July 11th

Jude – Injury update

Jude has had 2 weeks off any agility now. She is fine in herself, but was confirmed with a small muscle tear in right tricep last week. Next week she will see physio. This will confirm the state / extent of her injury, work out the rehab plan and when she can start working again.

Jaidi – One month into show season

So we have a few shows under our belt now and can really understand what is going well and, not so well. The 3 main areas for improvement are:

1. Weave poles, skipping between 2 & 3
2. See saw, particularly when dog is on left
3. Knocking a pole following a turn

I have to balance these with 2 conflicting requirements (i) the need to allow Jaidi to drive forward and work independently (ii) to gain experience and clear rounds as part of self confidence building. The reason why there is a conflict is that reducing drive would probably improve the issues (short term) above but at the long term detriment of natural speed. Therefore the strategy is to train within the natural drive and motivation (which he has in abundance), by breaking the issues into component parts.

I also have to look at the positive points. When striving for long term goals it is easy to get caught up in the short term issues. But these are the things going well (at the moment)!

1. Waits – 100% now for 3 consecutive shows
2. RX – Jaidi response on RX is excellent, allowing me to work behind
3. DW & AF – Covering obstacle at speed, really stopping well at bottom and forward focusing
4. FX – Jaidi doing well, but sometimes I lack conviction in my visual signals
5. Flick flack and pull throughs – part of FX work, Jaidi really watches my arm signals to cue collection and turn

Weaves – Jaidi has excellent weaves in training (as individual and part of a course), but is having problems in competition. His weaves were built in a combination of 2 x 2 and channels. All the training was shaped, to which he readily responds if presented with weaves and no command / his ‘weave’ command.

I can break the issue down further (note as we are in grade 3, they are typically straight entries):

·         Left hand side: Skipping between poles 2 & 3

·         Right hand side: not picking up poles 2 & 3

So each requires different method. For the former I will work with toy out of hand, for the latter with toy on floor (see it and drive). I am not generally seeing the issue in training as we have always used toys. This is the route of the problem, in that no toy in ring leads to a lack of focus from Jaidi, (coupled with the show excitement).

To compliment the above, I will vary the reward intervals and only use 6 weaves as Jaidi does not recognise 6 weaves in a course at all!

See saw – Massive improvement! With Jaidi on right it is executed brilliantly, quick and stop. On the left however he feels compelled to take me out by doubling back. This is part of no toy in the ring. So our training plan here is to have toy out of hand (RHS) and toy on floor (LHS). I also need to be cognisant of varying reward (see above).

This leads to another interesting point about Jaidi. He is very right side orientated, compared to every other dog I’ve had which are LH orientated. In lead training and walking I have done little different. I shall have to test Jaidi, Jude and Matty for L or R handedness!

Jump down – Any dog at any time can knock a jump down. So one has to balance an attitude to ‘we had a jump down’ with ‘why’. For me the answer is to keep a record, look for a pattern and then synthesise the why. I have always done this since I had Robbie (Midnight Chocolate Robin 1988 – 2002) and possibly explains my high level of competitiveness in jumping classes for over 20 years?

For Jaidi there appears a pattern at this early stage, even though he is pretty good at this time. If he is having a jump is usually after a turn and then the next jump. This says to me that:

a)      He is turning in collection

b)      He is extending out of turn and powering on in forward motion

The (b) is a good thing, I want my dogs in extension in forward motion, but Jaidi is not pacing himself and working out distance (he tends to hit front on, not rear as in turning jump down).

So the most obvious work here seems to be grid work out of a turn and working out a realistic and consistent cue until Jaidi’s experience takes over. However being in front of dog and permanently cueing collection is not a universal option, as Jaidi is quicker then me!