A Visitor and Another Regular Course

I found this charming fellow waiting for me out on the agility field Sunday morning.

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After finishing up with the last Regular course I set up, I searched through my files, and found another one that would allow me to keep the dogwalk where it was and just move the A-frame a little.   

I was very pleased with Belle's ability to handle this with me remaining behind the 15-point bonus line.  Her only weak spot was making the turn from #4 to #5.  More than half the time on her initial run, she took the off-course tunnel.

I was amazed when I ran Dusty on the reverse of this course.  He was able to run about 3/4's of it with me remaining behind the 15-point line.  He seemed to run out of motivation or confidence around #16.  But for a dog who only is worked with lateral distance, he did very well.

Dusty had a very difficult time with the weave pole entrance.  He insisted on wrapping the first pole and coming in on the left side of the weaves.  I finally resorted to putting up a gate so that wasn't an option, and we spent some time working on weave pole entries.

I was really surprised that a dog with so many years of agility behind him didn't have enough muscle memory to keep him from entering the poles on the wrong side.  We've had weave issues in the past, but they were mostly a matter of Dusty blowing by the entry (on the right side of the weaves) because he didn't want to collect himself.

More 15-Point Bonus Work

We have a NADAC trial coming up, so I decided to start putting up full courses and practicing the distance challenges.  I set this one up yesterday.

While walking it, I got the brilliant brainstorm to do the last half first, and to my amazement, Belle nailed it.  Then we tried the first half, which involves sending Belle away from me over the A-frame.

Unfortunately, Belle has a tendency to creep into the yellow on both the A-frame and the dogwalk unless I'm running a path parallel to hers.  I don't have to be close, but I have to be moving or calling her toward me.

I was very pleased when Belle managed to do the A-frame with a minimum of creeping.  When I released her from the A-frame though she made straight for the tunnel.  I decreased my distance and tried again, showing Belle that I wanted her to turn to the jump.  (Actually, from the bonus line, it would either be a "come over" or a "left over.")

Interestingly, when I ran this course in a trial earlier this year, I failed to Q with either Dusty or Belle.  I messed up by trying to do a front cross between #6 and #7 and ended up pulling both dogs off the #8 jump.  I managed to redirect Dusty to #8, but then he dropped the bar.  With Belle, I just kept going.

This morning (Wednesday) I went out with Belle and we ran the course in full.  Everything went great until she exited the weaves and took an off-course jump.  Once I analyzed the video, it was quite easy to see why.  By the time I issued my "go over" command she had turned out of the weaves and was facing the off-course jump.  The proper cue would have been "out over."

In order to practice getting Belle to take the correct jump upon exiting the weaves, I sent her into them several more times.  There was no weave issue involved originally, but after being sent to do the weaves several more times, Belle became confused about what I wanted and her weave pole performance suffered.  Moral:  Think carefully about how to work with you dog when trying to fix a handling problem, or you may end up creating a different problem.