Friday, October 20, 2006

Know When to Quit

Part of the continuing Ceilidh saga.... Yes, she's the Boston Terrier with the canine equivalent of ADHD who is an Agility fiend. Last night was our Agility class, and Ceilidh did really well for most of the class. She had high energy, had pretty good focus, and her attention was on me.

To rev up the dogs' energy, our instructor always advises the class to play with the dog, tug on their favorite toy, or a special one you pull out just at Agility events, whether it's class, a match or a trial. That usually doesn't work on Ceilidh - she's too focused on the treats! But last night she tugged like only a Boston Terrier can on her beloved Latex Soccer Ball before she ran the courses. And it's a 2 inch diameter ball. I only got a small tooth-scrape last night. I've tried other toys, but nothing else works. A little blood is a small price to pay!

Anyway, last night things were going really well. Even our instructor commented on how well Ceilidh was running! She was jumping the jumps she was supposed to, going through the tunnels the right way, even doing the teeter-totter! Until 15 minutes to the end of class. Poor thing hit her wall. No focus, no attention, lots of sniffing. I should have quit while we were ahead.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Poor baby. Sometimes it seems that they try so hard, but like humans there is a limit. I can never anticipate when my dog's limit will come unfortunately.