Don’t cut me off! Our training setup in classes this week has a lot of opportunites to practice go-ons and a lot of opportunites for the dogs to do cut offs. Many instructors discuss why or why not to do blind crosses, but there is not nearly as much discussion about the dog crossing the handlers path in front of them, cutting them off. The deterioration of the dog’s path, curling back to you, and then cutting you off probably happens a lot more often than the dog blind crossing the handler. Dogs should not be allowed to change sides without our specific direction, whether that move is in front of OR behind you. And the cutuff is inherently a lot more dangerous than the blind cross. A the dog cuts in front of you, his life and your knees are at dire risk! My students this week definitely need some help on this issue and I am going to start with dusting my own house first!

Scoop and I are going to do some refresher ground work this week to make sure he understands not to cross my path. Nothing good comes from it, I’ll be on the ground  and he will be off course to the closest obstacle if my BIG dog does a CUTOFF. Today we will do some fast circle work with Scoop on the inside and me on the outside of the circle. And soon I will let you know the next step in our anti-cutoff training.

Scoop practiced his 2o2o on the teeter and DW yesterday, I am happy with most of the progress. He has got  lots of legs though and a couple times on the teeter as he pushed it down and jumped on from the side, he got a foot tangled under the board. He is pretty straight, but he has a lot of leg to keep under himself. Today I will do more on a stationary board and watch carefully that all four legs are going the same direction before I do my jump on the teeter training.

Here’s a photo of Scoop running the AF board.

And a couple photos of Scoops new weave poles I got from Robert Michelon in Oregon. I love these things!

They can be “bent” into channels of any width, or straightened out to make a set of regular poles.

I hope you are having as much fun weaving and framing with your pup as I am having with mine!

NJG

DECISION MAKING is an agility terminology which refers to choosing the dogs path on a given sequence.  When you have an option to either turn the dog to the left or the right at an obstacle you can use the decision making process to help you choose the fastest line for the dog. The questions you ask yourself are: Where are you coming from? Where are you going to? and  Which is the shorter distance? Greg Derrett coined the phrase decision making, and the process that goes along with it.

In considering the training I want to do with Scoop in the next few months I thought that the decision making terminology also works pretty well to help describe my mission.

Where am I coming from? In other words, what skills do I already have in place? What does Scoop already know about the contacts and weaves?

Where are we going to? What do I want the finished products  to look like? What does the topography of each of the skills I need to teach Scoop look like?

Shortest distance? What is the easiest and most effective training path to get the job done?

So now I have to answer my own questions!

Aframe                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Coming from?…. I am still working on the most basic of skills. Scoop is running over just half of the AF, which is propped on some boards about 10 inches high. Scoop sits 10 to 15 feet from the frame. I throw his toy beyond the frame about 15 to 20 feet. I release him to climb and he runs the board using true running strides over the board, not jumping. His rear feet are split at the run, and he looks like he is running on the flat ground.  Going to?… I want the very same running behavior as I raise up the height of the plank, and to keep the skill after I put both sides of the frame together and raise the height of the frame. Shortest distance?…. consistently reward only the running strides, raise the board height incrementally but not too slowly.

Teeter                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Coming from?… He likes to jump on the end of the teeter and push the board down to the 2o2o position. The teeter is at half height. He gives me nice noise touches and waits for his release to a toy I throw out in front of him off the board. Going to?…more speed, regulation height, keeping the speed and the consistency of the nose touching while adding distractions and distance and building independence. I want him in a lowered front end position, like a bow. Shortest distance?..lots of games on the end of the teeter, slowing raising the teeter height and changing my position each time in relationship to him.

Dogwalk                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Coming from?….we can back chain the end of the board nicely to the 2o2o. I have done some longer back chains and even tried the full board a few times. Going to?… Totally independent DW at speed to his nose touch 2o2o position. Shortest distance…pretty similar to the  training on the teeter.

Weaves                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Coming from?……… He can do 4 poles which I clicker trained occasionally over the last few months. I can stand still, he enters and exits correct without my help. Going to?….. better footwork and speed and doing the full set of 12. I have started him on channels and wires, but we  have only done a couple sessions. Shortest distance?……. Weave pole daily training just like I have done with all my dogs on the channels and guides, incrementally removing the aids over the next few weeks.

Theres the goals, now where’s the beef?:)

NJG

Scoop training has been on the back burner for the past four months. Not long before I wrote my last blog entry, my Mom became ill with a variety of undiagnosed ailments. I started flying home and spending as much time as possible with her, trying to share in her care with my  brother and sister.

It all became clear what was going on when we got the diagnosis of brain tumor  back in April. She underwent brain surgery and then struggled with the cancer diagnosis, rehab and setbacks until she died 3 weeks ago. Like everyone who ends up an orphan, young or old, losing my Dad 8 years ago, and now my Mom has been of the hardest life events I have gone through.

My Mom was 82 years old in January this year, but looked and acted as if she was in her 60’s. She went to the gym weekly for aerobics classes, and singlehandedly took care of her home and extensive yards and gardens. She was a happy, fit, beautiful senior who took great care of herself. That level of good health led us to believe she would live to be a hundred, not succumb to some crappy cancer while she was still so vital.

I miss my Mom, and don’t regret a moment of the days and weeks that I spent by her bedside. I missed being home with my husband, playing with my dogs and teaching the students I see weekly, but not enough to stay home while my Mom might benefit from my presence. Life challenges put fun things like dog agility all in perspective. But it does not mean I didn’t miss it, or that I am not looking forward to getting back to my old life of training and competing right now!

Poor Scoop. He got exercised and some socialization weekly because my friend and student Wendy Vogelgesang made sure he got that attention, and of course my husband helped lots as well. But there wasn’t any training going on. Scoop’s jumping and handling seems not to have suffered, he went right back to doing little jump drills without skipping a beat. I am thankful I did a pretty good job on foundation, and all of that is coming back easy. But we have no contacts, no weaves, de nada.

And since all woes come in threes they say, a week after my Mom died, Jim’s 15 year old border collie Swift died. He is Riot’s littermate, and even though we still have 7 dogs, the house is not the same without him.

Woe 3 came only days after I got home 2 weeks ago and thought I could start playing with my big puppy. He came down with kennel cough and we are now into day 11 with the virus. I have been home for two weeks, but haven’t been able to train, talk about wanting to rip your hair out! Today he got trained though, and even though I thought I heard a little rasp, he did just fine when I jumped him and I am going to assume he is healthy and ready to go back to having fun training agility.

So, here we go again…if you are interested, stay tuned for the beginning of Scoops’ contact and weave pole training over the next few months. I really want to show him in USDAA in mid September, just after he is 18 months old. So that’s my goal, and I hope to get there and not just in the jumpers ring:)

Ready to go!

NJG