Cleo's agility class

So we finally completed the Advanced Beginners class. I was pulled to the side the other night and asked to come to the last two Intermediate classes (they are two weeks behind due to rain). So that means class tonight and then next Wednesday. They are also starting a first time ever Novice Competition Class (which they insisted I enter Cleo in to get her ready for trials) for the remaining 5 weeks until the Terre Haute trial in October (which I was told I should enter!). They normally have a basic competition class but do to there being several people starting off in Novice she wants to focus on that.

For the trial in October, I am pretty sure I am going to enter her in two runs each day. So Saturday I am going to do Standard and JWW and Sunday I am going to do Standard and JWW. I just hope my nerves don't get to me. :lol: I also get to be a spectator at another Trial in a couple of weeks. So I am very excited for the weeks to come!
 
Cleo2014 said:
So we finally completed the Advanced Beginners class. I was pulled to the side the other night and asked to come to the last two Intermediate classes (they are two weeks behind due to rain). So that means class tonight and then next Wednesday. They are also starting a first time ever Novice Competition Class (which they insisted I enter Cleo in to get her ready for trials) for the remaining 5 weeks until the Terre Haute trial in October (which I was told I should enter!). They normally have a basic competition class but do to there being several people starting off in Novice she wants to focus on that.

For the trial in October, I am pretty sure I am going to enter her in two runs each day. So Saturday I am going to do Standard and JWW and Sunday I am going to do Standard and JWW. I just hope my nerves don't get to me. :lol: I also get to be a spectator at another Trial in a couple of weeks. So I am very excited for the weeks to come!
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That's awesome! Just get out there and have fun :-)
 
Cleo is going to be getting her temporary height card at the agility trial I am going to be spectating. There is a VMO there that will be running her dogs. I am going to have my trainer ask her to measure Cleo at the end of the day. So that should be fun.

At intermediate class last night, Cleo was amazing. Following all of my signals and directions. I am also doing much better with my handling skills. I am figuring out when I need to do front crosses and rear crosses. I am going to be practicing more on crosses at home, but I am getting there. I am not sure how well she will do with blind crosses be we will be trying to work on that as well. She was also on full height equipment and did just fine on that. I also learned I need to go a certain pace while she is weaving or she will pop out of the weaves before the last two poles. So now I have my pace set for her weaves and as long as I run fast with her jumps that gets her flying through the course at a good speed. At this point because we are outside and it is HOT (the humidity is horrible) she is running slower than when it is cooler out. So other than those little things I think she is doing pretty good for just starting agility classes in April.
 
Cleo2014 said:
Cleo is going to be getting her temporary height card at the agility trial I am going to be spectating. There is a VMO there that will be running her dogs. I am going to have my trainer ask her to measure Cleo at the end of the day. So that should be fun.

At intermediate class last night, Cleo was amazing. Following all of my signals and directions. I am also doing much better with my handling skills. I am figuring out when I need to do front crosses and rear crosses. I am going to be practicing more on crosses at home, but I am getting there. I am not sure how well she will do with blind crosses be we will be trying to work on that as well. She was also on full height equipment and did just fine on that. I also learned I need to go a certain pace while she is weaving or she will pop out of the weaves before the last two poles. So now I have my pace set for her weaves and as long as I run fast with her jumps that gets her flying through the course at a good speed. At this point because we are outside and it is HOT (the humidity is horrible) she is running slower than when it is cooler out. So other than those little things I think she is doing pretty good for just starting agility classes in April.
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What I have found is that Spirit tends to slow down when I try to rear cross. So even though it was my go-to handling move, it has turned out to actually hurt us. The more I use fronts and blinds, the faster Spirit runs to stay with me.
 
Cara Sandler said:
What I have found is that Spirit tends to slow down when I try to rear cross. So even though it was my go-to handling move, it has turned out to actually hurt us. The more I use fronts and blinds, the faster Spirit runs to stay with me.
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I have found that to be an issue with us at times. It really depends for us on how fast she is going at the moment I need to make a cross. So if I'm ahead of course I'm going to do a front, but if she is way ahead, and she is at times, then I do a rear cross. At first she would look back at me like "what are you doing?" and slow down. Now since we have practiced rear crosses she is getting much better.
 
I think that where you do the cross impacts the dog's speed. For Jocu, at a seminar that we went to, the instructor said to keep his motivation up that I always needed to be in front of him. well, he doesn't run all out like he could but he can still be faster than me so I try to let him take the jump and then cross behind him, between that last jump and Jo- it seems to work the best for him. he's really good at blind crosses so that's what I usually try to use with him.
Cran and Dix, when we started, I was always behind them so I never front crossed them in a trial until after we'd been doing agility for quite a while. the weaves are one place that is hard for me to rear- they both want to see me either in front of them or next to them- but I can almost always get a front in after the weaves if I need to cross in that area. or cross elsewhere on the course to get on the side that I want for the weaves. like the video that I fell on, a lot of people stayed on the right side of that line after the triple but I ran past the next jump to get her to take it from that side which put me on the left to turn to go to the weaves. the people who were on the other side, rear crossed the jump before the weaves but a lot of dogs didn't read it and were heading left instead of turning right to the weaves.
 
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