Archie: The Need for Speed

The comment from Archie's instructor in class last night: "He's learning to love his speed now..."

While it's great that he is finding agility super motivating (no more treats at the start line--the release to play agility is the only reward that he wants now), this new-found need for speed is affecting his contacts and his weaves. He enters the weaves super hot, but he's not quite experienced enough to maintain that. And when he loses his rhythm, he hops in the air and pops out of the weaves. (I'll be the first to admit that this is hysterical to see. It's as if he is saying, I'm going, I'm going, oops, I missed something, oh fuck it, I'll just call it a day! And up in the air he goes.) I am now watching for this--when he lifts his head in preparation for that hop, I tell him "easy" to get him to refocus. He did 24 weaves last night (we were playing a weave pole challenge game) so I know he understands his job.

His contacts have completely degraded too. He had beautiful two on-two off contacts but he's now jumping off the end or running past the end, not even trying to rock his weight back to stop. So back to basics on his contacts. Now is the time to build those good habits. 

I had such good luck training his teeter with the clicker that I think I'll add that to his contact training to make it crystal clear to him what it is I'm rewarding him for. He's very responsive to the clicker--his distance work is improving quite a bit with simple exercises using cones and the clicker. He demonstrated that last night in class. I was able to send him out to a jump, out to a difficult tunnel entry, and out and around a barrel without moving in right next to these obstacles. Anything that shortens my path and allows me to stay in front of him is a good thing!