Evie's First Agility & Jumping Trial!!

kassidybc said:
You guys are so great! Evie is getting to be pretty speedy! :)
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Yup, she's already faster than I thought she'd be. The more agility she does, the more she likes it... the more she likes it, the faster she gets. Won't be long until I won't be able to keep up with her. Problem is, the faster she gets, the more bars she's knocking.... not really sure what to do about that..
 
Evie said:
Won't be long until I won't be able to keep up with her. Problem is, the faster she gets, the more bars she's knocking.... not really sure what to do about that..
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Did you watch the free videos leading into subscription to Sue Garrett's Agility series (handling 360) that was on a few months ago? It dealt with both these aspects in a very interesting way.
 
Evie said:
Nope, never seen anything of Sue Garrett's. Do you have a link by any chance? :)
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I looked, I don't think it is up there any more :(. I'll try and summarise what I remember for you tonight (I don't have time right now) if nothing else I think it would give you a new way of tackling these things. It was one of the reasons I came back here, it got me really thinking about training again :LOL:.
 
Thanks - that'd be great!

I might go googling her myself now and see if i can find anything :)
 
Evie said:
Thanks - that'd be great!
I might go googling her myself now and see if i can find anything :)
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I'm sure you've found Susan Garrett's website by now but I've linked to it anyway, do sign up for any updates, I think she is really really good. Sadly I really can't find the video I was thinking of, I think she only made it available for a short while before the course opened.

The gist of the video was that in agility when your dog is faster than you then you are not in the right place to give it the cues so it doesn't know where it is going next, because it is trying to look out the back of it's head and see what you are doing and where to go next and thinking it might be going wrong it is more likely to knock bars off. So you need to reduce the dog's uncertainty by giving clearer cues.

But...

because when the course changes direction you have to be right there to signal your dog over the jump and then to turn at exactly the right moment (without pulling it off the the jump you want it to take and without it flying over the one that is straight ahead) you haven't much hope of being at the next obstacle in time to give the cue there that would give your dog the confidence to know what it is supposed to be doing.

Sue Garrett's solution was for you to continue to use your arm to signal the dog over the obstacle while the direction of your feet tells the dog where it is to go afterwards. Because before your dog clears the jump your feet are already pointing in the direction you are going next it buys you a few seconds to get to the next obstacle in time. So your dog gets certainty and you buy yourself some time.
 
I saw that video too, it was great! I have seen some one else do the same thing, but I can't remeber who:oops: I'll have a think about it. I might have it on my youtube channel... I'll see if I can find it.

By the way, my Jinx is a bar knocker too. The more speed she gets, the more she knocks. Usually when I start speeding up to get to the next spot. She's not very good at distance work and tends to kling to me, so when I change direction, she wants to too. Some of the issues we are still working on.
 
Holly likes to have a clear round until the last bar, which she knocks. It is so frustrating. The last jump is usually on a pretty straight bit at low level agility (where we are) so she isn't turning. She just always knocks the last bar.
At our last show she would have won by 2 seconds if she hadn't knocked the last bar (she is pretty fast for a shorty).
 
I'll explain my last post... I thought I posted something, but I guess I didn't press the replybutton:oops:
I wanted to say that I had seem that vid from Susan Garrett. Yes it was only up for a couple of days, unfortunately.
But I had seen a similar vid, but couldn't remember where... So I was looking for it...
So now read my previous post again...:ROFLMAO:
Couldn't find it:mad: If I ever do remember, I'll post it.
 
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