Ronda Carter - Advanced Agility Handling Seminar

I learnt and achieved a lot this weekend ... the sequences we worked through with Rhonda were challenging and fun. With straightforward but encouraging guidance from Rhonda, everyone managed to be successful and come away with valuable advice.

I've written a quick summary of notes from the weekend ... remember, this is my take on some of Ronda's general advice that could apply to many rather than my detailed notes on specific skills we worked on.


Contact Behaviours
Be consistent - insist on the behaviour you want in training AND in the competition ring. You must be prepared to give the dog a consequence - even if in the ring, i.e. leave the ring if they don't perform the contact how you want (and have trained) it. Let ONE go and your on the road of 'fighting' contacts for the rest of your trialling career.

Don't lie to your dog - let them know where they are headed next.
Your dog needs to know where they are going in order to prepare their take off/landing at the previous obstacles.

Don't handle each obstacle individually - handle the line

If you lead out - MOVE as soon as the dog takes the first jump - don't just stand there waiting for the dog to catch you up!

The quickest way to teach your dog NOT to trust you is to correct it for taking the wrong obstacle when your body language told him to do so.

Do not layer unless it's going to buy you something!

All courses are a play on:-
- pin wheels
- boxes
- serpentines
- threadles
- straight lines

Practice those in their entirety, not as individual obstacles, and your courses will become a number of "lines" rather than a heap of obstacles.

Motion begets motion! Move! Run!

Teach a default to "side" position, i.e. come to side after a jump for a tight turn, etc. Ronda prefers to push the dogs rather than pull so a default to side means a push for distance work.

Only give them what they need - they'll take as much yardage as you give them.

"oops" does not build trust in your relationship ... do not oops, sigh, groan, uh uuhhh or use a "nope" or "try again" marker for incorrect performance - simply just try it again. However, be careful that you were not responsible for the incorrect performance, i.e. if your body language told the dog to take that obstacle don't make them repeat it - continue on and reward so the dog is successful. Then try it again (if in training) if you need to correct your own handling.

We seem to be micro-managing most of our dogs and courses - we need to trust our dogs and get out there and work the lines as a team.

TRUST YOUR DOG!

Travelling Ticket & Ronda Carter Seminar

Ticket has covered a lot of ground in the last week ... literally and mentally. Flying to Melbourne on Friday, staying in a strange place, travelling in different cars with different people, being in unfamiliar and changing environments surrounded by new people and dogs with two days of intenstive agility seminar work and then returning to Perth yesterday, Monday.

To my pleasant surprise she took most of it in her stride, showing little stress and adjusting quickly to her new environments, also taking a liking to a new friend, Donna, along the way.

I am pround of little Tick ... she worked well, tried very hard and stayed focussed all weekend ... mental tiredness creeping in on Sunday night. She adjusted quickly to her new routine and I'm sure she gained a little more self confidence in herself with the whole experience. Photo above "waiting for our ride".

Melbourne was the usual ...

sunny one minute ...

cloudy the next ...

The Action Dogs Club crew and seminar attendants were all very welcoming and certainly made us feel included. Ronda's seminar was well worth the journey and I enjoyed every minute of it. She is a demanding but positive instructor, full of suggestions and always with an explanation why, leaving you with many idea's and options buzzing around in your head.

Working in the indoor horse arena was new to us. The surface is compacted sawdust which took a little adjusting for me, Ticket didn't seem to care, however I certainly found muscles that I didn't know I had ... the people who train on this surface regularly would surely find it an advantage when they go out to compete at trials on grass. I feel the only disadvantage is that the weave poles are not pegged down and even with heavy bases they wobble about when the dogs are weaving, and the surface does need regular leveling where the dogs are consistently landing after jumps, etc.

Home now and well rested, Ticket is back to her usual self ... lounging around in the sun, conserving her energy for our next training session!

Notes on Ronda Carters' Agility Seminar to follow ...

Breaking Windows!

Sunday evening Cash, Carrie and Summer were all hanging around in the lounge room (watching TV actually) and while they were lounging around Mum and I headed up the kennels to tuck the boarding dogs in and give them a treat before we locked up and turned the lights off. Halfway down the driveway I heard a huge smash … I bolted back to the house to find the lounge room window smashed from the inside and all the glass on the front pathway. Summer ran to the front door to greet me with bloody feet and not the slightest bit of concern.

Summer had seen us go out the front door and, being her usual sticky-beak, she jumped on the blanket box in front of the window to see where we’d gone. Obviously she slid over the box and couldn’t stop … sliding into the window. There was also a large (life size) stuffed Border Collie toy on the box which also slid into the window and buffered her fall, fortunately saving her from what could have been a very ugly accident.

Summer escaped with a few cuts on both front feet and is now sporting lovely bright pink vetrap bandages and enjoying the extra time inside with Mum while we keep her less active (not an easy feat) … she ought not think that she can do that again just to get the special treatment!

Ticket & Rocket bring trophies home!

Well, I've got to be happy after this weekend's results. Saturday's Agility & Jumping trial was certainly much dryer than last weeks, almost hot ... although I'm not complaining - I'd rather be doing agility no matter what the weather is.

Ticket, Rocket, Sketch and Chilli all tried very hard and I'm pleased with all their efforts ... even though Sketch had a few "blonde" moments he still managed to finish each run with a smile on his face, as you can see in his pic's below ...

Young Chilli (my Show Ch Malinois) ran in Novice Jumping and apart from me sending her into the wrong end of the tunnel she did a lovely job ... yep, blame the handler, the dog did everything perfectly!

Tim Abidin took some lovely photo's of both Sketch and Chilli (above and below) - thanks Tim. More pic's of Tim's at http://www.yourdogphotos.com/

Ticket only ran in the jumping classes this day, her first run for the day in Open Jumping was an absolute shambles!!! Her start line stay wasn't comfortable, we had a number of bars down and then made up our own course to finish ... hmmm, maybe waiting around for several hours before her first run was not a good thing, and I should have known when I stepped away from her at the start line that things weren't quite right. However, Ticket's second run in Excellent Jumping was so clean and fast that I didn't even have time to enjoy it! She did a lovely Clear Run to take another "Q" towards her JDX title and win First Place!!! My goodness, this little girl is such a wild card!

For the first time in some 12 months Rocket (papillon) ran in Excellent Agility, I entered him thinking "it's about time he got out there and showed them that this little dog CAN tip the seesaw and do the weave poles" ... he was the very first dog to run for the day and, low and behold he ran clear, and in time for a "Q" and also won First Place!!! This would have to be the most unexpected win I've ever had in all my trialling days ... Rocket managed to conquer a challenge on course that most of the bigger dogs just couldn't handle! Sometimes (and only sometimes) it's an advantage to be small!

Rocket also ran Masters Jumping, after the agility run, and he did a lovely run around the course with a few extra jumps here and there ... not really what we wanted but anyway, he's off the hook after being such a good boy in the agility ring.

Thanks to Alison (Sketch's new friend) who was there to meet me at the finish line with rewards and hugs for Sketch ... a great day's trialling for all of us.

Next trial is this Friday/Saturday - the Western Australia State Trial!

Stay tuned for updates ...

Helen

The Wettest Agility Trial Ever!

I have never been to a wetter trial ever! Saturday’s Agility & Jumping Trials at Cloverdale really tested the dedication of WA’s agility fraternity … it rained, not showered but rained, from first thing in the morning NON-STOP until early afternoon! I don’t think anyone managed to avoid a soaking whilst walking courses and running their dogs. Wow! I can’t believe there are so many agility addicts here … most of us stuck it out to see it thru to the end ... we must be crazy! The wet weather gear was certainly tested to the limit and I have to say the judges and stewards must be commended for volunteering their time and keeping such cheerful attitudes in such awful conditions … and thank goodness for my Dita hockey shoes!

To top it off this was Chilli’s first trial, and her being not the keenest dog for agility I expected her to bail out when I asked her to play in the rain, but she didn’t … she did exceptionally well, apart from a big shake at the start and stepping over the start line … I returned her to her start position and she ran a lovely clear Novice Jumping round. Even though we were DQ’d for the start line trick I was really pleased with her very first try and she received many compliments from people who enjoyed seeing a Malinois in the ring and commented on how graceful she is ...

Ticket tried her very hardest in the conditions, our first round was nice however we missed a couple of bar jumps, but continued on as if nothing had happened and finished with all bars still in place and on a positive note (I told her she was the winner!) I have to say it takes a lot to make Ticket frown at the thought of running agility but she was not impressed with the consistent rain … however we continued thru the day and tackled Ticket's very first Snooker round, ending up with a Qualifier in 3rd place - that's her first "Q" towards her SD Title. I think she enjoyed the Snooker because we were able to make our own course - she even managed to slow down just enough to do some really nice contacts and complete all her weaves with me racing her to the end! Well done little girl!!!

Fortunately the Masters Jumping was run after lunch when the rain had finally subsided for an amazingly warm afternoon … lucky for little Rocket who had watched everyone get soaked all morning, from the comfort of his dry cabana crate, wondering just why he was there! We even had sunshine to walk the course … a lovely, flowing Masters Jumping course set by Richard Barville, with different challenges for all sizes of dogs (and handlers) … Rocket and I stepped to the start line, being the very last run for the whole day, the little fella ran as fast as he possibly could (as he always does) and yes, we ran clear and in time! Another Masters Jumping “Q” for little Rocket – still the only Papillon trialling in WA!

Boy was I glad to get home and have a nice warm shower and get into some dry clothes ... and I'll certainly be re-assessing my wet weather gear before heading off to Melbourne later this month.

'till next week ...
Helen