preparing for trial?

[Bear Luv]

Rush and Bear havent done any agility since November. Well, with the exception with DW/AF reps since it was all I had up in the yard when we got rain rain rain, snow snow snow lol. I was wondering what I should be working on for our upcoming trial? We havent trialed since Oct D:.

I am both extremely excited and extremely worried lol. We were just getting into our trialing shoes and really getting used to running together when weather made it impossible to even practice. I had the dogs do some AF reps today (mostly focusing on staying in 2o2o with lots of reward). It was all fun to give them something to do, I know Rush has gotten sick of fetch in the house. She was crazy excited to run around outside.

I keep thinking about what kind of courses I should set up or what I should focus on in practice this week and next week. I never do agility more then 3 times a week, so I want to get in important stuff. I am at a loss on what I should do though!

I am really hoping to take agility lessons over the summer and possibly a CU class. For some reason lessons always get pushed back!

Also if there is anything anyone could tell me about CU classes? I would be dying to know. I basically want to train what the book has to offer, but I also would love the proper environment to do it in.

Diane

[CaliTerp07]

That's kind of an impossible question to answer--no one knows what you need to work on except you!

I feel you on the weather though. This weekend my backyard is FINALLY starting to show through the snow, so I made the most of it and set up weaves and a couple jumps and practiced the various crosses and weave pole entrances.

[OutlineACDs]

Practice a few of the well-used jump drills; 180's, serpentines, threadles.

Practice those with and without a lead-out, also alternate with front and rear crosses.

Weave entry drills. Just use 6 weaves and set out a jump at one end and a tunnel at the other. Practice entries by starting with the weaves straight on and slowly angling them out.

Contacts and table practice.

Keep it short, don't drill too hard and have fun!

Good luck at your upcoming trials.

[adojrts]

Although you can tweak and improve upon things, if you have any major issues sadly they generally can't 'fixed' within a week or two.

Do you keep a trialing and/or training journal? If so, go back and read it, what you need to work on should be there.

Good luck and let us know how you did or if you have any other specific questions

[Bear Luv]

Rush doesn't have any 'major' issues. We have had a few problems in trials with weave entries and pulls, though at home she completely nails them. Her contacts are extremely solid and so are her weave entries (at home). I am just trying to get ideas on what kinds of things to practice! Though now that Outline mentions it...we probably could brush up on threadles and serps. Honestly the only thing I could think of was weave entries. Her pulls are so awesome at home and at trials she is just like WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, and doesnt pay attention to my body language, though last trial as we were going she really started to pay more attention after we redid some things after she took an WC.

Maybe I am curious if anyone knows of a method to train a tighter pull? maybe like a body or verbal cue or something that I could possibly start using in trials. Obviously its not likely to be trained by our trial, but for future reference. I honestly havent though of it until now. I keep hoping that eventually she will grasp self control as she only recently turned 2. Shes only broken two start lines and never has she broken a contact in a trial. I guess all her crazy BC energy goes into RUN RUN RUNning into a WC lol. I dont know if maybe there is some way to kind of gain more control over her? I wouldnt honestly change anything about the way she does agility. I think we might need more practice on harder courses down the road, but I feel a lot of her miscommunication with me is either ME or will get better with trial experience. Still I am curious to hear what people say about a signal or something? lol

[Bear Luv]

Video for people who wanted to see it.

YouTube - RaisingK9 NADAC Trial, Oct. 23rd - 25th - her last trial, which was only her second NADAC. Its long so feel free to skip it.

YouTube - 11-22-09 - last time we actually did agility (i think), I cant remember if those are just weave clips or if I show the rest of the course we were doing.

[OutlineACDs]

Set up courses or exercises that allow you to work on your pulls.

In trials you may need to use stronger body language (a more pronounced turn) or even her name to get het attention. It's really just a green dog mistake though. She will get better with more trial experience.

[OutlineACDs]

I watched the 2nd video. You need to nail your weaves down and practice that way. She is able to move the weaves side to side with her body and all weaves at trials (except nadac) are nailed down.

Just something you might not have noticed, but it does change the behavior slightly.

[Bear Luv]

I am still getting used to my handling, but I think I will practice more pronounced handling in practice see if I can get used to it. Shes so fast sometimes it jumbles my brain and I say the wrong command and I cant think accurately so I have no problem taking the blame for our issues lol.

I will do that! I have honestly never nailed them down. The only time there has ever been an issue is with Honey bear and thats because her footing is inconsistent and she tends to just plow through. Shes knocked the base over a few times. Maybe I can use my tunnel bags to hold the base down? Hmm, guess its time to get creative!

[adojrts]

I watched the video's as well, two things jump out at me other than the weaves which OutlineACD's commented on.

For the pulls:

Your hesitating and your actually facing that tunnel entrance.
Recommend that you 'Drive' towards the correct tunnel entrance and with such as young dog and do a False Turn, then continue driving. You can power (drive) forward, do the FT and even use some lateral movement to pull her towards you BEFORE sending her to a tunnel, all that can be done to ensure she gets the right entrance and at speed.