Day 2 and Day 3 were again very eye opening. We were once again outside for one session and inside for another. We had Karen H in the morning and we really worked on collection. She basically said I was allowing him to pass me and I was only using one finger to tell him to stop when I should be using my whole hand. Again, I am hugely visual so she said to use it just like a big sign and once I started doing that, he started respecting it more. We worked on serpentines which deuce did very well and also calling a dog into heel position and how to correctly reward this. Deuce even got to run extra because a fellow camper had a dog that didn't want to run. Deuce loved it and she even sent him to the back side of the jump (by mistake of course) but since I have taught him back, she cued it and he did it. We had ann for the afternoon session and back to the inside. Once again I learned that I needed to keep my eyes on my dog for him to go to the right obstacle, even if that was peripheral vision. I tend to look at where I need to be since I do alot of front crosses and with him timing is so important. That is when I lost him. We finally did one sequence with weave poles which he nailed but he was pretty collected already so that wasn't an issue. We need to work on lateral and forward sends on my end, he has it, I just need to send and rock back instead of rotating around. If I send and rock back and go, he is collected and tight but if I send and roll, he goes wide. Good feedback for sure. Ann also had me run a big long three jump lead out with a push since she said I could be ahead of him and then timed us doing a three jump lead out standing still versus a two jump lead out with a big push. He was super fast with the second option and she said that as long as I can get ahead of him, that would be the better option time wise.
We ended had a big discussion on training puppies including teaching the release and also how to deal with a barky dog. Ann says she works on drive first and then impulse control, so lots of restrained recalls and shaping which is how I trained Deuce. I can't wait to start working with Tony and stella on some of these things. Kind of hard right now with two puppies in the house, me just getting back from camp and of course not getting very much sleep. Babies both have upset tummies right now so can't really give lots of extra training treats till they settle a bit more.
Day 3 was the all out door day and it started out with Jenn to go over strategic placement of rear crosses on course. Again I hate using RC and am super sucky at them so it was nice to see where they would be better than the FC and even learned how to do double rears (i.e. we did a rear on the flat and then a parallel rear cross over the jump). Jenn also helped me more on collection and had me stopping him before the jump like Lori has us do. She had me do 10 two jump lead outs with 8 stopping him and two not and said that I need to do that every day. I hate that the temps are so unbearable hot right now or we would be out practicing this for sure. We also talked about the "ring of fire" exercise, which I got to use in Karen's session later that day when Deuce started releasing himself from me to take other obstacles. We ended with Karen and I wanted to work on the moving FC at the beginning so got to work on that in her sequences as well as some more rears. Basically I was not setting up far enough laterally and once I did that, he was super tight and collected on his turn. Of course it will be a timing issue as to when to rotate and when to go but we will work on it. We ended on a great note and I was so proud of Deuce and myself for making it through.
Overall, I highly recommend this camp. I was able to challenge myself within my group and had powows every night with my traveling partner who was in the top group to go over what she went over. I have gone over my notes several times, rewritten them several times and purchased Linda's book so I don't have to flip through old clean runs over and over. I am hoping if the money is there that i will be able to go next year and maybe take a bigger group. Both Jenn and Karen are coming to KS so hoping to have the money to go take at least a day or some privates from them as well. Puppies are up so have to go potty them so guess I am wrapping up!
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