Agility

Only 2 Q for each dog this weekend at a NADAC trial. Lots of good runs Saturday but off by one thing or the other. I felt out of synch with Wyatt Sunday but we did redeem ourselves and got 2 nice jumpers Qs, one for each dog, at the end of the day. Wyatt and I had a few small stumbles with Weavers Sunday but still were only 2 seconds over so I think there is hope for some elite Weavers Qs. I am working on not overhandling the weave entrances and trusting more. I picked the wrong test for hoopers for both dogs and passed the plane but did not stop and redo. In tunnelers with Wyatt, I stopped my flow/movement and stopped him and got an off course. Chances Saturday was next to impossible. Sunday was doable but had a problem with one part of the course. Had the same problem Monday at class (we did the same course). I set something up at home and made some progress tonight. Wyatt is doing great on tunnel/contact discrimination though I had a problem Sunday where I handled the same and he took the outer obstacle. Will have to study the video. He may need a stronger cue in the trial setting. Off with Aidan for a few days - no dogs so they get a break. Will do obedience tomorrow. I think my work with sit and down stays rewarding for shorter periods and for going away and out of sight is working.

Novice B Today

We had a good day. I scratched Wyatt in Open A for today figuring I need his sits and downs in Novice B to be solid before going back to Open A. Novice has a 1 minute in sight sit and a 3 minute in sight down. Open has the much harder 3 minute out of sight sit and the 5 minute out of sight down. Wyatt did fine in the sits and downs today (in sight.) Yesterday, he "froze" on the initial "come" command of the recalls. Today, he was fine and did a very nice recall with only 1 point off. His heeling was pretty good but he did not do the automatic sit part of the heeling. When you come to a halt, the dog is supposed to sit in heel position. He did not do a single one! This is typically a sign of stress or a busy location. We ended up with a 186, which is a very good score. He seemed a lot less stressed today and I also felt more relaxed. The judge was also very nice and mellow. This gives me more confidence to get back to Open though I need to continue some of the retraining I am doing for sits and downs. More on that later.

Obedience Results

Well, the good part was that a lot went right despite the location of the Big E Better Living Center, which is a very hard place to show since it is very noisy with breed going on all around and lots of traffic. Heeling was not as good as usual (not a single sit in Novice B) but other than that and sits and downs and recalls, all was good. His Open A retrieves and broad jump were very nice with few, if any, points off. He did have problems with sits and downs and also froze on the first recall command in both novice B and Open A. He was fine on the second command. The Novice B sit was good. He started to move his front paw down at the end but held the sit. He got up on the down and followed me and stayed in a perfect stand for the 3 minutes. In Open A, he repositioned and resat for the sit. The judge said he went down and sat up but I think she must have been referring to the repositioning. For the long down, out of sight, he stood up just as we were going out the door and again, stayed in a perfect stand until I returned. I have some thoughts about what happened but save that until my next blog entry.

Dog Memory

Walking around the Big E today, I noticed that Patriot had stopped to sniff someone and was wagging his tail and seemed very happy. When I looked up at the face, I saw it was his first owner, who had him until he was 2. He is now 8. We very rarely see this person but it was really clear that he remember on his own since I did not see the person and go up to her. Anyway, she petted him and goofed around with him and it was clear that he made the connection.

The Feel of Distance Handling

Had a great agility chances (distance) practice last night. Wyatt and I have improved a lot in 5 weeks now that I have some techniques under my belt. I am finding that chances/distance has a different feel. It is much slower (for the handler). You can really (and really have to) lay back and direct the dog rather than running together. I still love the speed of running with Wyatt, but the feel of distance handling is also fun, but definitely different.

Obedience Wednesday and Thursday and Agility This Weekend

I entered Wyatt in Novice B and Open A Wednesday and Thursday since there were some weekday trials. I am devoting weekends to family and agility. I thought I would try Novice B again to warm him up and do the easier sit/stays. The location (Big E - Better Living Center) is not great for Wyatt but I thought I would check in and see where we are. Still working sit/stays at home. I have been using props to keep him from scooting forward when I go out of sight and I have also been trying to teach him that he should not be moving at all by rewarding shorter periods of no movement.

We also have a NADAC agility trial this weekend. I am hoping to pick up some regular (standard) and chances Qs for our NATCH. I am also running Patriot, though less runs per day. I moved him back down to open so we can be more successful in terms of Qs and courses and times.

Practicing Out to A Tunnel

I set up our course at home with a tunnel under the dogwalk and one under the A Frame to practice Out to a tunnel. Wyatt and I are doing better at pushing out to the tunnel with my improving and more consistent handling of this situation. I am pushing out against his line about 1/2 way between the previous obstacle and the tunnel, saying Out Tunnel, and also pushing with my hand towards that same 1/2 point. Now I need to gradually work from farther away.

Chances Course From Last Night

The #5 tunnel was hard for us. Need to practice at home. Did pretty well on the rest though I had some high arm issues and was late in some of my signal to the second tunnel. Lynn says I need to try and think more in terms of multiple obstacles and not one at a time.