Saturday 13 June 2009

This Week

I finally made it to agility this week after having to miss a couple of weeks due to having to work. Arrived to be told I had moved up a class, was really pleased as I had spent the last couple of months in a class with dogs I feel were not as advanced as Asher so he wasn't being tested. I completely understood why, as firstly we are not competing properly as yet and secondly I am an inexperienced handler in agility. Was really good to be in a class with competition dogs although I was a bit scared, I don't think he looked out of place at all.

I was really pleased with his weaves, he seems to be able to pick up any entry and fingers crossed the problem I had of him popping out of the weaves on the 9th/10th pole seems to have gone away. His jumping work was ok, we practised some pull throughs, he did it really well going in one direction but when we tried to do it the other way he was being a total muppet and ignoring me, got there eventually though. His contacts were really fast but I'm not too sure how to progress from where he is now. At the moment he still has food or a target at the bottom, he drives to these equally well, however when you remove these he will still go to his position if I am close by but if he can't see me he tends to slow up until I am at the end of the contact or he will go in to his position but trying to face me which resulted in him nearly coming off the side of the Aframe! I guess it is a matter of practice and confidence, should I maybe send him to a target and stand well back then get someone else to feed him so that he is more independent of me? Hmm, we'll see. I really want to enter some shows but he still needs to be measured and I don't want to go to a show risking missing a morning class because he can't be measured until lunchtime, it would be a long way to go for 1 run. Flyball has also taken up pretty much all of our weekends this summer. I have 1 free at the end of July, then 1 the weekend before the Champs when I really want to completely rest him. Then I am busy until October!

Had some free time on my hands this week so decided to teach doglets a new trick. They now both know how to cross their paws :-). Asher's repoirtoire is getting quite big now, wasn't sure it would ever be as big as Tess' but I think he knows more now. It's funny how they learn so differently, Tess is so full on, throws herself about trying to get it right and it takes a while for her to calm down and learn but she will usually get the fundamentals in one session. Then when you go back to it you almost have to start from scratch cuz she will of forgotten, this happens for a couple of sessions until it sinks in. Asher on the other hand is a thinker, he'll try a few things then he'll get frustrated and start being silly, you show him how to do it and he just doesn't seem to get it. You stop, then when you go back to it after he's had time to think he suddenly seems to understand what you are asking and perfecting the behaviour is easy, once he gets it, it's stuck and he doesn't forget!

No flyball this weekend, gave ourselves this one off as we then have 5 in a row :-).

1 comment:

Nat said...

It's a nightmare trying to fit any agility training in during the summer flyball season isn't it? I've done naff all with mine for weeks but I just can't fit it in!! :(