HopeShelties
Forums Enthusiast
So, I recently switched to taking private lessons from my trainer, and I have to say, it is making a world of difference, not only in the older girls, who I've been wanting to tighten up, but the young ones as well.
With Athena and Kai, I've been wanting to tighten their turns up, and figure out more ways to save yardage. With Athena, it's been things like not always looking at the shortest path, but looking at how to crank down less and keep her going faster as opposed to having to slow down. I was taught with my first trainer to always look for the shortest path, but with my new trainer (who trains with Jenn Crank), she's showed me that sometimes the path that is a yard or two longer may yet be the faster way to go simply because I'm not cranking her down asking for a lot of collection, and we're really saving more time by creating a softer angle. We've also been working on not allowing her to go past the laser beams (something Jenn teaches), and that as the dog learns to respect that, they are learning to only take as much space as your laser beams (fingers) open up and allow them to have. It's helped to get her not jumping as long as she was.
With Kai, it's a lot of turn and go, turn and go. She says Kai is incredibly honest, and as soon as I give any information she's on it. She also told me Kai needs me to cue incredibly early. Kai doesn't run or jump much like your average 12" sheltie. She tends to run more like the BCs. She had a habit of wasting a lot of yardage by jumping wide out past jumps instead of turning tight. Now that I am providing information a lot sooner (as she says it should feel really early), she is turning tighter around the standards, and wasting a lot less yardage. We've also been working on forward sends, lateral motion, and creating really tight rear crosses (as I am the queen of the front cross).
The baby dogs have been the most interesting though. For Aurora, we've been keeping sequences short to allow a lot of success, are providing pretty much all forward cues, sneaking in crosses uncomfortably late, are quitting while she's still having a great time, and are providing lots of open flowy sequences to allow for a lot of speed so she isn't being cranked on. The results are just unbelievable. Her confidence over the last couple of weeks has really surged, so her speed is picking up rapidly. When she pulls off of something, I'm just continuing with circling around so she never knows she has made a mistake.
Ember is my greenest, and potentially most talented dog. She is already incredibly fast, and we are just building on that by doing a lot of what we're doing with Aurora. She can do something though that I could stand to teach the rest. She truly digs in when she lands after a jump. She doesn't jump long either. Because of all of the early jump training using Linda's Developing Jumping Skills, she learned from the get go how to jump properly. When she goes over a jump, and is asked to turn, she doesn't waste time by running and turning, she on the spot just kind of spins on her rear end and turns on a dime, coming back with a lot of power. She has got to be the most efficient dog I have when it comes to jumping, and is also the biggest. My trainer has commented on if we continue to encourage her digging in like that, she is going to have an edge over a large part of our competition, as she is going to save so much time. That, paired with her already being incredibly fast is going to make her very hard to beat in the 16" division. I've already been told I'm going to have to be even quicker to cue her than Kai because of how fast she is.
I've been told how to train the rest of them to dig in like Ember does naturally. So I'm going to be working on that with the rest, and will see if I can get them to learn to dig in like Ember does. It must be something to that breeding- it isn't something that was trained, but both she and her sister Glory do it.
I just wanted to post this, as I know I've posted quite often a lot of what I've been doing when people have asked about speeding up and motivating their dogs, and I just wanted to show that it really does work.
I'd also recommend trying private lessons. I know, being in a class is nice, but I get so much more of what I actually need out of my private lessons. It is making a big difference for the older girls, and is really helping the younger ones. They're just progressing so much faster, as their weekly lesson is able to be tailored to what they specifically need help with as opposed to a generic classroom plan.
With Athena and Kai, I've been wanting to tighten their turns up, and figure out more ways to save yardage. With Athena, it's been things like not always looking at the shortest path, but looking at how to crank down less and keep her going faster as opposed to having to slow down. I was taught with my first trainer to always look for the shortest path, but with my new trainer (who trains with Jenn Crank), she's showed me that sometimes the path that is a yard or two longer may yet be the faster way to go simply because I'm not cranking her down asking for a lot of collection, and we're really saving more time by creating a softer angle. We've also been working on not allowing her to go past the laser beams (something Jenn teaches), and that as the dog learns to respect that, they are learning to only take as much space as your laser beams (fingers) open up and allow them to have. It's helped to get her not jumping as long as she was.
With Kai, it's a lot of turn and go, turn and go. She says Kai is incredibly honest, and as soon as I give any information she's on it. She also told me Kai needs me to cue incredibly early. Kai doesn't run or jump much like your average 12" sheltie. She tends to run more like the BCs. She had a habit of wasting a lot of yardage by jumping wide out past jumps instead of turning tight. Now that I am providing information a lot sooner (as she says it should feel really early), she is turning tighter around the standards, and wasting a lot less yardage. We've also been working on forward sends, lateral motion, and creating really tight rear crosses (as I am the queen of the front cross).
The baby dogs have been the most interesting though. For Aurora, we've been keeping sequences short to allow a lot of success, are providing pretty much all forward cues, sneaking in crosses uncomfortably late, are quitting while she's still having a great time, and are providing lots of open flowy sequences to allow for a lot of speed so she isn't being cranked on. The results are just unbelievable. Her confidence over the last couple of weeks has really surged, so her speed is picking up rapidly. When she pulls off of something, I'm just continuing with circling around so she never knows she has made a mistake.
Ember is my greenest, and potentially most talented dog. She is already incredibly fast, and we are just building on that by doing a lot of what we're doing with Aurora. She can do something though that I could stand to teach the rest. She truly digs in when she lands after a jump. She doesn't jump long either. Because of all of the early jump training using Linda's Developing Jumping Skills, she learned from the get go how to jump properly. When she goes over a jump, and is asked to turn, she doesn't waste time by running and turning, she on the spot just kind of spins on her rear end and turns on a dime, coming back with a lot of power. She has got to be the most efficient dog I have when it comes to jumping, and is also the biggest. My trainer has commented on if we continue to encourage her digging in like that, she is going to have an edge over a large part of our competition, as she is going to save so much time. That, paired with her already being incredibly fast is going to make her very hard to beat in the 16" division. I've already been told I'm going to have to be even quicker to cue her than Kai because of how fast she is.
I've been told how to train the rest of them to dig in like Ember does naturally. So I'm going to be working on that with the rest, and will see if I can get them to learn to dig in like Ember does. It must be something to that breeding- it isn't something that was trained, but both she and her sister Glory do it.
I just wanted to post this, as I know I've posted quite often a lot of what I've been doing when people have asked about speeding up and motivating their dogs, and I just wanted to show that it really does work.
I'd also recommend trying private lessons. I know, being in a class is nice, but I get so much more of what I actually need out of my private lessons. It is making a big difference for the older girls, and is really helping the younger ones. They're just progressing so much faster, as their weekly lesson is able to be tailored to what they specifically need help with as opposed to a generic classroom plan.
