Nov 17th - at the barn

Tonight we set up the teeter, weaves and table to work on individual obstacle performance. Ripley's weaves are not what I am hoping for so we really need to get back to 2x2's. When he does them, he does them great but I would like to see it every time from all entries...(don't want much, do I?!) The table went well, I played tug with him on it when he layed down fast. When we moved onto the teeter Rip was as high as a kite! It was impossible to do the teeter bangs because all he wanted to do was jump the jumps we had set up for the handling portion of the night! So we decided to just let him do the full teeter. Andrea helped the first 3 or so and then he did 2 all by himself! He has a nice teeter which I am happy about.

After the equipment performance was done we moved onto jumping/sequencing. We had 2 bars on each jump and man was that ever better for Rip. I have a new problem now, all he wants to do is jump even without being told to!! We first started out with a serp to a 270 to another serp. We opened up the serp to help him out and he did it great. He knocked 1 bar the first turn and then went perfect for the second time. The next one we did threadle arm over and then a push through, then another threadle arm and push through. He didn't really do that well with the push throughs so I need to work on this with 1 jump to get it better. The last sequence were threadles and he did that very well. Overall the sequences were quite good for Rip and he seemed to have fun :) The final thing we did was to run them through the box to make sure they didn't flick over another bar, Rip did this well.

After the pups we brought the big boys in and did the same stuff. Baxter rocked at the weaves tonight! No matter what entry I sent him to, he nailed the entry and weaved real nice. I was very very proud of him. I then worked the teeter with him trying to get him to break the contact. I was successful on one attempt and got to correct him, he was perfect on the others. The table was good, he did the down right away.

We then moved on to the jumping sequences. The serps went really well, with Baxter keeping all the bars up and doing it right. The push through's were a bit harder as my timing was off. I need to remember to be showing the push through before he takes off from the jump prior. After working those two jumps I was able to get the timing down and he did it ok. The final sequence of threadles went well also. He really read my deceleration and came right back to my hand. The final thing I did with B was to do the run through the box. He did this well also.

After the boys I got the opportunity to work Abbey with the class. She started off with the teeter and I had her running very fast to the end with a great quick release. I added two jumps to get speed and she was flying! I worked her on the weaves after that and she rocked too. She was able to get all the harder entries from the jumps and stay in them even when I was moving away :) I was very proud of the little terrier at the weaves. Abbey also did the jumping sequences and did much better with the serps today. She still has trouble with the 270 if it is a wingless jump, with wings, she is pretty good. This was the first time that I have ever tried push through's with her and she was awesome! She really read the body movement well and jumped awesome. The threadles also went really well, she is starting to read my body position :) The exciting part of the jumping is that she was flying and did not take down or refuse any of the 16" jumps.