Agility Training - nearly a big kid :)

Well tonight I thought I would start getting serious about some agility training with little miss Kenzie.

I took out her jump hump and worked her through some set point exercises with the jump on 300. She has a few issues with waiting and self control when the toy is placed over the side of a single jump interesting though that when I tried for a straightline grid she was rock solid with me placing the toy out after 5 jumps and returning and rewarding the sit with a treat before sending. She has no problems with the set point exercise. Has a nice jumping action and good arc.

Straightline equal distance grid next with all the bars set at 200 height. I had each of the jumps spaced at 2 reasonably sized paces. I did a few with me sending her which she was fine with as well as a few with me leading out. Both left side and right side. No problems completing this grid nicely. Interesting observation on her ability to hold a lead out - it appears the further away I go and the further away the toy is the greater her ability to hold a lead out. Might suggest I need to do some more close work with the toy.

Next up I tried the straightline equal-distance grid with height. Jumps 2 and 4 were raised to 300 height. Interesting with this grid last time she attempted it she knocked jump 4. Tonight when I attempted it with me sending her to the toy she would throw in an extra stride between jump 3 and 4 but kept the bar up. If however I lead out and recalled her to me she had no problems with the correct striding. I had a close look at my jump spacing and do think the spacing between 3 and 4 was slightly greater then between the other jumps however it also suggests to me that she isn't as strong sending away from me when she has to make a decision and possibly an indiciation that she wasn't as fresh as she was when we started.

Maybe I pushed my luck and attempted to many grids in the one session and best to go with the less is more principle :).

She also had a few runs through the flexi tunnel and zero problems there tonight. No sign of having been spooked last training session and she was committing to it a lot earlier then she was with the short one at CBS.

All in all a good training session. She was well behaved while I was running Ness. While other dogs are barking and straining she was lying there watching. When I wanted Kenzie to work she switched on and was ready to play :). Pretty pleased with my little munchkin and I think she is going to be a really fun little dog to run. I am honestly shocked with her ability to read jumps and complete the grids correctly with very little hassle. She seems to be a nice natural jumper with a good style.

I gave Ness a shot over the same grids and whereas Kenzie was striding out nicely Ness kept throwing in two strides between the jumps.