Agility training

You probably wouldn't have the issues we have because in veterans in USDAA you have to run masters. To me it is dumb because just because Summer is old doesn't mean she's run agility very long either.

Meh.

TDAA will let you try the weaves a few times and they were fine with it. I figure that might be how it goes- just get her some more experience doing poles in the trial.

Oh, right. I guess I did know that. And yeah, not an issue for Meg. USDAA obviously meant it as a step-down division. They do make some weird choices, as do all venues. I know I called out NADAC, but it certainly isn't the only one that makes calls I don't agree with!

We'll see. I probably won't step her down this year. We only have a few more trials anyway, and then I need to figure out what I'm doing for the winter, since our usual go-to indoor site isn't an option anymore.

TDAA is strange in that veterans aren't separate at all. So I go up against all the 8" dogs (you are still classified as your measured height).

TDAA also gives exemptions to long bodied dogs. I've never seen another organization do that before either.

I guess they all do things differently.

I feel like before I was even competing, I saw a list somewhere of dogs that got exemptions - it was long bodied dogs, but also things like Berners and tall/heavy dogs. I can't for the life of me remember what that was for, though.

Well... after staring at my bank account and having a discussion with my mom (doing this means no trial this month which means I can't/won't be running Georgie) I have entered Payton in the Stuart Mah seminar in Chicago in a few weeks. We'll have a hell of a day, waking up at 4:30am and driving up there, but hopefully it will be worth it. I really need somebody knowledgeable to see the dog, and not somebody who's going to tell me the best course of action is to punch him in the face when he blows a contact or something like that... so... I'm hoping we'll learn a few things and get some helpful insight.

I'm so excited to be at CPE nationals this time next week.

PREPARE FOR PICTURE OVERLOAD.

I am going there just to visit on Friday! We should find each other.

I would love that!! Are you going to be dog less?

I will have a few of my dogs, but we won't be competing. I have a disc seminar that weekend that we are attending, I just want to stop by the nationals to catch up with my agility peeps.

Well that's awesome! We will definitely have to meet up. I'd love to meet any dogs that may be tagging along. And maybe hear about this disc seminar!

I PM'd you with the deets.

At class today I had a glimpse of the agility dog I know Crossbone can be! He was on FIRE and it totally caught me off guard. But so much fun!!!!! The course was a fairly difficult USDAA style with tons of discriminations.

Guess taking a week off of class & drilling (term used loosely!!!!) running contacts and small sequences with the chuck-it was good for us!!

Ok barring a freak snow storm causing both highways being closed down due to accidents....again, Diesel is going to is first trial this weekend

Mimi was crazy face at practice, it was awesome. Weaves are still fun.. I can't pass the plane of the weaves before she enters or she missed the first pole.. Which I don't suppose is a bad practice to have. Make her find the poles on her own. I need to work on our contacts, too.

Ezra is starting to understand and seems to be having fun, I just haven't found a stellar way to motivate him. He likes food, he likes praise, but nothing is OMG! He's crazy about the lunge whip with the lure but I can't train with that. Search continues!

YAY! I love those times when they totally blow you away

Mine usually involve messing up courses because I plan for fronts and end up having to do rears But I will totally take it!

Best of luck! I'm sure you will have a blast

Kimma used to be that way about the weaves. I think I spent too much time in training 2x2s without running with her at all. I ended up using a target at the end to get her to just speed through on autopilot and it seems to have worked pretty well (when she's not stressing that is!). I noticed it cut seconds off of our time when I didn't have to worry about sending her to the weaves.

You will find something for Ezra. You never know if the value of something might increase as you use it for a reward/he is successful.

Jari was awesome at class. First time he didn't disengage with me at all. He had a couple of "Oh but there's a dog over there I should take this jump towards it...." but he came RIGHT back which was amazing. No stopping to sniff, either. I'm so proud! And he's good on 6 weaves in class with distractions so yay! Still unsure in that environment and not as fast, but we can work with that.

Kimma was also great. She loves the new international moves (we had a lot of backsides in our course last night) and it makes her turns SOOOO tight. I need to start using them in trials as I know it will take so much off of our time and make her run faster. I am just not quite confident yet. I figure that we have the summer off so I might as well really get those things down, then I will hopefully be good by the time we start back up in September. Hopefully

We had three great weave sessions today. I'm getting hopeful that we'll at least get one standard Q this weekend. HAHAHA. At any rate I feel like our games level 2 is in the bag. Probably shouldn't get ahead of myself though.

My classmate is the judge so that should be interesting?

I'm blown away with how good Harleigh did at class Monday. She was so amazing!

She was focused on me when she needed to be and she was obstacle focused when she needed to be.

She really only messed up 2 times and they were both very easy fixes (and my fault, of course). One was as simple as doing a rear cross versus doing the front cross we had tried 2 times prior. When we did the rear cross at that sequence she did absolutely perfect. The other time I just took for granted that she would do this obstacle and didn't really drive her to it, but we did again and I really pushed her to it and she did it perfectly.

Maybe, just maybe, she's growing up.

Also, just a general question. Harleigh has the best sit/stay out of all of the dogs in her class... there have been times when she has had to sit for quite a few minutes before we are able to start running and she has no trouble with it.

Nearly everyone in class has complimented her and said they wished there dog would sit/stay like that. Is it really that rare for a dog to have a good sit/stay for agility (I would think not)? Or does Harleigh just have very good willpower compared to the other dogs in her class (well that and I did to a lot of distance sit/stay training with her when she was younger so that may be it too).

And it's not like she isn't motivated for agility, not at all! Because as soon as I release her she is ready to go and goes 100 mph, lol.

I'm just curious is all haha

Congrats on your good class! I also had a good one last night where we were able to tackle some tricky sequences. Regionals is in 2.5 weeks and I've not trialed since January. Eep!


As far as start lines go, yeah, in my experience it's not uncommon to have a dog itching to release and jumping the gun. It depends on distance, duration, level of arousal, etc.

Cohen used to have a killer start line stay. Now, it's complicated. The moment I place my hand on her collar to remove it, she starts barkbarkbarking. It takes a minute to get her attention back and her settled. She'll sometimes continue to bark on the start line and I wait for her to quiet before I release. The closest she comes to breaking her stay these days is standing up from the sit or down I leave her in as I take my lead out. I've been working on reinforcing good behaviour with food but I'm suspecting I'll see a regression in a trial atmosphere.

However, between runs I put her in a down-stay (off leash due to leash/collar removal issues) and she'll hold it indefinitely while I walk the course.

I used to have a perfect, calm, explosive start line and I took it for granted. Don't! Reinforce it! Also, I wouldn't really want to leave my dog lined up on a start line if she has to be there for "quite a few minutes". I may be sensitive to it because of my issues with Cohen, but I would want to have her hold a stay in another area so she knows that when she's lined up you're 100% connected with her and ready to play.

Thanks! And good luck at regionals!!!!

Interesting. Don't get me wrong, other dogs in her class have a great sit/stays also, but they will break it if they feel their handler is getting too far ahead of them. I try to get a good distance from Harleigh because she is so fast and I need a head start, lol.

In regards to the staying a few minutes... that has only been a few times and it was when I thought the instructor was ready for us to run, but actually wasn't. On the rare times it has happened, I usually keep her occupied and then put her in a sit/stay. There were a couple times where she did have to hold her stay for a little bit, but most times I do not prefer to leave her for that long.

May be a stupid question, but what do you think I should do to reinforce it?

Also, while she does do well with her stays keep in mind this is only a class. Who knows what she would be like at a trial should we ever enter one!

For longer stays, I would just wander by and offer some food, praise and then wander off. Nothing fancy!

For active stays on the start line, I would take a lead out, return, feed, lead out, return, feed, lead out, release. Try to avoid the impulse to make a pattern out of it (release on every 3rd lead out or whatever). Periodic reinforcement makes for more difficult to extinguish behaviours.