Clean Run - December 2012 - 66

How many times do we attend seminars, or even weekly classes, and get the big picture of what is being presented yet miss those pesky details that really make the picture complete?
For example, my youngest dog has started to get very confident in the ring. Confidence with her equals speed. She thinks most things can be cured with a little extra speed. But that little extra speed on the seesaw is dangerously close to a flyoff. She hasn’t been called on it yet, but I am not going to wait for that to happen. What detail did I miss? Yes, I did all the exercises with front crosses, rear crosses, recalls, sends, and running with her, and her two-on/two-off is solid. Oops, she’s so anxious to get into that rewarding two-on/two-off position that she’s reaching early. In other words, she doesn’t understand to go to the end of the board and wait for the seesaw to hit the ground before she gets in her two-on/twooff. A little, tiny all-important detail that I either forgot to train or didn’t train completely enough, so we will go back and do that. Where you reward and how you reward your dog often fall into the “details.” I have a student who is rewarding her young dog with a ball. But every time her dog comes out of a tunnel she throws the ball straight ahead, regardless of where she is or which direction is next. When it was demonstrated to her that her dog was learning to come blasting straight ahead out of all tunnels, a light bulb went off in her head and resulted in her paying attention to more appropriate location of the reward. But that tiny detail could cause many off-courses later on. When we are having problems with our dogs it would serve all of us well if we would look first at ourselves: Have I rewarded that behavior recently? Did I train it thoroughly? Did I start to add extra cues in training? Am I rewarding in the appropriate place? Am I rewarding at the appropriate time? Is my foundation solid? Your dogs will thank you, and your reward will be less stress as you step to the start line, resulting in more fun and an improvement in your runs. You might even see your Q rate improve! D

Elaine Coupé has been competing in agility since 1996 and been a USDAA judge since 2002. She lives in Oakland, Tennessee, with her husband Bob. They are owned by three Border Collies, ADCH PDCH Bounce, retired; ADCH PDCH Trip!; and young and crazy Kate. Brassy Beagle MAD, TM, RM, SM reluctantly resides with the Border Collies and occasionally competes, hoping to complete her ADCH before she retires. Contact Elaine through her web site: memphisagility.com.

Connie Haschke & PACH Teller
Heart Of Gold Tell Me No Lies
CDX, RE, MX, MXJ, MXP, MJP, OF, PAX, UACH, UWPCH, GRCH, TACH, TACH2, TACH3

Congratulations
eller T
From your friends at the Obedience Training Club of Wichita Falls Small Paws Over Texas Agility Kim Brewer Sherree Bunyard

e Magnetic Cours Map Clipboard
Here's a great way to organize your course maps at trials as well as to design agility courses or “copy down” a course at classes, seminars, or trials.
p The Magnetic Course Ma 100' Clipboard has an 80' by magnetic agility grid (1"=10' scale) on the top and comes with a large les variety of magnetic obstac rs and a dog). (plus handle

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Clean Run | December 12

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Clean Run - December 2012

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