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!

Remember, Remember the 2nd of December.

Well here I am at the end of my 2006 trialling season which began for me on the 3rd of February this year at a local trial run by the West Coast Rottweiler club and concluded here tonight at Southern River’s trial. It has been a topsy turvy year success wise with some fantastic highs and of course lots of lows, although even if I try hard I can’t recall with much detail the lows (with the exception of our stuff ups at very big events) however every success has fond vividly recollected memories. Cypher tonight was a little erratic and I must admit my handling left much to be desired on a couple of courses. We did manage a clear rather nervously run round in Masters Jumping for his sixth pass in that class. We’re hoping Aunty Robyn of Winpara, where he’ll be staying will be able to get him that final leg of JDM. We had a go at Masters Agility and after a couple of agonising moments (that felt like forever) it looked as though we were on the home stretch to qualifying when once again Cypher veered off at the last second as he took the broad jump, coming off the broad incorrectly, I didn’t even realise he’d done this till we finished and I discovered (much to my frustration) that we hadn’t qualified. Open Jumping he dropped a bar and after the amount of runs I had done by this stage I decided to stop him, reset the bar and withdraw. Open Agility I probably didn’t call hard enough or make my body cue obvious enough and he took his own course for several obstacles. Say la vee as they say. I ran Andrea’s sheltie Rumour and we made up for it with three out of four quallies so that was good, I also had an absolute blast running Emmy, a GSP. This dog is a real treat to run and I love running her, I run her in Strategic Pairs for Lisa. We were nailing the course when she just got a little too much speed on a corner and took the bar down but it sure felt like a lovely run.

Raven looks to have recovered completely from her toe injuries and by the time she trials again next year she will have been out of agility for a solid 8 weeks. Whilst that fact in itself brings apprehension about what sort of teamwork we’ll have when we commence 2007’s trialling season it also brings reassurance and confidence that whatever remaining healing she has left to do will be well and truly done by then. I am looking forward to easing her back into training when we get back. Cypher’s work will no doubt involve identifying what those four orange flagpoles on the corners of broad jumps mean! I shall have lots of goals and many things to train for next year, I am going to be very busy, Spryte needs to start having a lot more training fun, Cypher’s Obedience needs to be worked consistently instead of in the haphazard fashion of late and Raven will again go back to basic jumps drills in between us working hard to get our UD rounds together. Hmmm I think I am going to have to create a timetable with the training goals clearly set and a time frame we can work to.

There is much to look forward to next year – Nationals in Adelaide where we will spend 10 days competing and getting some sight seeing in hopefully, Greg Derrett coming to Perth to which I have working spots for, our usual Western Classic, State Titles and Royal Show, and I plan on getting some country shows and trials in. They may be a little too far flung at this stage but my goals will be for Raven to get her UD and Excellent Games titles as well as make a big dent towards her agility Champion title – she still has around 26 cards to go which seems like miles away! For Cypher – well obviously getting his Masters Titles, his ET, his CD and SD and some excellent games legs – obviously to win in either ADM or JDM would be a great achievement for such a youngster. Spryte? Well as she is just a bub – it would be nice to pick up some points for her Show Champ title, and I’d like to spend the year making sure she is more than ready to compete in 2008. Getting some basic obedience and some solid agility skills would be the best – I’d like to train a proper running contact with her on both A frame and dogwalk, have taught her to jump in the best possible way (after she’s 12 months) and just to have a dog who is manic about agility would be awesome. It’s not much to ask is it? Heheh – and so asks all agility obsessed freaks from around the world! Anyway that’s the plan and with such fantastic dogs as Raven, Cypher and Spryte I’m sure the plan will reach fruition one day!