28 February 2008

Did agility training with Ruby and Saffi this morning. Set the jumps up as they were at training on Tuesday to practice handling round more complex patterns. Ruby is definitely getting the hang of left and right now and if I say the wrong one she turns and then looks confused if there is no jump, especially if I am pointing to a different one. I need more practice than she does.

At training on Tuesday I needed to send Ruby ahead to a jump but she was reluctant to do this. She is also extremely sensitive to me coming to close to her so I have to be careful crossing in front or behind as she tends to stop dead to see where I am going. I need to work on this.

I put the jumps down to about 6 inches high and concentrated on steering Ruby round where I wanted her to go. she does watch me a lot so I need to be very clear about where I am going and what I am going to do to steer her.

Ran Saffi round the same course with the poles on the ground. She is also watching me carefully but I could do with her paying a little more attention to the jumps as she is not worried about knocking into them where Ruby is very sensitive and is very careful not to touch them.

Ran Ruby through the weaves several times with the football as the reward. The weaves are still staggered about an inch apart as if they are completely straight she tends to skip out sometimes. She is running through fast and is not reliant on me being too close to her. Today I started racing her through the weaves and she seemed to like that.

Did heelwork with Dora round the agility equipment. I am trying to catch her out by moving off quickly in heelwork rather than waiting for her. She is definitely paying more attentrion to me to stop me getting away from her. She does seem to like the game.