Clean Run - May 2014 - 58

through the poles will earn them the ball.
"My position is irrelevant. The wires
have helped to guide entries. I can be
anywhere from the get-go. Then, there is
nothing to fade."

the contacts is one of the skills she trains
from the beginning, and it's the topic
she wrote about as her contribution to
the WAO fundraising E-book (available
from the Clean Run store).

With contacts, she teaches position on a
travel plank, using some of Susan Garrett's early methods. "I reward for holding position and don't put a lot of movement into it. Once they have that, they
will hold the position no matter where I
am until released." She backchains the
position onto the equipment and starts to
add movement into the position by putting a jump next to the ramp. "If I have
built enough value into the position itself, the dog will want to stop." Then, in
practice, she often starts sequences with
the two-on/two-off position, "so that it's
not that annoying interruption in the middle of the sequence." That independence
is key to being able to get away from
the contact to handle what comes next.

Terry is constantly using play as a teaching tool. "I play ChuckIt! in the backyard, but my puppy has to go through the
channel weaves to get the ball. Idgie has
to hold her stay at the bottom of the teeter
or dogwalk to get the ball. I am always
trying to integrate play into training."

She strongly emphasizes the importance of the release word. "It is almost
as important as the stop. Inconsistency
or early use or failure with the release
will blow the contact." Proofing stays on

The Dogs
Terry was looking for a Standard Poodle
when she met a Portie she loved. She
looked into the breed and found them to
be incredibly intelligent dogs. "The ones
I have owned have always been very
high drive. They are fun dogs, with a
slightly perverse sense of humor, so they
are entertaining." She jokes that it has
been fun to be the marker dog-that rare,
non-Border Collie-in the 22" class. Her
oldest Portie, Burgee, ranks 14th in the
USDAA all-time Q list.
Idgie, says Terry, was supposed to be her
retirement rocking-chair lap dog. She

had always said she wasn't interested
in international competition, but when
Idgie came along and Terry discovered
what an incredible athlete the little dog
is, she thought the dog deserved a shot.
So they traveled to the USDAA Nationals in Denver in 2012 to see whether Idgie could be competitive in the 16" group.
"She is a small poodle, just 12.1 inches,
and was only 3 at the time. She placed
2nd in the warm-up class, 1st in Team
Snooker, and 5th in Team Standard."

The Journey to Italy
When Terry qualified for the IFCS
Continental Championships of Europe
(CCOE), she decided to go to Spain, to
see how she liked it. While she was pretty sure that Idgie would take the travel
and the competition like a champ, Terry
knew it wasn't going to be as easy for her.
It would be tough physically, especially
with all the running that is required on
some of the courses at the highest level
of the sport. "I wasn't sure that I could
keep up. And the travel. Travel is difficult these days." Once she decided to go,
she stared to buckle down on her conditioning. "That's when I hired a personal

Have More Fun
Your dog's fun-loving nature requires energy.
Metabolism can be analyzed, and optimized.
Simple diet changes can have a big impact.
Find out how:

animalelite.com/fun
58

Clean Run | May 14

http://www.animalelite.com/fun

Clean Run - May 2014

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