Sunday, March 2, 2008

Last lesson; Walter's startline stay

Today was Walter's last lesson for a while, probably a very long while as my spending has to be reigned in for the foreseeable future. I think his alltime favourite motivators in agility are his squeaky toys. I can fit one of them in my pocket and make it squeak out of sight while walking to the starting point which really gets him into excited/happy mode. The squeaky toys made him happy enough to successfully complete the 6-weaves several times today even in the tight quarters of the facility.

Note for my records re his SLS: In all of this session and last fall's session of lessons I've been leading out on Walter for all exercises that called for it. Every single time he barked, fussed, barked, scooted, and oh yeah did I mention he barked, but 90% of the time he didn't take the first obstacle until released. 10% of the time he broke it right away and got reset. I think I'll try leading out on him at some fun matches this year just for the fun of it. As much as I don't mind running off the start with him in trials, it would be nice to be able to lead out once in a while when it provides a significant benefit on the course at hand.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brody and I also need to work on lead outs at trials ;)

he's a drop and go fellow mostly but there are some courses now where that's TOUGH to do :)

Muttsandaklutz said...

Hi Andrea,

Yep, there certainly have been some courses where I felt like whining to myself about not having a lead out...

but on the bright side having to run off the line with a relatively nonslow dog gets us that much more exercise eh? :-)

Anonymous said...

so very very true

tonight in practise Brody was waiting for me to cue him to do his jumping drills - I was happy :)

(it takes so little sometimes)

congrats on your anniversary too :)