Training Bits N Pieces

Our Agility Club started back for the year a couple of weeks ago now. I put this jumping course up after making it up off the top of my head. When I create things like this I tend to have an issue in mind that I want to train for. In this case it’s transitioning for the dog from extension to collection in their striding and working a semi-difficult weaver entry. I always have to keep in mind this level of class is aimed at Novice trialling dogs so I can’t make it too challenging although our goal in the club is of course to have our dogs trained up to the highest level possible even if they are only competing in Novice. Also applied to this course is the ability to send your dog out to go and do the jumps without you having to be by their side. It was a good little sequence that blended nicely into the contact sequence later on to make one big course.
Another issue that I mentioned in my last post was getting me up to speed with my handling of Raven. There have been several suggestions and so far they sound good and I will be trying them out over the next few weeks. It will be absolutely awesome to be able to ask Greg Derrett in a couple of weeks time what to do about it. I know what I should do (and lets be honest I know how to do it if I really put my mind to it) physically and that is lose some weight and get fitter myself so I can give her faster directions with my body cues. However I think mentally there is a lot more I can do too. I am going to give more time and effort to really thoroughly memorise every miniscule move I need to make on the course. As in I should remember, without any glitches or pauses, with my back to the course and in my minds eye exactly what moves/cues I am giving and where. Also I need to work on her one bar exercises again and quickly move it up to two bars with a tunnel to generate the speed so I can then practice my cues more. I remember when we retrained her jumping that I had to really focus on my own body and verbal cues so that I was truly proofing her jumping skills. So I will be going back to that and refreshing her on those skills whilst at the same time getting in some valuable timing practice for me. With Cypher I have been working hard on his Obedience - his first novice obedience trial is coming up fast, I am happy with everything apart from his Stand stay for exam and his 1 minute sit stay. At the moment he is still fidgeting in the stand, he'll move one foot slightly as I walk away or he'll move a foot as I return around him, so we are working on this, and in the 1 minute sit stay we are simply combating his tendency to lie down. However there are still things I want to perfect in our agility runs. He still can tend to not read my body cues and go wide around my front crosses, and I am working him every week to try and improve his weaver trialling speed. He does them nice and fast in training I am just aiming to get that in the trial ring. It's hard though when he hits them so fast he gets hung up in them and then understandably slows down. We are still proofing his distraction training with his tug toy though, he's not always convinced that we haven't finished a course sometimes and that he should continue to run rather than gaze hopefully in what he thinks is the direction of his tug toy. We'll get over that one day I'm sure!