This Week in Dog Training

Last Wed. both the girls had classes.  I took both to the open weaves class.  Gidget did fine, though she did miss a couple poles on her first turn.  There was a lot going on at the time in the training building.  There was the open weaves class and an obedience class in the main ring and a puppy class down in the puppy room, so lots of dogs there.  This may have thrown Gidget off at first, but she handles that well.  Apparently Gracie does not handle such business as well.  I got her to weave a little but she was unfocused and shut down pretty quickly.  It was just too much for her.  I'll take shutting down over going after any of the dogs, but still, did not want to find another challenge to taking Gracie to trials.

Gracie's first advanced jumping class was right after open weaves.  All the other classes left so Gracie was much calmer.  We worked on pinwheels.  Six jumps were set up in an oval for 2 pinwheels.  We practiced doing the sequence with post turns and with front crosses between the pinwheels.  Gracie and I did pretty well, but definately something we need to practice.  Hmm... to find the time to practice outside somewhere.

Gracie had her last reactive obedience class on Mon. though we could probably take the course again if we wanted.  Our instructor brought in a couple of her dogs to help the reactive dogs practice.  One of the dogs was her reactive sheltie.  Gracie handled it well, got a little hyped up, but didn't make a sound or lunge which is good.  We haven't seen many dogs or squirrels on walks lately, and our last dog encounter didn't go so well, but over all she's improving.

Gidget and I had the opportunity to practice outside again last Thur. but due to timing, we decided to go to our regular indoor class instead.  The courses were pretty fun with some good challenges.  The chute was set up the direction of the black drawing for the first course and like the red drawing for the other 2.  I always front crossed after the teeter, going to the tunnel.  I needed to do this in the second course (red) so that I didn't block the weaves, a rear cross to the tunnel would have put me right in her path from the tunnel exit to the weaves, didn't need to risk that.  I had no reason in the other 2 courses, though I have been trying to practice front crosses after teeters, I should have practiced both methods.  Gidget had a little trouble with the weaves at first, I'm pretty sure she was distracted by the open garage doors, she didn't like the road sounds coming into the building.  In the first course I treated 4-5-6 like a serpentine with Gidget on my right.  I pushed Gidget out for 5 and rear crossed 6.

Second course: I front crossed 2-3.  I planned on running to the left of 10 and wrap the tire but I somehow ended up on the right of the weaves.  It ended up being a slightly awkward push from the weaves and post turning the tire, oops!  12-13-14 was a serpentine again.

Last course: 5-6-7 had several handling options.  The handler could stay on the lower side (dog on left mostly) and wrap around the far standard of jump 6.  I think this would involve a partial front cross - start a front cross to get the dog over the jump but immediately turn back so the dog is on the original side.  The inner standard of jump 6 could also be wrapped with a front cross, but then 7 would have to be rear crossed.  You could front cross after 5 then either front cross after 6 or rear cross 7 (I did this with the rear cross).  The entire sequence could be done with a post turn too, but this is slower and an off course jump is more likely.

So a good week of classes, and in an hour we'll start our next good week of classes with a trial thrown in there!  Happy agility!