Agility and poodles
We've lost our heart to agility, all the three of us!
I consider agility one of the most suitable hobbies for a poodle. Poodles are energetic and agile dogs with a very lively character. They learn fast and want to work with their owners. When trained gently with variable motivation equipment, which can include anything from legs of rabbits and throats of chicken to ordinary tennis balls, almost any poodle will change from the sweet mummy's powder ball into a flying piece of hair ready to show its capacity to co-work carefully with a great deal of enthusiasm.
Poodle is one of the most intelligent breeds endowed with many features making it a real working dog without comparison!
Rullapulla
pictured here on the training field of our agility club Hukka- Putki near the
riding centre of Savisaari. She is maybe one of the most eager
dogs to perform I have ever seen. It barks all too easily when
activated and as you can see she has opened her mouth while
flying over the jump. Sometimes I think that if she just was
quiet like Etta she could use all the energy consumed on barking
and extra jumping for more speed on the track.
Agility is simply the top thing in little Rullapulla's life.
At home she is always relaxed and surprisingly calm dog but what
comes to training and competitions she is pure concentration and
fire.
Rulla's first zero win in the second
class,
Rulla's second zero win in the second class, Hailuoto.
in Mikkeli in the spring of 1999. Rulla is
seeking eye contact all the time. Just look
at her dedicated expression!
This summer, 1999, we did not train too much because of our
rural position for 3 months. We still competed for example in
Hailuoto where Rulla got her second zero win result in the second
highest class. Still one zero result is missing before we can
compete in the highest class. Rulla loved to be with me on her
own, because Etta was ill at that time. Rulla got faster and more
confident, maybe because I had more time to spend only with her
and the number one dog, Etta, was at home.
Agility trial happening is like a camping trip for me and my
dogs. We all enjoy the fresh air and friendly company. In
competitions you meet new people with same interests and you can
share experiences! On the right above: Me, Kati and Maarit after
the "look alike" competiton I took part in with Leevi
(in the lap) in Hailuoto.
This photo
was taken just after Etta's first zero win in the highest class
in the spring of
1999. Unfortunately Etta was already ill at this time but I did
not know it. She got a few uterus infections and was
hysterectomised later in the summer. Shortly after recovered the
operation she got serious looking back ache symptoms when
fetching a wooden stick on the yard. These symptoms have came
back once again before christmas and I have decided to quit
agility with Etta although these symptoms were not linked to
agility. It may be that Etta has a mild case of intervertebral
disk disease and she has to learn to be less jumpy, which is not
an easy thing for a dog as lively as she is. Etta will be x-rayed
by a specialist so we can find out if the symptoms are spinal
cord related.
These pictures are from the spring of 1999 when Etta was still in a good condition. We are performing in the fair in Kuopio, our home town. Etta is a dog with circus performance traits and it just loves the audience. We have been performing in fairs quite often and Etta has always been the dog the audience liked most. The more audience the faster she runs! As you can see she is really forgetting everything she has learned after four years of intensive training and is jumping over the contact of the see-saw just to amuse people around. Rulla takes it more carefully!
These kind of agility shows are a good way to inform people what kind of dogs poodles are and what can be done with them. I asked the announcer to tell more detailed about this magnificent breed and its many features when we performed. Special thanks to Riitta Ahonen for a lightening presentation she gave the audience of this breed!
something about flyball
Flyball is a really intriguing modification of agility. In flyball a dog has to learn to jump independently over a few fences to fetch a ball from a machine which throws the ball when the dog presses a pedal. Then the dog catches the ball and brings it back to the owner. Flyball competitions are usually team competitions where dogs compete against time in teams of four individuals.
Unfortunately flyball gear is quite expensive and we do not have it yet in our small agility clubs of Kuopio. I would be really into this sports because it is a great deal of fun for a dog and activates its mind. Flyball is especially easy to learn for a poodle, because all poodles readily love tennis balls!
Here you can
see a well trained miniature poodle "Lassi" waiting
eagerly the ball to fly from the machine. Lassi has been going in
for flyball a long time. He is owned by Sari Tuomivaara and bred
by Toini and Terho Pulkkinen.
In the pictures above there is a flyball training of a less experienced dog going on. "Leevi", Etta's son from the last litter is only 8 months old here but looks very interested in this new thing! It is trained by Sari Tuomivaara and Tiina Koskinen (in the picture).
All the pictures of flyball are taken by Riitta Lepisto. Thank you!