Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Excitement and Confusion...


The Judging Schedule came out for the Obedience trial in a few weeks! There are only 8 Open B dogs- which is one of the reasons I love this trial. It's nice and small. There will be limited amounts of people to watch my cute little dog run up to the broad jump and then perch on it. :)

She has been doing SO great at everything else. Her drops are good, her fetching is great (as long as I remember to give her the right cues!), and her heeling is very nice. But the broad jump has been an issue almost since the beginning. She thinks it's a perch, or that I am asking her to do her board work (from agility). She is confused about the whole thing, and I am not sure what I can do to make it clearer to her.

What has been working is having something for her to target to- it gives her the momentum and forward focus to not think so hard about what's in front of her. Without that she will run with all her might, and then pop up on the board. Sigh.

Someone suggested putting jump standards on either side- that only had her boinging in the air,and then landing on the board...

I will keep doing what I am doing with the targeting- and hope that with enough reptition it will just become second nature. She's such an odd dog about some things- I always say her problem is that she thinks too much. :)

Regardless I am stoked about her first time in the Open ring. I think it will be so much fun! She is also entered in her first Excellent Rally trial on the Sunday. Her back up is pretty solid, and that is pretty well the only new thing.

Wicca is entered in Rally both days. No Open for her until we have those stays solid....

4 comments:

Elbeepem said...

Good luck! Have fun! It's always interesting to see what they'll do in the ring!

Diana said...

I had problems with Miley doing the broad jump too. I tried the wings, it didnt help. I had to put the whole jump, with the bar over the broad jump, to make her jump it. Once she got the idea, I removed it.

Katrin said...

I would try chicken wire. Take chicken wire fencing and cut a piece long enough to make a slight curve over the entire surface end to end of the broad jump. I would probably get green since it blends more into the ground than the plain wire. Generally a dog has to land on it only once and then tehy start to realize they need to clear the entire span and not jump onto the broad jump.

Gay Harley said...

Gorgeous photo of the girlie! I could just eat her with a spoon, she's so cute. Good luck with the Broad Jump.