Current Events

Well, it has been a while since I have posted. There has not been a lot going on apart from the normal work, eat and sleep with the usual daily dog walks in between.

Malcolm and I have spent most weekends clearing out the house which had got really cluttered. We have successfully cleared out the garage and two spare bedrooms. This weekend we started on our latest project - creating a room for the gym equipment! We cleared out the wardrobe in our fourth bedroom and put all of the caravan junk (duvets, pillows, throws, rugs, etc) into the empty wardrobe. This cleared out most of the bedroom just leaving the stuff from Malcolm's Auntie June's house. We are going to invite Malcolm's sisters round in a few weeks to see what they want to keep. We will then put the rest in the skip and we will be left with a clear room - yippee!!

We are then going to put Malcolm's exercise bike, currently in the sun lounge, on one side of the bed and, the about to be delivered, cross trainer on the other side. Our plan is to have a stereo and TV set up in the room to provide some entertainment while we exercise. My aim is to to do 3 x 20 minute sessions per week in an attempt to get fit for the agility season ahead. I don't think Malcolm would be too impressed if the cross trainer went unused so I better get on with it!

I have been going to Kenny for agility training fortnightly as usual and have really enjoyed the sessions. For Barney the main focus has been to get fast, consistant contacts, especially on the dog walk. To achieve this we have been getting him to run over the dog walk as fast as possible, without stopping at the end. This aim of this is to get him going over with speed.

Separately I have been working on a new command of 'flat' to get him to lie down flat with 2 front paws off the end of the contact. This has been done by rewarding him like mad in this position, moving away and going back to give more reward before releasing him to another reward on a tub situated away from the end of the contact.

This way he is still working on speed over the dog walk and not worrying about stopping. The 'flat' command has not been used with him going the full length of the dog walk yet so that will come later. I started developing this technique on the A Frame during the last session which went well. The key to this weekends competition is make sure he goes over the dog walk and A Frame quickly. The 'flat' and hitting the contact will come later for the start of the outdoor season.

For Pebbles the key has been to try and get her to work ahead of me going into and through the weave and over jumps. This has been to try and get her to go quicker and to try and get her to work independently of me. This should mean I can send her over jumps and cross behind.

It has been a long process and sometimes she gets it and others times it is like she can't remember from one session to the next! Still a long way to go yet although I have managed to do some rear crosses at the weave and at jumps. The main problem is that having used the ball to reward her for going over jumps ahead of me she is now looking for the ball all the time when we run a course. This means stopping, spinning and barking at me after every jump!! I am going to stick with it though because as Kenny says she has been working the other way with me for 2 years now and it will take a lot of work to change her way of thinking. I just hope she can show a little bit of what we have worked on this weekend. Then it will be back to more hard work with the ball.

This weekend is the last indoor competition of the year. I am just hoping I see a little something from all the training over the last few months. And of course we will go to have lots of fun if nothing else :-)