Our Last Jumping Class

So I've already typed this once and failed at publishung it properly, here goes attempt two.  We started class with a front cross review.  There were 5 parallel jumps set in an X shape.  The dogs did a 7 jump figure 8 sequence while the handlers stayed on one side of the center jump.  Gracie did the front crosses wonderfully.  Our main issue was with the last 3 jumps which were a straight diagonal.  Gracie should have been able to just go, go, go, but she kept taking the last jump wrong.  Once she even slammed right into the bar.  Back to her paying too much attention to me.  Apparently I'm paying too much attention to her too because our intructor noticed that I was watching her which could encourage her to look at me.  She jumps so pretty, it's hard not to look at her.  We tried again with me looking at the last jump and not Gracie, not as easy as it sounds.  We had a little improvement, but it's something we'll have to keep working on.  Had the sequence allowed for me to converge on the last jump that may have helped, but starting with a front cross doesn't lend to that well.

Next we worked on rear crosses with 2 jumps at a 90 degree angle.  We started by keeping the dog on the same side when starting and finishing the jumps so that the dogs saw the pattern.  Then we switched so the dog started on one side and ended up on the other, a nice rear cross.  Gracie and I had been working hard on the one jump version of this at home so she caught on very quickly.  I noticed a lot of my classmates had trouble sending their dogs ahead of them to the first jump (a rear cross requirement) so that they had to slow down or stop behind the first jump.  This translates to the dog as turn back to your person, and the dog ends up turning the wrong way.  They fixed this by setting a treat between the two jumps, closer to the second, so that the dog would go to the treat and then over the second jump.  This worked but I think building a better send, and more drive for the jump would help even more.  A lot of handlers were treating for the wrong turn too, encouraging their dogs to mess up again.  A happy "oops!" and starting over seems to work much better, or at least it did for Gracie and a couple other dogs.

Our instructor left us with two new exercises to try.  One was a precursor to a pinwheel.  You stand facing the jump standard so that you can't really see that it's a jump.  Then send the dog left or right to find the jump.  This way the dog will learn to automatically take the middle distant jump in a pinwheel without you needing to be right with them.  The other was a reverse figure 8.  We've already done a regular figure 8 where the dog jumps away from you and you call them back around.  For this you have to send the dog around the back of the jump so they're jumping towards you.  It's a little more complicated, but I tried it tonight with Gracie and she got it in no time!  Contacts next week!  Can't wait!  Happy agility!