Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Griffin at Agility Class: Week 3 and 4

Last week... Griffin was very fast, working very well, and amazing.  We made mistakes on every single exercise.  But the speed and enthusiasm are definitely a priority for now. I was very happy.

Today...   Sometimes fast, sometimes not.  Sometimes coming when called, so fast he would skid. And other times running out of the ring for water or to beg his friends for play time.

We had a lot of trouble with some of the exercises.   Griffin was often moving in too close to me, rather than staying out and taking obstacles.  Back to that obstacle focus issue.

For the first time in many weeks, we tried the weave poles... and only got it 1/3 times.  One mistake was continuing on after the entry, and another time he cut out at the end when I moved past him.  He can weave if I'm behind him, but we haven't done work with me ahead or moving past.  

His very best parts today:

  • We did an activity with 'directed jumping' of sorts. He was great, I could be very far away and I didn't have to move to get him over.  Because of our obedience work and fluency work...he already understood most of this.  Many other teams had less experience in this area and they had to be closer to the jumps or move and prompt the dog.
  • Aframe, flipping to a tunnel underneath.   He's always great at this, but we've never done it away from our usual training place.   He was perfect and responsive. It sure was easier for me than it was for many of the teams who had to be much closer to cue.
  • Table:  He's not seen very many tables, but he was able to jump up and Down right away. He almost broke position a few times as I moved, but he fixed it himself.
  • Stays: While others walked the course.  He had people moving within 12" and he held position, easily!
Things to work on: 
  • Straight out of the chute:  He turns towards me quite a lot...making it potentially unsafe (for both of us) and more difficult for any handling challenges.
  • Dogwalk: (Help!).
  • Weaves: esp with entries, with handler ahead, and handler moving past
  • "pushing" out to a jump, away from a line we are following.
  • Recalls.....
Focus points today:
  • Keep food in my pocket until after the sequence.   
  • Feed low (rather than high like for Heel position).
  • Run!

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