Training with a Plan

I actually had a plan for training this week. I know that every trainer I admire advocates having a training plan in advance, and that going and messing around on the equipment doesn’t actually achieve anything. I know this, and yet a lot of the time, I like just messing about running silly courses. (I suspect this is one of the many reasons Dylan and I aren’t running in Championship classes).

I will admit that my plan was not terribly complex. It was called “AFRAME CONTACTS”, and had no further details.

Still, we worked our Aframe contacts! I even took the clicker, partially because Dylan is my demo dog for the new handlers next week when I talk about contact training, and I had a massive panic attack thinking that maybe everything had fallen out of Dylan’s head and he wouldn’t remember clicker contacts, since we haven’t done it in a while. I still can’t promise that won’t happen (it keeps me up at night, I swear), but he was excellent this week. He really does have a beautiful stop position, I’m very proud of him.

So, we worked on reinforcing contact position, and then proofing contact position. Dylan does have a tendency to release himself if I keep running waaay past him, but this is really a little niggley thing since I don’t think I’ve ever run a course which required me to run 50ft beyond the Aframe whilst Dylan stayed in position.

We then worked on release to obstacles, because we’ve had some tough releases recently where the next obstacle is not the most obvious one. This is obviously more about me than about Dylan; Dyl always looks for the next obstacle whilst in position – which is adorable, he goes all collie stare on things – but I’m not always as clear as I should be with my cues. I know I should be letting him know almost pre-Aframe where the line is going to go, but I have a habit of relying on his stop and then redirecting him from there, which is inefficient. I should know this from running Kim, where I don’t get that handler advantage on the contacts, and it does save us time. Because she will run at an angle to come off the side of the Aframe (providing I give her the correct information!), she’s taking the quickest line. I should really be giving Dyl the same information, but the stop makes me lazy.

My plan for next week will depend on what happens at Hare’n’Hounds this weekend, assuming we can get there through the snowdrifts!