Clean Run - April 2018 - 10

ing slightly collected. Having seen him
at full tilt, the jumps need to be a good
20ft. apart to encourage him to stretch
out and really power through. Those are
now notes in my training book. Next on
the list is a nice big circle that he can
learn to power round, with my distance
from him gradually increasing. Shade
is a Working Bearded Collie, from lines
prized for their independence, and I
need to remember that.
Dexi loves jumping. The poles are down
on the foot of the wings and he just loves
it. Sends, recalls, he loves it all. When I'm
running with him, I carry the food toy in
my hand and throw it ahead for a finish.
Working sends, I place it out on a big blue
mat and he flies down the line of jumps
to get it. Again from video review, he
doesn't like me ruffling his fur, or patting
him-I guess that's leaning over him to
a certain extent, and he also doesn't like
fiddling about. I need to run back to the
beginning of the send and send him!
The point of the exercise is the send, not
the set up. Another big note in my book:
train one thing at a time. Because he's
deaf, Dexi spends a lot of time watching me; so I made sure he had the idea
of driving ahead to the toy before I added in the distraction of my movement.

Darcey is having fun; she loves to play
across the jumps. My daughter Kris
stands one end and I at the other. Kris
sends, I call and then run away, and we
play as she catches me. Then we reverse
the order and I send. She won't play in
the wet and the mud, and she is currently flatly refusing to do tunnels that
have any water in them. Again, since
the point of the exercise here is to build
an excited association, I'm going with
that-as long as the princess is having
fun, it's a win. She is now starting to get
excited about training itself, which is so
nice to see! She eagerly awaits her turn
and is excited as she comes out of the
car, looking for her toy. It's taken a lot
of building and I'm now really happy
with the results. She wears coats while
training if it's cold; a lot of people disapprove, but Darcey is never going to
enjoy herself if she is feeling cold, as she
hates being cold with a passion. For an
actual sendaway from me I use the Treat
& Train for Darcey, taking care to prime it
a few times to rouse her interest.

of stride that would enable turns on
what is for him a narrow board. It is relatively easy to teach a stop if that's what
we eventually need to do. In the mean
time he's having a lot of fun and is visibly
growing in confidence.

Darcey is excited to send
to her Treat & Train.

Contacts

No fussy setup for Dexi, just send
him and then run back to the start
and repeat!
10

Shady is now running across a 4ft. board.
His mat is wrapped around the end of
the board and there are two marker
poles to show the end of the board. I
find the poles really help the dogs with
turns, and they are easy to fade. He's doing well and can hit the mat at full speed
and extension. He doesn't like going
ahead of me, preferring instead to have
me running alongside him or ahead of
him. I've decided not to worry about it
right now and go with what he enjoys
because the associations we're making
with agility training are very important.
His stride is enormous and I'm not sure if
he will be able to cope with the change

Shady is now running across a 4ft. board.
His mat is wrapped around the end of the
board and there are two marker poles
to show the end of the board.

With all three dogs I'm playing games on
the middle plank of a low dogwalk. They
do sits and downs and they turn. All of
this is important to make sure they are
comfortable with the dogwalk itself before we start training. Darcey and Dexi
have no problems at all, but it's much
more difficult for Shady. He is happy to
turn, sit, and down, but he's not happy
to kick back from a down into a stand.
Until he is, we won't progress further
than working a plank on the floor.
It became obvious that the front-paw
touch wasn't going to work for Darcey.
Clean Run | April 18
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - April 2018
