2009 Contacts & Weaves & Trials

Welcome 2009!
I hope everyone survived their New Year's Eve celebrations without feeling too badly today! I'm starting off 2009 very excited about the prospect of seeing Bungee in trial in a couple of months.

Contacts & Weaves Camp
As you may recall, one of my Christmas presents was attendance for Bungee and I at a Say Yes workshop called: "Contacts & Weaves". The timing on this camp was perfect for us. I was really looking forward to going, and it didn't disappoint. It turned out to be just what we needed. I love it when training opportunities exceed my expectations. I have to admit I loved this camp!

First, each of our skills were evaluated in a number of areas that are necessary for good contacts & weaves. Bungee was on top of the curve with everything, with contacts themselves being our weakest skill, in my opinion. From that point a plan was set in place for each of us to get where we wanted to go with our skills. The rest of the weekend was spent working our buns off with one really fun session after another, reviewing what we just did and working again, with lots of instructor help, mixing up contacts, weaves and the complimentary skills associated with perfecting each. As camps go, this one goes on the list as one my favorites.

Contacts
I was relieved to have Susan's nod of "good" for her initial evaluation of Bungee's contacts. We were not as far off as I thought, always nice to hear. However, though technically "correct", I found then average, lacking drive and boring - definitely not the way any of us would like them to stay, especially me! This is also why I have not had Bungee working full pieces of equipment yet.

The camp information was terrific. What we learned has already improved her contacts a lot and filled in gaps for me too. I'm confident it will be a short road from here to the equipment.

The 1st "Aaaaha" Moment
The target cue should create ACCELERATION (not brakes) to the target! This was a real epiphany for me. I've always used the word "target", for my dog's contact "end-zone" cue, so I'll use that as the example here, but it doesn't matter what cue you use. But the end result should be the same, you give the cue and the dog pushes harder. I've always pictured the opposite, the target cue as brakes on the dog's speed over the contact.

But here it is, when I say the word "target" it should cue the dog to accelerate to the contact!

Upon hearing the cue to "target", the dog should ACCELERATE into the contact!

How did I get such backwards thinking all this time? I suppose I just pictured it that way from the start. Lucky for Bungee she will now be the recipient of my new and improved understanding, which will really help. First giant gap in my knowledge of how to get from what I had to what I wanted closed by camp info! Awesome!

In truth, I had actually backed off training contacts recently. I was not happy with the results I had and not sure how to get the ones I wanted. Meanwhile when I did work them, it seemed I was forever working through various learning curves of my own regarding the many herding & stalking type things that a clever little Border Collie can present to you in training contacts! It's not often one of my dogs will lead the parade in how we use our training time but leave it to Bungee, she was doing just that. To say the least, our contact training time did not seem very efficient!

I am really pleased to come away from camp being able to make short work of Bungee's contacts now, they're already so much better.

Weaves
Bungee's weaves were already just rocking before we went to this camp. I've always been proud of the awesome weave skills I've been able to teach my dogs, using Susan's 2 X 2 weave method. The method has always served us well. But now Susan has expanded the training insights to allow greater proofing and create even stronger skills. So how great is it when you go through a camp and get 2 really big "Aaahaa" moments? The 2nd came in the weaves department, and it is going to help us create even stronger skills.

As for Bungee's weave skills now, she is running 12 poles brilliantly, but we backed up to 4 poles a while back to really push the envelope for entries and find every point of failure we can to train through. Once we work through this stage we will move up to 6 & 12 again and focus on handling.

Unfortunately we're in the middle of winter and coming up on our coldest season. At this point in time our only weave training limitations are brought on by deep snow, super cold temperatures and conditions that require us to wait for barn-time to get some work in on them.

Guinness


Ketch


Bungee


Can you believe a new year is here already?
I'm really getting excited about the prospects of being ready for agility competition in 2009. I believe Bungee could handle a Jumpers or Jumpers with Weaves course now. But I intend to finish working through the new 2 X 2 program we revisited first. We'll also have to see where we're going to be for late-January, February and March trials before we go entering any. Warm beaches, green agility fields and big fish are starting to call our names once again, but at this point, no solid plans yet. With any luck our dollar will start gaining it's strength back as the first week of the New Year gets going.

Click here to see if you can spot Bungee's many appearances in the video clips Susan posted to her blog from camp!



Until the next time, Happy Training! ....It's About Love

Bungee! 2007 The Early Days

A photo collection of Bungee's early days, August to December, 2007.








Happy Training...It's About Love!

It's About Love

Love...
Training, this blog, life, it's all about love isn't it? Well I hope it is for you, it certainly is for us.

Our Training
It's a labor of love, where only the best will do. For the record we raise and train our dogs purely positively, 100% correction-free. We live with and train our dogs without the use of force, punishment, fear, coercion or intimidation. As they say in the movie world, there are no "out-takes". We don't have one method in public and a different method in private. What you see us do out & about, at training or at trial, is exactly what we do at home. We will tell you lots more about that as we go along.

This Blog
What started as Bungee's Space, (the 1st girl to inspire a blog!), is evolving daily as a way to share not only about Bungee, but also how we train, why we do things the way we do, and encourage others that they can achieve great things with purely-positive methods too.

Eventually we'll be adding a section to the blog for each of our dogs. Stay tuned for: "Guinndom - The Kingdom of Guinness", and a space in memory of Ketch, for our two brilliant dogs, who first inspired us to the Heart of Gold name.

Life
"All You Need Is Love", "Love, Love, Love", and "Love Is All You Need" pretty much sums up my philosophy on the matter. Oh yes, and: Life, always better with a dog!

Coming Soon in this department: "Bloughts" I made it up! Blog + Thoughts (coming just as soon as I learn to format my blog a little bit better - that could be awhile!!).

Heart of Gold
Dogs are sent to us as gifts from God. I believe they are sent to show us how much God loves us. They certainly love us in a way no human ever could. They do more for us than we often deserve and they give us everything they have to give and then some.

They are always there for us, waiting and ready for us when we're ready for them, no matter how long they waited. They have more than big hearts, they have hearts of pure gold.

We dedicate this space to our great dogs, Bungee, Guinness, and Ketch, and to great dogs everywhere, that Bless each of our lives with their presence, Love, and great, big Hearts of Gold.

Happy Training! Always remember... It's About Love!

Handling - Why Greg's?

Why We Chose Greg Derrett's Handling System. (click on the link for more info)

Initially, it was simply what we were taught at the schools we attended. Of course at that time, I was not aware of handling as a system, per se. There is so much for the novice to learn in agility, one can "barely see the forest for the trees" at times.

It was not until I got my 2nd agility dog, the very fast Miss Ketch, that I had the sudden need to become a better handler, and fast! I became very passionate about learning Greg's system as well as I could. As that is the handling system we had started with, I felt I had a vested interest in sticking with it, especially for my dog's sake.
I'm glad we did.

Greg's system brought Ketch and I together as a team in a way I wouldn't have believed possible had I not been there myself. With a lot of help from Sarah & Susan in learning the system, and seeing Greg & Laura only a couple of times, Ketch and I were able to go a very long way in a very short time. Our performances were terrific and always a thrill. Ketchy's career was cut tragically short when she developed cancer at 3 years & 1 month of age, she passed away last November, at only 3.5 years old. But by that time, between her ability and my improved handling, it was clear to all that we could have gone as far as we wanted in agility, if we'd had the chance. Talk about a dog that was all heart, I owe her so much, everything really. But back to Greg's system...

Looking back to my 1st agility dog, Guinness, I believe had I been as consistent with his handling and understood as much about the big picture of the sport, I would have been much more effective about developing his drive and speed too. But hindsight as they say is 20-20. I am still very proud of what we have accomplished and the fine work Mr. Guinness has done and continues to do.

I was very impressed with the fact that I was able to improve Guinness's performance by cleaning up my own act in handling and how well he understood it, once I started handling in a consistent manner. I do believe that is a key ingredient for any team, with any style, but particularly important with Greg's system.

Now of course, we're off to the races with my 3rd agility dog, the young Princesse Bungee, and quite enjoying putting all we've learned to work.

Greg's system is what I know, it works, it allows me to be competitive, I really like using it, and most of all, it provides consistency in training and trials, and that is the essence of being fair to my dogs. Being fair to the dogs is one of most important factors in anything we teach or do. This is one of the reason's I have particularly enjoyed learning from Susan Garrett. She takes being fair to the dogs, as seriously as I do.

The system has evolved over the years, there have been subtle changes, and I assume there will continue to be changes in direct correlation to the sport's evolution.

Greg's system remains the most popular system here in Ontario, and that means it is also the system with the most instructor support available to agility teams. Still, there is much room for improvement and growth in the instruction department, as Greg's own appearances are extremely limited. Perhaps if Greg truly realized how popular his system is here in Ontario, he would provide more access to instructional opportunities either with developing more instructors or making more appearances.

Still, I compliment him highly on making the effort to come to Canada and share how he accomplished what he has in the sport of agility and also Say Yes Dog Training Center for hosting him to Agility Ontario's greater benefit.

My Thoughts On Other Systems

Agility is a fascinating and exciting sport. I enjoy seeing the variety of handling styles in agility as much as I enjoy seeing the wide variety of dogs in agility. I continue to strive for consistency and proficiency in the use of my own choice of handling system - Greg's.

But what I care much more about than what style of handling one uses is seeing lots of dogs who LOVE agility, paired with handlers who love and appreciate their dogs, no matter what happened out there on that course!

I personally think the difference in how competitors get from start to finish is what makes the sport of Dog Agility the most exciting and entertaining shows in the dog world!