Oct 2nd - at the barn

So we didn't do any work yesterday because it has been raining the past few days and the backyard is a mudbath :( I know that if I do weaves with the boys that it will be ruined forever and Rick would kill me, lol.

So tonight at the barn we decided to see how Rip & Phe would handle some sequencing. We actually ran the white circles first. I let Andrea and Phe go first as they have already done sequencing and I wanted to watch. We had the jumps set at 26" as we are thinking both puppies round better over them. Phe had a few issues (mostly they are both not committing to the jump until they are almost in the air...man can they both turn on a dime!). Rip came out of the crate totally spun!! I guess even though he couldn't see Phe, he knew it sounded like fun. I have never seen that dog spin like that before and I am sure if Susan was there to see this she would have killed me...spinning, flanking...what more can go wrong!

So on the white circles: His sit/stay is very crouched and he likes to angle off to the side as if he isn't going to take the jump. He did take the jump each time but missed the frame, going under it the first two times. Once he realized I wanted him to go up it (I had yet to name it so that makes it hard, lol) he went right up. He had a great contact with nice touches. The release was good into the tunnel but he did not come out tight enough from the tunnel. Redid 3-4 and was much better the second time then 5 was good. I had lots of trouble going from 6-7 though as he either wanted to cut in front/behind me to get to the frame or he would just run past 7. We have never had such a long line that he needed to run and get ahead of me to jump. He did it in the end but I felt like throwing up from all that running...man does he make you work!

Next we did black circles: I had TONS of trouble from 1-2. If I led out to closer to 2, he would run around 1. If I stayed closer to 1, he would not make it to 2. His sit/stay crouch was not helping him with the jumping of 26" bars and hit himself a few times in the back of the legs. I moved the jumps down to 22" which seemed to help him have more confidence. From 3-4 we used a threadle arm to keep them with us past the first tunnel mouth and I was using the push through from 6-7 but helping a bit. From helping him, he was actually coming off 7 looking at the correct tunnel mouth of 8.

Last one we did was white squares: Rip understood the jump-frame this time so that went nice. He again had a nice contact and I was able to put a front cross in between 2-3. He wrapped 3 nice and went right into the tunnel. Rather than chance a front cross to the frame, we did a front cross while they were on the contact of 5. Rip ran 6-7-8 really nice, I ran the final 2 jumps without using any arms.

We ended the session with some 1 jump work which was set at 12" at one side and 26" at the other to create an angle. Rip settled down and did some nice bending work and finished off with some tugging.

Baxter actually ran these sequences in Abbey's class as Peso is still off due to that bad ball catch :( Hopefully he will be ok for this weekend and will be back in 2 weeks (he is doing a seminar all next week..lucky guy!)

We did the opposite with B, so we started with the white squares: Baxter had a nice sit/stay, did a great contact on 2 where I front crossed to 3. I also was able to get a front cross in in front of the frame so I was on his right side at the contact of 5. From 6-7 I had some issues because we had left a huge horse jump out in the arena that would be like a pinwheel to these jumps and B decided to do 6 - horse jump - 7! He was the only dog all night that even looked at that jump as if it was an option!?! So I had to really make sure not to send him out and he did 7-8 really nice. He did think about the tunnel but stayed with me. He didn't knock any bars down! :)

Next we did black circles: I had some issues with B going behind my back and up the frame! I have never had him do that to me ever and he did it 3 times :( Andrea thinks it was because once I released him from 1, I was moving latterly to 3 instead of making sure he was committed to 2. Once I stayed in place and had committment, he did it great. He had a hard time staying on my threadle arm to 4 but did it. He did the 5-6-7 pretty good but was going into the wrong tunnel mouth for 8. Andrea said I needed to not move as much, making sure I get him watching me and not just running ahead. I then worked on him taking 7 and coming back to me...no tunnel :)

Last we did the white circles: B did this one really well, good contact but again went out to the horse jump. Darn dog. He came out of the tunnel at a really nice angle though so I was happy.