Weaves

Well today was definately a weave day:

Elliot:
We did quite a lot of 4/5 obstacle courses, just simple turning stuff just getting him used to following body language and driving on - he did very well once I sorted myself out and moved in the right places!! There was one point when he was facing the field with the donkey in and it was moving around and he went in to stalk mode but once he came back in to agility focus and I released him (only took a few seconds) he stayed with me and didn't dart after them like i thought he would!! In fact he was in general a lot more focused today and less interested in the animals next door!!:) We then started him on channel weaves for the first time and had them a good 2 foot apart but gradually took him further back from them, the idea being we will take him further back and do it from all different angles each time before we move them in at all, I am looking forward to having at least one dog that understands what weaves are!! We then did a little bit of seesaw - he was a bit nervy at first because he had been up it himself earlier in the lesson and had frightened him self but he soon got the hang of it and was doing some lovely touches on the end :) Also we did some "basic training" because a couple of times he didn't come back to me when I called and wanted to stay with my trainer as she had the toy, so when he didn't come back on the second call we took him out of sight and tied him up for a few seconds - it seemed to really work as we only had to do it twice and then he was coming back to me really nice and quickly.

Jemma:
Her two biggest problems are weaves and a-frame (coming down really really really slowly!!) so today we had a weave day. We just had four and worked a lot on me sending her at them from quite a way back and then from VERY slight angle ie one/two paces from the straight line. It took us a long while but by then of the session she got 3 out 4 right which was a HUGE improvement. So this is what I am going to be working on all week with her and in training sessions from now on, lets hope it works!!

So all in all it was a good day and we can't wait till next week :D