Thursday, January 24, 2008

Put [me] Thru [the ringer]

I decided to video more of my training. For one thing, I have an outlet for the videos now, but mainly I'm doing this for my own information to see where we need work (it would be easier to see where we don't) and maybe why something went wrong.

We do put thrus every Wednesday night at my training club. For those who may not know, a put thru is chance to get in the ring and do all of the exercises that you would as if you were at a competitive trial. They really help you see where you stand before you enter the ring for real.

I wish I had filmed our put thru from the Wednesday night before because you would have seen a totally different dog. Teddy was on and up and as near perfect as he can get. This week, however, was a different story. In his defense, there were 3 times the distractions in the building this week. There was an agility class going on in the ring next door because of the cold/wet weather, and I think that is where he left his brain when we did a couple of sequences before being called over for the put thru. There were also a lot more people standing around waiting their turn for put thrus because of the upcoming trial in a week, and the energy in the air was noticeably more tense.

We have one leg towards our open title. We got that about 8 months ago. Due to the lack of trials in our area, we don't trial much. Teddy was very sick in the fall, which really messed up our fall trials.

So, here's what went wrong. In the heeling, we had a lot of lagging, especially in the figure 8. And for the first time ever, he just sat there when I called him on the recall, I guess he was just day dreaming of agility. I was happy with his retrieves, though. Yea! I'm glad some of the hard work has paid off. And then there is the broadjump. Ugh! It's like I asked him to jump a pit of alligators. He was totally lost on what to do. We've only been doing these for a year and a half! So, now that I've pumped this video up, here it is. Warning!-It is a tad on the long side.

I spent the next thirty minutes in the back ring making friends with the broad jump. I used his floppy frisbee to motivate him to jump and then as a reward for jumping. It really helped, but we have a lot of work to do in one week. Of course, next week could be a whole new problem!

4 comments:

Kim said...

Great video, I need to have someone video us when we train. Sometimes dogs just have bad days and their own agenda:o)

Theodorable said...

Kim, you should! I'd love to see your kids work. I love watching everyone's poos. I always learn a lot from watching our videos. I can tell why some of our mistakes are made.

Judy and Boomer said...

Love the videos!

On the bj, one thing I noticed that you set him up in different places both times. The second time he was a tad closer to the jump. You'd be surprised that just by setting the dog up where he'll be a half-stride off will cause him not to jump. Find the best spot for him and then try to be very consistent in setting up there.

Just an unsolicited training idea.

Theodorable said...

Thanks Judy! It's hard for me to judge distances. I really rely on the judge's chalk, and then stand a little behind that. I know it can make a difference. Thanks!