Good Mr E :D

I have only trained Elliot for the last two weeks as Jem has been recovering from a run in (literally) that she had in the park with another dog.

Both weeks we worked on the a-frame. He reliably stopped on the contact but was really creeping down, he was much better this week though than last and I even managed a couple with his tuggy out in front. So the plan is to work on upping the speed of the down plank!

His weaves have come on loads too - I was much better this week and was more structured with the angles I was sending him in rather than just randomly moving around. I will probably work on a few more tighter angles next time and then introduce a jump before them.

His jumping is coming on - we are concentrating a bit more on full height with the grid work and again he is getting better - just need to work on changing the distance for him.

Here are some clips from last week and this:

We are off now until the new year when I really will start pushing things forward with them both in agility ready to start UKA competitions around easter time.

In terms of flyball they have both being doing really well. We did some timing with Elliot to see what I can do to make him come back faster. It showed that the most important thing for his speed back is ensuring he takes the extra stride between the box and first jump. Apart form that not a lot else made a huge difference  - my plan is to use the second ball as he ran back as fast for this as if I screamed "eeeeeeeee" but the second ball saves my voice!!! So the plan of action = use a stride regulator all the time so he always does it right, work on the second ball and on me running from the box.

Good weave day :)

Jem did really well with her weaves - she did four straight with some nice angles :) She even did two sets of 12 first time (I just wanted to try it!!!) :) So, the plan is to go to 6 poles next time and then spend the next few months pushing the angles and the speed and making sure I do crazy things like I do in competition :) Her back-cross work was really good too, she was really responsive to my body language :) When I did the set point exercise at full height she managed it really well but when she took herself over a full height jump she completely mis judged it - am really hoping it is just because she hasnt done them for a long time!! We only did a couple of contacts and she was a good girly but sadly the camera had died at this point :(

Elliot also did really well - I put the four weaves straight for him too becuase it means I can use the set with a solid base and so he can't cheat as easily. He was much better with the angles and I even started adding in some movement. He also did a set of 12 first time so the plan with him will be the same as with Jem! I also only had chance to do a few contacts with him but they were the same as last week which was good as we were in a different part of the school :) His back cross work was however not so good, once he had been one way he would continue going that way regardless of where I was going - def need more work on this!!!

Some clips from today;

Movement!!!

Nat came and watched me training Elliot on Sat and it was useful to hear someone else's thoughts after training by myself for 2 months. Training yesterday was therefore much more focused and I was pushing the dogs much more, rather than just floating along doing the same things!!

Jem;
Her contacts have come back to being as good as they were when I run along with her/past her but she is not very confident if I hang back and send her to the end. We worked on this a little bit in the hope of still having fast contacts when I am lagging behind (a very common occurence on courses!!) and she got much better! We also did a couple of set point reminders - she did clip the pole at medium twice but she could probably do with doing one or two at full height next time, just to see how she gets on. We then did some work on serpentines - my timing wasn't 100% all the time but she is much speedier on small than full height (obviously!!!)! I finally got my act together this week and set up my weaves too - she was a really good girl and did some lovely angled entrances - just need to eek them together a little bit and they will be straight :)

Elliot;
Thanks to Nat I realised I really need to start pushing him so I started to add my movement when doing the contacts - he was a surprisingly good boy (on watching the videos though, when I thought I was running speedy I look like a slow coach-best get down the gym!!). I did also try putting the tug a few feet from the end of the contact to get him focusing forward when I am behind him, rather than back at me, but this was a disaster - all thoughts of stopping at the end of the contact went out the window so this shall be saved for a later date me thinks!! I did some set point work with him too and got him to full height - he was a good boy, but did knock the pole a couple of times when he was sent to his toy (but never when he was recalled to it). His serpentines were as good as Jem's - I had the jumps on medium for him. Then on to weaves - he is still struggling with the angled entrances and the poles are not as close for him as for Jem.

Here are some clips from yday:

Plan for next session;

Jem - some set point at full height, more work on contacts with her ahead and with donig some back crosses, get the weaves straight and do some back-cross work with 3 jumps in a u shape (using left/rights commands too)

Elliot - increase my speed and the excitment level with the contacts (making sure the plank is in a different part of the school than it was this time), try one or two contacts with me behind, increase angle for weave entrances and possibly get them closer, and some back-cross work (as with Jem)

Buzzing :)

We had a really good training session today and it left me buzzing and really excited for next summer :)

Jem did some REALLY good contacts and one jump handling work. She was really good on the grid work to start with but then after one extra stride between the last guide and the jump she decided to keep putting two strides in between the first 2 guides, but after some fiddling I got her to do the three guides by just bouncing :) I am less concerned about grid work with her as her jumping style before our break wasn't as drastic as Elliot's and she probably only has one season left at full height.

Elliot also did some amazing contacts - I did discover to start with that turning the dog walk in a 180degree rotation meant he saw it as a completely different exercise and so I need to make sure I do things in all orientations around the school!! His grid work was really really good as was his handling :)

Here are some clips from this week :)

We did some weave training today and Jem did really well, especially when I changed from using her tuggy to a tennis ball - we tried them straight once but this was a little bit too much for today as she was tired - we will def get to straight next time though:)

Elliot was loads better today than last week but still not quite as far on as Jem - he just struggles more with the angles :)

Behind already!!!

I can't believe I have only been back training a month and already I am behind on my blog!!!

We have relocated weave training to places where I can use my stick in poles as I was struggling with my weaves with bases - if the dogs knocked the poles the bases weren't heavy enough to keep them in place and so I would end up with weaves and dogs getting tangled and going scooting along the floor!! We had a much more successful session today (our first time with the stick ins) - Jem was doing some really sharp angles with the 2 sets about a foot apart. Elliot was struggling more and only going through the second set (4foot from 1st) if we were as much as a foot off the straight entrance - this is no worse than he has been but it is much easier to do more reps and reward him more often when the poles don't go flying :)

Contacts are coming on much better for both of them - I have taken the dog walk down plank off the dog walk so I can do more reps reinforcing speed and stopping at the end :) Jem is as always really good, and getting nice and speedy, Elliot is certainly getting there but it is going to take a long time to get him doing 2o2o consistently with me running - at the moment I am just altering where I let him go from and then I shall start increasing my speed as well :)

Both of their jumping is coming on much better although without a guide in Jem is taking a double stride in the space she should only take one so def more work needed on it. I am looking at starting to do some more exercises with them, and building Elliot upto full height - with the straight grid he is struggling to get over the second jump so I think i need to increase the distance between the jumps to help him out a bit

Here is a few clips from our session yday:

We also had our first session of the winter at flyball today. We did some chasing stuff and it apparently made Jem run really speedy (I couldn't see as I too was having to run - boo to running!!:( ) but she then decided to start spitting her ball - naughty jem! We also confirmed today that Elliot definately comes back much quicker if he puts the extra stride in between the box and first jump so our plan for the winter is to get this ingrained into him (along with fiddling around with what I am doing) to get him back to see if we can speed him up a bit :)

Think thats all for now - I shall try and keep more up to date from now on!!!