Wednesday night would usually be our night for rally obedience, but this week our class was moved to Thursday night instead. With just eleven days to go before the trial, I know I shouldn’t try any drastic changes. So I am just trying to work on the areas that could lose us the most points.
First and foremost, of course, is leash handling and the all-important loose leash. This is a very weak area of mine and I am really trying to work on my tendency to automatically choke up on the leash when I feel I’m losing Freya’s attention, rather than getting her attention back with her name, a command or a hand signal. I have done things like throwing the leash over the my shoulder, or working off-leash or with a short tab. The problem is definitely me fiddling around with the leash.
I’ve ordered a 4-foot leash so I won’t be unconsciously folding and refolding excess leash. Yes, I do already have one. No one can go through several dogs and obedience classes without having at least one; in my case it’s actually a 42″ leash. But Axel took it with him on the road. That’s a story for another day, but he always takes at least one piece of equipment with him on road trips that wasn’t really supposed to accompany him. I know that getting a new leash this late in the game might not be the hot setup, so I’m also going to try the trick of tying a knot in my 6-foot leash to mark the point below which I should not grab in order to keep enough slack in the leash.
We’re still having some trouble with finishes. I did not do a very good job of impressing the different commands and signals for left finishes versus right finishes in Freya’s mind. Since she learned the right finish first, and we did not add the left finish until much later (rally obedience is the only sport in which you have to use both left and right finishes), sometimes she’ll do the right finish even if I ask for a left finish.
If you remember our first trial in July, you’ll remember that the left finish was a source of concern for me back then, and with much better reason. Things are better now, but still not reliable enough to inspire true confidence.
We did a little work on attention and left finishes tonight. Freya still seems a bit depressed with Axel gone, so I tried to keep it very short and very cheerful. We’ll do some video at class tomorrow night and see what’s working and what isn’t.
(NaBloPoMo | November ’09: 4 of 30 | 75% Challenge: 249 of 274)