The good, the bad and the ugly of Harry's agility weekend
for those starting out in agility who want to see weave problems, handling issues, etc. as a learning tool Today's Standard run - The UGLY of my Impulse Control Challenged Dog  .........He broke his START LINE stay He is not COLLECTING for his WEAVES that is why he pops out He was jumping crazed and DROPPED at least four BARS The only GOOD was he actually gave me all three CONTACTS with me yelling at him of course http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htjxsup1O-8 Today's Jumpers with Weaves run - The BAD was all about COLLECTION issues I tried to catch his head to slow him down coming out of the tunnel (first obstacle) but he was running full speed and did not see the jump until it was too late.....What to do? Well he wasn't going to hit his SET POINT no matter what so he went for the Hail Mary pass by taking off too early ...... the end result: BAR DOWN The WEAVES is still the challenge of not COLLECTING so he ends up popping out again. He, always wants to fix the problem himself and we end up yelling at each other because he won't come back to me to get a nice start. It is a moot point ...... he needs to fix his collection if he ever makes it to the next level (I can't even say the word) because the run must be clean to qualify. After the weaves you can see all the GOOD (be sure to watch in full screen mode). I never had to say one word to him and he ran it flawlessly. Our JWW run was even better yesterday but I did not tape it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kay7xTs6sl0 AND - thank goodness for video replay - I have been beating myself up since Friday about our WRONG COURSE in Standard thinking I did not give him enough notice but in actuality when you pause the video at point 46 - before he takes off my shoulders and my body are turned in the correct direction plus I am past the next jump when I call to him so my motion was propelling correctly. He FIXATED on the dog walk and I need the added crutch of a hard call to penetrate the Fuzzy Fixated Brain. However, I can relieve myself of the guilt I was feeling about not giving him enough information. The ill effects of that fateful wrong course...... I ended up being on the wrong side and could not handle him all the way through the tunnel. After the tunnel you will note that we do a lot better despite the DROPPED BAR near the end. I am sharing this video though for the simple reason that I wanted you to see SUCCESSFUL WEAVES. Although I babysat him the whole way through when I wanted to leave him and give him a stronger cue for what ended up being our downfall. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r17uZRqP_EM&NR=1 Honorable Mention - I did get a strong CONTACT on that wrong course. Actually I never pull him off a contact when he gets sucked to one because I can't afford for him to start bailing on them. Footnote - BARKING = Impulse Control Challenged Dog The barking occurs at the beginning of the run or when he has to yell at the handler otherwise please notice the nice sit my "obedient" dog gives me at the end when I am getting his leash |
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| Mostly great things in there. You gotta love his enthusiasm. He's really TRYING. He's paying much more attention to you than the last set of runs I saw on tape. So, yeah, you're constantly making progress. It's hard to run a dog like that. With Mad it was let her go and stay the heck out of the way. I do miss the adrenaline rush, but it's just not real conducive to AKC agility unless you can really teach him to collect and he's not going to appreciate being asked to slow down, so it's a battle. Our guys are typically too big to get away with the things the border collies can get away with. AKC courses are tight and require good collection skills (as you know all too well) and in his case he needs to know where he's going two obstacles ahead, at least. Good luck with that  That's why I did mostly NADAC with Mad. She could really open up and I could just let her run.Bars are really your main bugaboo. Your handling has improved TREMENDOUSLY and his contacts are to die for.  Kristine |
| Oh he has enthusiasm all right. Bars are getting better but the collection is worrisome. My trainer runs Border Collies and she was saying her one does not like to collect at all and that is its issue. She wants to have a shirt made for the dog that says "Collecting is for the IRS"  |
| Oh, duh! We've been working on collections for two weeks now in class on something called the circle of death. I'll send you a diagram. You can set it up in your backyard and work a little bit every day. It offers lots of opportunities to work on various exercises with minimum space requirements, though it does require 8 jumps. Pam - it's still up. Sue's decided we're working on it this week too. It sounds worse than it is. I put up half of it at one end of my weaves this week so I could work not only tight wraps and 180s and front crosses and serpentines and the likes but include various weave entries at speed - the best of both worlds. Between Dazz and Sybil some of my weave guide wires - I put two back on at both ends to help them out - are now broken in as many as three places  but we're getting there. Kristine |
I love watching Harry jump!!!  His contacts are great. We aren't even close to that level yet but I already have Tiggy getting so excited that she takes whatever obstacle first appears in her field of vision next. |
| I finally could watch videos....they aren't that bad! OK, not perfect, but there are many improvements since last time......and I must say the biggest, best thing is how your handling has improved!  You looked great out there. If you need a good comparison, go back and look at the video from NY last fall, then watch these.  You are amazing Harry will catch up!! |
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