Training

I have just come back from a couple of days at Lee's. Yesterday we decided to do some training, which then turned into me giving him a lesson (lol). Me and Lee tend to disagree a lot on training, mainly about contacts, although Lee's coming round to the idea of training contacts in the ring, and Scott now has fab contacts!

So... we've done lots of training, and Lee has enough homework to fill a book, ha ha. Lots of work on 1 jump, weaves. Scott has a real issue with weaves and Lee hasn't (imo) done enough to help confidence building, so now he's going to try just breaking it down and rewarding for doing the weaves, although using a jump before, placed a long way away, and starting to angle it as he gets better, to let him pick up speed.

Oh and the main reason for this post is to let people know Lee has taken the first steps to converting to the jump/stop arm!! Yayyy! I said that Scott needs a better que for a pull through or the like, so he can shape himself into the jump rather than wheelspinning when he jumps too long. So (as Lee was desperately trying to show he was right) we did a trial, 2 diff parts of the course (So Scott wouldn't know where he was going), one his way and one the way I wanted him to do it. Lee's = large turn and wheelspin, my way (well not mine but ya know!) = gorgeous smooth and tight turn = CHAR IS RIGHT!!! Lol. I'm trying to find a vid or a pic of it to explain to people, but I can't, so if anyone knows...? Scott also takes a lot of poles (well not a lot, generally 5 faultitis) and I think one of the reasons maybe because Lee's handling style is so low, so this stop arm thing should help, as it is all about the arms being a lot higher, so the dog can see them, rather than dropping back legs as the handlers shoulders drop. So Lee's now doing jump-pullthrough-reward. Lots of them :o)
Here's a pic of it, I thought I'd be able to find loads of pics but I cant! The pic below is basically what it is except the right arm (or the arm nearest the dog) is a bit lower than the stop arm, which is the arm that is turning.


So Lee is now hopefully going to be doing this a bit, although it may take a while for it to become habit, but hopefully we won't see so many of his grass cutting impressions! hehe :oP