Clean Run - March 2018 - 17

GOAL

STRATEGY

PROCESS

PRACTICE

Plan for Action
By Mia Grant
As I write this, it is the end of November,
which has been a busy month for me:
Power Paws Camp, a trip to Colorado
to teach, and three days of USDAA over
Thanksgiving weekend. Rich has returned to training (he is very happy about
that), Vic made his debut in Veterans (he
was happy to still get to play), and Starlet
continues to enjoy our walks. In addition
to agility, we have continued to find time
for the beach and soon it will be "hill season." It's so important that my dogs get
fun romps-happy dogs are the best dogs.
My personal fitness goals for November
became less ambitious as the busyness of
my schedule set in and the primary goal
moved to "don't gain a ton of weight,"
which I am happy to say I more than met.
Now my trainer is cackling about what
she has planned for me. I do like being active, but I haven't been a fan of "working
out" since my early 20's. However, I am a
fan of being able to run my dog in agility, so I remind myself of that while cursing my way through the workouts: wind
sprints, the stairs from hell (which go to
a lovely beach), core work, and that dastardly balance board.
Rich's return to training began with last
month's pull exercise over low jumps. As
expected, his first inclination was to drift
wide, so we often did double wraps at the
pull jump to get him settled on turning
with me. When I increased jump height
and momentum, the drift would return,
but it did get better, and better is better.
March 18 | Clean Run

I also saw improvement at our first trial
in two months-it's always great to get
clicked and rewarded for the work you've
been doing as a trainer! All our rear
crosses went well, including a double rear
in the Grand Prix that was causing most
teams trouble. I wasn't sure what was going to happen at the show, since our last
practice involved a ton of off-courses. He
is going faster again and my timing was a
little late, so he got lots of rewards for going places I hadn't planned. While I questioned the wisdom of committing to a
team for our first show back, we did get a
team Q and Rich was top 22-inch dog. We
also finished up qualifying for Steeplechase finals and picked up three of the five
regular Qs we needed to finish qualifying
for USDAA's Cynosport World Games.
But I did find some holes during the trial;
the first of which is why I ended up doing
the double rear cross in Grand Prix. In
Team Standard, Rich released himself off

the dogwalk when I pulled away laterally
and did a lawn dart performance-he was
more concerned about getting his front feet
on the ground than running to his 2-on/2off position. It was a "clean" performance,
but it's not what I want. I stayed closer to
him in Grand Prix, which resulted in a
much better dogwalk performance, but it
also made the double rear cross become the
only handling choice for the next piece of
the course. I also still see room for improvement with his pulls, particularly on 180s
when he needs to come through the center. So those will be the focus this month.

Dogwalk Touch and Release Game
For the dogwalk, we will be playing
"downside games" this month. My favorite is a high-energy, rapid-fire touch
and release game. When I give him his
"Touch" cue, the criteria are that he jumps
on the end of the board-first touching the board with a front foot (to help
counter the lawn dart)-moves into his
2-on/2-off position, stopping with at least
one of his front feet straight forward from
the board- and then waits for my verbal
release cue.
I only reward the release. I throw a toy
forward from the board-usually slightly
away from where I am to discourage him
from turning toward me-praise him and
then release him to the toy. We play together and then I run back and reset to do
it again, changing where I am when I send
him to his "touch" position and what I do
before I release him.
17

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - March 2018