no tires were harmed in this weekend's tour of teeters *g*
This was Eri's weekend for getting out to new places and practicing teeters. Teeters weren't really his problem but since friends' dogs needed the teeter tour and they were organizing it, we went along for the ride...and worked on getting over his tire phobia. Since he knocked the tire in the FG barn over onto his head in November giving himself a major groin pull and probably a really bad headache, he's been all kinds of weird about tires. He'd just been getting over it in the FG barn when the sale of the property went through and we lost the practice site. barjor has been kind enough to have tires in our courses the last two weeks and we doubled up on classes to make up for the ones we missed while on the east coast so we had lots of tire opportunities at Goldengait Farm. He was even breaking his start line stay to offer a tire...what a dilemma! Mark the broken stay or reward the offered tire...I rewarded the tire and did the stays again.
So on Saturday there were fun runs at Jim's barn. Since we'd never been there before I started by working the tire and contacts. Hello! No rubber on the contact equipment. OK, THAT was a huge new experience for Eri. Our first two minutes was time well-spent discovering that painted contacts won't kill a beardie. It was rather comical. But the tire...zero problem!
Today I stopped in at winniepoodle's for a bit to remember Dean. I hadn't ever been to the famed poodle barn so we stopped in briefly on our way back north and introduced Eri to both the teeter and the tire. No problem with the tire, but apparently teeters are now more evil if they land on a hard surface and jump back at you. OK...one more thing to generalize*g*
Next I joined the teeter tour at the home of one of moodypdx's students in SW Portland. I realized when we got there that Eri has NEVER been on agility equipment outdoors before! The painted teeter there, now landing on grass, was no problem, but apparently her tire which was green and yellow was a little scary or maybe just hard to see against the grass.
The final stop for me was at brisbeethewhite's place where the teeter was also no problem - rubber surface and grass. So this is definitely an Eri-approved combination.
In all of this, I had a lovely time checking out various set-ups and thinking about what I want for our future-home. Eri learned more about teeters and tires, didn't knock anything over on himself, and came home tired and happy.
I was going to add some Louie pictures but I can't get LJ to talk to my camera. Maybe next update.
So on Saturday there were fun runs at Jim's barn. Since we'd never been there before I started by working the tire and contacts. Hello! No rubber on the contact equipment. OK, THAT was a huge new experience for Eri. Our first two minutes was time well-spent discovering that painted contacts won't kill a beardie. It was rather comical. But the tire...zero problem!
Today I stopped in at winniepoodle's for a bit to remember Dean. I hadn't ever been to the famed poodle barn so we stopped in briefly on our way back north and introduced Eri to both the teeter and the tire. No problem with the tire, but apparently teeters are now more evil if they land on a hard surface and jump back at you. OK...one more thing to generalize*g*
Next I joined the teeter tour at the home of one of moodypdx's students in SW Portland. I realized when we got there that Eri has NEVER been on agility equipment outdoors before! The painted teeter there, now landing on grass, was no problem, but apparently her tire which was green and yellow was a little scary or maybe just hard to see against the grass.
The final stop for me was at brisbeethewhite's place where the teeter was also no problem - rubber surface and grass. So this is definitely an Eri-approved combination.
In all of this, I had a lovely time checking out various set-ups and thinking about what I want for our future-home. Eri learned more about teeters and tires, didn't knock anything over on himself, and came home tired and happy.
I was going to add some Louie pictures but I can't get LJ to talk to my camera. Maybe next update.