Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Back to Basics

Today for our first session back Jonah and I did a very basic but fast and fun practice.

The setup was basically just a speed circle...or square.  On one side was the table and a set of 6 poles.  The next side had the DW.  The teeter was on the third side, and the A-frame on the fourth.

We started at the table, then headed for the weaves, DW, teeter, A-frame and then he got his reward for a fast down and stay on the table.  It was working very well and his obstacle performance was generally excellent.

I did notice that he was close to flying off the teeter a few times.  Apparently my efforts to speed up his teeter have now gone to the other extreme.  Anyway, I started just staying with him a little bit more and had him do a 2o2o a few times.  Then I would let him run off the end but reward him right away for a correct performance, giving him a cookie right as he ran off the down side.  It seemed to be working well.  I also put the teeter up to full height, and he didn't seem to notice at all.  Maybe our teeter concerns are over.  Of course, he's only ever nervous away from home.  We'll see what happens at our upcoming trials.  We didn't end up doing the teeter at all at our last trial.  Maybe next time I'll make an effort to do the teeter in games when I have a chance.

Looking ahead, we got into the ADG January trial, and I'm pretty sure I only signed up for 3 classes but the confirmation is for 4.  I guess I'm just so used to doing all the classes I did that again.  It's not really a big deal, we're just ahead on Fullhouse and I thought it could be a good chance to come home early since it's the last class of the day.  I still haven't heard if we got into the Riverside trial in January.  I hope so.  I'm also considering going to a Sunday USDAA trial in January and running Gamblers (the first class) and Pairs (the second) so Jonah could actually have his SAD title (or do people just call it AD?  I'm a little confused about the titles).  Just thinking about it makes me nervous, but I think he would probably be fine at pairs, just maybe a little bit barkily rude.

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