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Mouse is really happy he signed me up for this class! Here is our first (kinda messy) attempt at the shifting connection. I tried both shifting to my hand and shifting to landing spot. I’m not really sure which one is better yet! I did seem to notice that I’d often lose him if I shifted my connection too quickly so I tried to soften the transition a bit.
I love them both too! I’m way less experienced at training agility, so it’s been a bit of a learning curve there on the handler side. I love learning all the cool intricacies/foundation skills that show up when you really dig into a sport.
Mouse and I took a crack at the exit line stuff after I mostly figured it out with Carl. He did well and even put up with me screwing up the last rep!
Yeah, we call them snap offs in this neck of the woods, but same thing. It will surprise you zero that the first time I did that with Mouse is brain exploded a bit. Whippets are crazy movement sensitive 😂
It’s amazing just how much overlap there is with the foundation skills in both sports even though they “seem” different.
We tried the first setup again, and when I was better, Mouse was perfect! Thanks for the reinforcement buddy.
We also did some of the serpentine exit line connection. I think I did it right? I had to be careful to wait until he was committed to the far side so we didn’t a cut in front of the jump.
Dog details first! Mouse is easy, here’s his archives link: https://whippet.breedarchive.com/animal/view/sugar-rush-sneaky-little-houseguest-3856f570-66bb-4f65-9feb-fe70fc2baea8
He was never supposed to be mine and I had no interest in owning a whippet myself, but after training his mom and meeting him at 4 weeks old, I was hooked. He pushes me to be better, but has drive and work ethic for DAYS.Carl is more complicated. His mix is a Border Whippet bred to a Malinois/Border Staffy. The Mal/BS was an oops where everyone turned out amazing, the BW was out of a breeder in Canada (soarin k9s/ Stacey Connelly). He’s an amazing dog who will just plow you straight to the ground if you are late! He has places to be and is going there FAST.
Makes complete sense with the hand being too high. I definitely noticed that on video review myself. Mouse’s start line stay is a bit of a full time project and we only have so many reps per session. Normally when I need more lead out or we are out of stay reps, I cue him back to a treat behind. But with that I can’t really keep connection as he heads back for the treat so we tried to manage without it. We’ll keep working on that stay though! I might end up just having someone hold him at the start line if we are out of stays.
The tunnel makes sense, I now distinctly remember looking at the tunnel and not the dog and he’s always going to tell on me when I’m wrong 😀
Just so I’m clear on the timing of the exit line stuff, it’s basically like a flyball drill where we commit them to the box, but start heading to the runback before they make it TO the box. Obviously building up distance as they have the commitment to the obstacle. So my front cross/spin might theoretically be finished before he’s fully taken off for the jump?
Thanks for all the info, this was really helpful!
