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Here’s our session from this morning with a lure. Am I doing it right? I think I noticed when I turn my feet too fast, she’s more likely to turn towards me. And she seemed happier to turn away when I used both hands.
Thanks! I feel like we have done many similar things over the years, and we just can’t seem to get past this. But we will try all your suggestions and maybe we will have a breakthrough!
As for the late front crosses – ugly fronts are my “go to” handling move with Tilly LOL. They usually work, but they’re always ugly! Haha. I’m not opposed to them, but I will admit there are many times where I wish we could do rears, and I do think we would be more successful at trials if rear crosses were in our toolbox. Honestly, I’m starting to get frustrated with it and debating letting tilly start herding and give up on agility 🙁 I feel like I’m just throwing money away. Sorry, just venting here, but the lack of rear crosses is definitely becoming a big problem for us (especially as I get more and more pregnant, and therefore slower, it’s harder and harder to get to the ugly front crosses!)
Anyway, I’ll work on this tomorrow and report back! I would love to work on this, but I totally understand it’s not really what this class is about. I appreciate all your help!
Thanks. When you’re pregnant, pajama pants are an extra wonderful thing! Haha
I did a lot of experimenting that I cut out of the video. When I managed to get her not to take the wrong end of the tunnel, she would NOT turn back away from me to get in the tunnel at all. And then we were both frustrated and I just gave up lol. Here is the rest of the session. It’s even more frustrating to watch it again. She really really hates losing sight of me I think, so a rear plus a tunnel is just TOO much for her silly little brain. I don’t know how to fix it, but I know that a rear at a tunnel causes her to spin 100% of the time at a trial. Granted, rears at jumps usually cause spins too, but tunnels are always. I have video evidence of that from this past weekend, unfortunately.
Attempted the long sequences this morning. We nailed the first one! And then it all fell apart, like she remembered “oh wait, I can’t turn away from mom into a tunnel!” – note: this is a recurring theme at trials with Tilly. Even if the approach to the tunnel is straight, if it turns away from me, so essentially making it a rear, she ALWAYS spins and doesn’t want to get in the tunnel. It’s incredibly frustrating!
So, I am not showing you the 6 minutes of video of us just working on Tilly getting in the tunnel/turning away from me to do so. It is definitely something we need to put a lot of work into. But here’s video of the lovely first sequence, and a few of our wrong ends of tunnels in the attempts at the second sequence. We gave up after some work just on the tunnel. Will try again Thursday if the weather cooperates.
Thanks! That all makes sense. I was thinking of skipping the independent backside game – I have no intentions of doing premier or international style things with her (she gets even stickier on those types of courses! And we need to just figure out how to get through regular AKC courses), so we rarely see backsides. So I will move on to sequences if that works for you!
Once again, I’m a slacker and not doing nearly as much homework as I should be! But worked on our “get outs” this morning. She surprised me but locking on to the jump when she was on my right side. I tried to wait her out and watch her head, but even when she turned her head towards me the first two times and I released her, she still took the jump. I am hoping I “fixed” this correctly – she seemed to do better after that. I also think when she was on my right I might have had my feet turned toward the jump more than necessary, especially given how much she wanted to take the jump anyway.
Worked connection from behind on a straight line of jumps this morning, I think she did well! We have been working hard on rear cross foundations too (did a seminar with Jen Pinder on Saturday and she gave us some good homework), so I’m hoping the combination will be a big help!
Life has been a little crazy and the weather hasn’t been all that cooperative, so we haven’t done as much homework as I would have liked. But we worked on lap turns this morning – these are a HUGE struggle for us. Anything that involves her turning away from me usually doesn’t go well. This is a mixed bag, and I’m sure all the ones that didn’t work are my fault LOL
Worked on the regular connection from behind drills this morning. I think this is our biggest struggle (and why we have such a hard time with rear crosses). I am fast, and often not behind her as much as I think I am, and then I decelerate to get rear crosses and she pulls off of jumps. She definitely has a lot of questions, watching the video back. I did try very hard to be looking at her eyes, but I don’t think my chest was turning as much as it should have been. I was also running slowly and awkwardly in an attempt to not be ahead of her.
