Changing Criteria

Running contacts are fun..... yes! yes! yes!..... but man are they CHARACTER BUILDING!!!

I think the problem is, that Liryk is my first dog to do a running dogwalk with, so I'm going to be competely honest and say I didn't have THE BEST plan when I went into it. In hindsight I should have taught turns from a lot earlier on, and I should have also taken into concideration that the other agility organisation that we have ADAA, has a smaller contact zone than ANKC.....

Because........ the way that Liryk currently does her dogwalk, she will only get 1 hind foot into the contact zone in ADAA......... please excuse me for a moment.... ARGH!! I'm just a little angry at myself for my blondeness.... currently rolling my eyes!!

So here are my two current training challenges :-)

1. Get Liryk to change her striding so she gets two feet in the "new" contact zone
2. Teach her NOT to peel off the side when attempting turns.

So bye bye full height dogwalk.....
I've dropped it back down and we're going back to the drawing board.
So far we're having success, and I've posted a video of what she "used" to do (that I no longer reward) and what she is now offering. And I this stage I'm REALLY happy. I guess time will tell if the new behaviour stays while we work towards the full height of the dogwalk or if her "old" behaviour rears it's ugly head.

The other thing that I've been doing the last couple of weeks is training Liryk at the 600 (24in) height. I'm a little peeved that we're unable to jump up a height any longer in ANKC (because to be perfectly honest it's soooooo much more fun jumping this height!!) It's almost like being overseas again :-))
The other reason is that I'll probably end up doing more ADAA trials than ANKC (due to the rule changes) and she'll have to jump 650 (26in)

I can't believe in 2 months she'll be old enough to enter her first trial... WHAT THE??? Where did the time go??