Friday, June 3, 2011

Second Lesson Back

Yesterday we had another great lesson at DogStar.  Our opening 'warm-up' course was pretty basic--mostly just a big spiral.  Jonah's energy was good but I didn't support him enough on a push to an off-set jump, which he ran right past.  We tried running that line a few ways.  I'd initially pushed and pulled all from one side, and my second attempt at the same handling worked fine.  What actually worked better, though, was to handle from the other side and rear-cross the last jump.  It was nice that he was moving along enough that the rear was not de-motivating.  I think he actually liked it.

The second course brought out a few more issues:
1.  I tried a lead out on an angle.  He held the stay fine but ran right around the jump, and didn't have any energy.  Apparently running with him is still the best option when it's possible.

2.  We had some table issues.  Twice he approached the table with so much speed he couldn't stick a landing and had to jump off the other side.  A couple other times I had to ask for a down verbally--he didn't do it automatically.  Apparently we need some more table practice.

3.  There was one incident of dogwalk suck.  He came out of a tunnel facing the dogwalk and, instead of finding me and curling around to a jump, he took the dogwalk.  The next time we did the same question all I needed was a verbal 'here' to pull him off.  Jonah's been very good about not taking off courses lately, so I don't think much about them when I'm walking a course.  I should be a little bit more heads up about dogwalks in particular.

4.  Jonah's contacts were good all day.  He did fall off one dogwalk contact (He was running so fast he didn't get the stop while his back feet were still on the board.  He did stop, it was just a step past the contact zone), but otherwise we had no problems.  Grace said we'd done a really good job with them and in general I have to agree.  I think he's quite reliable with his dogwalk contacts.

5.  We played with two ways of wrapping, and I think it was a valuable exercise.  The course came out of a tunnel, turned right, wrapped a jump and then went back in the opposite direction.  When I first walked it I was thinking I would wrap to the left with a front cross.  Grace suggested a wrap to the right with a post turn.  I asked her what the benefits were either way, and she said that it often slowed dogs down to have to change leads (which the wrap to the left required).  I'd never thought about that before, so it's another consideration to add to my toolbox when walking courses.  The first time I ran the course I followed Grace's suggestion and post-turned to the right.  It was effective.  The next time I wrapped left with a front cross, and Grace and I both thought he seemed happier that way.  We didn't have a watch on it to time the difference, but a happier dog is a good enough reason for me.  My guess would be that it was faster, too.  So, conclusions I could draw from this are:  a) Maybe Jonah changes leads quickly.  b)  Maybe Jonah prefers a path with less back-tracking.  c)  Maybe front crosses are tighter than post turns.  d)  I should still continue to play with handling lots of ways so I have lots of possible options that I am confident Jonah will do well.

6.  The one other challenge of the course was an offset line of jumps.  First I handled it all on one side, and it worked.  I had to be careful with my footwork, as I had to wait for him to approach the first jump out of a tunnel, then I drove and pushed to a tire, and then I had to hold up and have him come back towards me to get a tough angle on a third jumps.  It felt like I was playing stutter step, but we got it done and his path was actually pretty fluid.  Next Grace wanted me to get a front between the tire and the third jump.  The first time I didn't get there in time because I waited too long for the first jump.  Then I tried three more times, and Jonah was so speedy that I just could never get there in time!  I knew I was late, so I never even put the cross in, because I knew it would jam him and I want to always be rewarding him when he kicks it into such high gear.  Thus, we gave up on the front cross :).  Instead, I did a double rear cross.  After we'd had so much success with the single rear cross, it seemed like a good idea.  The first worked great, and he got the approach to the jump fine (but maybe wider than ideal?), but then he needed to just drive straight to a tunnel, and instead he tended to curl back around to find me.  It only took a step or two for him to pick up on the new direction, but it was still an awkward, inefficient couple steps.  Even when I used a verbal 'tunnel' cue, Jonah's footwork wasn't perfect.  The rear cross works well for us when it's a bit of a wrap, but our straight rears need work.  Anyway, the last time running the course I went back to the one-sided handling, which was a little more awkward for me but he ran smoothly.

Overall, it was a very good lesson.  I think Grace wants us to go ahead and get into either USDAA or AKC.  We'll have to see.  I'm still wavering day by day as to which one.  Grace seems to prefer USDAA.  Anyway, we've got a good summer schedule lined up with CPE and I still want Jonah to get his CATCH, so we need CPE trials.  Plus, the pressure is low and it's lots of fun!

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