Less is More

Isn't that a phrase on the "Life is Good" clothing?

Ecko and I went to the agility barn on Saturday. The round-trip drive takes me about 1:20 and we trained for about 20 or 25 minutes. In twenty minutes, we got a lot done. Ecko was panting pretty good, but still eager to go when we quit, so I think it was perfect. We worked on:

• Jumping 20 inches (I have been jumping her 16 but she is ready for the "big time"). She is pretty much fine with this, although we did spend a bit of time gradually increasing the height on the tire jump. I will need to do this for a couple of more training sessions before she is quite on-board with the tire being this high.
• A fun sequence of about 4-5 jumps and 3 tunnels. We ran this a couple of different ways and it was a really motivational way to be able to let her run pretty fast while still working on some crosses and those higher jumps.
• We ran the dog walk and a-frame a couple of times working on contacts and also speed on the dog walk.
• Did a full set of weaves about 6 times and....
• Done!

On Sunday (cool and rainy, argh!) I took the same approach to water training.

Decker theoretically already knows all the exercises I will be asking him to do at the trial in mid-July, but he hasn't actually done them in about 2 years. His "review" went really well.

• 60 foot retrieve from shore - Nailed this, including waiting for me to send him. Sometimes he gets a bit over-eager.
• Gear bag drag. Did this twice nicely and in turbo mode both times.
• Float line retrieve off shore. He took direction from the boat to shore nicely, especially since he definitely did NOT see the line on shore. He spotted it as soon as he got close and did an amazing, lightening fast snatch and booked it back out to the boat.
• We ended his session with some buoy ball drop training. We did one send to the marker and target without the buoy ball, just to make sure he remembered his cues. He did that part with no problems so we did the next one with the ball and he nailed that too.

Stoker has been acting slightly stressy ever since some sessions went south last summer. For a girl who seems a bit ditzy sometimes, she has a memory like an elephant.

• I rowed the boat and Julie sat on the platform and fed her cookies. She asked her for simple behaviors like hand targeting, sit, down, changing sides (left to right and right to left). Stokie settled down nicely and enjoyed all the treats.
• We decided to ask her to jump off the boat and here is where it got interesting. With Julie off the platform calling her and throwing the toy, Stoker would jump into shore, or parallel to shore from the boat. Several times she decided she couldn't jump and we just didn't push the issue. When she did jump, it was really fast and she hurled herself off, so that is promising.
• After a bit of a break, we worked on sending to the marker and secondary target in the water for a thrown toy reward, followed by treats. She did super well at this and we only did about four repetitions.
• Finally, we worked on her swimming at my side as I walked 5 or 10 feet at a time in the water. I asked her to hold a rope in her mouth and when I cued her to drop it, would reward her with the toy and treats. Just a few repetitions of this, which she did very well at, and we ended on a positive note.

After we put all the gear away, I got both dogs out and let them have a good romp play-retrieving in the lake. It's good exercise for them and they love it!