Training Day

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Leanne

We had a lovely training day on Saturday with Natalie Mitchell. I’m increasingly picky with who I train with, but I’ve known Nat for a long time (and Kai is Dylan’s half sister) so I know how she trains and handles.

There are some “local” trainers that I avoid, in some cases simply because I don’t think their methods are going to work for my dogs. I’m sure they’re great trainers, just not for me. From my point of view, I do not respond well to being shouted at, even if it’s done in a “lighthearted” manner. I also don’t respond well to being told flat-out that I’m wrong (I have some other thoughts on that which I’ll post later!). Nat doesn’t do that, she discusses and tells me how to improve what we have. She also explains why, and that’s important for me as well. That is the kind of training I respond to, and I have a bunch of things to work on from this session.

Having said that, Dylan really surpassed my expectations. His Aframe and Seesaw were beautiful, his jumping was super, he was fast and responsive. We worked on rear crosses and push-outs (or round-the-back), and it turns out that we are both much better at that than I thought we were. His dogwalk was initially slow but improved as he got more comfortable with the equipment, which was frustrating but what I expected.

His waits were actually great, which I was very pleased with. I am working on his wait a lot, and we have plenty of other things to do until it’s perfect. One of which is going to include throwing some of my runs in competition, but there we go.

Mainly what I got was some tweaks to my handling, which I really needed. We’ll see if I can remember them all when it comes to Hare’n'Hounds in a few weeks time.

Rocket Relay Seminar

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Leanne

I haven’t updated the blog for a while and it’s not because I have too little to say! I’ve had a very busy couple of weeks with and without the dogs, including the Rocket Relay seminar last weekend (organised by Katie and Kristian from http://www.flyballfever.co.uk/).

I don’t think I’ve learnt so much from one weekend as I did from Kelly and Aaron. Some things I already knew but hadn’t tried, some things I have tried before, and some things were brand new. I’ve been working hard with Kim and Dylan on their ball obsession since we got back! I’ve also done a little target work with both because we are hopefully going to be getting an upright box this summer and I think this will be a good way of switching them both over. Mollie hasn’t done anything because I’m afraid I don’t think anything will ever cure her ball obsession!

It was very interesting how much overlap there was for agility in terms of motivation and the approach to reward and not rewarding. It was also really refreshing how nobody felt the need to debate the positive/negative rewards, because it seems like this is all that gets discussed sometimes in agility. There’s so much focus on training systems and how to train “correctly” that people seem to either be about manipulating their dog into doing something, or stopping their dog manipulating them, and forget about their dogs being actual beings with working brains! So it was nice to hear some straightforward discussion that still respected the dog and the dog’s intelligence.

Reflecting on a lot of what they said about the way their team is structured and run, because I find it very hard in flyball to maintain my motivation and enthusiasm. I talk a lot about points here but what I actually want from flyball is direct competitive racing, where the team is working in unison to full potential and accordingly kicking ass! I don’t think I can go into our team politics here without giving the wrong impression, but it has given me a lot to think about.

Training Days

Posted on April 18, 2010 by Leanne

Tough day for fatman Dylan today! Flyball training in the morning and then an agility training afternoon over in York. Ideally I would have skipped flyball, but we have Drax coming up and I really want him fit and ready. We’re making an effort to do more two lane training at the moment, and it’s making Dylan work really hard. He has a habit of lazing around in training when on a single lane, so running him against the faster dogs pulls him on and makes him put some effort in. He was stretching like mad against Jet; he was going 110% and she was cruising at 80%, and she still beat him by a nose. Poor lad, no wonder he has an inferiority complex, he’s constantly getting his ass kicked by girls.

So he had a hard flyball session, and then I whisked him off to agility! I’d booked onto a training day with Dawn and Katie Long, since loads of people have recommended Dawn to me recently and when the opportunity came up I was about ready to snap Julie’s hand off! I had a great time and it was well worth it, so I can safely say I’ll be furthering the recommendations.

We did a lot of work on contacts, which was great for me and Dylan. Particularly for me! I’ve always been fairly confident in Dylan’s understanding of the 2o2o position, but I’ve never dared to truly test it. Well, I got put on the spot, and Dylan was brilliant, so I’m very very pleased. He drove to the end regardless of where I was, and only looked around for me once he’d stopped. His Aframe was especially good; I raced him to the start of the Aframe, and then stopped completely before the up-ramp and let Dylan complete by himself. He nailed it every time, and only peered around once to check where I was (and he left a toe on the bottom … cheating slightly!) Spent plenty of time getting him to really drive over the dogwalk, and some new techniques for getting him more confident on the seesaw, so very positive.

We also spent some time working on weave entries and truly independent weaves, which again was great for me and Dylan, because he was awesome! More about my handling than anything, and Dylan was pretty exhausted by this part of the session, but he’s always willing to try.

I didn’t learn anything which is going to fundamentally change the way I handle or train. But I’m viewing that a positive thing. Means we’re doing something right!