Super Ike

Super Ike! Yup, that's right. Ike was SUPER last night at agility. I, on the other hand, left my brain at home. Oh well, he didn't seem to mind that much.

Yesterday we worked on splicing jumps, weave entries, and a variation of a jump box. A jump box is 4 jumps set up as a box. Last night Katrin used weaves for two sides of the box. She said it is not an uncommon thing to see at a trial.

There were a lot of switches (change of lead) and back crosses in almost every variation of the course. Switches are something I keep saying I am going to practice more with Ike and I haven't yet. I forget about my outside arm and Ike does this funny thing where he knows he's not going where he thought he was but he doesn't know where I want him to go. It is almost like he vibrates!

Katrin pointed out that, yeah, I do the correct arm movement but I do it so quickly and while Ike is still behind me. Fat lot of good that does him! On nearly the final run I dropped my arm lower than I had been and Ike took the switch pretty well. So, in the future I will try to be conscious of how small Sir Ike is and drop my outside arm lower and slower!

Ike truly has the concept of splicing a jump and that makes me happy - I still can't correctly explain it, but I know when Ike does it and he knows how to do it.

Ike and I were really working well last night or rather Ike was. As I mentioned I was a bit slow on the uptake with treats and where I was going! Katrin had me click Ike for speed. The first run I clicked him for every jump and she said, "No, click for speed!" After that she yelled "click" whenever Ike was moving faster and she said he seemed to speed up even more after the click. Excellent!

Even though I wasn't that with it (I think lack of sleep is the culprit), I felt like it was a GREAT class for us. Ike was really good and even with my multiple gaffes we were working well together.