Training with Jaakko and Janita

Jaakko’s training

Koirakuvat Jukka Pätynen

Finally had a training session. It has been a long time since we have had someone to watch our work. We did a course training in Onemind Dogs Arena. I had develop my old bad habits back like forgetting to handle tunnels. Too much hurry in my head again. Pixie did pretty nice work but I had to remember real lines to find my right positions to do handling maneuvers. With both girls I needed reminder again about the connection. Especially Freya really got benefit from connection before slalom and also in other training parts. I wish I could slow down my mind even more. I don’t know why I have problem to keep the contact because in many cases I can be too far ahead.

One thing we also worked on was Freya cross bar jumping. She has tendency round up the jumps she goes behind and this makes it hard for her to get in to right rhythm in serpentine work. We did 8 figure work with nets that made a round circle behind the jump. The goal was to stop her from rounding up the turn behind the jump. Freya got the idea right away and started to do smooth and tight jumps cross the bar serpentine jumps. We also did this training in course in few little parts. Freya did really good job. Now we just need to train this a little bit more to make as skills she masters. This will give us more speed in serpentine tasks in competition courses.

Practicing on our own

Koirakuvat Jukka Pätynen

We continued our work with the serpentine jumps. I used jump bars behind the jump to guide her to do a tight and smooth jump. This worked as the same as the nets. It prevented Freya to round up the jumps. I did different angles and started to do more than one jump in row. I used a target toy in the end of the serpentine to help her keep her head and neck line in down position. This helped her a lot to find right rhythm. All jumps were maximum of 45 cm when I started this work. At this moment she can very nice and collected jump with 60 cm jumps. Still work but she is getting there. She has got a lot more confidence in her serpentine work.

One thing I have also tried to improve in the connection. I have my moments but I really need to concentrate to keep my eye contact with the dog. I have done this work with small practices because it has been hard for me. I want to give my self a little goals we can reach with my dog. I have also started concentrate to work in handling to make more calm and clearer to the dog. Still a lot of work and the hurry in head has given me a good fight. I think I have one some battles but the war with my brain is still going on strong. :D

Connection Connection - Training session with Janita

Yesterday we had a training class with Janita. Again we did a connection work. We did a course walk where Janita walked the dogs line and checked our connection. First I had hard time of giving up connection to obstacles but I did found my connection points. This is skill I need to still train. I feel often very unsure about the obstacle positions even though I have done the course walk. I need to concentrate even more to work a eye connection to my virtual dog on the course walks. Yet a new skill to improve in training and competitions. Here are some video of our training. Freya was just super little girl!!!