Wednesday September 6th 2006 - practice

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

Today for the first time I got some video footage of Walter and me in action (thanks to M&D for helping!). Took some shots of miscellaneous sequences, then at the end ran a standard course with a couple of nasty jump approaches. Got in some practice with jumps/tire at 22" and he knocked a few down but overall not bad at all (this cooler weather really helps). Also did some 6-pole weave-o-matic work; the home practices seem to be helping. From watching the footage afterwards, I learned some things: I need to be more clear in my cues, particularly setting up and releasing from the start-line stay; I'm waiting too long before saying the name of the next obstacle; Walter's jumping is better than I thought (though far from springy) (I noticed he did a bounce between two 22" jumps); we need to work on him looking ahead more since he sometimes looks at me too much and misses the next obstacle; lots more work to be done on automatic bows at contacts as well as improving lateral distance.