This week I wanted to see how class would go if she got lots of exercise before class (she had basically zippo exercise before last week's lesson) so this afternoon she ran around offleash at the local dog park and got chased by some dog friends for 20 minutes. Her concentration was much improved over last week so I'll try this strategy again next week.
Worked on some fun sequences using jumps, tunnel, and tire. I have such an untrained agility eye it's not funny. Our classmates would do their sequences and it looked awesome to me, but then the instructor would have all kinds of suggestions on how to make it better. Frankly if a dog does the obstacles in the prescribed order and with some degree of flow, I'm bound to be impressed! I'm not to the point yet where I notice how wide a dog's turn is or isn't. Just not sure if I'll ever be a technician in agility, but that's fine by me.
I was reminded that Lucy needs a lot of work on finding her line when I lead out laterally. She kept coming in to me instead of taking the obstacle in front of her. But, she did some decent turns with me being quiet, so it seems she's getting ahead of Walter in that department (I've started trying to wean myself and the dogs off of verbal cues in cases where it makes sense).
Oh yeah one last note: jumps were at 16" (not 22") this week which I think she appreciated. She has enough to focus on with the handling aspect without having to worry about jumping on top of it all. So to speak.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Lesson
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4 comments:
I remember the first time our instructor told us in class that we had to watch the dog's lead change on turns... Say WHAT?! That was after we'd been training for at least a few years. People have learned so much since just when I started (still feel like a newcomer in my local crowd; I didn't get going until 1995!).
But I did in fact learn to recognize a lead change, although it's still not second nature to me.
-ellen
Oh yeah - I keep forgetting to pay attention to those. Coming from a horse background I should be more aware of leads and lead changes, but I'm just not... maybe because the legs are so much easier to see on tall, gracefully cantering horses than on relatively short, fast-moving dogs?
Still feeling like a newcomer after 13 years!? Wow :-)
You mentioned that you're still not at a point where you're seeking very tight turns... I know what you mean. Last year, I was shown a "different" way to do rear crosses to gain those precious few seconds. I'm still hoping to do a sequence without zoomies. Sigh!
Jasmine's human: Don't worry, she will get there, and it will be sooner rather than later with all the work you're putting into her!
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