#1 Practice With Sheryl

Yeh!  Sheryl showed up with Charlie at 8:30 a.m. and didn't leave til 11:30.  3 hours of everything Agility.  I had already prepared a sequence from Jane Simmons-Moake's Obstacle Training book, like so:

We practiced this but the dogs did not seem interested.  We jazzed it up a bit by doing this in combination with a few other obstacles past jump 3 and they did better.  We practiced serpentines, the see saw, and discussed how all the commands we have to learn can be confusing.  I decided to make a list of commands in my next post.

Then we ate watermelon and watched the first part of Susan Garrett's Success With One Jump, which I had purchased last year and never finished watching, and assigned ourselves some homework (the dog has to have a good sit/stay, and a good retrieve before attempting this work):

#1 OBSTACLE FOCUS EXERCISES:  To get the dog to focus on the obstacle in front of them rather than on you.
1.  Sit the dog beside you.  Throw a toy out several feet in front of you.  When the dog looks down the line at the toy, release with a "Get It" command.  Work this from both sides.
2.  Same thing, only stand farther from the dog's side.
3.  Same thing, only stand farther in front of the dog as well as farther from dog's side.
4.  Introduce a jump between dog and toy.  Release when the dog looks at the jump.
5.  Same as 4, but don't throw the toy until the dog looks at the jump, and release both simultaneously.
If the dog isn't toy motivated, you can throw a treat or a treat container for them to touch then come back to you for a treat.

#2 Change of Arms means TURN.  Have 2 toys, one in each hand.  As in Step 3 above, throw out the toy (from the hand closest to the dog).  After releasing dog to "get it", call them off by swinging your shoulders and other arm around (when he is half way there) to face the dog, and hold out the other toy.  Say "here" or "come".  When they get the hang of watching your arm que, you won't have to say anything.