Heroic Huskies

Two new obstacles were added to the agility course this week. One is a balance beam made out of an 12 foot long 4x4 about 3 feet off the ground. Martin calls it "walk the plank." The other is about a 6 foot tall wooden wall that the dogs have to jump over....yeah a SIX foot tall wall!

How did Louie and Laika do? Well, let me tell you.

Louie navigated "walk the plank" first. He is definitely a "thinking" dog. He took his time, maintained his footing, and walked very slowly. I could tell he was stressed and would rather be doing something else, but he wasn't scared. He knew I was there to catch him and help him if he needed. What a good boy. He made it across only having to start over once. He took the most time out of all the other dogs, but he got it!

Laika is a little less of a "thinker" than a "doer." Her first inclination was to sprint across the plank and get it over with. But she quickly learned that that is not the way to go about it! Especially since she is so much bigger than Louie. She eventually understood that she wasn't being timed and made it across the beam with lots of verbal encouragement from me and Martin (Eric was out sick this week). I was so proud of them and all of the other dogs for trying and succeeding at something new!

Okay, next up was the "wall." All of us, even those with advanced dogs, looked at that wall and were like, "NO WAY!" Its too tall! But every dog there, including Louie and Laika cleared it on at least their second try. On L and L's first tries, they got their frong legs over and I had to help push there butts over. But by the second time they calculated and figured out exactly how much speed and push they needed to make it over on their own. Words cannot describe it, guys. I'm telling you. My timid, playful little huskizzles are fearless stuntdoggies out on that agility field. Why do they attempt obstacles with the appropriate amount of stress and not fear? Because they know there mommy is there for them and will not let anything bad happen. So they are free to fly to the moon if they wanted to try!

Oh...and Laika didn't hold on to her title of "only husky that went over the 14 ft A-frame" for very long. Louie made it all the way over on his own (no long line) yesterday too. WHAT A DAY for my Heroic Huskies!!!

Congrats to all the doggies and their handlers for doing so well in agility yesterday...Martin and Zadok, Ginger and Summit (and Caana! What an athelete!), Carla and James, Warren and Rocky, and Angela, Travis, and Lucy. Yeah!!!

And thanks again to everyone who helped me navigate with with two dogs while Eric was out. Y'all rock.

Its been too cold lately to take pics out on the land. But I promise I'll take some action shots very soon. In the meantime, please enjoy these pics of Laika Cynthia sent me the other day :)

Adventures Abound!
brooke