I love my dog.

It's pretty great to have one hour of awesome set aside every week.  It's not like we have perfect lessons all the time--we make our share of mistakes, but it's just SO MUCH FUN!  There are lots of times where I have the privilege of seeing Jonah really happy (like, every time I come home, whenever we play, when he romps wildly around the yard...), but none trumps when he's doing agility.  I'm so lucky to get to share that happiness with him.

At class tonight, there were bunches of things that Jonah did very well.  They included:
-A frame contacts.  They were awesome every time.
-We did beautiful threadles.  They were fast and efficient.
-Table performance.  It was looking very good.
-Distance.  I worked on handling weaves, a push to a tunnel, some jump work and a push out to the teeter all at some distance, and he was excellent.
-Discriminations.  We did a bunch of them and he was perfect every time.

Here are some things we had more trouble with:

This was the beginning of our first course.  When I walked it, I thought it was pretty straight forward.  I like to run with him form the start when I can, so I was planning on RCing 3.  Well, Jonah was so high starting out that he wasn't paying as close attention to me as when he's settled in.  By running with him, the angle from 1 to 2 was slicing 2.  As he was jumping 2, he saw the A-frame.  I called him off it, but the line was pretty wide, and then his angle of 3 was awkward so he turned wide from 3 to 4 as well.

The second time I ran it I made sure to push a little wider between 1 and 2 so he was straight from 2 to 3, but it was still a little messy.  If I'd done it a third time I would have just done a lead out, and I think it would have been more tidy.

This entry required patience on my part.  The first time we did it I was already moving forward when he exited the tunnel (I had to handle the weaves with him on my right), and it made him enter at the second pole.  The second time I came to a full stop and waited for him to come in towards me so he straightened out his entry.  When I was patient, it worked.

Recap from Last Week

Here are some videos from run-thrus last week.  Not our best work, but his A-frame is looking pretty good.

Gambles

Sorry I've been so quiet lately.  I have video to post from last week's run-thrus, and I never posted about last week's class.  I'm currently in the process of trying to put an internship together this spring, but it's proving to be very time consuming and frustrating.  Hopefully things will be all set soon.

Anyway, here are some gambles Jonah and I did yesterday.  He was awesome!  Maybe we'll even get the gamble this weekend...it will be our first Advanced run!

This was the only one we didn't get the first time.  Jonah came back over the offcourse jump rather than driving forward to number 4.  The second time we got it:

Wrap exercises

In the last few days I've set up this course from agilitynerd and played around with it.  I really enjoy it!

http://agilitynerd.com/blog/agility/courses/steve/jump-wrap-exercises.html

There are some trees to work around in our area, so some of the angles were slightly different, but in general it gave us a lot of good questions.

-We had some trouble with 2 to 3, where Jonah took the off-course jump at 4/12.  It took a much harder call than I had expected on paper or walking it.  Other than that, it ran smoothly.

-Next I ran the course backwards.  The only spot we had trouble was 6 to 5 (weaves to jump).  I tried to peel off pretty far, thanks to a tree being in the way.  That pulled him out of the weaves.  We actually had to practice that a few times before he would charge straight through the weaves with me about 12-15 feet away.

Sequence 2:

-I thought this one was lots of fun.  I really liked 4-8.  I ended up putting a FC on the landing side of 5 and then another between 6 and 7.  When I looked at the map I thought it looked pretty demotivating to just spin around in circles that much, so I wanted to change it by turning him the other way.  It worked really well and he was super drivey with good tight turns.

There was one more sequence but I haven't done it yet.

I really liked these, though, and it was nice to have tough exercises from an easy setup.  Thanks, Steve!

Last Week's Lesson

I realized I never posted about our last lesson.  Whoops!

It's been a full week and I have to admit that I don't remember everything, but I'll highlight a couple things.

1.  The first two obstacles looked like this:

I was worried that, if I ran with him from the start like I usually do, I would be putting pressure towards the tunnel as I went around the weaves.  So, I led out.  I guess I took my eyes off him when I released him, because as I started running for the A-frame he took the jump, found his weave entry and was half way through the weaves.  Oops.  Not exactly how I'd envisioned it.  The second try went perfectly, and the third time I ran with him, and that worked fine as well.

2.  A second challenge looked like this:

We actually didn't have any trouble with this, but I was careful to talk to him while he was in the chute and I was completely stopped when he came out, so he collected, adjusted his line and went on with the course.  I did it both as a push (with him on my right) and a pull (with him on my left).

3.  This was where the real fun was:

Grace dared me to try to get a BC in either between 3 and 4 or after 4, as that set up well for the next section of the course.  I determined that the only way I would be able to do that was to stay 'above' the teeter, layering 2 and 3 with the teeter.  I was pretty sure he would drive out to the tire, but I was worried he would come in towards me and miss 3.  I figured it was worth a try, at least.  The result was:  Jonah was perfect!  He was super drivey and charged to the tire.  I gave a strong 'out jump' command, and he flew over 3 and 4.  Of course, I was so excited that he'd done it that I forgot to put in the BC!  That's alright, though.  I was very proud.

Another one Bites the Dust

Ugh!  I just didn't get in to another CPE trial.  This is really forcing me to change my plans.  I now don't think it will be possible for us to have finished our Level 4 title by nationals, and I'm worried that we might not get into nationals, either.  Unfortunately there's no good USDAA trial to fill in for the one I just didn't get into (there's a local one that weekend, but it's all masters).  I'm going to enter another CPE trial in March, but now I have no confidence that I'll get into it, either.  At this point, I've gotten into 2 of the last 6 CPE trials I've entered.  Humph!

February Goals

January was a very good month for us, and it's looking like February will be too!

Here's a review of our goals from January:
1.  I'd like to practice running Jonah with another dog in the ring, in a pairs-like setup.
     Yes!  It had mixed success.  The first time, Jonah got loose and decided to chase Zer.  That was bad.  The second time, there was no chasing or barking, but Jonah was clearly very distracted and ran right past the jump closest to the dog.  That was not great.  The third time, Jonah didn't notice the dog at all!  That was excellent!

2.  I'm hoping for a successful first pairs run.  It would be excellent if we got the Q and finished our Starters title, but so long as we don't have a terrible experience I'll be alright.
     A+!  We did it, and now Jonah's an AD.  It was a lovely run and Jonah was not bothered by the other dog in the least.  What a good boy.

3.  Take Jonah on a socialization outing at least once each week.
     Yes.  We were quite good about this, and Jonah went on several trips to Willards, Beaver Brook, Petco, Chiesa Farm and probably others.  He was excellent both on and off leash.

4.  Bring the pause table inside and practice with it frequently.
     Nope.  There's still no snow, though, so we were using it regularly outside until last week when I picked it up.  Now it's on the porch and I should just bring it inside so we actually use it.

5.  Build a weave entry trainer and use it inside.
     Yes.  It's not a thing of beauty, but it works.  The trouble is that we don't really have that much space to practice all the angles of entries.

6.  Take advantage of our contacts still being outside as long as they're there.  Maybe even do some discrimination practice.
     Yes.  Looking at the weather, I don't think I ever should have brought them in.  Anyway, we did get good practice with them and we did discrimination sessions a few times.


Now, looking ahead to February, we still have two weekends off before we trial, since I didn't get into one.  That means, as far as trials, we have a USDAA trial on the 19th and then a CPE on the 26th.  


For the USDAA trial, we're entered in Steeplechase, Standard and Gamblers.  These are potentially tough classes.  Steeplechase is always hard to qualify in just because it's so competitive, but I'm cautiously optimistic because there's steeplechase in the morning and then just Starters and Advanced classes all day.  I'm hoping all the Masters dogs will stay home!  As for Standard, most Advanced courses don't look that bad to me, but it's our first time at Advanced and there's no room for error.  In gamblers, we just don't have super distance skills.  It's certainly possible that we could get an Advanced gamble, but it's not certain by any means.  


The CPE trial will give us shots at Colors Level 3, Wildcard Level 4 and Jackpot Level 4.  There shouldn't be many surprises there.


Other than that, it's practice at home, classes and some run thrus.  Here are some goals:
1.  Get at least one Q at the USDAA trial.  The Standard Q would be extra valuable!
2.  Get at least 2 Qs at the CPE trial.  If I don't get the Colors Q I might cry.
3.  Get video of one day's courses, whether at class, run-thrus, or one of the trials. 
4.  Set up at least one gamble a week to practice on distance skills.  
5.  Bring in the table and work on a fast down with a solid stay (at least now that we're out of starters we only need a cumulative 5 second count, not a consecutive one!).
6.  Get to the point where Jonah understands the wrap exercise where he should turn inside the tree/cone/marker.  Also have him be consistent in turning the correct direction when I send and pull, FC, RC or Ketschker.


I really would like snow, but it looks like at least for the next 10 days or so we'll be able to do lots of agility!