I got home from work today and helped Jan throw together some cornbread and a pot of Chili to simmer on the stove. While Jan tended dinner, I set about entertaining the dogs.
Chili went first and I worked with her on weave poles. My goal is to have her doing a full set of 12, slightly offset, with nice speed and rhythm, before progressing. I set the jumps up so she would have an obstacle before and after the weaves and we could run a little circle of jumps with the weaves in the middle. The entrance from both ends was a bit difficult, but she handles weave entrances fairly well, its the rhythm part that is her real issue. She did a nice job and was really happy to be rewarded with a quick lap around the neighborhood on the bike when she was done.
Ecko went next and I kept the weaves sightly offset, working with a set of 6 poles with wires on them. She is starting to move through them pretty nicely and I added a jump before and after to keep her focusing ahead as she works. Her jumping style is just like Stoker's was as a pup, a straight in the air levitatation with just enough forward motion to get her past the jump. I'm glad she is so enthusiastic, but we will need to work on that. We worked on some stationary drills to teach her to turn away from me on both sides, then went for a quick exercise jaunt, returning to work with......
Decker. Rear crosses, rear crosses and more rear crosses. We will be practicing them A LOT until we get them right. Luckily, Decker is happy to work and work and work because it takes a wee bit longer for the light bulb to come on with him than it does with your average PWD. We did some groundwork stuff first, to warm up and remind Decker that he can bend (he is pretty thick and musclar and not terribly flexible) and then worked on the little drill to the right. You can find more like this on the agility nerd website. We just did the first four obstacles since I don't have a tunnel and broke it down even smaller by practicing just the rear cross between 1 & 2 a number of times, then the cross between 3 and 4. We had some success, but not lots and then headed off for a bike.
Took a quick break for dinner, then got Stoker out to work. She REALLY tries my patience some times and we worked hard to hold it together tonight. Even with a high rate of reinforcement she will stress out and head for the garage if she is "pushed" at all in her training. I did some of the same stuff I did with Decker, but also worked Stoker on weave poles since we have a trial this weekend and she needs more practice on those. She was not terribly thrilled when we went biking at the end of our practice session, but she needs the exercise so we did it anyway.
Time to hit the couch and put my feet up with a glass of wine! Whew!
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