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Our Peppi is a bit like this. My suggestion would be to get her turning tight on the flat first before you ask for it on the dw. A good way to do this is to teach her to run around a pole, or a tree. Increase the distance till she is running fast towards it, turns tight & accelerates out of the turn. Once her line is basically straight, you know you have success.

OK so you know what I mean by weird :laugh: Yep that was one of the things I was thinking of trying - would probably also transfer to her wrapping jumps better too. Thanks for the tip

Another thing about entries to dog walks, seesaws & even weaves is that people often try to make the entries easier but actually make them harder. By running right up to an angled entry, we are often actually asking the dog to move laterally across the front of it. Many dogs struggle with the turn b/c our body language is actually asking them to go straight ahead. I try to look for commitment from the dog to the obstacle, one I see it, I make my turn & I'm off. Often they do a much better job of the entry without our "help". Not sure if I have explained this well... I know what I mean lol.

No no it makes perfect sense to me, I know what you mean. Thinking about it I am usually facing the same direction as the DW when she is approaching it (parallel??) and sending her with my arm and motion, not facing the on-ramp on a sort of 90 degree angle (now I'm confusing myself :rofl: )

I haven't done a pinwheel sort of approach to the DW before with her and I think I may have been a bit slow with turning my shoulders forward which may have pushed her out a bit far on approach - thanks for that has really given me something to think about :thumbsup:

I've done a quick diagram to try and explain it better, do you see what I mean when I say I could have pushed her out too far by not turning soon enough?

seq.jpg

I've been watching other MTs on Youtube who have the same running style but have very good deceleration which Trixie doesn't really have at the moment - might work on that a bit too. Example of what I mean:

What an awesome team!

I know - it's inspirational to me :o love it.

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Just a little random side note - Kyzer has never been particularly challenging handling wise (mood wise is a different story :rofl: ), he is only little and not particularly speedy, and is the sort of dog you can handle by just running and doing a few front and rear crosses, he is easy to keep up with.

Since training Trixie, I feel like my entire perspective on agility has changed and evolved and I feel like I am improving my handling every week because she is so much more of a challenge. I am always thinking about how to keep ahead of her, doing things like pushing her out to obstacles, and using lateral motion and I am absolutely loving it at the moment, she really gets the whole motion based handling thing naturally and is so responsive to me, just having so much fun at the moment!!!! :thumbsup:

That was just my ramble for the day :laugh:

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I've done a quick diagram to try and explain it better, do you see what I mean when I say I could have pushed her out too far by not turning soon enough?

seq.jpg

Yep, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

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Just a little random side note - Kyzer has never been particularly challenging handling wise (mood wise is a different story :rofl: ), he is only little and not particularly speedy, and is the sort of dog you can handle by just running and doing a few front and rear crosses, he is easy to keep up with.

Since training Trixie, I feel like my entire perspective on agility has changed and evolved and I feel like I am improving my handling every week because she is so much more of a challenge. I am always thinking about how to keep ahead of her, doing things like pushing her out to obstacles, and using lateral motion and I am absolutely loving it at the moment, she really gets the whole motion based handling thing naturally and is so responsive to me, just having so much fun at the moment!!!! :thumbsup:

That was just my ramble for the day :laugh:

Not a ramble! That was great to read :). Sounds like you are having awesome fun & the bonus is that Trixie will make you a better handler for Kyzer too :)

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AP- I have a feeling I am going to have a similar evolution. Although I have not competed as extensively with Toby (and now he is retired) he was a stay by my side type dog. I have a feeling the up and comer is going to be much speedier and more independent!

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Yep, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

Thought so - another thing to be aware of in the future. Thanks for the food for thought.

Not a ramble! That was great to read :). Sounds like you are having awesome fun & the bonus is that Trixie will make you a better handler for Kyzer too :)

Yes that's true, maybe it will! Yes very very fun, I just feel so in sync with her - I'm sure you know what I mean :laugh:

AP- I have a feeling I am going to have a similar evolution. Although I have not competed as extensively with Toby (and now he is retired) he was a stay by my side type dog. I have a feeling the up and comer is going to be much speedier and more independent!

I hope you do RV. :D I dare say you will.

I wouldn't say Trixie is independent at all, certainly much less so than Kyzer, in fact I think that's part of the reason she responds better, but she is just so different, she is almost fluid like?? I dunno maybe I've had too much sugar today :rofl:

This is going to sound ridiculous :rofl: But it's like Trixie is so fluid and smooth, and Kyzer is more jerky and wiggly and can change direction at any moment, whereas Trixie gets on a line / curve and follows it, weird hey :rofl::drink:

As a result, my handling with Kyzer is usually jerky and wiggly, and with Trixie it is smooth and fluid :laugh:

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Yep, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

Thought so - another thing to be aware of in the future. Thanks for the food for thought.

Not a ramble! That was great to read :). Sounds like you are having awesome fun & the bonus is that Trixie will make you a better handler for Kyzer too :)

Yes that's true, maybe it will! Yes very very fun, I just feel so in sync with her - I'm sure you know what I mean :laugh:

AP- I have a feeling I am going to have a similar evolution. Although I have not competed as extensively with Toby (and now he is retired) he was a stay by my side type dog. I have a feeling the up and comer is going to be much speedier and more independent!

I hope you do RV. :D I dare say you will.

I wouldn't say Trixie is independent at all, certainly much less so than Kyzer, in fact I think that's part of the reason she responds better, but she is just so different, she is almost fluid like?? I dunno maybe I've had too much sugar today :rofl:

This is going to sound ridiculous :rofl: But it's like Trixie is so fluid and smooth, and Kyzer is more jerky and wiggly and can change direction at any moment, whereas Trixie gets on a line / curve and follows it, weird hey :rofl::drink:

As a result, my handling with Kyzer is usually jerky and wiggly, and with Trixie it is smooth and fluid :laugh:

Not ridiculous at all... :bolt::laugh:

Toby felt like he was skipping along with a big grin, almost chasing after me. His handling was mostly intuitive as he just followed my shoulders and where I pointed. For my pup I actually want to implement a handling system, so she has consistent responses and I am more consistent - not making it up as I go along. :laugh:

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OH and I have been press-ganged into stewarding at the BDOC agility trials this Saturday. OH is very unimpressed because he already does his part by coming every Wednesday night to set up and put away the agility equipment at practice...He hasn't asked for a divorce yet ...

I am down as 'ring and leads steward' in the agility ring. Does anyone know what this entails? Also, OH is going to be 'Time Keeper - backup'. Does this mean he also keeps time at the same time as the primary but the time he records is just in case there's uncertainty about the primary time? Thanks very much in advance! :thumbsup:

I apparently have the job of 'assembly steward' which I'm guessing is getting people organised and making sure they come into the ring at the right time. Will find out on Saturday, I guess :)

Edit: I will be getting a leash for prettiness too, methinks :p Although I definitely do need some kind of slip lead.

Guess we will be seeing both of you there then :) Tailwag and I are running 5 of our dogs at BDOC

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AP- I have a feeling I am going to have a similar evolution. Although I have not competed as extensively with Toby (and now he is retired) he was a stay by my side type dog. I have a feeling the up and comer is going to be much speedier and more independent!

I'm having a ball running my dogs and get a buzz when I trust them enough to run as fast as I can and in turn they run fast for me! I do need to trust them more on weaves, though. Got a fair bit of training to do with those so that they nail the entry at least 8 times out of 10! Right now it's about a 5 or 6 :o

But gosh I am pretty excited to start training mum and dad's mini schnauzer in agility. She is a mad tugger at home and so fast for a littley that she has been nicknamed Ninja laugh.gif so I am hoping I don't ruin her and she keeps up the speed in training and tugs in public! She's only 10 or 11 weeks old at the moment so obviously haven't had her out at training grounds yet. We start agility puppy classes in term 4 and I can't wait :D She's so damn fiesty rofl1.gif

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Toby felt like he was skipping along with a big grin, almost chasing after me. His handling was mostly intuitive as he just followed my shoulders and where I pointed. For my pup I actually want to implement a handling system, so she has consistent responses and I am more consistent - not making it up as I go along. :laugh:

:laugh: skipping along with the grin is how I see Ruby in agility, too laugh.gif

Millie is just psycho, and my handling needs to be much neater with her because if I don't let her know where she's going with clear signals, she makes the course up on her own embarrass.gif I had soooooooooooooo much fun handling them both in JDX on the weekend. The course was awesome and it just felt so nice to run!

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Thanks. :) Have emailed them, hopefully they'll be able to make one that's about 1m.

Hayley is awesome with the customising of them! :) I am sure she will be happy to help! She was lovely enough to put a tennis ball on the end of ours, and make it our colours! :) :D

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wuffles sent this video to me, she knows how much I angst over Elbie's zoomies on the agility field. Gosh Teddy is such a sweetheart, though. He seems so gleeful in his exuberance ... and he always comes back! He's also talented and

:)

Edited by koalathebear
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