Open A Tomorrow

Wyatt and I are in Open A first thing tomorrow morning. I am feeling pretty good going in. The only slight worry is a cold floor and not going down all the way for drop on recall or the long down.

Heeling Work

I have been working with Wyatt and Patriot both separately and together as a brace team on heeling. For Wyatt, I am fine tuning and trying to address the places where I lose a few points for lagging, which tends to be on outside turns (either about turns) or a 360 and on "fast." With Patriot, I am working with him everywhere. The technique I am using is the same though. As I am in the turn, quickly get a treat and have it ready at heel position when the turn is completed.

Wyatt's Check Up

Good news. Wyatt got checked out today by our sports vet Julie Roos, DVM and she thought he was doing really well and could go back to agility. She does want me to still reduce his jogging time with me. That was great news. It does seem like he needs a big rest time every winter. I may greatly reduce his jumpers runs and also run his at 16 now that he is a veteran.

NADAC Agility Brag

Wyatt was the #1 NADAC agility whippet last year, getting #1 in 3 classes. You get 10 points for every qualifying run at the elite (like AKC excellent) level and you need at least 30 points to be even on the list. Here are the complete whippet results.

Whippet Jumpers 80 1 Wyatt John Heffernan
Whippet Jumpers 40 2 Hugo Kiely Grundahl
Whippet Jumpers 30 3 Patriot Dawn Heffernan

Whippet Regular Agility 30 1 Wyatt John Heffernan

Whippet Tunnelers 140 1 Wyatt John Heffernan

Lagging

Looking at our recent run thru scores for open obedience, we lost 6 1/2 on heeling, 1/2 on drop on recall, 1/2 on retrieve on flat, 1/2 on retrieve over jump, and 1 on broad jump. So I have been trying to reduce lagging on the heeling. I have been luring with cheese on all the different kind of outside turns to try to get him speeded up on those turns. That's where we lose most of our points. He also seems to lag on "fast" at run thrus and trials. My thought is to try and get speed on the turn and get that into his muscle memory.

Very Good Run Thru

Wyatt and I had a great run thru Thursday night. We qualified with a score of 190.5. We lost 6-7 points in heeling for lagging and a few 1/2 points off for fronts and finishes here and there. Sits and stays were perfect. It was one of the coldest days of the year so I did use a little mat for the long down. This gives me a lot of confidence going into our 3 upcoming trials.

Barking Before Gloves

I am getting tons of barking at the start of the Utility Directed Retrieve (aka Gloves) exercise. I can't quite figure out why. I have a feeling this will not be a problem in trials but I would still like to work on it. My guess is that the gloves are his favorite article to to retrieve due to the fact that they can be a moving white object (I frequently throw them low on the mats to get him pumped up.) Anyway, I think the frustration of having to sit twice before the retreive may be frustrating for Wyatt. Not sure how to work on this yet. I tried waiting until he stops to start and using his oops word but that did not seem to do much, at least in the short run. Any ideas appreciated!

Too Smart

I've been trying leaving the cellar door open so the dogs can hang out in front of the wood stove when we are out instead of being stuck in the basement which is colder. We have a baby gate in front of the pantry. The pantry can be a mischief area. Wyatt has been known to find goodies in there, like flour, which be enjoys taking to the living room rug and tearing apart. I secured the cabinets under the kitchen sink with a rubber band. That is where we keep the trash. Well, the dog walker arrived to find the trash all over the kitchen floor. He called me and suggested that we secure the door. I guess he did not see the broken elastic dangling from the cabinet knobs. Wyatt is just too smart. I am sure he saw this as an interesting challenge.