Drive | Control

Since there were no Saturday classes on the first, I rented the room for a couple of hours. The first hour and a half we had the place to ourselves, and a friend came with her two dogs for the final half hour.

I started with a simple jump grid. Maxwell has recently shown some reluctance to take spread jumps in a grid, running around just that last obstacle, so I included a double as the final jump. We practiced call-throughs, sends, and lateral sends. Sadie won’t allow as much distance on the lateral work, but was okay with sends to the Ready Treat (and food!). Maxwell patterned very quickly, and would let me send or call from nearly anywhere, even 10+ feet away laterally.

To increase the challenge, I introduced a turn between two of the jumps. I had set the line up with a 1 – 2 – 1 stride pattern, so the larger gap was a perfect place to pull the dog out of the sequence. Sadie quickly got the picture. So well, in fact, that I could wrap her around the second standard and back over the first jump from the other direction! Maxwell, on the other hand, charged right on through the line. Over. And Over. And Over. I learned to stop my forward motion next to the first jump and exaggerate the turn, clicking the instant he moved away from the line.

The other big skill we practiced was A-frame contacts. I got all high-tech, and even brought my video camera and tripod, so I could capture the contacts up close to re-watch. I find timing to be extremely difficult with Sadie's new running contacts, since I have to watch where she steps, click at the right time for the right contact point, and release the Ready Treat all in the space of about 0.01 seconds. Lots of late / bad clicks from me, I'm afraid. We're both learning! I do think she's getting more reliable, though. My goal is at least three feet landing in the bottom two thirds of the contact. I'd ask for all four, but she isn't great with understanding such discriminating criteria. Besides, I think we'll pass the test of "Don't make the judge think."

Maxwell will keep his stopping contacts for the foreseeable future. He's just too darned fast, and needs a checkpoint to keep him from picking his own course. With just the equipment he probably has a 95% reliable 2-on-2-off. To really proof it, I put the Ready Treat out maybe 15 feet from the landing side. My criteria was for him to stop and then either get a treat from my hand or be released to the machine. What actually happened was that he'd run right off the contact, paw at the treat box in frustration, and then allow himself to be called back onto his contact. He improved quickly, running half way before realizing I hadn't released the treats, then running just a few steps off and putting himself back on with no cue from me. I didn't want to fry (or hurt) him with too many repetitions, so I called it a success when he went mere inches past the contact, then felt blindly behind himself for the contact one rear foot at a time, stretching into the 2-on-2-off. One of the coolest things I've ever seen a dog do...

Lots of good work that day, but it definitely highlighted some major differences between the two dogs. Sadie has learned a fair amount of finesse and control. I can put her into tight places and call her right back out with barely an ear flick. Maxwell barrels on through regardless of my cues, but he does it with energy and joy. Maxwell needs to temper his drive. Sadie needs to relax her control.

Somewhere between them is the perfect agility dog.