Sunday workshop

We had a workshop in Grantham Sunday and worked on get outs and also coming back in to reinforce control. One of the get out exercises was working with two hoops next to each other in a big circle. You drew the line so the dog went through the inner hoop on one set, then the outer hoop in the next one and so on. I had a lot of trouble with this exercise. I was being very uncoordinated. I am going to ask my son to make me some more hoops and practice this in the backyard. Once mastered this will be very useful on NADAC courses.
In the afternoon we worked on a box of jumps. I handled it from the inside of the box and did well. Then I was challenged to run it from the outside of the box, and that was a lot more difficult. But as I was told, I have to work distance to gain distance skills. After a couple of tries I got a bit better at it. I really need to work on my body position, cues, and timing. Poor Stewie has to work with a very inconsistent handler, the poor dog.
I am still working on my lateral distance right from the start line. It is getting a bit easier all the time.
Today we went out in the backyard, and I was going to give Stewie the day off from agility, but he was asking to play so we did. We worked on the dogwalk at a distance and also going on from the dog walk to another series of obstacles with me at a lateral distance. Stewie was going very well with the dogwalk exercises.

Get on the Ball Day 4

Stewie does the high five and "other five" on the ball.

 

 

Finally we can do Hoop Serpentines

Hoop serpentines were our nemesis for awhile, but we have finally mastered them! Yesterday and today Stewie was doing great serpentines! Hurray! I am so glad my son made me some hoops, they have been great for backyard practice.
Stewie also did some great weaves and sends out to tunnels. All in all a great practice.

Saturday in Dummerston

Saturday was a great day except for the drizzle. Our first run was Elite Jumpers, and we had a great run, with a blue and a Q. The 2nd run was Chances, and we got it, it was a fabulous run with no bobbles at all, just very smooth. Here is the course:

Next two runs were Regular and Stewie did an awesome job on both runs. The first course was the hardest, I had to call him hard a couple of times but we didn't have any off courses. There was a dogwalk tunnel discrimination and Stewie got the out to the tunnel easily.
The 2nd run was actually smoother, both were Q's and 1st's.

The next run was Touch and Go. Here is the course

The only spot I was afraid of was that he would take the off course tunnel after the dogwalk. I went way toward the center of the ring to stay laterally away from the tunnel, and called him. It worked, in fact so well I pulled him off of the #11 hoop and he went right to #12. Oh well.

Tunnelers was great until he went into a tunnel and then popped right back out to sniff! , I got him back in but was over time. Another JRT right before him had done the same thing.

Tuesday Training

Tonight we followed up on more go on's and lefts and rights to obstacles with a favored obstacle straight ahead. Stewie got caught the first time and then got all the turns to the left. He still is not as reliable at turns to the right, sometimes turning to the left. Will continue to keep training on it.

Club Practice

Club practice was awesome this week, beautiful weather, and lots of people and dogs. There was a nice USDAA standard course. I got some good distance practice with Stewie. He did great weave poles also! He bailed off of the teeter though, I will have to practice that more if we ever do more USDAA trials.
We had 3 good runs and Stewie was eager to run all of them. He and Tom's JRT Tara were much more calm around each other, so they are getting more used to each other.

Weave hoops

Today we tried weave hoops for the 1st time ever. I wanted to see what Stewie would do when he saw them. I used the 4 hoops that I have and gave it a try. He did really well and seems to get it right away, which is great, since we are still having trouble with the hoop serpentine.

We also did 3 great weavepoles today. The 2nd time I went about 8 feet past the 12th pole and just called him through them, he has either not done them in the past or done them really hesitantly, but today he flew right through them, Yeah Stewie.

Hoops!

My son, Jim, made me 4 hoops, and we got to practice with them today in the backyard. I set up a curved tunnel at each end with the 4 hoops in a straight line in the middle. I figured we would work on some hoops at speed, and some sending practice also.

One of the problems I had noticed with Hoopers classes in NADAC was that Stewie seemed tentative going thru the hoopers and did not have his normal speed and drive thru them. I thought having them to practice every day and bring them to club practice a couple of times would really help for our next Hoopers course at our next trial NAE in August in Dummerston VT. Check out Northeast Agility Enthusiasts website if you are interested in coming to this trial!

The drill worked well and by the end of it Stewie seems to already be taking the Hoops more enthusiastly.

Tomorrow we will try Hoop serpentines, which we saw at our last trial and need to practice for sure!
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Weave Video

Here is a video Kim took of Stewie in the weaves tonight.





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv9zjkOECpo