Maya and Apache

Third Theresa Rector Seminar

2008-03-19T04:47:00.000-07:00

March 15

Apache and I are off to Royacker's again for the third part of the Theresa Rector Running Contacts seminar.

With all the snow PILED up this winter and no real indoor location available for practise, we haven't made much progress since the last session. I was, however, very excited to get the next set of directions. Today we learned how to fade the props, transition to the competition ring and maintain the running contacts.

The people who have had access to renting a facility have made a HUGE improvement. It is really exciting to see just how far they have come. I can't wait to have a chance to work on it more.

I also saw just how important the verbal left and right directions are and have been inspired to get my butt in gear to train them a whole lot better than they are now.

Maya Retires!

2008-03-19T04:40:00.000-07:00

March 13

Our class this week took a break from the Kathy Keats program to practise contact equipment for the trial most people will be at this weekend.

Apache is not ready to go back on contact equipment, so I left him home and brought Maya.

Maya has hip displasia, however, she has been completely asympamatic until last fall. I decided to give her a long rest over the winter. Boy, oh boy, was she ever excited to see everyone and visit with her doggy friends.

I set the jumps at 12" for her and at 21" tall that shouldn't be too taxing for her. She ran like stink for the first 10 obstacles and then came up limping. I let her rest and then we tried 8". She was very hesitant and reluctant to jump.

So, Happy Retirement, Maya! Now you just get to visit with people which is the real reason she wanted to go to agility anyway.

Week 7

2008-03-16T17:29:00.000-07:00

March 8, 2008

More serpentines! Hmmm... not as easy this week. In fact, this week's work made us look like we had never seen them before!

Now that the equipment is not in classic positioning, everything becomes much harder. I find that I am moving backwards now, which I know I shouldn't. Apache seems to take the first bar down over and over again. I must be turning as he is in the air.

We had an interesting discussion regarding layering. In the course we were working with there was a jump that was perpendicular to the line of jumps we were doing. One of our classmates, had trained with Greg Derrick and reminded us that we shouldn't layer in that system. I do use layering with Apache. Not often, and if I can avoid layering I will.

In Apache's case, I know that he needs a lot of personal "space". If I go into his space, it pushes him away from me. If I were to run on the inside of this jump (rather than layering) I may very well push Apache right off the jump. Even if I didn't push him off it completely, it certainly pushes him to the far side of the jump rather than down the middle as you would expect from a straight line of jumps.

I was disappointed that we ran out of time to work on the last sequence. I had analysed it as required and found:
2,3,4 serpentine
8,9,10 pinwheel
11, 12 threadle
12, 13,14 serpentine
15, 16, 17 pinwheel
I did not identify any 270's.

Week 6

2008-03-16T17:13:00.000-07:00

March 1, 2008

Serpentines, yippeee!

After last weeks difficulty with threadles, serpentines are a welcome relief. Something we can do! Maybe not well, but at least do.

I have to be aware of Apache's committment point. If I turn away too early, then he happily continues off without coming in to take the jump. If I linger too long, then I end up blocking his way and bars fly.

I need much more practise with this skill set, to really have a strong understanding of his committment point and when exactly, I can turn away with him still taking that jump.

In the beginning, I faded too early and Apache came with me. In the past I would have held my arm out doing this but we have been working on not using our arms as much. Save them for gambles. The next time, I stayed running straight for longer. Notice that I am still rewarding Apache with some food when doing a threadle. Everyone cheered because it is so rare for us to leave all the bars up. Linda threw the toy for Apache because we are trying an experiment. I carry a toy with me but only reward with it a little less than half the time. The rest of the time, someone else tosses a toy for him. We are thinking maybe he is bringing the bars down anticipating his reward.

I forgot to recharge my battery, so there isn't much video today.

Week 5

2008-03-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

February 23

I am really enjoying this distance education program put together by Kathy Keats.

We have spent quite a long time working on our front and rear crosses. Apache is my speed demon and yet, I am more comfortable doing front crosses with him. Both of us seem to better understand the information being shared in a front cross. I still get spinning when I try to rear cross. Apache is showing more understanding than in the past.

The first drill had us working all in front crosses. I am certainly most comfortable using this cross and yet running a fast dog, I can end up falling behind him. I had to make an effort to wait with him at the #8 jump so that I could drive hard to #10 so that he would have the speed to take him out and around the 270. If you are wondering why I'm stomping my feet, it is because I tripped. Normally, I do try to run quietly! Do you hear Apache hitting the bars? It is unusual to get through a drill without taking down bars.

We then redid the same drill using all rear crosses. I have a hard time mentally letting him go ahead of me. Obviously, you can't do a rear cross ahead of dog so I have to get over that problem. I think that I am going into the pocket to support the rear cross and then I review the run and it shows that I didn't go hardly at all! Grrr! An old problem resurfaced in that on the straight line across the box, Apache started veering into me to snap at me. Not sure why - thought we had moved away from that behaviour. Still get a spin at the end of the drill, no matter how many times we tried it.

We next worked on practising our front crosses in a line. I tried really hard to stay in the middle of the jumps to minimize "flinging" Apache way out over the jumps. Watching the video shows just how far out he tends to go. Apache loves to "jump big".

We then moved on to threadles. Yuck! We have a VERY, VERY long way to go. Apache is absolutely sure that he should go out and around to the next jump instead of in between the jumps. I started by checking my feet and body position, but I think it is as simple as Apache not having a clue what I want. I finally just switched to wrapping him around a jump standard to try to build understanding.

Always fun working with my wild child, Apache.

Theresa Rector Seminar

2008-03-06T16:06:00.000-08:00

February 16

We are off to Royacker's for our second session with Theresa Rector. Today is just for people interested in running contacts. We haven't done nearly as much practise as I wanted to but with with everything else that has happened this month I'm okay with that.

The little dogs have really progressed a long way. Apache and the other big dog, a border collie have the most room for improvement. Apache needs to spend a lot more time working with the box on the flat with me working on lateral distance and with me running while he maintains his job.

As the next video shows, Apache must really compress his stride to keep it in the required space. I have feeling that this will be an ongoing battle. When Apache gets excited, he opens up both in stride and speed and just plain silliness.

We did the first bit on the A-frame. I really have to work with getting Apache to drop his head. He wants to keep it up and when it is up, he jumps. The good news is, when his head is down, he does a great job.

If you are wondering why I left his leash on, it was because another dog was working on the other side of the aframe which made me more than a little nervous.

Two people in our group will be representing Canada in Belgium this year. Kinda cool to train with people at that level.