Lesson With Paulena Renee Hope

On Saturday, the Youngsville Agility Club hosted private lessons with Paulena Renee Hope. I arrived a little early to watch Clover's brother's and sister's lessons. Marcia was first with Logan. Lori then divided her lesson between Guiness and Suzi. I then had Clovers lesson. Paulena seemed impressed that they all came from the same litter.

I started our lesson by showing a video tape I made of Clover doing weave's in competition vs. practice. She watched it twice and said we can fix that!

The first part of the lesson we just ran a straight 4 jump shoot so she could evaluate Clover's jumping style. She said Clover was well balanaced between the front and back. We then went to a four jump jumping grid and worked on 180 turns and threadles. She pointed out that I needed to move more fluently with the dog to better convey my directions. She also added that I need to look where I want Clover to go. Everytime Clover took an off course, I was looking exactly where she went. I need to use my perifrial vision more.

We then started on the weaves--the main portion I wanted to cover. Paulena says that Clover's problem is she's aiming for the space between the first and second weave poles when starting weaves. Therefore, if she approaches the weaves straight on, she only sees a weave pole, not a space, so she ignores it. Paulena said the way to retrain Clover is to teach her to weave the Poles, not go into the spaces. If she always lines up on the first pole, she will never miss an entry. I can accomplish this by teaching her to touch the first weave pole with the side of her nose. We used treats and rewarded Clover when she touched the pole between her eye and her nose on the entry side of the weaves.

It was a very informational lesson. It is always good to get a second opionion when it comes to training. Paulena was at Teamworks all weekend giving private lessons and enjoyed it so much that she is going to come back one day a month for the next 3 months. I am going to split a lesson with Denise, to cut down on cost. That will give us 1/2 hour to work on weaves and contacts each month. I am also going to schedual private lessons with Michele in between the ones with Paulena so we can work on retraining.