This was my third year at his seminar and as always I really enjoyed it. This year I ran Spryte exclusively, I didn't really see the benefit in running Strider as our teamwork is probably as good as it's going to get. The biggest lesson I probably took away from the seminar is that I tend to rush handling with Spryte instead of waiting to make sure she is committed to obstacles. I find that because she is much faster than I am used to, I want to make sure I am ahead of her. Which means not standing around and "watching the pretty dog land". I want to give her direction and then get to the next spot on the course. I think eventually I will be able to do that, but she is still a young dog and I need to make sure she has understood what I am asking before rushing past. It is just a learning curve for both of us and will come in time.
The other piece of the puzzle that I took away was how to improve our contact performance. As I'm sure you all know by now Spryte struggles with holding a 2 on 2 off contact when she is over excited at a trial. And two, I have been working on teaching her a running Aframe. For our 2 on 2 off I was instructed to pick her up and carry her off if she jumped her contact and didn't do what was asked. This advice didn't surprise me as redoing the contact for Spryte is just as rewarding as continuing on with the course. It was not much different than the advice that Kathy Keats had given me a few weeks back to stop and wait a minute before continuing on. Only taking her off the course would in theory have way more impact on Spryte because the game was now over. It took a few repetitions of her jumping off her dogwalk and me carrying her off before she clued in that the game will end if you don't show some control and stop in your 2 on 2 off spot. After that she showed remarkable control and we had very few issues for the rest of the 2 day workshops.
The next issue we dealt with was our Aframe. If the Aframe is lower, Spryte does the 2 hit running Aframe beautifully. Once it is raised she is leaving two early and not hitting in her zone. I have been working it like crazy, but I'm getting tired of the battle. I would rather work on handling and proofing than constantly drilling my Aframe performance. Anyway after several courses where Spryte either missed her contact or barely got it (Terry said she got about 20%, yikes!) Terry finally said that I have two choices, either go back to the jump grid and box and basically re due my running aframe training or return to a two on two off on the frame. How discouraging! If there is one thing I really hate doing its backtracking in my training. It's frustrating for me and the dog. It is often necessary to go back a few steps if a piece of the puzzle is missing and the dog just isn't getting what you are trying to teach. But here I had a choice to return to what had worked before and stop fighting the running frame. So I tried stopping her in the next course he set up and to my utter surprise she slammed into her 2 on 2 off position and held her contact perfectly. Well my mind was made up right then and there. No more worrying about running aframes. We'll go back to what works and just do more proofing and self control exercises to prepare for the trial environment.
I'll admit it has been nice training since then. I don't have to stress about her contacts, I can get into my positions on course and I don't have to do endless repetitions of the Aframe. So once again I gained lots of valuable experience and tips from my seminar. The following are some videos from the weekend. Some great moments and you'll see some not so great moments where I rushed moves or didn't handle Spryte quiet right. But the mistakes are just as valuable to our evolving teamwork as the flawless moments are. It's all just part of the experience of training and showing dogs.
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