Training Contacts and Weaves

Jemma

We started with tugging on the contacts and making sure they were nice and speedy. Jem struggled a bit to start with to stay on the dog-walk whilst playing tuggy but quickly remembered the training we had been doing at home on the board! all her contacts were really speedy and I got told I was driving her more than I ever have before (something I have kept being told to do but havn't been doing because of the poles dropping) and she didn't knock many poles. We also worked on her weaves with me reving her up lots before and playing tug after and she was really good when I didn't run off stupidly far ahead of her!! She struggled quite a bit on a 90degree angle entrance because of where she landed after the jump but we eventually managed it :D


Elliot

He took longer to remember that he had to stay on the dog-walk when tugging and kept doing his "go back up the contact turn around, go to the bottom, come off, go back up, turn around, go back down" dance, but once I made the decision that if he came off he had to do the whole thing again and wouldn't get rewarded if he put himself back on he stopped doing it, tinker!! His contacts were also much speedier than before bless him :) He struggled with his weaves again, especially when we added jumps before them, he was also getting quite tired so next time we are going to start with the weaves :)

This "new" training methods definately seem to be making their contacts faster, it is just a shame that I have to do soooo much running!!!

AC Agility Camp

It was a great weekend and I came away having learnt lots of things that will hopefully help my guys, they had four lessons each which covered handling, weaves, contacts and course analysis. By the end of the weekend their contacts had improved greatly, and Jemma was driving much better.

My plans after the weekend for things to work on over the winter are as follows;

Weaves
LOTS of reinforcement after them
Different angles and number of jumps before them
Different angles and obstacles afterwards (although not do them - reward straight after the weaves instead)
Work on back crossing, peeling off and hanging back
Learn to trust Jemma and relax and not rush her

Contacts
Only praise when speedy
Play on the contact and when released - don't just carry on
Work on peeling off, hanging back and back crossing

Break down jumping sequences and reward more frequently
Praise when jumping speedily, if not fast enough try it again
Work on Elliots forward drive without flappy arms

So, lots for us to do, I can't wait to get started!!!

After the weekend I have also made the decision that once one of them has won into Grade 3 I will take Jem up on points if she gets enough before a win as I think it is quite unlikely she will manage to win a grade 3 class but I think she will stand a reasonable chance in grade 4 if the course is tight enough, but I would also contemplate taking her further on points if she managed it. Elliot will however have to go up on wins as he has it in him!!!

BHC - not a great day for us!!

Graded 1-2 Jumping
Elliot
He was on FIRE in this round, sadly though he had the same problem he has been having recently in training and came out the 12 weaves at number 10 to go on to the next jump, apart from this he was clear!!

Jemma
She was also on fire bless her, she got the weave entrance and went about half way down and then just randomly decided not to do any more, not really sure why but when she still hadn't managed it three attempts later we gave up and left the ring!! Lel did get this one on video so I shall have a look and see if I can see what I did!!

Graded 1-2 Agility
Elliot
This course started jump jump weaves tunnel and so despite there only being nine weaves he came out after about 3 and went on to do the tunnel, I managed to get him back first time but didn't second time and third time he completed them all before carrying on!!! Apart from this it was again a cracking round, his aframe was good, seesaw amazing and dog walk OK but I pushed it by running miles past the end so it made him think too much bless him!!

Jemma
Needless to say I had the same problem with her, she came flying over the first two jumps and then just didn't brake enough for the weaves, I had been made quite self conscious about my "steady" screaming and so had toned it down for this run and the previous one! Second time round she did them and then finished the course perfectly, I made her wait on her contacts which made her slow but it always does, once she has already been faulted she never has the same amount of drive, but she stopped on them all and waited to be released :)

Combined 1-4 Jumping
Jemma
I decided I was going to go back to my screaming "steady" command in this round and it worked, she got the six weaves first time with me miles behind her :) I was really pleased with her because she finished up in 11th place (3.4 seconds behind the winner, 149 dogs in the class) - which for Jem in a combined 1-4 jumping was REALLY good, there were LOTS of clear round rosettes too so it was nice that she made it into the places :) I also know there were places that could have been tighter but I just wanted ONE clear round for the day!!!

Elliot
I messed up this round for him really as it had two consecutive pull throughs in it and despite all the work we have put in I wasn't feeling overly confident about them, I therefore managed to pull off the first jump and then the second jump too soon, and when I tried to straighten him up to send him over the second jump second time round he saw the tunnel and decided to go in that instead - oopsies!!! He then didn't manage the 6 weaves but he was a LONG way ahead of me!!

Brace
This was the first time we had done a brace and so it was pretty exciting!! After all our brace change practise the one thing we didn't practice was with the first dog running into you and the second dog going away in the direction the first dog had come from and this was what we got!! Elliot had the weaves in his half of the course and sadly yet again he came out 1 pole too early (despite their only being 6!!!), he then was a little bugger and refused to do and instant down in the box (he was very good at it at training!!) but once caught I had Jem to run and OMG, she really was FLYING!!! She had a more tricky handling part in her course which she managed fine and she was really driving, she felt great to run bless her!!!


So all in all not a great day, weaves cocking it up for me too many times again!! Hopefully one day I will solve the issue with them - I know with Jem it is mainly me but with Elliot he is just impatient but this should be easier to correct!!! The other main thing from today that I want to work on with Jem is her drive, she showed in the brace she can do it, even when I am hammering it home, so we need to work on doing this in a course normally!!

Much quicker update!!

We had agility training today and both dogs did good:

Jemma
She was much better at her weaves today and only got them wrong a few times when I kept getting in completely the wrong place!! Her contacts were a little slow but she has a sore on her leg and so we wondered if this is was causing some of the problem, it is hard with her as well as she only ever does them slowly in competition if she has already had a pole down and I decide to work them so training her under the same conditions is hard!! She did some really tricky jumping bits very nicely and tight which was good, all in all a good lesson for her, fingers crossed for clear rounds at the weekend!!

Elliot
His contacts have slowed up a little bit (although again they are never as bad in competition) and his first few a-frames were shocking, with him stopping half way down!! His weave entrances were good but the first few times he came out at number 10 again, but if i stayed on his shoulder and really worked them he did them all :) We had to work a little bit more on the jump sequence with him than with Jem as he jumps longer and so I have to handle twidly bits differently with him than with her and I am still trying to work out which is the best way to do it!! We did some work on his left and rights as well and they are getting much better, he is still much more confident with left than right though. The weekend should be fun with him too!!

Weekend of training

A very belated update from training at the weekend, firstly agility:

Jemma:
She was a good girly, got the weaves (when I got in the right place!!) and her contacts were better than last week. I can't really remember what we had to work on, I think we just played around with the weave entrances. We then did some practice for the brace this coming weekend as I have never done one before and Lel is going to be my handler - I decided to run Elliot first as he drives more to his lead and has a good instant down. We started off very badly but then as I practiced getting the instant down command in at the right time and at getting Jem to go forward - she firstly thought she had to lie down too, then she decided she would pinch the toy and run off with it and finally she went forward but then she sent the poles flying!!! On the final attempt we got it right though so fingers crossed for the weekend!!

Elliot
He was a good boy from what a remember if a little crazy, but then that's nothing new bless him!! His weaves were much better as were his contacts (I think) - I really need to write my blog up closer to training as I really can't remember the lesson that well, I'm just guessing that means there wasn't anything majorly bad he did!!

Now on to flyball training:

Elliot
He was a good boy and was running with the big boys over 12inches!!He struggled a bit when we were doing the speed trials, only in the fact that when going towards the boxes (despite them being quite a way to the left) he thought he had to do them, so got a little in the way bless him. His main problem is that he is still not really driving for the second ball, he seems to put the extra bit of speed in once he is over the jumps - hmm!! He is also still sticking slightly too much on the box for my liking, something else for Nat to think about :P

Jemma
She was completely and utterly manic bless her!! Having two boxes to work on meant she was the same as in competition - looking at the other dog - however, the thing to decide now is what to do about this in training, she did the box every time but ideally we want to train her out of this rather than just letting her get away with it, but what to do who knows?!?!? - Nat will!! hehe!! She also did a good couple of change overs too when people let her go a little earlier than I would have, this was probably because she was still coming towards me, whereas of course when she normally needs to do a change over she will be going away from me, something else for Nat hehe!!!

That's it for now, not that I remembered much!!

Pull throughs take two

Jemma

The course this week was fun, even if the weaves took us a few attempts - first time I gave her the wrong command, second time I pushed her far to wide and 3rd time I didn't work them all the way to the end, I think we got them fourth time though!!! She worked the rest of the course really nicely and her contacts were much better than last week!! Lel had then kindly set up a sort of circle of jumps with different gaps and traps between the jumps for us to practise our pull throughs - she is sooooo kind :P However, we did much better than last week and we did them both sides as well!! It was my shoulders that were causing us our problems but I worked on them and they got better :) We finally worked on her going out round the jumps and she did this VERY nicely :D

Elliot

He also struggled with the weaves, mainly because he either landed short and so missed the entrance, or I pushed him too far wide and he missed it!! He also then kept coming out too early, again beacuse I didn't work them all the way to the end!! He then struggled with a set of jumps set at a zigzag but that he could jump in a straight line!! We worked on it though and he then got the hang of it bless him!! We worked on him coming tighter round jumps - it basically just involved me talking to him, whoops!! We finished by working on the dreaded pull throughs and we were loads better than last week, yay!!! We struggled a little bit but no where near as much, and when it did go wrong I was able to save it, evenif it was at walking pace!!! Next week we will be even better (fingers crossed!!)!!

Pull throughs – AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

This is the write up for my lesson before I went on hol, I will do the one for yesterday later :)

Jemma

Jem did well, getting her weaves everytime and despite shocking contacts to start with they improved loads and were really nice at the end. The third course of our lesson (shows how good she was as it didn’t take much to improve the first two :D ) involved pull throughs, something which I have always struggled with (don’t ask me why) and I had to do two in succession (this was in the jumping course at the fun competition and we struggled with it). The bit i struggled with to start with was getting her to go to the first jump when i was stood closer to the second jump as she came out the tunnel, anyway it didn’t take much to crack that and then I seemed to manage not too bad, it just took a couple of attempts to get it. So all in all a good lesson for her, I still want to work on her contacts a bit more over winter, although I don’t think she has ever done a slow one in competition, only when she has already been faulted and I decide I will work them properly!! I also think we still need to work a little bit on our pull throughs - I need to be able to get them first time in competition!!!

Elliot

He took a few more attempts at the first course because he kept coming out the weaves at number 10 even though they were the second obstacle and the tunnel was two jumps away and i have it on good authority that i was doing nothing different!! Anyway, we eventually cracked them and he worked the rest of the course nicely and nice and speedy, although he needed some work on a right turn after a straight line and I proved that I think he does know his directions really which is good as it means I can start using them properly!! Because of how long it had taken us to do the weaves we did the third course second as we wanted to make sure I had time to practise the pull throughs with him too – what a good job we did (well sort of!) – it must have taken me at least 30 attempts if not more to get it right and even then when i did it was a bit of a bodge job but we decided after how long it had taken we would leave it at that and work on them every lesson for a while!!! I don’t know what I was doing but my shoulders would insist on pointing the wrong way to start with so I couldn’t get him over the first jump and then once I had cracked that i couldn’t get in the right position for the first pull through, once i cracked that it took me AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGES to be able to be the right position to send him over the second jump to then be in the right place for the second pull through basically all in all i just made a complete mess of it for a very long time and about half way through this mess Lel took Elliot and did it first time just to prove even more that it was me and not him – yeh, thanks Lel!!!