Tips/Drills for powering down

I realized that I can set this up in my tiny backyard (barely fits!) so we worked on that today. I'll go up to the field tonight and work more stuff.

But, both dogs did well. Lexi plowed through the last bar the first time, but never again. After that she ticked a couple, but started thinking about it when she realized that didn't get her a cookie.

Poor Bentley didn't want to bounce through (wasn't too motivated) so I had to run with him, but he did well. I also had to put them closer together for him because he has much less reach than Lexi does.
 
Once I recover from the massive amount of planting I just did, I'm going to go outside and work on the grids with Ember. The sun has dried the ground enough to work for at least today (no telling about the rest of the week as it's supposed to rain more)
 
HopeShelties said:
Once I recover from the massive amount of planting I just did, I'm going to go outside and work on the grids with Ember. The sun has dried the ground enough to work for at least today (no telling about the rest of the week as it's supposed to rain more)
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Oh no! Better get out and run while you can!
 
Well, the sunburst exercise went well, so I went on to the biggest issue, which I think is going to take more collection work before we attempt it again, as it was a big failure. The hardest thing for her is serpentines. Knows the serpentine recall to heel perfectly. Won't collect to make the serpentine. I'm wondering if front crossing between the first and second jump for the time being might force her to collect (or chance slamming into me) to make the middle jump. Definitely going to continue with the grids though. She definitely isn't a bar knocker. Seems to get collecting between a straight line of jumps. She'll even dig in and come back nicely at a forward send. Just doesn't seem to want to collect for turns... especially nothing as extreme as a serpentine.
She is a different dog to train. She is easily my fastest (outruns a friends 16" division BC), is extremely driven, has a long stride, and is every bit of 16" tall. It is much harder teaching her these things than any of my others, who all happen to fall into the 12" division, aren't quite as wired as she is.
Coincidentally, I found out the horses down the street got out the other day and left several very large piles of horse poop in my agility field :mad: I'm not entirely sure how to get them to come clean up their mess. It was NOT appreciated going out there and finding that left right where I needed to be able to work.
 
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HopeShelties said:
Well, the sunburst exercise went well, so I went on to the biggest issue, which I think is going to take more collection work before we attempt it again, as it was a big failure. The hardest thing for her is serpentines. Knows the serpentine recall to heel perfectly. Won't collect to make the serpentine. I'm wondering if front crossing between the first and second jump for the time being might force her to collect (or chance slamming into me) to make the middle jump. Definitely going to continue with the grids though. She definitely isn't a bar knocker. Seems to get collecting between a straight line of jumps. She'll even dig in and come back nicely at a forward send. Just doesn't seem to want to collect for turns... especially nothing as extreme as a serpentine.
She is a different dog to train. She is easily my fastest (outruns a friends 16" division BC), is extremely driven, has a long stride, and is every bit of 16" tall. It is much harder teaching her these things than any of my others, who all happen to fall into the 12" division, aren't quite as wired as she is.
Coincidentally, I found out the horses down the street got out the other day and left several very large piles of horse poop in my agility field :mad: I'm not entirely sure how to get them to come clean up their mess. It was NOT appreciated going out there and finding that left right where I needed to be able to work.
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Sounds a lot like Lexi.

Have you tried setting up a jump, and standing perpendicular to it, about 1' away from it. So basically you're facing sideways on the other side of the jump while the dog faces the jump. Release her over the jump and use a treat (in the hand closest to the jump/her) to get her to land next to you, facing the direction you're facing. (I'm realizing this is hard to explain). She will quickly learn to collect, and not bump into you/land on you. If she continues to jump onto you or in your space, give her a bump and say something (like "hey!")
 
Yep. That's the basic recall to heel serpentine position. She can do that sort of stationary thing all day long. She excels at all of the foundation work we did with jumping, and reading positions, but when it's time to add motion to things of that nature, it becomes an issue. My trainer last week recommended putting an expen up next to the second jump so she's forced to collect. Right now, it's just easier to run past that second jump than to have to collect and come over it.
 
corbinam said:
Sounds a lot like Lexi.

Have you tried setting up a jump, and standing perpendicular to it, about 1' away from it. So basically you're facing sideways on the other side of the jump while the dog faces the jump. Release her over the jump and use a treat (in the hand closest to the jump/her) to get her to land next to you, facing the direction you're facing. (I'm realizing this is hard to explain). She will quickly learn to collect, and not bump into you/land on you. If she continues to jump onto you or in your space, give her a bump and say something (like "hey!")
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I gotta say, I tried this a couple of weeks ago. Koji didn't understand the concept of coming over a jump TOWARDS me when I wasn't moving. lol. Even after doing it a few times, he still disliked coming towards me like that. It was weird.
 
That's actually pretty normal for a sheltie... or herding breed in general. A lot of them don't like the pressure of coming in.
 
Well, I think the grids are going to help. I went to class last night. It wasn't actually Ember's night, but the puppy is getting ready to come in, and was acting weird, so decided to trade out. Anyhow, even with just the one days work on that grid to help with turning and collecting, she was doing much better last night. She wasn't running around any jumps. My good friend who has her littermate (I bred these guys) is further along with her pup than I am mine (matured at different rates, very different dogs) and is debuting hers next month. She started joking she was going to find Ember's AKC number and enter her because she was doing so much better. Of course, she's only seen Ember run twice now, once well, once not so well. I told her one good week doesn't outweigh the previous however many that weren't so good. We'll spend some more time working on it first, but it does seem like it's going to make a big difference.
 
HopeShelties said:
Well, I think the grids are going to help. I went to class last night. It wasn't actually Ember's night, but the puppy is getting ready to come in, and was acting weird, so decided to trade out. Anyhow, even with just the one days work on that grid to help with turning and collecting, she was doing much better last night. She wasn't running around any jumps. My good friend who has her littermate (I bred these guys) is further along with her pup than I am mine (matured at different rates, very different dogs) and is debuting hers next month. She started joking she was going to find Ember's AKC number and enter her because she was doing so much better. Of course, she's only seen Ember run twice now, once well, once not so well. I told her one good week doesn't outweigh the previous however many that weren't so good. We'll spend some more time working on it first, but it does seem like it's going to make a big difference.
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That's great!
 
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