The elusive Novice Jumpers title

Silaria said:
I guess this would fall into the category of "to each their own". Personally, I'd rather have the accurate dog over the speed demon. At least with the accurate dog I have a better shot at getting the Q, even if its not 1st place, than the speed demon who either gets away from me or plows through obstacles because it's not paying attention to its job.
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I'm not sure what one I prefer yet. I like the Q. I have sent in Ember's first enteries if she gets in her first trial is in June. Justice was mister constitant but he was slow. He makes Ember look like a speed demon. :lol: He never NQ in all the runs I showed him(AKC/UKC) before I had to retired him. All perfect clean runs. But I not sure he would have made time in the upper classes in AKC. Ember's issue is the contacts. She doesn't like them and is slow over them thus why I've held off showing her. Diva is a blast but makes me mad at the same time. I never have to cheerlead her just hang on. There's more of an adenline rush there.
 
I'm not sure which I would like more, either. Bentley is definitely a velcro dog, and he's pretty consistent. He's also slow, but not SUPER slow. He rarely knocks bars, and he rarely takes an off course. But, of course we are now having to re-train contacts because of his hesitance. He'll never be the fastest dog, but he is building speed with confidence.

Lexi, I have a feeling, is going to be a speed demon. It will be interesting to see if she bothers to stop and listen for directions! :)
 
I'll take the speed demon any day. I can TRAIN accuracy into a speed dog- and I have, Kai is untouchable so far speed-wise in the 12" division, but it's TOUGH to train speed back into a dog that's been slowed down for the sake of perfection. Kai was a brilliant fast dog who lacked accuracy. You'd be hard pressed to fault her accuracy now... and she can win.
I say get your speed where you want it first, then fine tune it for accuracy. Then you get the best of both worlds... a dog who's fast enough to win, and accurate enough to qualify.
I also train distance from the get go. I want a dog to learn to work with confidence away from me early on. That all works into the speed, too... If they're learning to work away, you're not busy slowing them down because there's no way you're going to keep up. I'll have to video Aurora, who's only been in an actual coursework class for about a month now. That dog already has better distance on her than a lot of dogs already competing in agility.
 
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HopeShelties said:
I'll take the speed demon any day. I can TRAIN accuracy into a speed dog- and I have, Kai is untouchable so far speed-wise in the 12" division, but it's TOUGH to train speed back into a dog that's been slowed down for the sake of perfection. Kai was a brilliant fast dog who lacked accuracy. You'd be hard pressed to fault her accuracy now.
I say get your speed where you want it first, then fine tune it for accuracy. Then you get the best of both worlds... a dog who's fast enough to win, and accurate enough to qualify.
I also train distance from the get go. I want a dog to learn to work with confidence away from me early on. That all works into the speed, too... If they're learning to work away, you're not busy slowing them down because there's no way you're going to keep up. I'll have to video Aurora, who's only been in an actual coursework class for about a month now. That dog already has better distance on her than a lot of dogs already competing in agility.
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I agree it is hard to train speed. Justice was not scared I just slowed him down to much . It was almost impossible to get him to go fast again. I know with Diva once I train the accuracy she'll do well. She too sensitive to ignore me forever. I'm trying my darnest not to slow her down.:smile2:
 
Novice Agility

HopeShelties said:
I'll take the speed demon any day. I can TRAIN accuracy into a speed dog- and I have, Kai is untouchable so far speed-wise in the 12" division, but it's TOUGH to train speed back into a dog that's been slowed down for the sake of perfection. Kai was a brilliant fast dog who lacked accuracy. You'd be hard pressed to fault her accuracy now... and she can win.
I say get your speed where you want it first, then fine tune it for accuracy. Then you get the best of both worlds... a dog who's fast enough to win, and accurate enough to qualify.
I also train distance from the get go. I want a dog to learn to work with confidence away from me early on. That all works into the speed, too... If they're learning to work away, you're not busy slowing them down because there's no way you're going to keep up. I'll have to video Aurora, who's only been in an actual coursework class for about a month now. That dog already has better distance on her than a lot of dogs already competing in agility.
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Could not have said it any better.
 
First agility dog

After thinking about this...I am very happy having a consistent, moderate speed dog. Everyone is right in that speed is something that is very hard to teach, whereas accuracy can be taught (sometimes slowly, but it can be done). However, I think having a slower (Bentley isn't slow per se, but he's not flying by any means!) dog was perfect for me as a first agility dog. It has allowed me to make some mistakes, and learn from them, without setting Bentley back.

He is a great dog to learn on, because he is extremely forgiving. And he's slow enough (and I'm fast enough) that sometimes I can correct possible errors.

Now that I know (well, know BETTER) what I'm doing, I'm excited to try on a faster dog.
 
I'm beginning to think that the newbies (myself included) prefer a more consistent, slower dog over a speed demon. PROBABLY because it requires a lot more training.

With Koji, I've really had to work on my handling, mostly because he reads me, um, WAY too well and yup, I screw up. I think what I'm learning now, I probably would do okay with a faster dog next time around. However, for my first dog that is actually trialing in agility, I'm liking Koji.

My husband says, "have you ever noticed Koji never runs full out on the course"? and I say, "have you noticed how slow his handler is?" LOL. I think with me picking up speed, him picking up distance, we could do great!

Which BTW, I just signed up for my first ever 3-day trial (memorial weekend). We will have 3 tries to get his Jumpers title. LOL. And we will be trying Chances/Gamblers for the first time. Um, yeah. 3 rounds of it. Why? Because it costs $135 with them, $144 w/o. Might as well try. At trials, Koji seems to have a BIT more distance. Now I just need to work with him a bit more with my hand signals and commands. 2.5 weeks. I'm crazy.
 
Yea, I must say being a Newbie too I prefered a slower, steadier dog - its really hard when you are still mastering crosses and your dog is so fast. After I kicked Tully in the head during one trial she slowed down and that made it easier for us both.

Problem is now we are pushing for course times. There are no concessions here for small dogs so we have to do the same courses as the bigger dogs with the same SCT. So a little dog has to travel really fast to get through the course - and steady and accurate just doesnt cut it.
 
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