Clean Run Magazine -May 2010 - 77

LB: How did Tess find you?

KD: She went from the shelter through three homes before she came to me. I agreed to board her after learning she had barked so incessantly that she spent the night in a crate in the bed of a pickup at the end of someone’s driveway. I never intended to keep her. She was incredibly cute, but she was a dedicated counter surfer, a nonstop barker, and a fence climber. Tess had papers indicating she was a Springer Spaniel, but she was tiny. She is just 13 1/2" tall and weighs only about 15 lbs. I decided to keep her because of her wonderful temperament, her great balanced structure, her eagerness to learn, and her boldness and energy. And I fell in love with her. She is an incorrigible brat but a totally endearing little dog.
LB: Did Tess seem good for agility at the time you made the choice?

By Lisa Barrett, photos by Michael Loftis Photography

Tess
Tess ADCH, MX, MXJ
Adopted From: Call Name:

would work well for Tess. It did. But I never worked my entries enough, so she often missed the entry. To correct this, I put wires on my poles. Tess never missed an entry at home. In trials she would always run by the poles the first time, and then enter and do fast perfect weaves. I was very frustrated. I did more weaves, I did fewer weaves, I took the wires off the poles, I put them back on, I put all the wires on, I put only the first wire on. The problem remained. She missed the first entry. One year, in Perry, Georgia, Tess ran in 10 classes, and she qualified and placed in only one class. All the other failures were weave pole entries! She seemed to be looking for the wires. I replaced the wires and then slowly and carefully moved them up out of the way. The entry problem remained. I just kept on running her, putting her back in when she missed in the ring, never getting upset. I also tried rewarding her when she did hit the entries by running out of the ring and jackpotting her. This definitely seemed to help, but it was a very, very slow process. Slowly she began to hit the entries more often, but I could never rely on her. I decided to use Susan Garrett’s 2 x 2 system to retrain Tess. Every day, twice (three times if I could), I went out and sent Tess into the poles. I used a food tube for Tess, because she was much happier with food than with tugging. The first trial after I started this, Tess still missed 50% of her entries. I kept going. Two weeks later Tess missed only one. Tess still misses occasional entries, but misses are now few and far between.
LB: Any other training problems?

KD: I think that’s why we chose her. I remember the night we decided to keep her. I was soaking peacefully in the hot tub when Tess leaped into the hot tub with me. I shrieked and tossed her out, at which point Tess jumped up onto the slippery wet side of the tub and just balanced there. My husband was coming through the door behind her, and he said, “I can’t believe you are going to give that dog away. She is the best agility prospect we have ever had!” And I agreed. So I started training her.
LB: What was easy about training Tess?

Fulton County Animal Control, Atlanta, Georgia Kim Duff, Florida
Handler:

KD: She loves food, and she loves to have fun. Jumping is probably the easiest skill for her. Tess runs fast and is a very good little jumper. Although she is just 13 1/2", she jumps so easily that I run her at 16" in AKC as well as USDAA. She likes to race with me, and she usually is very sensitive to my handling. When Tess and I are “on,” running her on a Jumpers course is a dream. The deeper our partnership became, the better she ran.
LB: How did you teach Tess weave poles?

KD: I drew her through the weave poles following a piece of cheese stuck on a stick. Jane Simmons-Moake demonstrated this method, and I thought it
May 10 | Clean Run

KD: We also had contact problems. I trained Tess to do running A-frame and dogwalk contacts. Her running contacts were brilliant and fast. Then one year Tess seemed to find an overdrive and stopped hitting contacts. When running in overdrive, her stride changed. At home her contacts were perfect. Tired of blowing qualifiers with missed A-frames, I retrained a two-on/two-off contact. Perfect at home. In the ring I am not sure she has ever actually given me a twoon/two-off but she keeps herself on the
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Clean Run Magazine -May 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine -May 2010