Broad Jump - Left Side

We hear that the AKC is likely to allow the judge to specify that the handler stand on the left (new) or right (old) side of the broad jump.  We tried it in class for the first time.  Wyatt seemed confused and walked over the boards the first few times.  I practiced at home and now he seems fine.   It is interesting how a different visual picture will be very different to our dogs even though logically to us, it is the same thing.  

Tracking Sunday

Wyatt did a pretty hard track Sunday of 400-500 yards with 4-5 turns.  In other words, it was a regulation TD track.  I did use 4-5 articles though.  I tried treating out of my pouch but he got distracted with that.  I am going to go back to putting treats in the articles.  I see no advantage to treating from the pouch anyway.  Seems better to just reduce the number of (baited) articles slowly and/or leave some unbaited and just praise him.  I am getting better at reading him and am working of trusting him more even if he appears to be drifting off.  He seems to drift back.  I can tell by his head movements if he is on the track.  Corners are harder to read.  That is the next task.  

Training Log

I have started to keep a log for sits and downs.  I am hoping to see some patterns.  Wyatt has been pretty good lately with an occasional failure.  Right now, I am doing 1 minute out of sight sits and 3 minutes out of sight downs successfully.  

The Next Generation

Runs Thrus Nailed

 Wyatt and I did some run thrus at Clean Run last Friday night.  We really rocked.  I did not have any dog walk issues (he saves those for trials I guess).  On the last course, a really tough USDAA style master's course, he nailed it.  Fast, good distance, and no faults.  

Second Chances - Status

So far so good on second chances.  When Wyatt has popped up on his long down, I have walked away and stopped practice.  He did it 2-3 times and after that, he has not for 3-4 times.  I am sure it is not the last mistake but, so far, I am cautiously optimistic.

Second Chances

I am wondering if my general policy of trying again and giving a second chance is backfiring.  I am seeing three specific instances where Wyatt is consistently doing an incorrect behavior the first time.  These are:   drop on recall where he does not drop on the first one of the day, dogwalk contacts where he jumps off, and on long downs where he frequently pops up.  On the dogwalk, I have been doing only NADAC where you can train in the ring (no Q, of course).  He will consistently blow the dogwalk and I take him back where he almost always gets it the second time.  [This could also be related to my position relative to him where he has a real problem if I am behind him.]  So, what I normally am doing is giving Wyatt a second chance and he still gets a treat after the second, correct performance.  

I am wondering if I have inadvertently trained him to do it "wrong" the first time since he is still rewarded.  I am going to try consistently breaking off training with no reward when he does not "do it right" the first time.  Interestingly, I only see the dogwalk problem at trials.  I cannot get him to fail at home or in class.  The obedience issues I see both at home and in class though I see it more in class.