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.

2 comments:

doberkim said...

just found your blog - my Nov A dobe and I are preparing for our open debut in a few days, so I'm reading your entries with great interest :)

John Heffernan said...

thanks, doberkim! We are entered in 3 trials in Feb/Mar so good luck to you too!