Jump Box Exercises

Last night we practiced our “Go” or my “Git It” with a jump chute.

Katrin had a Jump Box set up and in Carmen’s class we worked on rear crossing. Gods, I have so much trouble with r/c. In part because Carmen doesn’t tend to drive ahead of me, but also because I just haven’t practiced it much. So, it was a very useful class. My biggest problem is I move too quickly forward so I overshoot where I want to be crossing. I can see this, I understand it, and yet I have GREAT difficulty not doing it. So annoying!!

On the second exercise I had kind of gotten the idea and was able to stop myself from moving too far ahead. Initially I was stopping too completely – which then stopped Carmen’s motion. I didn’t realize until after I was successfully doing Switch with Carmen that the difference was. Yes, I was still waiting for her, but my speed change was more subtle. Lack of consistency in motion will be the bane of my agility career. I swear. It felt good to end the class with a bit of success. I find rear crossing so incredibly frustrating – because I am not good at it and mis-communicate to my dog!!

In Ike’s class we started with “Git it” and Ike was excellent – although at first he thought he should be outside the jump chute!

He continues to be EXTREMELY happy about agility. Jumping with joy in his heart – I can literally see it.

When we moved onto the jump box I expected to be working on Switch again, but nope. We worked Front crosses. Hooray!! My favorite. First round we did really well, a couple of times I crossed late. I am not used to Ike feeling so fast! Second round I lost my head and backed up a few times instead of crossing. VERY ODD.

I also tried to step OVER a jump once I asked Ike to wait. I have done this a few times lately. Odd, again. Better train myself out of that quick or I will have LOTS of trouble down the road. Ike’s “wait” leaves something to be desired, but since I typically do not ask him to “wait” in agility I am not surprised. He was also trained with the word “Stay” (and a different hand signal) where both Carmie and Bug have been trained with “Wait.” One word/signal is easier!

In general, once I got over the odd backing up instead of turning for my cross – the exercise felt really good. It is so much fun to work with Ike when he is feeling like this. When I gave him a NRM for not holding his wait and asked him to sit he stood there wagging at me. If you know Ike at all, how can that not make your heart over fill with happiness?

I noticed a really interesting phenomena. The in-laws forgot and fed Carmie before class. She wasn’t her usual self at all. Much more subdued (not very terrier-like) and sat nestled in my lap between runs. Meanwhile Ike had not eaten dinner and was RARING to go.

I felt like it was a very productive class. Katrin said she might offer a six-week class on Jump Boxes exercises in February. I might need to take it with the girlie, I think we would benefit from it.