Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Tuesday's class

Back to class today! The main subject was like-obstacle discriminations - the two ends of a curved tunnel. We had learned before that to cue the obvious entrance of the tunnel the handler should say, "tunnel" and use the appropriate motion, and to cue the less obvious tunnel entrance the handler should say, "Dog's name," get a head check and then say, "tunnel." It is important to actually say tunnel after the dog's name so that the dog does not think every time he hears his name, he should just automatically enter the tunnel. We are also supposed to practice occasionally saying the dog's name and getting a head check when a tunnel is not involved so as not to pattern train the dog. Remember that the dog's name is only ever used for attention and not as a turning cue.

I did well today! We warmed up with a few extension recalls to heel over one jump and then had to throw in a couple where mom stood to the side of the jump and past the plane and called me to heel next to the jump (I didn't take the jump, I came right to mom!). Then we did the work on the two entrances of the tunnel - I got everyone right! The only thing I missed in the entire class - I had a refusal at the chute because mom moved WAY too far laterally and pulled me off of it!

To end the class we did a skills drill with weave entries - 3:00, 1:00, 12:00, 11:00, and 9:00 - (I think I understand the around the clock thing) and I got all of my entries, of course! :)

There was one sequence we did that we want to practice again so we'll try to video it later this week (it's too difficult to try and explain it with words only). It's raining - our first rain in a long time - so no video today!

Thanks for all the nice and supportive comments about my crash the other day! It's good to know I am not the only jump crasher out there. Just wish we knew what really does cause it to happen!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky


11 comments:

Diana said...

Sounds like a great class. Cant wait for the video. Diana

Sara said...

It's raining here too :(

That was a jampacked class of useful skills! Oreo often goes in the wrong end of the tunnel, that's a good one to practice at home.

Sagira said...

Sounds like you had a great class again! :)

Rain, rain GO AWAY! :)

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

So would that mean the less obvious entrance if the less obvious entrance was closer, or does the name and then tunnel command also apply say if the obvious entrance is right next to the handler and that is what it looks like would come next but in reality the tunnel entrance is the far side, would it still be name then tunnel? Hope I asked that clearly, because writing the explaination even confused me, lol. Thanks in advance!!! Kathy

Dawn said...

sounds fun! Katie would never get all those entries! at least not yet!

Chris and Ricky said...

Kathy - Well, I'm not sure I understood your question correctly but if there is a curved tunnel and say the obstacle before it would point the dog into the left end then that would be the obvious end (tunnel command) and the right end would be the harder one for the dog and the less obvious choice for him and therefore you have to get the dog's attention - Name and then say tunnel. I guess you need the dog's name when if you said only tunnel, the dog would go into the end that you didn't want. Oh my gosh, that is all too confusing to write down! I hope it answered your question but if not, ask another and I'll try again! :)

Marie said...

hehe, Ricky I think you do a great job of explaining your Tuesday classes to all of us. I know I sure appreciate you taking the time to pass along what you're learning. It's always really interesting.

I hope the rain stops soon, cause I'm dying to see what the other exercise is...

Sam said...

We had rain here, so no class tonight. Can't wait to see your videos of your practice, though!

Unknown said...

Must have been another fun class! You keep learning more and more each week. That's exciting!

mic_comte said...

I didn't get the story about the Dog's name.

Nicki said...

Maybe you can help Legend with her entries!