Still learning from our mistakes ;)

[corbinam]

Thank you. We're still pretty much beginners at competing, but we're trying..... btw, talking about tight weavy courses.... we discussed how much time you're losing when your dog doesn't perform tight turns. My friend's not-too-fast-sheltie had better time than some border collies on the same course..... and she had the same time as my really fast sheltie.... so it leads me to question - do you train tight turns, do you have any tips and tricks for your dog to do tight turn even at high speed? I mean, I think ideally you should be ahead of your dog all the time and he should know where he's going all the time..... then I guess he would be prepared for the turn. But as we know, things are not always that easy.

My dogs are very different speed-wise, but sometimes they put up similar course times because Bentley is much more efficient than Lexi. Lexi does everything in extension, and Bentley is rarely fully extended!

One thing that is critical with Lexi is for me to
a) give very little forward motion because just a little bit sends her much farther
b) cue really early (I need to cue the upcoming turn/obstacle as she's taking the one before it basically)
c) trust and keep moving (I get bogged down in worrying about Lexi making a turn and I stand and watch/wait)

I have started working on cik and cap, but I'm not sure it's something we'll ever use in a trial setting. I like what it has done as I think it has made Lexi think a little more about where her body is when she makes a turn, but I don't know if it's the answer or not.

 

[helps]

Thanks for your input. You mentioned some really interesting points. My dog is like your Lexi and my friend's sheltie sounds like your Bentley. My dog is also often extended and runs at great speed. As you say it's not too efficient.

Absolutely agree on your three points, really have the same situation here. I need to be careful with forward motion (not working that well since I need to be really fast to keep up with him, but Im trying). He really needs cues early, because if he doesn't get one he starts to turn at me and we get lost. Oh yea I also often stand/wait/watch him instead of moving ahead.... That's what I basically mean by freezing on the course. But sometimes I move too early, so that's the opposite situation. I need to find some balance between these too.

Cik and Cap sounds like real good idea. The problem is that I'd need more time for training these and I'm sure I'd not use it at trial anyway, because I'd be confusing these two.

edit: We also started using top spins in our country.... It somehow helps to make sure that even faster dog will make tighter turn. I'm no proffesional, so I'm not sure how to further explain that, but you can get the idea in this vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPLLaz3yF-4

 

[corbinam]

Cik and Cap sounds like real good idea. The problem is that I'd need more time for training these and I'm sure I'd not use it at trial anyway, because I'd be confusing these two.

I know that some people use one word to mean "turn tightly whichever way I'm cuing". So you don't necessarily need to be able to tell them apart--motion cues usually override verbals anyways