Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Barking To Be Let In

Wyatt, as far I can remember, has also barked to be let in the house. He is quite quick to bark when he is ready to come in, especially in the winter, when he must set records for quickest to do his business. Patriot, on the other hand used to never barked to be let in. Finally, at the age of 7, he has learned to bark to be let in the house. I am not sure if he finally learned it from Wyatt or if comes from the time I forgot him for about an hour in the cold weather and he started to try different things. He now will bark after a while - though not immediately like Wyatt - to be let in. I guess a old dog can learn some new tricks!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Fine Tuning

I have been fine tuning some things with heeling and with the drop on recall (DOR.) I am trying hard to get the really good DOR the first time. I am also trying to get better speed. Wyatt really anticipates the drop if I only practice DOR. So I have been trying to do a regular recall without a drop most of the time and only do a DOR maybe 25% of the time. It seems to be helping. I have been having trouble getting a full down in the colder weather at times. I probably should not even try on the colder days.

I am trying to look ahead more heeling and use my periperal vision. I found that I do need to look back to get a straight halt but I am trying to not look back until the "judge" says "halt." I have a bad habit of looking back on the "fast", which I am trying to break. I also spent a lot of time doing retrieve on flat and retrieve over jump side by side. I use a different command for each one. There is a danger of him taking the jump if the ROF throw is off or not taking the jump if is the ROJ throw is off. I'll continue trying to work on it but the best thing will be to have straight throws, which I usually do.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Brace

I had blast trying brace for the first time tonight and hope to compete in it at the American Whippet Club National although there is a potential conflict between agility and obedience. The heeling and halts need work. Patriot lags behind Wyatt heeling and they sit funny but they basically could do everything fine the first time. I love the recall. Wyatt gets right off the line and jerks Patriot into starting! What a riot. I'll have to video it sometime. I hope I can compete someday.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Heeling - Eye Contact Versus Painting a Line

I did not in the video a few things. Some folks also pointed them out to me in email. One thing I am thinking about is how much to go for eye contact and how much to "paint a line" for the dog by looking straight ahead. It can cause lagging when you look back at your dog. Typically, I will look back when doing an inside turn and when coming to a halt. I believe it actually helps on the inside turn because I want my dog to slow down. I look at my dog's rear end, basically. I do have the bad habit of looking back on fast too. I am trying to look about 2 feet ahead and to not look at Wyatt on the halt until we have actually halted. So far, these changes do seem to help though he forges a bit on the halt now since I am not slowing him down by looking back.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Open A Match Video

This is from yesterday. Best part was Wyatt nailed his sits and downs again! I was very happy with this overall. I will proof throws that are off a bit more. Not sure about the initial jump when heeling. I could not even get him to look at the jump at home last night even when heeling inches away. I probably needed better contact initially at the start line. We also do better if I have eye contact initially.