Training today :-)

Great day of training today! After a couple of days of trialing, quite successful trialing I might add, I had a few things I specifically wanted to work on. Interestingly enough as I started working dogs today the training session quickly diverted from what I thought I was going to be focusing on to more of a house cleaning session.
This past weekend SoBe was introduced to A-frame approaches off of approx. 90 degree turns, something I realized I have never specifically trained. I seem to be very subconsciously driven to work straight approaches and straight exits on and off my contacts. This needs to change, SoBe was having trouble with her striding to the A-frame with these angled approaches. She missed both A-frames that had to be approached from this angle. The straight approaches resulted in her perfect running A-frame performance that I have come to expect and simply assume will occur,
So, that was mission number 1 today. With the aid of a stride regulator I was able to work through the issue pretty quickly, ultimately removing the prop and getting awesome performance.
One of the drills that I was intending to work on was a portion of the Steeplechase round 1 from this past weekend which involved running with intent from the A-frame directly to what could be considered the off end of a C-shaped tunnel. 90 degrees to the right of the A-frame was a jump, to the left was the tunnel with both entrances essentially at 45 degrees off of the A-frame and a set of weaves perpendicular to the A-frame requiring a 45 degree left side approach past the tunnel entrances. Are you still with me? :-)
Anyway, this led to me working all sorts of distance challenges to and from the weave poles, working and reworking entries, realizing that I have not spent much time there either of late.
SoBe also had trouble with the table the past couple of trials. She is not inclined to actually collect to stay on the table when approaching it at speed. She had no problem demonstrating this particular issue today when I pushed her to really drive to the table. This reminded me of a great table training drill that I have not worked at all with SoBe, shame on me! This drill involves calling the dog to the table from a feet in front of the table and expecting the dog to stop and stay on the table without falling off. We had to repeat this a few times but as with all training exercises if you reward correctly dogs pick things up awfully quickly!~ Before long I was able to run past the table at full speed, cue the table and SoBe would get on, drop and stay until verbally released. Trust me, I will be working this more in the upcoming days!
We did a few dog walks, which were lovely, and also worked on some jumping drills, what a good girl she is!
I actually did a few jumps, a dog walk and a couple of teeters with Wally and he seems to be sound! I have pulled him from this weekends trial but hopefully he will be up and running the last 2 weekends of Jan. in sunny Phoenix :-)
Next, it was Mazes turn, he was, well... amazing! I had a very important New Years resolution this year that I will absolutely stick to and that is to be a better team mate for Maze. We have not always seen exactly eye to eye, although I love him to death, we do not always "get" each other. Well, I decided that starting in 2011 I would work harder to "get" Maze and be the team mate that he deserves. lord knows he is an Amazing dog!
With that said we have started the year with a bang! Maze was all that and more New Years weekend placing and Q'ing in every team class, winning both rounds of Steeplechase, Q'ing and placing in GP and Q'ing and placing in several other Masters classes.
This past weekend he not only Q'd in GP but won the class with the fastest time overall, I am very proud of him, and me for that matter. It is going to be a great year!
He trained brilliantly today and is as fit as he has ever been, with lots of hiking under his belt.
Danger is BACK, OK sort of :-) We have started back on the low dog walk which is going fantastic, low jumps, bottom behavior on the teeter, and, I have started to shape 4 weave poles. This is a new venture for me as I have trained the last several dogs with channels, trying something new, just for fun!
The fantastic Danger Mouse is very happy to be playing again, and, I could not be happier to be playing with him!
Ahhh, Vintage, what a treat she is! She takes work-a-holic to a whole new level and I am loving it! She has toy drive oozing out of every pore, food drive to die for, speed, stamina, brains, and, a desire to learn that is equal only to SoBe :-)
We had a blast today, she is doing balance beam work on a 12 foot plank with fit discs under each end so it moves a lot! We continue to work on her body awareness exercises and she can move her rear end better than a lot of dogs move their front! :-)
I am seeing how invaluable a skill rear end awareness is in so much of what we are doing now. A great example is her heel work, she can move herself into a beautiful heel and side without moving her front at all, very cute!
We work on forward motion every time we train and she has a great flyball box turn on the flat retrieving her toy, too bad she will never do flyball.
She is driving to the Manners Minder, although I admit I may not actually use it to train her contacts, I am generally more of a toy trainer. She has gotten over her initial reluctance to get on the teeter board and is now not only jumping on the end but figuring out her 2on/2off end behavior as well.
Mostly we are just playing, however, all of the play will lead to something bigger.
She is just a complete joy to train and is going to be an agility superstar for sure :-).
It was fun to get to write about training again, it has been a very busy winter so far and it was nice to get back to what I enjoy most, next to family time of course, spending quality time with my pups! Enjoy!