Wow! Our Intermediate class is a bit different than the begginer's class. This is much more structured - all 3 trainers are involved & they each have a set pattern for us to do. In this class there was 7 dogs I think. Rupert the Viszla, Lucy the Fluffy White Dog, and Foxy the Lumbering Lab Mix were there from our 1st class. There was a person with 2 Golden Retrievers & somebody with a Boston Terrier also.
We split up into 3 groups and there was an initial squabble initiated by Foxy with the Golden Retriever pair however everybody was unharmed but feathers were ruffled! Foxy sat out for awhile.
Our first sequence was TOUGH! It was a tunnel, table, weave, jump, jump, jump, climb, tunnel! Very difficult. We did alright but had issues with the last tunnel and Mocca being too focused on the treat in my hand. I had to NOT have a treat through the sequence, except for the weave poles. We did it a few times & boy Mocca was flying through the weave poles in the end really well!! At first I was going too slow, and then I think we found a happy medium. One of the challenges of this sequence was for us to do a crossover move after the last jump to send the dog in the proper direction so we are on the correct side when we get to the tunnel. We had to be really quick doing this because it was after the last jump and the dogs go pretty fast over them.
The next sequence was something with the weave poles some more & jumps but it involved us giving the dogs more hand signals & teaching them the "out" command which is for them to go away from us towards another obstacle instead of staying near us. It is hard to get all the commands as it seems like the dogs go faster than there is time to say everything! Mocca! Jump! Out! Jump! Out! Jump! Jump! And also trying to remember which way you are supposed to go complicates things greatly!
Our last sequence involved the teeter at one point and Mocca raced across it of course. We have to pretty much just grab her & make her stop on it so she feels it "teeter". Hopefully this will come with time! We learned another kind of handling where we put the dog in a sit/wait & then go out past the first jump. We call them & then as the jump over, we sorta pivot around so we are in front of the dog and then we direct them the proper way. This is useful for when there are "trick" obstacles in the sequence that the dog will assume they are to do so you need to be in the right spot to point them in the other direction. We also did some work on the plank - Mocca likes to stick near me so as she is going over the plank (with no problems) - the minute I move away because there is a tunnel under one end of the plank she hops off to be by me! LOL. We'll have to work on that also. :-)
Pretty hot & sweaty as usual after class - though this time I was wise enough to bring a bottle of water for myself! The dogs have several water bowls around, it's the humans who need it more though - Mocca hardly ever drinks even though she is panting like mad. I think she doesnt want to miss out on any good action while drinking. :-)
Hopefully Flyball class will be on tuesday - we got rained out this week.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
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