I finally made it out to the farm yesterday to do some training. I had gone out on our way back from the show on sunday just to see how bad the field was and to get my weave poles to bring back to the house. The field is in pretty good shape, a few days of sunshine should dry it out. Decided to leave my weave poles there for the time being and actually did a few reps with Deuce after he had played in the mud puddles and was thoroughly covered. He acted like he had no clue what to do with them so we had to channel them out and just get his confidence back with big jackpots at the end. I have no clue why he has had a total regression on his weaves but it does seem like a confidence issue? Anyway, it is a training issue and I am confident we will resolve it.
Yesterday I went out with a plan of working weaves again and doing some of the elements he seemed to have trouble with at the show, namely coming in on 180s when I am front crossing and turning off of dummy jumps after three or four jumps in extension. I set up jumps in a 180 configuration and then had a dummy jump on the other side. Of course he was great, read my crosses, listened to my "here" command and if I said "Go" to take the dummy jump, he did. Hmmmmmm........Made sure since he was correct, to give him lots of high value treats for "here" and made sure he was not going past me to get his nose touch in on my hand. He was knocking the 2nd bar of the 180 occasionally, but I am not worried about that right now. Then we went to having him do two or three jumps in a row and then turning off of the dummy jump to a jump set at 90 degrees. Once again the little brat was fine, didn't even have to say turn, just stepped in and got my cross and he read it like a pro. Hmmmmm........Did some more weaves with him having to collect into the poles and he was doing that also like a pro. Hmmmmmm........In conclusion, I am guessing that the atmopshere of the trial is getting to him and that is just something he is going to have to get over and will come with experience. I am happy at this point with my warm-up routine at trials, and it is easy to tell when he is stressed with how hard he takes a treat so not concerned there. Don't think it is a stress down but maybe a stress up but when I see any signs of stress, we usually play tug or get it and he calms down. I did get some of the 10th pole pop out in practice which was good. I do think he understands entries and collection but baby brain is taking over and over-riding what he knows. I am fine with that as long as we can progress through it and not stay stuck there or regress. Will have to do some NADAC or some fun runs where we can be amped and work through this issues. I had played around with the idea of pulling him for a while but I think now that I can train again (hopefully) that we can work through these issues. Ring time will be valuable, just don't want him rehearsing bad behaviors in the ring. He seems to understand verbal corrections at this point and if he pops his poles I give him his three chances and if he doesn't want to perform the poles as one obstacle, then he is done. Not making a big deal about it, just telling him "uh-oh, no poles no play" and leaving. Will have to see if this adds ring stress or not, too soon to tell at this point. Going to keep plugging away, I know there is a great dog under there just waiting to shed his puppy brain and show us what he is made of. I am still making him hold his toes on the contacts and I am still getting some creeping on the a-frame and a little bit on his dog walk. I am going to try and race him more on the contacts because it seems like in the videos, when I stop, he stops so need to make a mental note to stay behind him and keep him moving. I am still continuing to give very high value treats at the bottom of the a-frame for his position of 2 on 2 off, will probably have to start doing that as well with his dog walk. I am looking forward to some good training weather finally and getting back to class. I know we are going to be in open for a while and I am fine with that, will use it to my full advantage as a training opportunity, good behavior rehearsing only:). I know what he can do and look forward to him showing that in the ring at trials!
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