Kili's big problem in the agility ring is control. I wish I had some videos to show you but the only time she is in the ring is for class and I try not to share many videos from class, just because it involves instruction from the trainer and that's how they make a living! However, take it from me, control is not Kili's strong point in any setting. In agility she blasts herself over jumps, through tunnels, and over contact obstacles with intense enthusiasm. However, this leaves her prone to not having enough control to take direction from me in time to make the next obstacle. She does not seem to go into zoomies as many greyhounds are apt to do in the ring, but she is just so haphazard and out of control that she can't collect herself in time to make the next thing I'm indicating. A lot of starter courses have long straight aways, so our trainer has really been working on driving over straight courses. Kili's got the speed. But she lacks the control and discipline for these straight sequences.
To help her a bit I've been trying to do more control work at home with our two jumps. We basically do a variety of patterns over these two jumps which involves lots of tight turns. So far so good in the backyard!
I also threw some practice with 2-on-2-off contacts just for some variety. Kili has a good understanding of this concept but on full sized equipment she comes in with such a head of steam (again, control is a bit of an issue) that she usually cannot stop in time for 2-on-2-off. We are really working on making this a solid behaviour at home and then we have a couple little tricks on the real equipment to help her get the brakes on in time!
2 comments:
Kili looks like a lot of fun! :-)
Thanks Jen! She can be a lot of fun to work with. She can also be an exercise in frustration. But we just find new ways to work through those frustrations until we can make it fun!
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