Training Notes

SUMMARY: Because I do want to improve things.

I don't have anything like a formal list of what to work on or formal tracking sheet showing how much I've done. I'm doing only about 5 minutes a day with each dog--but that's a whole lot more than I had been doing for months.

In the last week, I've worked on:

• One-jump serps.  Interesting that, when I had moved the dogs far enough away from the jump that they were alongside the teeter, they both did u-turns from a sit-stay to the teeter instead of coming to the jump for the serp. I didn't videotape it, so not sure what the deal was there.
• Lateral lead-outs (boost only).
• Just running over jumps (and into tunnels because that's the only way to keep up the speed in this small yard), especially with Boost to just keep her going. And for  me, both behind and ahead and practicing saying "go" or "hup"  or "through" while the dog is NOT directly over a jump.
• When playing (tossing a toy) for Boost, making her go over jumps first to try to increase the value of going over jumps.
• Bar-knocking drills with Boost, with tossed treats and with toy.
• Table-down drills mostly with Tika, mostly with food but some toys.
• Weave entries from 90-degree angle and steeper.
• Just with Boost, weave entries when I'm way ahead of her. How come she continues to be able to do them just fine here but not in competition? Grumble.
• Practicing standing up straight while I'm running (not bending at all), really concentrating on using my arm and body position to indicate obstacles, especially with Tika, who is sometimes having trouble with that now even here in my smaller yard. 
• Warming myself up by jogging and running until I can run full out without my knee complaining. It really becomes so stiff so quickly these days; I can't rely on it loosening up in the first few running steps any more.

Just a week away from a mongo four-day USDAA trial. I'd like to feel confident that I'm not throwing away my time and money for four whole days in a row.

Once again we're going to try to get Tika's final Team Q to complete her Performance Platinum Tournament. In retrospect, our disaster in December was at that covered Santa Rosa arena where I finally realized this month that there's so much ambient noise that she couldn't hear me, even though her hearing wasn't as bad then as it is now. This time it's outdoors, and I'm hoping that she'll be able to hear me better.

And--like a broken record--I'd really really like to get some Jumpers Qs and SuperQs with Boost. Just sayin'.  So. Another week in which to practice.

I should really make a list and check things off as I work on them.

I should.