Oh boy. The last two months I’ve been living in a country song. It felt so good to be in class.
The first course was a front cross drill with serps. I felt like I was floating those crosses creating wide turns, but upon video review I was doing a decent job of sending to the jump, rocking back and stepping on down the line. My initial thought is that I was late starting the crosses – surprise, surprise. Will look closer at video to try to determine which of my dogs actually collected before take off. Really stay connected as the dog lands the front crosses. We tend to look where we’re going next right as the dog is landing and turning so the dog guesses which side to come to.
The start required a further back start in order to give the dog the collection info before take-off. The better line at #6 was the outside wing. And again at #9, the outside wing. Continue to use the serp/off arm for #8 to cue the outside wing at #9. I really like that move. It feels natural and my dogs read it well. Blind cross 10 to 11.
The circle course was a threadle lesson. Methods for handling threadles have changed over the years. From calling!! the dog through to executing a fc to a bc to a double blind. The double blind does the better job of getting the handler down the line, but the timing is difficult. The ‘new’ method is to teach a verbal cue, given as the dog approaches the jump (#2 and #5 on the circle course). No matter the method utilized the dog needs the collection information before take-off.
We worked the ‘close’ cue by targeting. Didn’t work Edie on this, but the other three did good work! I gotta use targets more often! For motivating. For rewarding. For teaching.
