Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Update on "The Boys"

Wyatt looked great in agility class last night. He was super motivated and eager to run. I gave Patriot the night off. This was the last class in a 5 week series. I got good feedback from the teacher, who said my timing and handling, in general, showed much growth. I needed some feedback, I think, to get me back on track. If you don't get any for a while, it's hard to see what is going on and you can drift away from good handling. I also picked up some great tips in this class. The biggest thing that has helped me is to keep my focus on "drawing a line" on the ground about feet in front of my dog. The 2 feet in front and on the ground parts are really important, it turns out, both of which I was not attending to. I am also working on not cranking back my arm past my midline when sending out but keeping arm arm out the whole time. If I do need to send out from a stationary position, I am staring the motion from my midline.

I picked up another great tip last night when sending Wyatt to onside weaves at an angle. The tip is to send him to a point behind the weaves so he can get a good entrance rather than trying to send directly to the entrance.

I have Wyatt and Patriot entered in rally and obedience at a couple of during the week obedience trials. I am working on Patriot's excellence stations - back up 3 steps and moving down/sit in paticlular. They both need a refresher on offset figure eight too.

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