Monday, January 11, 2010

Handling Class Week 2

I didn't feel like going to class this morning. Mom told me what we were doing and got my harness (I got a Walkeez harness - I forgot to tell you - and I don't think it's all that great) and I ran in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, mom was having none of my antics. She says I should be darn lucky to get to go some where let alone an agility class!

By the time we got there I had kind of forgotten that I didn't want to go. Jenn is out of town this week so we had a substitute instructor. Today's class was all about sends - forward sends, parallel sends, and lateral sends. It was interesting and good for us to try all these sends - mom tends not to do them in trials or training since she is always trying to motivate me to go faster. But in this class we have to attempt stuff that is not our usual handling method. Mom says she is learning a lot. In the first sequence mom did a lead out and then sent me into a tunnel after a couple jumps. Not bad - I can do the send but mom has to go pretty close to the obstacle and support with her shoulders pointed straight. The parallel send was ok. We did the best with the lateral sends - like when you have a 180 and mom sends me over the first jump and then moves laterally in front of the landing side of the second jump and then she can front cross from there.

We got to do a few dogwalks today and I am getting faster (although I jumped the contact once today). Over all it was a good class - I don't think we messed up on any of the handling or the sequences - we just weren't as fast as we would've been with say forward motion front crosses and unconventional handling. I also want to mention that the people and dogs in my class are super nice - it is a very good environment! So far we are really loving it! And yes, I will admit I am glad mom made me go this morning!

In other news, I was out eating that dog delicacy - frozen bunny poop - and mom surprised me with a whistle recall! I immediately stopped what I was doing and flew into the house. It was a great move on my part because I got an even better surprise by running right in - chicken!! We are not really working on recalls outside of the house yet, but I guess mom couldn't help herself!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

11 comments:

Dawn said...

Hey Ricky, I'm like that too..never want to get going in the morning and off to my exercise, but I'm always really glad I went after I get there! And the recall? VERY GOOD BOY!!

Sara said...

Good job on your recall Ricky!!!! That's great!

Glad your mom is learning lots at your new class. I think it is good that you jumped the dogwalk contact! That shows enthusiasm!

NAK and The Residents of The Khottage Now With KhattleDog! said...

Yum!

Chikhken!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra
PeeEssWoo: Good job on the rekhall thing - my Siberian brain is so NOT wired that way!

Katrin said...

That sounds like a great class. Glad you had a good time once you got there. And that's awesome on the recall!

Unknown said...

Good job Ricky!

Diana said...

WhooHoo, great recall!! Diana

Fizz said...

You're handling class sounds great Ricky! I told you recall was a good thing! Just remember the golden rule - recall = treats. :-)

xxx

Arran, Arthur and Mum said...

You didn't want to go somewhere??
How strange. Mind you I always run in the other direction when I see my harness, I like to get the peoples to chase me about. hehe!
Sounds like you did really good in your agility class. We has not beed for ages. Mum says it just too cold for us as it outside.
~lickies, Ludo

Marie said...

The handling class sounds fun! Even though sometimes, it's hard to get motivated to do anything, even it's good for us or will be fun once we're there. Nice to hear the recall work is going so well too! Those yummy treats in the yard can be really hard to leave. Great job!

Unknown said...

Wow - you left bunny poo when called?! You must have a REALLY GOOD Recall, Ricky! My human has never tried the whistle on me - now she's curious and might try it out sometime! I usually get called JUST when I've found something really lovely and stinky to roll in...damn! :-)

Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

WOW Ricky doing a whistle recall outside while eating such a delicacy...that is so awesome, someone has been doing their homework!

I was watching the contact video with, hummm, cant think of the name now....but it is that Contacts 360, and they had a good thing for working to build speed on a dog walk, or at least it seemed to make sense to me watching it, they wanted to seperate out the speed and the accuracy issues, so she put a long plank, like a dog walk plank and then a jump on each side and sort of made a circle, jump, jump, dog walk, jump, jump, plank. So she would have the dog do a jump-plank-jump-front cross to turn back to the plank, run across the plank, jump-front cross-plank, and then there were able to just work on speed and reward for that, then when they got three or four planks how she wanted it to look, fast she would have the handlers/dogs go over the jump and then do the dog walk and see if the muscle memory of the plank repetitions would help the dog stride faster over the dog walk. Anyway, I just thought it was so interesting because it is hard to reward for speed when you are also having to watch for the contacts and rewarding for that.

Sounds like you had a GREAT class, I think it is hard for the moms to work on things that are out of our comfort zones-so I am glad you did so well for her.

OOOOH so sorry you are not wild about the walkeeze harness, ;-(.