Nov 5th - Lesson day

We started with the puppies today. I need to make sure that Ripley keeps his snoot loop on at all times when he is supervised. I have to make sure that when he comes out of the crate/bed that he is engaged with me and not sniffing around etc. We worked first on a teeter type game. We had to hold the teeter at 90 degrees and then have them jump up, feeding from the front. After a few seconds you drop the teeter and expect the touch. Ripley didn't do the jumping onto the teeter well but when he was on and the drop he did really well. Next we worked on the jump grid which was 4 jumps at 10" spread 6' apart. The final thing we worked on was front crosses between 2 jumps spread at 15' apart. I need to make sure that I am moving and showing a change in momentum to get him to turn better over the jump. Make sure to reward a good one.

Baxter came out next. He was still pretty high today but again there was another dog in the training area. The first thing we worked on was jump-teeter-jump (#2), first running with them, then being laterally away from them, then a recall and finally a send. B did all of these well sticking his contacts. (I had some feedback from a friend who said I am using too many words for contacts so I tried not to say anything except the contacts name). Our next exercise was doing a tunnel-frame-tunnel sequence (#1) that we did front crosses and rear crosses on. Arlene said that B's contacts were good and he did well on the rear cross over the frame. Our final sequence was the 2 jumps spread at 15' apart. (#3) Baxter nearly killed himself trying to turn and did a wipeout. We then did just one jump and he was reading my slowing down as a rear cross. I will have to set up this in the backyard and really work this.