Saturday June 24th 2006 - practice

(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)

Nice long evening practice on a cool shady field. Had the field all to ourselves, so took advantage and moved things around. Spent 3/4 of the session working on individual obstacles and mini-series. Discovered he jumps the tire much better (ie doesn't cheat) with it raised some distance up. Backed up the weave-o-matics by putting them lower and made sure he could take them from a distance back as well as at off angles, which he did very well although not totally consistent in taking them from a sharp angle to the left of the poles. Did some work on the seesaw (still on low) and he usually bangs the thing down pretty hard - not sure how to get him to ease it down more gently or if it's ok for him to bang it down. Also introduced "here" and will work on practicing that off the field; worked on "off" for obstacles that I didn't ask him to do. Spent the last 1/4 of the session on the following series: 1st line: dogwalk, tunnel curving right; 2nd line: jump, jump, jump curving right; 3rd line: jump, sharp turn right, jump, tire, jump; 4th line: turn left, a-frame; 5th line: turn left, chute, jump; 6th line: turn left, see-saw, jump, turn left to table. I have no idea about designing sequences and probably broke a million design rules, but Walter had SO much fun with it regardless. It's like he said, "finally, something I can really sink my teeth into" (not literally of course). One thing I was NOT crazy about was how fast he took the dogwalk when we did the sequence. I really would like him to walk nicely across it for safety reasons (time be darned), but he trotted it both times. It was fun watching him having fun doing all the jumps (still on the 3rd setting). It was a fun evening with lots of breaks for Walter while I moved things around, and he never got whiny or bored.