Dancing with my dog

This week in Blaster's class we worked on the turn(swing) meaning we want the dog to turn away from us. Susan Garrett describes it well in her blog at http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2009/08/swinging-with-the-dog.html

because we never want the dog to break the plane of our shoulders we must turn our shoulders into the dog dropping the inside shoulder. I've decided I like the word swing better then turn with all the t words we are using so far my tongue is getting tied it might make it easier for blaster to hear the difference. We also worked on Get Out, and I don't me get out of the kitchen or get out from under my feet which i also use. Get Out meaning move further laterally away from me on a parallel line. We need to extend our arm and have our shoulders facing the dog, the article in dog sport described it as drawing a crayon line on the path we want the dog to take. The other thing we worked on was Go, meaning go ahead of us and take the obstacles in a straight line, with this we just kept throwing the toy under arm and saying go until the dog started anticipating the go and looked forward. Then you step it up by putting the toy in the other arm, swing arm, say go, when he looks forward toss the toy.

Shaping, pushing pulling

By meeting our dogs at the end of the tunnel and charging (leaning) forward we can get their speed up. Also conferging on their line to push them out to the tire so we can take the short cut.

Again by shaping their approach to the next jump we can take the off coarse teeter out of the picture.

Diane and her bullmastiff Gem demonstrate how a good plan comes together.

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Off coarse to tunnel

Here Lane is explaining how to push your dog out from the bottom of the Aframe and over a jump with a quick arm change and landing side front cross for a tighter turn and to prevent them from taking the off coarse tunnel.

Diane and Gemini executed the first 3 jumps very well with the positional cue and landing side front cross. You can clearly see here why Gem fell for the offcoarse tunnel trap when Diane was very late with her arm change. Lane said everything in her body was saying "Gem take the tunnel"

Jan was able to push Tess out to the jump and she performed the arm change on time but her body was still facing the tunnel and she didn't turn until Tess was almost in the tunnel. I didn't see this until I watched it in slow motion, wow it's amazing how tuned our dogs are to our body motion.

Now Jan and Tess perform the push out and pull back to the weaves perfectly.

Lane once again explains the push out and pull back move, the bungee affect seems to speed our dogs up ( a where ya going)

Masterminds Agility lesson 1

Here Lane is explaining options at the start line with an electronic timer to get a good angle of approach and shape the dogs path for a tight turn to the next jump, then with a landing side front cross you can give your dog a positional cue so your dog has no question as to what path to take.

Tess performed the first 2 jumps great with a tight turn but watch what happened as soon as Jan turned her back on Tess, she immediately disengaged and started sniffing(KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE DOG) Then Jan and Tess got their acts together and performed it perfectly