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Friday, August 20, 2010

Pentagon Exercises, Lucky's Jump Height

Pulled out my new Exercise Sourcebook, and chose the Pentagon Exercises, page 33-36 to work on this weekend. Simple looking, but looks are certainly deceiving.

1. There isn't much space between the wings for H to run, so that leads me to believe H is supposed to stay within the Pentagon.

2. Getting D to go out to 1 and 4 while H stays within the Pentagon, is a challenge.

The book provides 12 differently numbered patterns, some of which are mirror images of each other, others reverse directions of only a portion of the course. I tried Exercise #1 in this diagram first, rated as Intermediate, first with Lucky, then with Maxie. Then it started raining and we had to quit before I could do #2, which reverses direction after 4, shown in turquoise.

Temperature 85, but feels like 95.  Air wet and heavy.

Lucky:  Lethargic, distracted by something in the woods, and not interested in treats right after breakfast.  I broke it down into bits, 1-2, 1-3, 3-4, 2-4, 3-5, 3-6.  After which, she did the whole course without error.  A few times, she ran on past 4 and over to the nearby see-saw , with me calling Here, here, here and waving a treat.  She just wanted to do the see-saw, ran to the downside contact, stopped and waited for a release.  If I had given the see-saw command, it would have been a perfect performance.

Maxie: enthusuastic, caught on quickly, but I had to place a target (T), out past 4 to get him to go out that far away from me with speed and confidence. Our last run, I removed T and he went out to 4 and cut back toward me on HERE command, and over 5 and 6 just fine.  I barely had to move, or speak.  Tomorrow I will try it without verbal commands.

Lucky's Jump Height: Did I mention before, I measured Lucky at 21", so it looks like she'll jump at 20".  That will put less wear and tear on her shoulders than 22", which I do worry about.  She's so solid, sometimes she seems to land heavy on those shoulders, or maybe it's just that her hair is so short I can see the shoulder blades flexing.

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