Tuesday's class

We are getting behind on blogging this week - it's Thursday and it should be tRicky T-Day but we're just now posting about our class on Tuesday.

Class started with work on decelerating at the weaves. We had never done this before. Jenn said that when you work on the weaves, you should never reward the dog by calling him over to you. You should throw a toy or food as he exits (throw at the 11 pole). You need to reward the dog for driving ahead 4 or 5 feet beyond the poles. If you reward right next to you, then the dog keeps looking back to see if now is the time for the treat or he may keep popping out. We have practiced with a target plate many times and that works well for me. Jenn doesn't like the target much because she thinks it is hard to fade the target. We tried throwing the food a couple times, then Jenn put a line on the floor even with the last pole and the handler was not allowed to cross the line. This was really tough for us because I rely on mom's forward motion so much that I was slow to do the weaves - I kept wondering what the heck mom was doing running slow and then stopping. We're not too worried about practicing this but definitely see the value in it - the handler could get into position better and show the dog that a turn was coming after the weaves. So for more obstacle focused dogs, this would be great. For us, we'll keep doing what works. We tried to make a video but it didn't turn out that great. First we try the target plate, then two times throwing a food container, and then we give up and just work on lateral motion.

Also in this week's class we practiced the chute to weaves and that went well for us. Jenn just said we should figure out how to show our dogs the direction we needed them to exit from the chute for the weaves and how to show them the entrance of the weaves the best - depending on our dog.

Last week we did serpentines with a chute as part of the serp. We also made a video of that - I do well until mom throws in a rear cross (which I read fine) but then I don't pay attention on the attempt after that and assume rear cross again. I just pattern train so easily - LOL!

Gosh, we are enjoying some really nice cooler weather - it feels like Fall. Guess by Monday we'll be back up to 90! The ants seem to be finally taking a break from our kitchen (knock on wood). Mom hopes that is IT for this year!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky