attention , turns
Went up to the field in front of the house with Wisp, we did a couple of recalls with her dragging the leash, then recalling to hand with turns. Finished off with a walk up the driveway with the garbage can. She was not happy about the garbage can, but she got over it! Next I let shadow out to run around and practiced stays. shadow is great distraction as she will run all over the place swinging her toy. We need to reward lots of stays.. as she seems to think that my motion is a release... Oh well, I will learn! Unfortunately chris is out of town so no video ... when he gets back I will be on my wy to the all terrier agility trials in Pa with Pipen and Shadow. I will be able to get a fair amount fo video of Pippen adn shadow there.... as 12" is the biggest class!!
......elizabeth
oct / nov Wisp
We have been way to busy for the past month - doing lots of training too but have fallen sadly behind in Wisp's log'.
I was lucky enought to get a working spot for a seminar with Karen Holik for Wisp. I was very pleased overall by Wisp's ability to ignore her surroundings and focus on the task at hand. I am definately on track with weave pole training. All that around the clock with no motion then slowing adding in my motion has paid off. Wisp attacks her weave poles with gusto at speed from a wide variety of angles. She is also picking up my turning cues very well. I let her do the DW only with hoops on it so as to her her maintain her contacts. The biggest problem I had was with getting her to relax when she was not working and to get her to stay.
Wisp got to accompany Pippen this weekend at an AKC trial. She ate lots of cheese on the measuring table, and is starting to learn to carry a toy. I let her watch from a distance if she was quiet or held her toy. If she got so distracted as to be unable to sit or to hold the toy she went back to the car and Pip got to go out. After several trips out to watch she started to be able to spend several minutes watching the other dogs.
Last week was week 1 of her first agility class. The sequences were fairly short and were very helpful at building the 'need to work on ' skills list. First on this list is a recall!!! If the course is moving away from my location Wisp really dosent want to come all the way back on a recall.... so we have to get working on this. She also had a little trouble with a jump set between the A frame and a tunnel set out about 18' from the A frame. It seems to be a confidence issue as she had no trouble with that spacing when set up at the base of the aframe. The best part of the class situation is that we can work on her excitment level and also on her start line - so I glad we got into the class. more later.. and perhaps some video! elizabeth