Training

Here's a couple of courses I've come up with in the last week or so.
With the one above I was aiming for challenges in obstacle discrimination (Tunnel/Dogwalk), difficult angle broad jump, and also wanting to work Raven's weakness in collecting, rounding over a jump whilst I'm doing a front cross very close to an upright (obstacles 12, 13 and 14 of the white numbers). The AFrame OR the weavers should be used depending on which obstacle you most need to work on. There was an issues with whether or not you could get a front cross in between 5 and 6 of the white numbers which depended entirely on how much you had to baby sit the difficult tunnel entry. If you couldn't get there and then had to rear cross at 6,7 or 8 you had to take care to keep driving towards 8 otherwise the dog turned in on you. The angle for 10 to 11 (white numbers) was also tricky and with my guys I was having to indicate 11 *before* they took off for 10. There was also a debate about whether you did a front cross after 15 to get the line to the broad or you just did a pivot turn almost with shoulder pull and then a turn back into the dog's line to get them straight over the broad. We think the latter option was quickest.
Set up this jumping course last night. My aims were to work extension into collection (The minimum distance of 4 meters between the following; 3 & 4, 7 & 8, 12 & 13), also to try and work on improving my 'steady' command for when I want her to jump collected *even* if I am driving forward. That one I worked on number 8. There was a difficulty changing the angle of the dog's jump over 9 in order for the dog to be able to take 10 and not 2. I ended up having to give Raven a very firm 'Back" verbal to get this one. There was little choice with the home run 16 through 20. I could not handle it with me being on the inside at all I had to stick to the outside and have her take those jumps on my left. It was a good training session.