Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Rear crossing Ricky

Not an easy task in class. But today was all about rears - at the jump, on the flat, parallel. I understand them and so does Ricky but in class we do forced rears - I slow way down and keep telling him to go ahead and jump. He is more willing to do them at home. For anyone who is working on them, lateral motion into the dog is very important and also keeping your dog-side arm straight out in front of you to send the dog ahead is also important. And timing. Just like all of agility, I guess.

After one sequence with rears, Ricky and I went back to motivational handling (with the blessing of the instructor). I really like that she will encourage me to handle Ricky in ways that are best for us rather than making us stick to the class plan.

Agility handling seems so confusing sometimes. But isn't it really simple in the end? I'm sure I will feel differently one day if I have a super-fast driven dog. :)

8 comments:

Sara said...

Rear crosses were never Oreo's thing.

I think having an instructor who focuses on each dogs' needs, is way more important than one who focuses on the handling. The handling is easy, it's the psychology that is the hard part.

Diana said...

Lol, the handling isn't easy for me. I think I' must be a slow learner.

Unknown said...

Ricky thinks life can be too stressful sometimes so he is taking his own sweet time. He's getting there, I'm sure.

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

I love you guys are willing to give it the old college try, then do what my man Ricky needs! Love when you give us hints from class about what you've learned.

Diana said...

I wasn't offended at all. Agility is hard, and every handler has different problems to over come. I was just being funny, or trying to. Lol

Cowspotdog said...

Sounds like Ricky and Reilly have the same thing in common - Reilly could always do a course without any faults - but saw no reason at all to rush it - so his only faults were always time faults :)

Dawn said...

Rear crosses sound hard. Even in our little agility course in the back yard, only two jumps, one tunnel, one chute, I can't get my commands out soon enough and if I rear cross she turns back to me. Of course we haven't done any formal agility classes in about 3 or 4 years!

Lian said...

Agility handling is a challenge, especially when you run more than one dog. You and Ricky are a great team. You both learn alongside of each other. Rear across is just another skill to have just in case you need it :)

If you watch the top handlers, not many of them using RC :)