I mentioned to our vet that she has had an increase in energy over the last 6 months. No change in diet or exercise, no real changes in general. Just a lot more energy. The vet says she has seen that happen in some dogs once they reach full maturity. Their bodies no longer use energy to grow and instead you find yourself with a more active dog. Oh yipee!
Don't get me wrong, I love her energy and she still settles in the house. But it was kind of nice that after a day of daycare, we could both go home and settle down immediately. Oh well time to up the training and exercise.
Agility: Still won't get on the teeter. Weaves going well even after a 2 week hiatus from training! No hesitation on the dog walk. We had a few weeks where she had be re-introduced to the dog walk at the beginning of class. We need more work on our rear crosses...a lot more work. But it was an overall good class.
Obedience: I had a late day on Monday at the office so no class last week. We are still working on left hand pivots. Any suggestions on how best to teach that?
Flyball: We had a great practice this weekend. First practice we were able to attend in awhile. Spending 2 hours with teammates re-affirms that I made the right choice in joining this new team.
We are working on Sophie's turns. She has gotten sloppy and isn't lifting her backend. She isn't slamming full on as she turns her body but just won't left her back end. We have been using a prop in front of the jump which always gets a clean turn. So this week we used a clear prop. Hoping to wean her off the prop and keep her turn.
And now a picture from practice, courtesy of a teammate:
Very energetic picture, good luck sorting out those turns :-)
ReplyDelete(Check out Chips turn on my blog)
Great action picture! Look at her fly!!
ReplyDeleteEnergy is good :)
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean when you say "left hand pivots?" Do you mean the left finish? Pivoting in heel position for a left turn, or 180+ degrees?
Laura, our left finishes need some work but those are coming along ok. I am referring to a "HALT – 90 Pivot Left – HALT
ReplyDeleteThe handler halts and the dog will sit in heel position. Once the dog is sitting, the handler will pivot 90 to the left cuing the dog to move simultaneously and sit in heel position at the completion of the handler’s pivot. The sits may be automatic or cued. The handler should perform the pivot in a space roughly the size of a paper plate. Once the dog is sitting the team may proceed.
STATIONARY EXERCISE" (from APDT)
She can do that exercise perfectly to the right, but to the left we use way more space than a paper plate!
That is an awesome picture! I love all the things you do with Sophie. :-)
ReplyDeleteAhh. Have you done any perch/brick work with her?? It takes a lot of rear end awareness to pivot nicely in heel and perch work does a fabulous job of teaching the rear end awareness and you can even do that exact left pivot on the brick. Once you have it on a brick it's really easy to fade it and do it just in heel.
ReplyDeleteLook up the keywords of pivot or perch on youtube for some videos of how to teach it.
wow, sounds like you do a lot with your girl. Kinda makes me feel guilty. Hopefully Luna does not follow in her shoes and become more energetic at 4, I am enjoying her 3 year old "slow down." We just stared agility not long ago, and she has completed each obstacle without blinking, but her attention and desire to go over what I tell her to is the tricky part. She is an independent little squirt. But it's been fun. I hope to do some Rally with her eventually too, and we need to finish up her show title and hunting titles this fall.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your girl, I shall check back and see how you all are doing
Anna
www.akginspiration.com