just jump, jump, tunnel? This is too good!” After a few rounds she believed me, and I went and leaned against the dogwalk. She kept right on whizzing about while I occasionally murmured Go On. We really have had to work hard on the weave poles; we are still working on them. They are clearly her favorite obstacle, primarily because a toy is thrown for her every time she runs through correctly. I have a wonderful series of three pictures from her first Novice run. They are taken within a tenth of a second as she cleared the broad jump. (I remember being delighted that she wasn’t using it as a launching pad.) The first picture shows a sweet obedient dog happily following her mother to the right. In the second picture she has a more thoughtful look on her face. The third picture shows a gleam in her eye as she gazes to the left; she has spotted the weave poles!

In fact, the only thing that Molly loves more than agility equipment is chasing balls, Kongs, or anything that can be thrown—the farther the better. It’s difficult to get much gardening done while she is pestering me to throw a ball. Recently I’ve moved three weave poles down near the house, so that we can practice weave pole entries more frequently. I’ve even learned to multi-task. While sitting on my stool to weed flowers, I keep Molly busy by telling her to Go Weave. That gives me a few extra seconds to weed before she returns with the ball. So what have I trained? Molly now expects me to go sit down while she does the weave poles (the pause table will do nicely). If I run beside her she freaks out and pops out of the weaves. Molly’s debut in the ring occurred at 18 months at our club’s NADAC trial. I was supremely confident. We had acquired directional commands, a secure start-line stay, and a great set of two-on/two-off contacts. We were really ready! My main recollection of that trial is of standing in the middle of the ring and batting at a bee that kept buzzing about me. I knew it was a dog, but I swear it kept flashing in front of my face. Later that week I cornered the only sports trainer I knew and told the young man that he must teach me to run, no, to sprint. His look clearly said that I was a bit older than his usual clientele.

Border Collies on the other hand seemed to be a dime a dozen. I was soon to discover that Border Collies do not all look alike: they come in red and merle, smooth coats and long, but most importantly some are fast, some faster, and then there was Molly.

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May 11 | Clean Run 43

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Clean Run - May 2011

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