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I was wondering how many of you that do agility either have someone else work with your dog or you work with others dogs? Not just giving pointers but working with the dog. How did it work for you?

 

I had never really gave it to much thought until now. I was in a motorcycle accident on Fathers Day. Have a bone chip fracture in my left knee. No weight and have it in a hinged brace, on crutches. So no trial for me at least as a handler.

 

I have a agility trial this weekend. Great timing. A friend of mine that we trial together and she has known Kian since I got her, is going to try to handle her for me.

 

She is totally a mommy's dog. With me basically 24/7 and we live by ourselves with the exception of the other dogs and horses. So not sure how this will turn out. Going over to practice this evening so will see.

 

Never thought I would have to have someone else trial my dog for me.

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I've lost count of the number of other people's dogs my daughter has run. Her first agility dog when she was 10 belonged to our trainer. She ran her for 5 years and did better with her than anyone else had previously.

 

She'll run any dog that's offered to her.

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My dog's always been about half a step away from separation anxiety, so I wasn't expecting much when I let someone else run him in class for the first time. He surprised me by working very well with a guest handler. Since then, I'll have my trainer run him through a trouble spot occasionally so we can both get some different perspective on the problem. We also have occasional classes where everyone can swap dogs for their second run on the same course; I find that this usually makes it clear what you take for granted as a handler. It's also pretty interesting to watch people who own herding breeds try to run the terriers.

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IMHO, many handlers think that they have a special bond with their agility dog to the point that the dog will not run for anyone else. And that can be true in some cases.

But if your dog really likes agility, I think that it will run for other handlers. Maybe not as well as for you (i.e. there will be more mistakes), and there may be a transition time, but the dog will get out there on the course and should put down a decent run - and have fun doing it.

I have a friend that always seems to be sick or hurt, and I think that for a few months every year, her dog will have a different handler. The dog loves agility and doesn't seem to care who is handling her.

 

A lady in my agility class had surgery, but wanted her dog to continue classes. Her dog is a Pom, and a real Momma's Boy. I was lucky enough to run him and he was a blast. I didn't run him in a trial, only in class so I was able to use a very high rate of reinforcement, particularly in the beginning, to get him to buy into running with me

As long as they are having a good time, all is good.

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Kian did really well tonight. We had worked her last night also.

This time was so much better. She only came to me twice, I ignored her and she went back to my friend to continue working.

They worked on obedience and a few short runs but at the end she wasn't so concerned about where I was and was listening really well. She was a happy dog.

She runs labs and a Chihuahua but our training and commands are almost the same.

So Jovi you are right guess my bond isn't as special as I thought. Very disheartening. LOL

Glad she is working for her though. She does love her agility.

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My very good friend used to run Maddie if I couldn't get to a trial for some reason. She would pick her up, go run her, and bring her back. They earned several Q's together. She also took her to class for me for about a month when I was unable to do so due to health issues.

 

She and I also traded off Dean and her dog a couple of times, just for fun. I have had another friend run Dean, as well.

 

Tessa only runs with me, and that will probably always be the case (my instructor can get her to run short jump sequences at class if she uses huge wads of food to entice her, but I must be on the floor and not too far away), but I will be willing to share Bandit with friends that I trust when he's running eventually.

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Both Boots and Renoir will run for pretty much anyone. Boots didn't like to wait before the run with someone else and would search for me, but once he was in the ring, I was an afterthought. Timber transfers between myself and either of our trainers without a glitch. But will come to me all wiggly butt and proud of himself afterwards, like 'did you see me?'

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I don't think my Mama's boy would run agility with anyone else, but then again, never tried it. He's done some demo stuff with our trainer in class, if she's trying to show me something, and did ok, so maybe he would? I have, however, ran several dogs that weren't my own, and they did very well. So it just depends on the dog.

 

Glad to see Kian is receptive to it. Hope the trial goes well and you're back on both feet soon!

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Back from Agility Trial. Went great. She only had 4 days work with Kian. Yesterday in both standard and jww she knocked a bar, but other than that was great runs. Today she Qd in standard so that gave her, her novice title. She also Qd in jww so she only needs 1 more to get her novice title in that.

So very happy with the way she worked for someone else.

As for me it was very hard to just set an watch. I stayed away most of the day so that she wouldn't want to keep coming to me as she had in practices. But on the other hand when you are running , you really don't get to see what goes on, so in that respect it was nice.

I will find out July 9th about my knee. Hopefully better by the August trial.

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