The first session concentrated on 1-3 jumps with lessons learned in the past in Linda's book. I still haven't continued with the intermediate exercises in the book so we're still in limbo mode. However, I added another jump to the mix. We also work on flatwork and transferred that to the jump work. The next part involved implementing the weaves and the jumps and then jumps and AF (A-Frame). The last part of the session was DW (dog walk) work.

Scout was first up to bat and his whole session was beautiful. He read my motion and cues perfectly! I even threw in a serpentine and a threadle. He jumps are so round in that he reminds me of a border collie. No kidding. Integrating the weaves was nice to watch, mind you, I have opened up the weaves again. I want speed so I hope his footwork gets settled soon before I start putting the lead/harness on him. Hopefully I'll have a new set of either offset or competition poles here soon. Switching to his AF work, he was flat out awesome on the first run as he literally hopped over the top and hit the ramp two times. Jackpot! I think the downside spooked him but I feed him like mad! Because the second attempt he added one or two more strides it was still very fast so he got feed well. I only did the AF twice with him as I don't want to overly govern his 2o2o thus slowing him down. Then it was the DW which mainly was trying to get him to comfortable on it and making him run on it. He was slightly faster than before but I am thinking that I might have to lower the DW to build up his confidence. I really wish I had the camcorder out to record the whole session it was really beautiful to watch. Of course, like the start of most sessions, he usually had to take a #2 so I worry that might happen at a trial. Gulp.

Chloe's session was a bit more tougher since she has been at this longer. For the past several months I have been really slack on her since she is so soft (Really!) and it was time to reign her in as she has been blowing me off for awhile. She would not get any treats unless she performed what I wanted. We really had to work on motion work as well since she has a habit of creating her own path which was really showing when we doing threadle work. So we had to stay here for a bit until she started to get it and we will continue back to foundation work until it is solid. She was showing signs of shutting down because she wasn't getting rewarded so one time she would walk away and blow me off so I'd squeak the ball in my pocket and it would perk her up thus keeping her interested. If that didn't work, we would take a break and play some fetch. Her weave work is alot more stringent than Scout's so her task was primarily going to the weaves on her own with me at the other end. We both had some lateral distance away (7-9') from the weaves and I started her from 90 or more for hard entry work. She started rough by going in at 4 but she was quickly corrected and she didn't miss a beat afterwards. When it was time for AF work, she went back to that behavior of slowing when on the down ramp which I think is from unknowingly rewarding her when she did a 2o2o but she was coming down slow. So after 4 attempts, I could not reward her so I had to change to something else to get something positive so we moved to the DW. And here we are still working on complete independence. The progress is slow. Backchaining isn't helping matters as she, like Scout is fixated on my position. I think I might need another person to help me here or the Manners Minder. Boy, was she kicking up some speed though!

Their second session was just a rehash of the first but just jumps for Scout. We worked a lot of rear cross and pulls. Again, I wish I had the camcorder out. Chloe's session continued with motion and recall to heel work and we revisited the AF and I got the performance I was seeking. She was fast! Chloe was first and then followed by Scout. I ended each of their sessions with a game of fetch sort of like wind sprints for dogs. Here you can compare the endurance between the dogs. Chloe's endurance is longer than Scout's that is for sure. You see him start getting slower as he returned the ball. I am going to work on his endurance more for the remaining warm days left in the year.

Now I have both dogs knocked out on the couch.