Had a great class last night!

[Milesmom]

You may remember that I changed agility instructors about a month and half ago. I always go through an adjustment period any time I change instructors. I may be a little nervous with a new teacher, you know, I have to prove we belong there mayber. It may be my little brain trying to process all the new information and being unable to retrieve what I already know! LOL! In any case, for awhile I feel like I have 2 left feet and no brain.

Well, last night, things seemed to click and we had a great class. We had some rear crosses that just went smooth and Miles is getting comfortable enough with going on ahead not to whirl. We were both nice and relaxed and it was a great class. After one sequence she yelled "Sweet baby jane, that had to feel great!". Anyway, it was fun. She also kept me quite late to work with us more on contact work, which I thought was awesome.

It was hard changing instructors. My former instructor was very nice about it, not mad, just hates to see us go elsewhere. He did make a case for his skills vs. hers. I think I made a good choice. She may not be as experienced as he is, but she's an excellent communicator and studies training theory and dog behavior extensively. He did offer to let me continue with him on a drop in basis which I will do. I can learn so much from getting varying points of view.

Anyway, just wanted to share. I felt pretty happy when I came home last night. BTW, his Perm height card arrived this week.

[brody]

BTW, his Perm height card arrived this week.

glad your week is going so well

what contact work were you doing? I'm always interested in what people do with contacts and weave training as they are the bit I'm least sure of - and do slightly different things with each of my dogs ...

[debjen]

Don't you just love that feeling of having an extra good class..we just started classes again this week after about 3 weeks off..it feels good to be back in class even tho I didn't get home until 10 pm last night..*G*

[Milesmom]

Yeah, we didn't get home till 10 that night either with staying after for the extra contact work.

Brody, the contact work is just 2 on 2 off. Miles never had an issue with flying off contacts and, I guess, my former instructor just didn't see the value in doing it. As Miles has gotten more "hip" to agility, he now gets excited and has started to miss his contacts. My new instructor is having us take a step back and work on this. Her point is, he may usually get his contacts, but he doesn't understand that he's supposed to. We want to teach him that it is job to get his paws in the yellow zone. That's what we are doing.

For weaves, we used 2X2 to teach that. This is my first dog, and we are both green. He is VERY RELIABLE on weaves and makes some very difficult weave entries. Just based on that, I am pretty sold on that method. Who knows, I may try it with my next dog and have a different result. ;-)

[brody]

yah I'm sold on 2x2 as well
Brody was wires - and he hates weaving
Thea was lured and she loves it but has no understanding of it
Sally is 2x2 trained and is amazing - even her trial last night she hit the entry and zoomed them - i need to do more offside than on side as brody will only weave onside so it's much more comfortable for me - but it's coming

Brody has running contacts - he understands the job well and has never missed a contact in a trial setting
Thea (all 6 pounds of her) can miss a contact so i'm seriously thinking about reteaching them
Sally is 2o2o (except teeter) but I havent taught her to wait for release well enough so I have soe remedial work to do there too ...

always work

[Canula2000]

awww, how neat. Sounds like you needed a change in instructors, if even just for a few months. I love going to a different trainer from time to time for new ideas, or a new veiw of things.