Whiskers and Wags

A dog tries the baby tire. At first he wasn't sure, but then walked through with confidence.

Kathy talks about dog training and how to shape behaviors.

Zipper, aka Mr. Boing-Boing, was still boinging at the end of the day.

This past Saturday Kathy, Ginger and I loaded up a trailer with equipment and a van with dogs and hauled down to Jefferson City for the Whiskers and Wags shelter benefit at Memorial Park. There we were joined by Taryn Hodge and Beth Huhs, both of whom showed up and helped us most of the day.

We spent the day talking to people and letting dogs try some baby agility equipment. Kathy also got to give a talk on training, she talked about shaping and clicker methods with Briar as her demo dog. All of our dogs got a lot of socialization.

These events are exhausting for both dog and human but also very rewarding. Some dogs coming through the mini-course did brilliantly, and some were just completely overwhelmed by the whole thing, which gave us a chance to talk about how agility can really help increase a dog's confidence.

I've attached a few pictures courtesy of Lucy Banyan, the capable organizer.