A Senior's Moment

While I was home this summer, we did an agility demonstration at the nursing home where my mother resides.  A woman from a local agility club, whose husband works at the residence, was kind enough to help me out with her Australian Shepherd, Gaffer.  She was also able to help out with equipment and brought two tunnels and some additional jumps. 

Tina and Gaffer

The weather in New Brunswick hadn't been great this summer and we wondered if we were even going to be able to hold the demonstration. Tuesday was scheduled for the demo with Wednesday as a rain date.  The weather on Tuesday wasn't great. But with the forecast for Wednesday getting worse, we decided to set up on Tuesday and hope for the best. We set up on the front lawn so that seating for the residents could be on two side walks and some people could also watch from their rooms or from the corridor joining Canterbury and Monarch Halls. We were lucky, and although it was rather fresh, the rain held off.

Audience at Monarch Hall

We each took turns and did some runs with our dogs. Mistakes got the most laughs and the end of each run was greeted with applause. We then tried a down and back race. That didn't work out too well as Gaffer didn't like having another dog on course with him. 

Beckett and Gaffer head to head racing.

I had also taught Beckett to jump through hoops so that I could get some people out to hold them so they would be more a part of the demonstration. I should really see for next time if I can cover them with tissue and have him break through when he jumps.

Agility Demo at Monarch Hall

My niece, Amber videoed for us but I didn't make sure of the video setting or tell her how to zoom so the quality isn't all that great.

Catching Frisbees was also a hit!

Beckett jumping.

Even Tucker got excited to show off his stuff and did a few jumps, some weaves and a tunnel.  Maybe it was the thought of Beckett getting all the hot dogs that had him agitated. Anyway, I think everyone enjoyed the dogs and the staff said they would like to have a demonstration every year. It would be really nice to have a teeter and a few more dogs. We had fun and it was probably something a little different to the normal activities for the residents. I hope we can do a demonstration next year too.