Cool Course of the Week

Last night was my night to help host Course of the week. I set up an elite standard AKC run that was run at Lynchberg Va in 2005. It was a nice challenging run. I thought the most challenging part was a tunnel in a U around the up contact of the dog walk. The dog had to go in a specific end of the tunnel and then up the dog walk. Clover just wanted to keep going out one end of the tunnel and into the other. A saving grace was the discrimination was right after the table, so you could get a good lead out while the dog was on the table.

It was a cool night, got down to low 20F but there were still a surprising number of people that came out. There were about 10 people there.

Clover ran the course very well. She did screw up the tunnel/dogwalk discrimination and did take a wrong jump once during our 4 course runs, but she nailed the weave entrance time! It was not an easy entrance either.

We also worked on serpentines in the practice ring and then went to the grass ring and worked on the A-frame contact. Right now my main focus on contacts is stride regulation entering the contact. Clover likes to jump on the contact from far back. This sets her up hitting the A frame more horizontally, thus harder. With a bar or jump about 2-3 feet before the contact she is forced to step on the ground right before the contact and thus enters the A-frame more vertically and with less jarring. I want to prevent as much jarring as possible to keep Clover's shoulders and feet intact.

Tonight we have private lessons with Paulina. I want to review weaves and then start focusing on contacts.