Starting with Tues 23rd at NADTC. This was Dog of the Month night and Allison had set a lovely competition Agility course. Reno ran beautifully on his competition run getting and completing 6 weaves and stopping/remaining on his contacts until I released him. Unfortunately I got a bit over excited and sent him to the wrong jump after the A-Frame.
For the first time ever our next two runs over the course were clear.
Last Saturday we went on the Training Day with Alistair Bray. I have to apologise to Alistair for saying I had no idea who he was!! I have seen him competing before but hadn't heard anything of him as a trainer. I can't imagine why because he is very good.
I particularly liked the way Alistair managed to keep the day moving. He managed to make it informative and challenging even though he had such a diverse range of Dogs and Handlers attending.
So what did I learn from the Day?
Firstly, and most importantly, it was a great reminder of things that I had forgotten.
1. I have taught Reno to "look" at the first obstacle but I have to remember to remind him.
2. My foundation training has worked. Reno does understand my handling but I need to make it a lot clear for him then I do for Kiros.
3. I am a consistent trainer/handler!!
Our only real stumbling block was (of course) the weaves. It's obvious that Reno still finds them difficult and as a result, uninteresting. Alistair talked about Mirroring to help him develop an even rhythm. The other thing that he observed was that I had (inadvertently) encouraged Reno to not go into the weaves. His suggestion was to take him back to the obstacle before if he goes wrong so he not only has to get the weaves right but the entry as well.
As expected Reno's contacts were perfect in isolation but when I put them into a course he still self released. I think the solution to this is just to remain consistent but to help I have decided not to run any more Agility classes in competition until he can get it right in training.
We're of to Chatsworth Country Fair tomorrow. I love this show as a lot of my friends from club go and as we all get to park together we treat it as a bit of a party. We had to miss it last year as Kiros was running in the ABC Semi Final at Stoneleigh.
Good Luck to everyone running in this years Olympia Semi's especially Jo who has qualified Keisha, Ronny and Zippy in the ABC, Grace and Kiah in the ABC and Dave and Rusty in the Senior.
I'd better wish Good Luck to my Kelpie friends as well!! Anne and Kafka and Jay and Tommy in the ABC.
P.S. Sorry about the photo of Reno - I must get some more taken of him jumping as he's much better now:-)
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