Friday, March 20, 2009

Today's weave training and other adventures

Devon discovered exactly what happens when she shows too much energy in the morning - she gets to go work! I got home from my exercise class and Devon was wound. A great time to get in a weave session before training later this afternoon! So out to the agility yard we went.

I put two sets of 2 poles first, then a set of 6 then the last set of 2 poles. This was a little tricky since the bases are quite different. I angled the first base so the first two poles were easier for Devon. I wanted to work those tough right entrances. 

Devon was ready to go and she nailed the first attempt from a low challenge area very well. As we moved down the entry arc to the higher challenge entries, Devon started occasionally entering with the first pole on the right. Just when she got the entry correct, she'd pop out at pole 10. I couldn't reward that! 

I'm sure the reason she popped out here was the difference in the weave bases since she hasn't shown this behavior before. After this happened the second time, I removed the 6 pole base and just worked these tough weave entrances on three sets of 2 pole bases. There was no reason to fight two battles, and what I wanted to work on was her entrances! Although I totally believe in teaching the dogs on 12 poles and moving to 12 poles as soon as possible, I see no reason to work 12 poles if you're having an entry problem. As this session demonstrated, there are other problems that crop up on 12 poles, so why battle two separate issues and end up not being able to reward at all?

OK, off my soap box and back to her session. Devon worked very hard on these right hand entrances. She was close to an 80% success rate, and she was able to get an 8:30 entrance (if the first pole was in the middle of the clock and the poles ran to 12) successfully. Although she didn't want to come back to me very quickly when she failed, she was pulling to get back to the poles and try again. I was really pleased with her work ethic.

This afternoon, I headed to the kennel club for members' training. I was able to have the building to myself since I went so early. A full 1.5 hours to work all three dogs in that building is priceless to me; well worth the price of the membership! 

I decided to work Devon on the 12 poles for the first time in this building. Based on her success on Tuesday with 6 poles and her success yesterday on 12, I was sure she could do it. I first asked for the weaves alone, and she was strong and confident on 12 poles. Then I asked for one jump to the weaves. It was a right hand entrance on the edge between a low challenge and moving into the high challenge. She missed the second attempt but came back strong.

Next I back chained two jumps to the weaves. Devon was very successful, so I asked her to take one jump after the weaves before her reward. Next I asked for a three jump pinwheel before entering the weaves with a low challenge left entry. Success! Then I turned the pinwheel around so she had a high challenge left entry; again we had success! Finally, I worked the first two jumps again to the weaves, but ran it on the left and then with a rear cross; these were also successful, including when I front crossed coming out of the weaves. 

To end the session, I did a sequence with two jumps to the weaves, front cross at the end of the poles (and I purposely front crossed early so she'd see my rotation while she was in the poles), pinwheel to the teeter and three jumps back out. Her weaves were perfect. I could not have been more pleased with her success on these sequences! 

She also worked through her teeter issue and was very strong working it today. In fact, she kept volunteering the teeter and I had a hard time getting her back to working other equipment! After a short break where I worked Ian and then let Connor have some fun, Devon came back out to work another set of sequences which included the A frame and dogwalk

I set a nice flowing course that included a "backy-uppy" out of the tunnel over a jump before racing to the A frame. I worked the backy-uppy separately, which was no problem for Devon with her one-jump, recall to heel foundation (Ian had a little more work to do before he read it). Then I back chained it with the tunnel before having Devon do the sequence leading up to the backy-uppy. I rewarded her and then put it all together. 

Devon handled this section equally well, and she stuck all her contacts. She had a very successful agility training session. I gave her another break and then worked on some obedience in the small training ring. She did a lovely job heeling and working fronts. It's nice to have mirrors to see her progress! 

And not to leave Ian out. He also had a great agility session. It's incredible how much faster he is when there's no one around. He's a different dog! He was moving so fast, I was running as hard as I could to keep up with him. It was such fun to let loose and really work him. At this point, I was very glad for my exercise class that I've been taking for a month. The muscle tone and flexibility I've gained saved me today.

Connor also had his big adventure today. I took him out on the floor with me as I was resetting bars from 24 back down to 20 for Devon. Just like last week when I let him into the barn at Pawsitive Energy, he ran around like a crazy puppy. He wagged and ran. In fact, once he jumped over a bar still set at 24 inches. He still has beautiful jumping form. He sailed through a tunnel and up the A frame all on his own, but he put on the brakes when he saw the 24 inch double. He looked back at me as if to say, "Hey mom, can you get over here and fix this? It broke my flow!" Funny how being 9 years old suddenly makes the yellow contact zone on the A frame more appealing! 

The only down side of our training session came when Devon had an accident before she started her second agility session. She likes to "boing" or jump straight in the air from a stand when she's excited. It looks something like what an Aussie or Border Collie would do, and she jumps so high she can look you in the eye or give you a kiss on the cheek (and I'm 5'6"). 

Devon was so excited to come out of the crate the second time to work (after watching both her brothers work), that she was boinging. On the third jump, she hit a table behind her with her behind, about three inches below her tail. Luckily her tail was tucked or it would have been very bad; however it was bad all the same. When she landed, her legs crumpled under her and she landed pretty hard. She kept her tail tucked when she got up and you could tell it hurt. I let her walk it out and moved her to the padded agility flooring and walked her out to make sure she didn't have an injury. As she moved, she recovered and actually volunteered obstacles, so I continued training. 

Tonight she got a traumeel, because I'm sure she's sore. I'm going to walk her out and stretch her very good before we do any training tomorrow. I'm sure there's another appointment with Dr. Bonnie in her future! She's exhausted after two good agility sessions and "helping" this afternoon with equipment. As usual, I'm sure she'll sleep well tonight. She deserves it after the great training day she had.

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