After last weeks lesson Lel gave me four homework exercises;
1) Fans/Stars - I missed this one off my list from last weeks blog!
2) Wing wraps
3) Deceleration
4) Out
So, like a good girl I set to work on my homework, and did some contact & weave work too:
Sat
Weaves were really good - I worked on really pushing him and also on peeling off and leaving him to do them - he was much better with me on his right but he got there with me on his left too :)
Contacts were awful, he was really creepy (especially when going towards other equipment) and no matter what I did (wind him up, only reward him for the faster ones etc) he still crept :(
Wing wraps - weren't great - he kept stopping and spinning round as soon as I commanded him, rather than taking the jump and wing wrapping, he was also loads better going to the right and not to the left but I was using the same command and relying on him using my body language to know which way to go.
Stars - we did the susan salo one jump exercise and he was a really good boy, bouncing even when the middle jump was on full height :) Just need to increase the angle between the jumps :)
Sun
Contacts - I thought I would see what happened if I used a target at the bottom again and it was like I had a different dog!! He ran to the bottom of the dog walk and stopped in the perfect position and he slid down the a-frame into position :) This gives me a great starting point and I can now work on keeping the speed and fading out the target :)
Wing wraps - he really improved and with him going to the right I managed to get to about six foot and give him his wing wrap command and he would take the jump and wing wrap :) I also started introducing the new command for going to the left and got to about 3 foot away - need to get these a bit better before we can work on deceleration.
Weaves were again good - I really really pushed him through them and on the whole he got them right :)
I then tried doing some left/right distinction with him coming out of a tunnel and he was appalling - best get working on him distinguishing these!!
I then started working on "out" and he was just getting confused - too many new things in one day for his little brain :)
So, still lots to work on but we are heading in the right direction and its nice to have specific things to work on :)
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Sunday, 22 January 2012
2012 so far!
I didnt post about Elliot's flyball or agility training last weekend (Jem is still too stiff to train) as I wasn't overly pleased with how the sessions had gone. However, he has been much better this week :)
Last week at flyball Elliot's box was shocking - his back feet were really low and consequently he wasn't really driving back very well. Nat says she thinks he was approaching the box with more drive and therefore maybe it was this that wasn't helping him prepare for the box, on the other hand though when I did the box on its own he was just as bad. This week his box was much better, he even apparently managed one perfect turn :) His striding back was ok and he only messed it up a couple of times!
Last week was my first lesson back with Lel at A-SIT since I broke my ankle (on an all weather surface though - I still havn't had to brave "THE" field yet!). It was definately the shove I needed to start getting Elliot ready for competition and stop faffing about!! I discovered my timing really needs sorting out again, Elliot struggled with the weaves (although it was the first time he had done the new distance) and he was not really driving on very well! On the plus side though my ankle was fine and Elliot was doing some really nice bouncing between jumps which shows the grid work has been paying off :)
This week with Lel he was soooo much better and I came away feeling really proud of him. Mainly because his weaves were AMAZING!!! They were set at a slight angle as he came out of the tunnel and he got the entrance every time but once (when he wasnt meant to be doing them anyway!!) and he did all 12 without popping out at all AND he even stayed in when I peeled off and left him doing them :) His jumping wasn't however quite so great, the same problem as last week was really highlighted - he is not driving on, if I stop he stops (even if he is just about to take off for a jump!)! He also needs work on his wing wraps whilst I am moving!! Another plus is that I ran like I used to, I didn't even think about my ankle once, and more importantly it was fine and doesn't ache today :)
Two very frustrating but informative lessons for both Lel and I (and just what I needed!) as we just kept picking up issues with Elliot and running out of time to fix any of them! I have however been set homework and hopefully we will be much better in two weeks time when we are back with Lel and then she can work on perfecting us even more, so we can atually go do some competitions :)
Last week at flyball Elliot's box was shocking - his back feet were really low and consequently he wasn't really driving back very well. Nat says she thinks he was approaching the box with more drive and therefore maybe it was this that wasn't helping him prepare for the box, on the other hand though when I did the box on its own he was just as bad. This week his box was much better, he even apparently managed one perfect turn :) His striding back was ok and he only messed it up a couple of times!
Last week was my first lesson back with Lel at A-SIT since I broke my ankle (on an all weather surface though - I still havn't had to brave "THE" field yet!). It was definately the shove I needed to start getting Elliot ready for competition and stop faffing about!! I discovered my timing really needs sorting out again, Elliot struggled with the weaves (although it was the first time he had done the new distance) and he was not really driving on very well! On the plus side though my ankle was fine and Elliot was doing some really nice bouncing between jumps which shows the grid work has been paying off :)
This week with Lel he was soooo much better and I came away feeling really proud of him. Mainly because his weaves were AMAZING!!! They were set at a slight angle as he came out of the tunnel and he got the entrance every time but once (when he wasnt meant to be doing them anyway!!) and he did all 12 without popping out at all AND he even stayed in when I peeled off and left him doing them :) His jumping wasn't however quite so great, the same problem as last week was really highlighted - he is not driving on, if I stop he stops (even if he is just about to take off for a jump!)! He also needs work on his wing wraps whilst I am moving!! Another plus is that I ran like I used to, I didn't even think about my ankle once, and more importantly it was fine and doesn't ache today :)
Two very frustrating but informative lessons for both Lel and I (and just what I needed!) as we just kept picking up issues with Elliot and running out of time to fix any of them! I have however been set homework and hopefully we will be much better in two weeks time when we are back with Lel and then she can work on perfecting us even more, so we can atually go do some competitions :)
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