Earthdawg

Shelby had her first Earthdog training session on Saturday. I was pleased with her progress. She was fine about entering the tunnel after a short re-introduction.
When she got a chance to meet the rats, she was much more interested than she was last summer. She didn't bark or anything, but she did chase the cage, and jump up and try to bite the cage, which was good. She did ok with the rats inside the tunnel too-she went right up to the end and was trying to bite them and scratch at them with her paw. We ended up taking out one of the bars so she could get a little closer, to see if it would rev her up a bit more. Her interest level stayed high even when it was the other dogs' turns with the rats.
One thing I hope to train her to do is to bark at the rats. They don't have to bark to qualify, but it's the best signal of work. She doesn't bark much in general, only when she is out in the yard and hears other dogs barking or sees a squirrel. So we'll have to work on that.

One of the other dogs in class was a mini-daschund name Gunner. He's almost a year old. He was so cute! I was helping his owner teach him to go in the tunnel.

Intermediate starts again!

Well, Tuesday was the first class in another series of 6 for Intermediate Agility. I think it will probably be our last before moving on to Advanced. I was a little puzzled by the fact that a couple people from intermediate moved on to advanced, when I definitely thought that Shelby and I were doing better than they were. But Denielle, the instructor, spoke with me this week and said she thought Shelby might benefit from a little bit more attention at the level of obstacle training, because at advanced, they basically run courses the whole class. She thought it might be a little too much pressure for Shelby to take everything in, doing more advanced work and having new dogs around etc. I forgot to tell her that we've done two seminars already with no problems, but that's ok. This class we have 6 dogs, so it's much better than the craziness of the last session. We are definitely the more advanced in the class, but that's ok, I just work on getting more distance away when sending to obstacles and also doing rear crosses and stuff.

This Saturday Shelby starts her earthdog class. I'm interested to see if she will be into it or not. She was having a great time with a dead frozen mouse this weekend. (yuck) So maybe she'll be more interested in the rats than she was last summer. Spot's not doing this session, since I feel like his skill level is at the point where he can get his junior title this summer. Plus we'll have a couple of outdoor practice days before the actual trials, so he'll be fine.

A nice comment

Last night was the final meeting of our current intermediate agility session. We did some quick equipment drills, then worked on our lead outs for the final run thrus. We set the dogs up two jumps away from us, using a lead out pivot, then had two more jumps to guide them over. A lead out pivot is when you are partway though a front cross when you call the dog, so your hand is in the same position it would be for the front cross, but your feet are already turning the opposite way. For example using the picture on the left, the dog is on your right side, you go a couple jumps ahead with your back to the dog, and keeping your right arm out horizontally, you turn your body to the right so that your front is now to the dog, and your right arm is horizonal across your chest. Then you are able to drop the right arm and switch to the left as the dog approaches you, just as you would in a normal front cross. So using the illustration on the left, I would put Shelby in a stay in front of jump 1, then walk out to past jump 3 with my back to her and my right arm out. Then I would turn to my right, so that I am facing her, keeping my right arm out, with my feet pointing toward jump 4. As Shelby is commiting to jump 3, I drop my right arm and switch to my left arm to direct her over jump 4. In class, we then had to execute another front cross to change the dog's direction again to take them over another jump more in the area of the unnumbered obstacle in this picture.


One thing I learned from this is the you need to approach every exercise confidently. If I am wishy washy about what I am doing, Shelby will break the stay and start on her own. When I calmly and distinctly tell her to stay and then go take my position, everything is good. The second time we tried to exercise, I went into it with that mentality, and it was really smooth. I could tell Shelby was very focussed on me, and she was a lot faster than she had been, which was great. All the other students oohed and aaahed, which was cool. The instructor told me that Shelby and I really have a nice bond and that I understand Shelby a lot better than some of her advanced students, which was nice to hear.

Also, our new indoor weave poles came in, so we will be able to practice at home. Up to this point I only have weave poles that stick in the ground for outdoor use. I'm sure I don't have to tell you I haven't been doing much outdoor practicing lately!

Agility run thru video

I was able to paste together the three individual parts of the agility run thru that Holly recorded for me a while ago. The transition is a little funky, because there are gaps in the 3 videos. I added funny music just for Harriet!!! Enjoy.