01/12/07

Went out today and ran the second sequence from Lesson 6. First attempt, I discovered no hard push was needed to keep Dusty out on the first three jumps while I cut across to the bottom of the A-frame. In fact a hard push pushed him right out of the sequence. Such a sensitive boy. Dusty attacked the course and much to my surprise I had made it far enough ahead of him to do a front cross before the WP. Unfortunately, Dusty had a very difficult time entering at the correct spot because I was ahead of him. I finally took away six poles and just worked him at entering correctly from a sit about 10 feet away while I stood at the third pole. Even this was too much for him, so I moved to the space between 1 and 2 and he was able to do it. Obviously, this is a skill we have to work on. It’s great that he can find his own entrance to the poles when I’m behind, but we’ll obviously have more options if I can stand anywhere and he can still get it right.

Libby surprised me by ducking into the tunnel on the opening.  Now why did she do that when Dusty didn’t. Well, different dogs. Usually the only lead out I will take with Libby is a lateral one—perhaps 10 feet to her side and 3-5 feet ahead of her. The tunnel made that impossible, so I lead out to jump two and out wide enough to clear the off-course jump. That meant when Libby was looking at me, she was looking at the tunnel entrance, so she took it. I set her up slight angled away from the tunnel, took a slightly less dramatic lead-out, and made sure to issue a jump command along with my release on our subsequent attempts.

I was very surprised to find that I was unable to beat Libby by enough yards to execute the front cross before the weaves. (Lib does not move as fast as Mr. D, but I have much more distance with him, and I guess that’s what really counts if your dog has any speed at all.) I executed the front cross, but it was in a terrible spot and she turned way before the weaves. Tried running to the weaves with Lib on my right, but her weave pole skills weren’t quite up to that kind of an entry either. Worked some more on the front cross approach (I cut more across the course so I could be in a helpful position), and I discovered, I was moving forward before Lib found her entry. Obviously, this wasn’t helpful to a dog with rather minimal weave skills and enthusiasm for weaves.

Rose