We are very excited to that Baxter's mom, TNT Rio and Grandma Tiff (Tiffany Salmon) have been selected to represent Canada at the FCI World Agility Championships this September in Austria. In order to help get Rio and her teammates to Austria, I am please to announce the Canada Flag Tag fundraiser.
Now you can show off your Canadian pride here at home and support the team by purchasing your very own Canada Flag ID Tag and lets face it all dogs look good in red and white! Tags are only $15 and include 3 lines of engraving and free shipping. Don’t have a dog and still want to support our team – these tags make great key chains and zipper pulls too! Quantities are limited so don’t delay order today!
Click on the link below to place your order.
http://www.overtheedgeagility.com/2009CAT.html
Go Canada Go!!!
Monday, April 20, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Winter of training hard...not blogging very hard though :)
So the boys have been working very hard this past winter on skills to get ready for the summer season. I got away from blogging for some reason but as I read through the notes from November I realize that there are still things that I am doing that I said I needed to fix!! YIKES. For instance, the chopping and leaning forward when I want a front cross and I am sure that I should be reading the "relax" part for both boys. I think I better get my butt into gear for blogging again.
The good thing though is that yesterday we were back outside at home :) This is very exciting because we can start working on one-jump and weave entries again. We still have one more week in the barn before we head outdoors for the summer...can't wait.
Here is where we are at and what we have done:
Ripley:
This winter we have worked on having the jumps with two bars and it really has made a difference. What we find is that once he knocks a bar, he can have a tendency to knock more and so that leads us to believe it might be a bit of confidence that he needs. He did however debut in Starters Jumpers and has had 3 fairly nice runs. The one had no off courses but a bar down with a yps of 6.5!! He is a smoking fast boy and once he gets confidence, think how fast he will be.
We have started to concentrate on his contacts more these days. He drives nicely across the dogwalk but needs more proofing for his 2on/2off. We haven't done the frame lately but like his training partner Phe, they both seem to be hesitant on coming down nicely and seem to shuffle. We are working on a plan for that. His teeter is pretty good, he doesn't have an issue with the bang or the 2on/2off but like all these contacts, he needs proofing, proofing and more proofing!
His weaves are actually pretty good. We haven't done tons but he is pretty consistent on his entry and staying in them. Now with the better weather and being outside, we will work on challenging him to make sure he really understands them.
Baxter:
Baxter has grown up!! I don't know if it is all the time and training or that he is now 3 years old or a combo of both. It is such a treat that he doesn't scream his head off in the arena when another dog runs and you can actually see the colour of his eyes and not just his pupils. He is really liking the new Greg Derrett handling system and is starting to actually understand that I play a role in this game :) How great is that?!
His weave entries are just incredible these days, the harder they are, the easier they are for him. The problem ones are the nice easy entries, lol....who would have thought. Sadly he still uses his face to push through and has the starting of a scar to prove it :(
His contacts are good, we need to do more proofing on those and maybe look at his frame this year to see if there is a way to put less stress on that huge body of his. He is a big boy at 55lbs but is solid and lean.
His jumping has improved greatly and I can't wait to get outside to see if being on grass will help it even more. I think he is starting to use that boy-brain of his but still can get caught up in the power he has to try and bounce the un-bounceable! We pick up less and less bars in practice though and he even came away with an Advanced Jumper Q this year so far!!!
Yesterday I worked both boys on 270's in the backyard. Baxter did them great on his left lead but had more trouble on his right lead. Ripley did both sides great and never came in once. I then did a threadle in between and then next time a 270 and he did it beautiful! I have to be very conscience of where my shoulders and pointing and what my body is telling the dogs.
I also worked them both on the f/c with 1 jump using forward focus to release. Ripley is awesome at forward focus and did the f/c's beautiful. Baxter was not very tight but actually did forward focus which is not something he likes to do :)
I did some rear crosses with Ripley and he really read my cross well, I was very happy with that progress. I also did weave entries with Rip, completely straight 4 poles. He missed only 1 entry from a very hard off-side. I clocked a jump at 22" around the arc.
The good thing though is that yesterday we were back outside at home :) This is very exciting because we can start working on one-jump and weave entries again. We still have one more week in the barn before we head outdoors for the summer...can't wait.
Here is where we are at and what we have done:
Ripley:
This winter we have worked on having the jumps with two bars and it really has made a difference. What we find is that once he knocks a bar, he can have a tendency to knock more and so that leads us to believe it might be a bit of confidence that he needs. He did however debut in Starters Jumpers and has had 3 fairly nice runs. The one had no off courses but a bar down with a yps of 6.5!! He is a smoking fast boy and once he gets confidence, think how fast he will be.
We have started to concentrate on his contacts more these days. He drives nicely across the dogwalk but needs more proofing for his 2on/2off. We haven't done the frame lately but like his training partner Phe, they both seem to be hesitant on coming down nicely and seem to shuffle. We are working on a plan for that. His teeter is pretty good, he doesn't have an issue with the bang or the 2on/2off but like all these contacts, he needs proofing, proofing and more proofing!
His weaves are actually pretty good. We haven't done tons but he is pretty consistent on his entry and staying in them. Now with the better weather and being outside, we will work on challenging him to make sure he really understands them.
Baxter:
Baxter has grown up!! I don't know if it is all the time and training or that he is now 3 years old or a combo of both. It is such a treat that he doesn't scream his head off in the arena when another dog runs and you can actually see the colour of his eyes and not just his pupils. He is really liking the new Greg Derrett handling system and is starting to actually understand that I play a role in this game :) How great is that?!
His weave entries are just incredible these days, the harder they are, the easier they are for him. The problem ones are the nice easy entries, lol....who would have thought. Sadly he still uses his face to push through and has the starting of a scar to prove it :(
His contacts are good, we need to do more proofing on those and maybe look at his frame this year to see if there is a way to put less stress on that huge body of his. He is a big boy at 55lbs but is solid and lean.
His jumping has improved greatly and I can't wait to get outside to see if being on grass will help it even more. I think he is starting to use that boy-brain of his but still can get caught up in the power he has to try and bounce the un-bounceable! We pick up less and less bars in practice though and he even came away with an Advanced Jumper Q this year so far!!!
Yesterday I worked both boys on 270's in the backyard. Baxter did them great on his left lead but had more trouble on his right lead. Ripley did both sides great and never came in once. I then did a threadle in between and then next time a 270 and he did it beautiful! I have to be very conscience of where my shoulders and pointing and what my body is telling the dogs.
I also worked them both on the f/c with 1 jump using forward focus to release. Ripley is awesome at forward focus and did the f/c's beautiful. Baxter was not very tight but actually did forward focus which is not something he likes to do :)
I did some rear crosses with Ripley and he really read my cross well, I was very happy with that progress. I also did weave entries with Rip, completely straight 4 poles. He missed only 1 entry from a very hard off-side. I clocked a jump at 22" around the arc.
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