Clean Run - January 2012 - 34

By Nancy Gyes

Obsessing drills on Four Jumps
ing, good and consistent hand signals, and footwork. Give yourself the freedom to not complete a drill if your dog does not respond appropriately to your cues. Stop then and there and get it right. There should always be a good balance of drill training with course work, and the short, technical drills with many reinforcements are where you really train your dog to respond to your cues. Occasional or once a week course work helps you to put together many obstacles at a time, but the drill work is where you perfect it all. There are many opportunities for moving starts using the tunnel so you can get into position for the turns. When you do lead-outs, don’t forget to reward many of your start lines, and leave your toy at the finish so your dog is driving through the closing obstacle and not rotating back and staring at you as you finish. Keep moving through the closing obstacle just like on the finish line at a trial. As an instructor that is possibly the information I give out to students more than any other: Don’t stop moving at the last jump, and get the reinforcer out in front of the dog’s line. So, obsess away! D
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Some years ago some of my semi-private lessons turned into what I called “obsession sessions.” An obsession session is described by one of my students as “four girls, four jumps, four hours.” We did both simple and complex drills and obsessed on the finer details of handling. This wasn’t agility training where you get through the numbered drill at all costs whether or not it was clean and pretty. This was “get through the drill perfectly” and if you wanted to obsess on your side change or threadle for 10 minutes, and train and reinforce until it was flawless, then that is what we did. My obsession sessions have expanded to do much more than I did with four girls and four jumps, but during obsession lessons we always try to remember to take the time to really get it right, and to stop and work the small details with lots of rewards. Sometimes we obsess on a course, sometimes on a threadle move, and some weeks we aren’t as picky and we just have fun on the drills. This little four-jump setup, which has a couple of equipment changes, is a good setup for obsessing. Take the time in these short drills to perfect your handling and reward, reward, reward. Think tight turns, perfect tim1 2

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This is the opening setup for the drills.

Release the dog to jump #1 and do a front cross to #2, or do a LOP at #2. Serpentine #3 to #5; then try these two alternate endings: a) Finish the serpentine by taking your dog to the outside at #5 and pull to #6; b) As you cue the serpentine to #5, step behind the dog to do a rear cross and pull through the gap to #6.

Send the dog to the tunnel and then begin to move to your threadle handling position. The dog is on your right from #3 to #5.

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Clean Run - January 2012

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