Pens and Paws

So, we took our lovely Oscar to his first agility class last night. All three of us bounced around inside the car as we drove, excitedly picturing jumps, tunnels, and a happy time. We got to our center, For Your Canine, and gawked at all the dogs running around colorful equipment on soft floors. Oscar’s tail was wagging non-stop.

Like any first day at school, we sat and filled out paperwork, Oscar diligently sitting by our side looking around. Suddenly, BANG! A sound like thunder rolled across the gym. Oscar jumped, peed, tucked his tail, and tried to crawl under our chair.

Turns out there is a thing called a Teeter, and like it sounds, it’s a giant teeter-totter. A dog runs up it, the Teeter tilts down and hits the floor so the dog can run off. Problem being that it slams across the floor with a loud gunshot-like noise. Oscar does not like the Teeter. “Iz sceery” as he would say.

We tried to walk around, getting him to smell the equipment and other dogs to distract him, but that Teeter was relentless. Every time it banged against the floor, Oscar would cower.

“Let’s try a new tactic,” said our trainer, “let’s put you three in this adjacent room where the Teeter’s noise isn’t so loud.”

The carpeted room was much quieter, but it took Oscar a good 20 minutes to “recover.” Our trainer was a bit worried.

“Let’s try closing the door to muffle the sound.” It worked. Oscar was able to calm down and train.

So, there we worked in a padded room with one PVC jump. Not what I was picturing in the car 30 minutes earlier. Yet, Oscar got to a point where it took less than 5 minutes to recover after hearing the Teeter through a cracked door. Baby steps.

Let’s focus on the silver lining of this whole ordeal, shall we? Oscar is terrified of thunderstorms - as evident in his fear of the Teeter. If we can work with him to acclimate him to the loud noise, our money will be well spent.

My new goal for agility class: to get Oscar over thunderstorms and loud noises. Because although agility is a fun skill to have, my 5 year old puppy will benefit more from overcoming his fear of loud noises than agility. And I like my puppy to feel happy and safe.

We’ll let you all know how it goes next week.