Monday morning is my tracking class time but I decided to throw Disco and the weaves in the car just in case we had time to do some weaves during tracking. It worked out nicely as in the middle of our tracking stuff (moving from one place to another) I ended up with a dead battery and had to wait a few minutes for someone to come back with jumper cables and that proved to be just the time I needed to do some work with Disco. Nothing new, in fact I went back to 2 poles since he would be working in grass and I would not be able to toss treats as they would get lost in the grass. So this was a good time to see if he would bring back a toy. He did very nicely except that I had to trade the toy for a treat when he brought it back. I was very pleased that he worked the poles well and stayed with me. Training lasted less than two minutes as my rescuer showed up with cables and we went back to tracking class. I will take Disco down to Barto for my Monday evening agility classes and work him on four poles there.
Well I headed to Barto early so I could work Disco on his poles before any of my students arrived. Unfortunately there were several people that arrived early. But since I had time and Disco was staying focused on me we did get the poles out and do our training for the evening. I started with 4 poles straight up with about 7’ between the two sets like I had at the hotel on Saturday. Disco did fine with all points on the arc with this set up being rewarded between the sets sometimes and after the second set other times. I also continued mixing between throwing a cookie and having him go after the toy. After working the arc I went ahead and moved the poles together and worked the arc with 4 competition style poles. I am also now moving with him as he does poles. I am beginning to move ahead of him and way from the poles as he is weaving. I have not started doing any crosses yet but will soon. He does struggle a little with the off side entry if I move to early so we will have to continue to work on that, but it is very impressive to see him finding some very tough entries and actually weaving the poles without me yanking him in and out or making him stop to find the poles.
Once class started I did work with several of the beginner dogs getting them started on 2 X 2’s. I am hoping this system will help them not only in learning weaves but in developing some teamwork and focus on their dogs.
Well I headed to Barto early so I could work Disco on his poles before any of my students arrived. Unfortunately there were several people that arrived early. But since I had time and Disco was staying focused on me we did get the poles out and do our training for the evening. I started with 4 poles straight up with about 7’ between the two sets like I had at the hotel on Saturday. Disco did fine with all points on the arc with this set up being rewarded between the sets sometimes and after the second set other times. I also continued mixing between throwing a cookie and having him go after the toy. After working the arc I went ahead and moved the poles together and worked the arc with 4 competition style poles. I am also now moving with him as he does poles. I am beginning to move ahead of him and way from the poles as he is weaving. I have not started doing any crosses yet but will soon. He does struggle a little with the off side entry if I move to early so we will have to continue to work on that, but it is very impressive to see him finding some very tough entries and actually weaving the poles without me yanking him in and out or making him stop to find the poles.
Once class started I did work with several of the beginner dogs getting them started on 2 X 2’s. I am hoping this system will help them not only in learning weaves but in developing some teamwork and focus on their dogs.