Handler Novice Agility

FIRST handler seminar

Ok. three days of agility bliss, two left!

Today I learned AGAIN that even tho I could swear I am keeping my arms down and that my dog knows his line... I am wrong on both accounts!? lol
Guess what, he doesn't really know when jumps aren't nice and straight on that he should still take them... and I have sad disco moves which highlighted why my dog doesn't know his lines as well as I thought he did... because I have been subconsciously teaching him to look for my signal, instead of teaching independence, lol... which is so very contrary to my goals!

On the good news front, he has an AWESOME start line sit stay, which he didn't break even once, it was SOLID :D Even running to his mat and laying down on it with distractions went great. He was also tugging and driving for the toy at the end of his line. I can't wait to do more jump grids on Monday and the exercises which we learned today are great to learn how to build even MORE value for jumps and tunnels. Toffee is not as crazy about tunnels, he's still a lil unsure, but it is okay he took every single one I asked him to :D By the end of our session today, I even got lateral distance out of him. The instructor told me to go out further, she recognized that I needed to trust him more with it than I did...

Toffee also wasn't in the least freaked out or insecure AT ALL in this new environment with loads of commotion... sounds and people/dogs he never met! Even the big ceiling fans and starting of the motors/heaters and wind and rain hailing down on the roof didn't fizz him in the least!!

I am so very proud of him, thinking back to a year ago, to our first class...
 
Irene, that's great that you had the opportunity to learn and work on so many things!

I'm happy to hear that Toffee is doing so well--forget who mentioned it...but we need more videos! :biggrin2:
 
Yes!! More videos! Sounds like you and Toffee are making awesome progress and having tons of fun to boot!

So true about trusting your dog. I always feel I need to run with Romeo just to be sure he'll take the jumps but then I try and move away and he does it too! I'd like to teach more independence and distance work! Mummy can't run for nuts. :lol:
 
There will be videos and pictures, my friend came with me today and brought her camera. I am anxiously awaiting her uploading them to youtube LOL

We had our first two runs today during a fun match. I didn't run the whole course because she designed one that was wayyyyy too tough for my limited handling skills and Toffee's abilities as a super green dog. My training decision was to just use those two minutes for training and I LOVED it. I broke down a couple of sequences to work him (and me) in a trial like environment, and he did so well for me I cried after walking out of the arena for a quiet moment outside together.

Some of you were telling me about those moments with your dog when you are connected on the course and about how nothing feels quite like it... I am pleased to announce that is exactly how I felt after our tiny little jumpers sequences. That connection of working with your dog and working it out for the criteria you have set was a real treat to experience.

But in reality really this seminar is ALL about me learning! I see handlers who have been at this for years and years and the difference is phenomenal what they can do with their dog. The instructor is an assistant coach to Canada's World Agility team who came in from Ontario just for this. She is a great teacher and I find she GETS it... go slow, foundation, foundation, foundation and breaks it down for the complete baby handlers, lol

I am finally starting to see and understand a little bit more about handling and the terminology, like what it looks like when you pick up the dog out of the tunnel, FC here, RC here, keep the connection with your dog etc etc etc. This seminar was/is invaluable. Tomorrow it is a novice gamblers clinic and more importantly for my stage of training is the jump grid and rear end awareness workshop. This was the best 225 bucks I have ever spent, LOL
 
Glad to hear you are getting so much out of this seminar. Yay!!! And that Toffee is doing so well in the environment. Even better. And that you felt that connection, awesome isn't it?

Can't wait to see some videos and hear about today's Gamblers clinic.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfoWwKDGxw0

The good the bad and the ugly...OMG didn't he break his start line, that is the first time he has ever done it! He was stressing a bit... or because I was bragging about how well he did the day before never breaking his start stay LOL
First sequences ever with Toffee in a trial like environment at a fun match during the seminar. Woah it's tough out there... I like seeing all of my mistakes now, so I can try and not make the same ones next time lol.

I have decided not to enter any trials this spring, definitely not until Toffee understands his line. It'd be really good for me to get the experience, but detrimental to his training at this point. Here we are running a slightly curved grid, his stride is short and he is not all too confident yet and not driving towards his toy hard enough. SO that is what I will work on in the next couple of months :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF3Hat-qr9s
 
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