Tuesday, June 8, 2010

First class of the new session

Today was our first class in competition silver (last session we were in competition bronze)! Last session was a lot about handling and this session is going to be more on skills - not sure what that means, but we'll find out! I'm sorry to say that I don't have a lot to report about what we learned today. My backyard target practice and ground speed work is not translating to the training building yet. Jenn says it probably won't and mom will have to bring me to the building to work on it. (As well as taking me to other places). I don't know why it is so difficult for us to go and practice in new places but it seems almost impossible to get it done! We must make more of an effort. Any way, I sniffed some - not as much as some weeks - and was kind of slow. But today's class was about rear crosses again and those just don't motivate me! I can do nice rear crosses but they are mostly in very slow motion!

Ok, the advice for the day - make sure you have two separate and clear signals for a rear cross and a rear cross on the flat. So if you are doing a rear cross at a jump, the handler needs to cue the jump with shoulders forward, inside arm and a jump cue - when the dog commits, then introduce the outside arm to cue the turn. BUT when doing a rear cross on the flat, the handler needs to get her outside arm ready sooner (this cross is of course done separately from a jump) as the outside arm cues the dog to the side change. Jenn said a lot of handlers get into trouble when they use their outside arm to cue the jump where a rear cross is going to happen because the dog doesn't know to go forward and take the jump first. Make sense? Did I get that right? We might try to make a video of this later in the week.

We also experienced that when you practice a sequence it's important to get it right the first time. If you don't, and say the dog takes an off-course, the dog becomes pattern trained very quickly and it's difficult to get the dog to do the sequence you intended. Jenn suggested we all do more box work - some dogs wouldn't run parallel to their handler and just take two jumps straight in a row - they were veering off and taking the jump to the side even if their handler was not indicating that jump at all!! Even I got into that act at the end and made up my own sequence instead of following mom. But mom was thrilled with that since I was moving faster and showing my confidence.

Tomorrow is the day - MILEY will be here!!!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

9 comments:

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

Khool on the visitor!

Mom watched some of the banding - nice lungs!

I think we need to set up some double dates - PA's Males khan khourt o HI o's Females!

Best of lukhk with the khlass stuff - it is furry impressive!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra

Sara said...

So whose blog are we going to read about the visit on? Yours or Diana's or both? Can't wait!

Your new class sounds great, challenging!

It is hard to find time to go practice in new places. Takes a lot of effort, and then you have to be careful not to overdo it and burn your dog out too.

Amy / Layla the Malamute said...

Congrats on the new class! It sounds difficult, but like it'll be a lot of fun.

Have fun with your visit! Can't wait to read about it.

Dawn said...

Hey Ricky!

No need to hurry when Mom's behind you!

Can't wait to hear all about your visit with Miley!!

Unknown said...

Hi Ricky!
Thanks for the advice. We'll need it for Eva when she starts agility. LOL

I can't wait to hear all about the visit. But as Sara said...who's blog are we gonna read? :D

Kapitein Haakje said...

wooow super duper
cant wait to read it


Kissslobbers
El'bow & Hauwii

Morganne said...

I love hearing about your classes with Jenn. You are so lucky to get to train with her.

Dawn said...

Ricky, I am soooo excited to hear about your visit with Miley! Sometimes we think we know people...er...dogs...that we talk to so frequently but you never know till you meet face to face how it's going to go!

I hope you aren't overwhelmed by her, she's a beauty all right, and quite fast, so you never know! Just remember, if you need a sheltie-girl that's more laid back...well you know where to find Katie! LOL!

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

I was suprised about the rear cross info when Linda said that on her VOD, it took me a day or two to think about it and now it makes sense. I am sooooo with you on that having to redo something after I have done it wrong, Lizzie will SCREAM at me and then keep trying to do the same thing or just get mad and try to run away, Breeze just gets frantic going over and over the same path and not even looking, so always good motivation to try to do it right the first time, LOL.
When I was running my sheltie Chloe and would get to class and find it was rear cross day....LOL, that was definitely not my favorite, she would never go ahead and I spent a lot of time trying to get her to go ahead and trying not to trip on her trying to do rear crosses, LOL, but after working on motivation it was her favorite, so one day Ricky might be a rear cross king!