Monday, March 23, 2009

Fun and games for a Monday

After a weekend of tracking, Devon did something different today. I headed down to Pawsitive Energy to work with a teenager on his tracking project for school. Ruth was kind enough to let me use her building and grounds for a little training time for me, before we worked on the tracking project.

My goal for Devon today was to give her weaves in sequence in a new building. Devon did fantastic! She drove to the weaves every time I asked for them. She easily nailed the low challenge entries and some higher challenge entries. She was very distracted in the building with the dirt and with Ruth moving around in other parts of the building. This was fantastic distraction practice for her! After being firm with her that she had to come back and work with me, she did and the distraction issues were less.

The only entry that gave Devon problems was a high challenge left entry where she came into the weaves at almost a 90 degree angle to the first pole. I worked on back-chaining it, and she was finally successful over one jump to the weaves. If I added a tunnel before the jump she was not.

I gave her a short break and reset the poles to a new location. I then asked for three more entries with new sequences. These were successful, so we stopped and threw bumpers for a reward.

Devon really knows her job and she's driving to get there. When she made a mistake, she was a little slow to come back. I think she wanted to work it out right there at the poles. But once she came back to me and I refocused her, she drove just has hard to the poles again for another try. I really liked this work ethic.

I have full confidence with her on low challenge entries, so I'm looking forward to working her in class tomorrow night. High challenge entries continue to be tough, and we'll just work through those to get them better. Weaves and contact skills will likely have to be in weekly maintenance for her entire career. 

After we were done training, Zina and Devon got to retrieve bumpers from a bumper launcher. Devon thought this was great fun and this launcher got them farther than any winger could! After her work earlier, we only gave her two long retrieves. She searched long and hard for that bumper, so she slept very well on the way home and is now snoring on the day bed. 

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