Hello
I feel like since RC class has ended and Loki & I are settling into how that whole behaviour is going to look, I haven’t been nearly as active on here. Also I just don’t have time. But otherwise I suppose things are just chugging along.
Weaves are slowly closing – I tried to push too quickly and blew his brain so now I’m being more careful and moving them all in about 1cm at a time every few sessions. Also working exits & always independence. Funny though he’ll do the whole 12 with me running backwards or sideways or whatever, but if I race him to the end, that’s where we run into trouble.
Possibly not that surprising. Interesting, maybe.
Dogwalks are also coming along, bit by bit. I initially ignored Silvia’s advice to very gradually add speed, and now I am taking that advice and we are very gradually adding speed. He hits about 90% of the time, but how safe those hits are is the problem. So we’re working on exits. Lots of exits, and we’re doing sequences after. I think he likes this. And if he misses a hit, he doesn’t get to do the sequences… He usually has a really awesome hit the next try. 😉
A-frames are… generally ok. I think they’re ok when a reward follows, but if a sequence comes before and after, it all sort of falls apart a bit. I’m thinking he might need a stride regulator or something to help but I’m not sure it will help, or if I just need to heavily JP the best ones and hope he figures it out. Today I did A-frames turning toward me into a tunnel for the first time and he thought this was super easy, and wasn’t phased by the tunnel/A-frame discrimination either. Go puppy!
And after some bar knocking the other day I’ve been trying to include my PVC uprights more but boy do they come down a lot. The problem with them is that even if he brushes the upright itself (and not the horizontal bar), the bar will drop. So it’s hard to tell when it’s his fault or not. I’m so worried about him jumping the metal jumps that most Australian judges use. He’s knocked off 7 jump-cups from my wings from the height above what he jumps, which means he’s come so close to them that they’ve been pulled off. The jump cups on Australian jumps are SHARP METAL. He’s only done two sequences with those jumps before and I already noticed a little patch of fur missing on his nose near his eye. 😦
Yesterday the usual gang came around for some post birthday agility training and we ran an O/E “Intermediate/Novice” sequence. It was loaded with traps and hard parts but I was glad to see Loki’s speed is back 100% after he fell a bit flat a few weeks ago. On the downside, I just haven’t been working on backsides lately so uh… they were a bit of a challenge (I didn’t include the attempts where he was confused by what I was asking 😉 )
He’s very fun to run, and sooooo different to Lu. But it’s amazing, I feel so much more confident and smooth with her now. I guess having to react so quickly to Loki and having to get from one place to the other so fast, and not having rock-solid commitment yet, when it comes to running Lu, I have a longer time to react, I can get places easier, and her commitment is way better. Shame she thought all wraps should be S-turns 😉
Life, iLumenated 