Need for "more" speed

How tall is Belle?  Is she taller than 24" (the height of the tunnel)?  If she is, this may be her reason for slowing down in the tunnels.  She may not be comfortable running in the crouch position -- if this is the case it could be mental or it could be physical.  Luke (27";) definitely has to be feeling great in order to make good time through tunnels.  I keep him on daily joint supplements, Adequan and chiropractic care to keep him feeling tip-top.

I would encourage you to not change the teeter performance.  What she is doing now is perfectly safe -- running to the end and riding it down is very hard on a dog.  It is far better to tweak in other areas.

What you need to do is increase her drive.  What is her ABSOLUTE FAVORITE thing in the whole wide world?  For Luke, it's this little black rubber ball and he goes absolutely insane for it.  When I started to incorporate it into his training he went from loping around the course to full out running.  He used to trot across the dog walk and jump off above the contact -- now he sprints across and crouches to a stop at the bottom (and *almost* always waits for his release.

The best way to make up time, though, is between obstacles.  You need to be efficient and make sure you always take the shortest path possible.  This means no wide turns, no botched crosses, teaching your dog to always take the inside of the jump, etc. 

Luke definitely runs a lot faster when I'm running with or ahead of him -- which, unfortunately, is next to impossible for me to do.  Kaiser is a fast little stinker, too, so it was/is absolutely imperative that I teach my dogs to work away from me.  You can easily teach things like "go on" and "out" at home without equipment -- you just need to work on targeting behaviors.  If you are able to send your dog out to an obstacle this will allow you to cut across and get ahead of your dog, thus encouraging them to turn on the afterburners to catch up.  If I can get ahead of Luke he easily two-strides between jumps (20' in NADAC) vs. putting in three strides and a chip if I get too far behind him.  I forget the math, but each stride a dog takes on course is equal to something like .05 seconds.  The fewer strides they take (whether it be a shorter path or larger strides), the faster your time.

It will come eventually.  You guys haven't been doing this that long, if I remember correctly!  I'm sure Belle will get faster and her distance will improve as she gets more comfortable with the Excellent level courses.  Drive is huge, though, and you need to find what will make her go nuts. 

Restrained recalls with the help of your instructor or a friend will help as well.  Have someone hold her back at the entrance to a tunnel or the dog walk and really get her going crazy (for Luke it would be bouncing his black ball or showing him a frisbee) before releasing her.  Once she learns she CAN go that fast on the equipment maybe she will start to perform it faster on her own.

And finally, while I may be biased because I show NADAC, I would suggest trying a venue other than AKC a few times.  The AKC courses are really tight and do nothing to encourage a large dog to extend their stride.  You are constantly turning, flipping and changing directions and with far shorter distances between obstacles.  Perhaps if you started working on more NADAC/CPE/ASCA type courses she would find that extra burst of speed that you need.  Luke loves the open design of NADAC courses -- and classes like jumpers, tunnelers and touch-n-go really help a lot of dogs to find the gas peddle.

 See I have the opposite problem! Lol! And Maze is only in training. I need to slow her down so I can teach the contacts properly. Thankfully she knows "Easy!" so that helps.

Thanks Karissa! 

You know we can not find that insane toy. She has a TON at home. I mean we can get her just bonkers, but when we take her to class she becomes all business. That is why we are trying to teach her to play at class. I think it was my old training facilities fault. Dogs got "in trouble" for being dogs, it was bad for Belle in a lot of ways. Not bad for dogs in general their training methods but too strict for her. She does go BALLISTIC for lure coursing. So my agility trainer has started me running with a white plastic bag in my hand. She is starting to "play" with it. 

 No Belle has only been competing since April. She has been doing agility for a few years, we took our time with her because she had a shut down and we didn't want that to rear it's ugly head. So far it has not. She actually drags us into the event facilities she wants to go. Also she is over 24", she is closer to 27". It would help if she didn't jump all the jumps near the rafters LOL. 

I like a lot of your ideas and the stride time of the dog is interesting I never thought of that. I will look for "corners" on courses when I can. I am still pretty deliberate on my movements. Actually this past weekend my trainer was saying I should do "blind crosses" with Belle. She does not have a cross behind except in exceptionally certain situations. However I usually can get ahead of her, so this would be a good thing once "I" learn how. I think that would be much more efficient than a front cross in many situations. I am fortunate, Belle wants to do it right. She does not look for whatever is in her face, she looks for my guidance. Now that being said I am handling a fast little corgi now too. Perhaps Chloe will help me with Belle speed too. It does make Belle jealous to see me run Chloe. 

I do also run UKC with Belle. Not as often but we do occassionally. I "might" do some CPE with Teddi who knows maybe Belle will do some of that too, however right now two different associations is enough, when Teddi is ready we will see. I hope to get Belles UKC championship, once I have that I will probably move on to something else. I don't want to do UAGIII with Belle as it has a lot of distance work and she is a velcro dog. Again that came from spending two years at the beginning of her life teaching her to be attached to our leg at the heel. I am not as strict with Teddi. I also walk her on my right OOOOO something I NEVER did with Belle. 

Oooooh, the dreaded blind cross!    lol  You will hear all sorts of opinions on the blind cross in the agility world.  MOST people are against them.  Thus far, the only time I've used a blind cross is on tunnels (where all crosses are blind, IMO).  The biggest worry with blind crosses is that your dog will disconnect with you -- and with a dog who already has speed & motivation issues I'm not sure if that's the way I'd go.

It is argued that a front cross will almost always give you the shortest path and thus the fastest time.  If you can get in front of Belle as you say, then front crosses are probably the way to go.  They're fairly simple to fit in a standard AKC course with most dogs anyhow.  With Luke I do probably 95% rear crosses on NADAC-style courses.  Because he's always been faster than me, we simply practiced them a LOT early on.  He has a very reliable "switch" and takes the inside if I remember to give him a proper arm pre-cue.  Kaiser is finally coming along with his rear crosses and stopping the confused spin --- crosses of EVERY type take training, although the front cross definitely comes most naturally to the dog (it's the handler who must be careful not to trip over one's feet!).

Don't be so afraid of distance work!  Neither of you will ever become comfortable with it if you don't get out there and try it.  At this stage it will be a weaning process for both of you.  Just make a conscious effort to try to move a little further away every time you run with her.  If you are 2' away from the jump as she goes over it, next time shoot for 3'.  When that is good, try for 5'.  Start to teach layering with two jumps/obstacles close together and then gradually move them apart.  I'm not saying you should go right out and try to send her to a lateral jump 20' out yet or anything.    Distance comes in very small stages.

Have you ever tried private lessons and/or is this available to you?  I just wonder if she might relax and play in a more private setting.  Do you have any equipment at home or is this a possibility for you?  I'm glad to hear that she's having fun with the plastic bag -- that's a start, for sure!

I forgot about Chloe -- how is that going?  Have you guys had a chance to trial together yet, or just training so far?

We are practicing layering and distance in class. Actually Belle is pretty good and at a trial recently I tried some and succeeded. I just think like in UAGIII where you can NOT cross a line and you MUST send your dog it is not for us. Just like I won't do AKC FAST courses. I want the "option" of distance but if it is not working...so be it. For instance in UAGIII you are required to be over 6' from the weaves and send your dog. Belle needs me there still. I work on more space but if I move to far she pops out to follow me. She will do distance and layering once we are moving at good speed. I do practice sending to weaves and such at home (when the weather allowed).

For rear crosses Belle doesn't spin. She is just usually too close to my side and when I slow for the cross she slows or worse stops. I have to read the courses better to know exactly where I can successfully complete them. I had an opportunity this weekend, I had NO option but to rear cross, and Belle did it. Yes much more practice I know. Whenever I see the rear cross option, I look for where I can throw in the front cross. I actually think Belle would be ok with the blind cross, once I practice and understand it myself. When I am in front of her she is focused and she will jump ANYTHING I point her to, so I just have to make sure I get her over obstacle A complete the cross with strong guidance to obstacle B. 

I actually started where I train now with privates, and I just spoke to my trainer this past weekend about privates over the winter since I can't practice in my back yard. My friend will take them with me. We will each pay for a 1/2 hour and get a full hour with just our dogs. Not sure if that will be 3 or 4. I might add Teddi. My friend has two Aussies. Her dog Rowena started agility the exact day Belle did. That dog has come a LONG way but lord it has a long way to go still. Too much drive too hard to control. 

I ran Chloe this past weekend in our first trial. It wasn't too bad considering I had handled her a total of 3 times prior. I took her away from the owner and if Chloe had to go potty I took her out. I played with her I worked with her. She actually got pretty good at looking for me. However the pressure of the ring.....She looked at me like "do I know you?" "am I supposed to listen to you?" We had some wide turns that I need to learn how to tighten her in, she has a long body I have not had to deal with (kind of like steering a mac truck).  We ran into "problems" at the weaves and the pressure became too much for her so we skipped them but we did the rest of the course. I have a fun match with her on Sun. Our trainer may run a mini session in December (the next session is not until Jan) on a class by class basis. I may give Belle a break, focus on Chloe and Teddi. Chloe was fun, I will be learning alot from her. I am excited about the challenge. Our next trial (Belle's too) won't be until Jan 17.

 Does she ever do one or two obstacles faster than "normal"?  One of the things that is hard for handlers to do is to stop and reward a dog that is running fast, while they are still running fast!  It's common for us to get excited when there is speed to keep going because "we don't want to stop the speed".  but if you wait until they lose the speed and then reward, what are you rewarding?  I've had lots of success recently with my slow, accurate girl, by stopping in the middle of a great fast run to reward.  Even if the plan was 4 obstacles, if she runs super fast through the first 2, I stop and reward, then set up for the remainder.  Do this often enough and I'll get all 4 at speed!

Can you run any faster?  If you run faster, does she run faster?  Teaching her confidence on the obstacles, so you can send to a jump and take the shorter path (thus going "faster";) that will help to speed her up.  Set up straight lines of jumps and run as fast as you can.  Does she run faster?  Also spend more time on straight sequences instead of turns.  Do 1 or 2 turns to 4 or 5 straight sets.  This is more fun for low-motivation dogs and will help with their confidence.

Just some thoughts from someone who has the same type of dog.  Only we didn't get out of Level 1 USDAA because she was clean but always over time.  Jumpers was fine and we got that title because I could keep the motivation going by not stopping (aka no table, weaves or contacts).  I'm doing CPE only with her for now because Level 1 does not have any teeters or weaves and weaves are a work in progress still.  She can do them, she's just not confident on them yet.