Training in the Rain

The dogs and I had a fun session yesterday evening training in the rain! “Proper” training was cancelled so we lugged two jumps and the flyball box (and hurdle) to the park for a bit of an inpromptu training session with all three dogs. I think it’s good for the dogs to train in wet conditions as the chances are they’ll have to compete in it.

Dylan’s pull throughs and (push) outs are really improving, he has a strong out command and he’s beginning to understand the concept of a pull through. It’s hard for me to get my handling right because he doesn’t like me being in his jumping space, or the area about a metre in front or behind the pole, so I have to stand well back and try and direct him from there, which is a very new technique for me! We did get some nice figure-of-eights and two-jump-drill stuff done, which was good.

Kim and I are finally beginning to get back in tune. It feels like I’ve been so focussed on Dylan that I’d forgotten all the little tricks and quirks Kim and I have to ensure she’s working at her best. I rediscovered her in command last weekend, I don’t know why I stopped using it! In just means come towards me through the obstacles without jumping them until we get to where we want to be. It’s very useful, means I can do pull-thrus without having to handle at all! She has a very strong in command, just like her out command (lots of jump box training when she was younger!) but I haven’t used it for ages, I just kept trying to handle it like “real” handlers handle it, which I should know by now is not the way to handle Kim.

Mollie also got to play for a while, until she got silly and started trying to jump the wings and knocked everything over. She’s so much fun, she gives everything 200% and she has some fab tight turns over the jumps! Since she’d demolished my jumps I figured we should get the flyball stuff out, so the dogs got to practise their turns for the weekend.

Dylan did a couple without any aids and he is improving, slowly but surely. Maybe after another year of Starters and training aids we might finally get to see the wicked fast swimmer’s turn that I know he has lurking! We threw the jump back in towards the end because he was getting lazy with his back end, but it was an improvement, so maybe there is hope yet.

Kim and Mollie had fun playing flyball too, even if they didn’t wholly approve. (It’s not proper flyball if it’s not got four jumps and two teams!) I messed about with Kim and did some turnarounds with her, which she used to be awesome at and apparently still is! She used to run anchor dog after a bad collision with another dog in her team, so a fast turnaround used to come in handy, but as we run third now it’s unlikely she’ll ever need that again. Still, it’s always fun to play with!