Winter fitness ideas?

Some great ideas, thanks everyone! There's a lot of good suggestions I'm going to do and some we are doing already but I hadn't really though of in connection with agility. I had forgotton that I was going to put in some indoor practice on verbal directional commands and wraps so that's something else we can do too. Almost every evening we are practicing our tricks for HTM/Freestyle (mainly the latter as limited to 3 steps of heelwork in tiny kitchen) and that is a lot of fun and I guess sort of like physio. I might give the indoor jumps a go too so long as it doesn't wind the other boys up. I've seen jump cones sold with holes for the bar to go in but was a bit cautious about that as there wouldn't be any 'give' and much prefer velcro for safety. I think I could also do some caveletti work indoors during the day if I have the place to myself. I had planned to do some indoor shows over the winter but we've had very little practice over the last couple of months and I don't think it would be a good idea to suddenly do a competition from 'cold'. Plus I'm not terribly keen on turning out early on dark,cold, wet mornings! :no:

I was ill too Sophie, just before Christmas with a horrid virus which knocked me out for a couple of weeks. It's funny though how even when ill we still manage to push ourselves for the dogs!! I felt much more guilty about letting them down that I did about being off work!:lol: Yes endless storms and rain and the wettest I've seen it here for over 10 years and we are on the Downs which normally drain like a sieve. Feel very sorry for those in flood areas as I just can't begin to imagine what that must be like. Hope you're not in a risk area.
 
Sounds like the same virus I had! I still haven't stopped coughing, but yes somehow the dogs were always fed even when I felt too ill to feed myself!

Sorry to hear you have the rain, it's been quite dry here recently. Unfortunately the town was flooded back in October and the damage to the coast was shocking. My house escaped, but I did get an evacuation notice which was very scary. There are still problems with both bridges into town, which is an utter nightmare!

Roll on Spring!
 
Yes, sounds like the same virus! Stupidly I tried doing some agility before I was really better because I knew the number of classes we would have would be limited and it was a lovely day. But I suffered for it afterwards and felt very rough. The dogs enjoyed themselves though!:wink2:

Very scary getting an eviction notice and nearby flooding but I'm glad you have escaped the worst this time round. Hope it stays that way! How is your winter agility going? Have you been getting any training or been to any shows? I remember last year you had some soon after Christmas?
 
Sharon said:
Wich hand did you use for the left turn and which hand for right turn?
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Sharon, in terms of turns it is wrist motion that I use so either arm can show both turns, I use it as a trick to warm up shoulder muscles. I do not do directionals at agility so am not using verbals as such. However as my handling goes I do use motion based system. Currently I have started teaching flick and that uses specific side and hand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M9eZ9dYD9Q
 
Yes, I hope we avoid flooding too!

How is your winter agility going? Have you been getting any training or been to any shows? I remember last year you had some soon after Christmas?
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We finished 15 December and classes start back 17 January. Normally I would miss it dreadfully, but with being so poorly its been a relief. The comp I went to last January, isn't on and the other places are so far away I didn't like to risk booking them and then get stuck at home with bad weather. So first comp is 1 Feb, and I am hoping to get on a one day course with a competition agility trainer soon after (maybe 2 Feb, busy weekend!). After that it will be all go with lots happening! Now I am feeling better I can't wait!

Have you got plans for any comps coming up? We've got Crufts on the telly soon too:pop
 
Why not try Silvia Trkman's tricks for balance, strength, and coordination dvd? It has plenty of great tricks to teach to keep your dog in great shape. I'd do it paired with the get on the ball work.
 
HopeShelties said:
Why not try Silvia Trkman's tricks for balance, strength, and coordination dvd?
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Do you have this? I'm curious what kind of stuff is in it. Sounds interesting! But, we're also really low level trick people, so I'm afraid it would be above our level!
 
Here is trailer, all Silvia tricks DVD´s include basic, intermediate and advance mixture of tricks, sometimes same trick for for beginner level, intermediate and advance levels. Problem- each dog is different, they might need long time to build enough strength to perform it. So it might be less about teaching trick as such and more about dog building enough core strength for example to do it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YExvbpkHnIo
 
SheltieChe said:
Here is trailer, all Silvia tricks DVD´s include basic, intermediate and advance mixture of tricks, sometimes same trick for for beginner level, intermediate and advance levels. Problem- each dog is different, they might need long time to build enough strength to perform it. So it might be less about teaching trick as such and more about dog building enough core strength for example to do it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YExvbpkHnIo
Click to expand...

Looks interesting, thanks for sharing!
 
I wondered about getting that DVD (with Christmas money!) but looking at the trailer we are already doing most of these or similar anyway...
I find with learning tricks (and clicker training in general) that the more you do, the quicker they learn. So whereas last winter one trick would take several weeks to learn, now it is more like several days! And returning to ones we have struggled with previously is more successful as he seems to pick them up without any problem now. It's a huge amount of fun and I would recommend it to anyone, but it does get rather addictive for dog and owner!

We were lucky to have fantastic weather yesterday and had a super walk of much longer than usual. I was suprised and happy to see that even the older two were walking with a spring in their step at the end and of course Epic enjoyed himself to the full. I'm hoping that his general lifestyle which involves a lot of running and jumping wherever he is (indoors on the furniture) means that he's not dropped off agility condition too much so am going to try some of the suggestions you guys have made, in partuicular the ball work and indoor jumps. Our class on saturday was cancelled because although it was a lovely sunny day, the ground was still too wet.

Sophie, I might be doing a training course in Feb or March but no competitions planned in the near future. Once we start training again I'll see if there are any small ones locally to try out. I was really looking forward to the Sheltie Agility Show which used to be in the Spring but they have put it back to November this year. Still, gives us more time to improve I guess!
 
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