Training Beep - part 7 by Toni Dawkins
Beep Bother
By Toni Dawkins October/ November 2008
I knew I should not have got excited about Beep too soon, I have had some problems over the last month and one particularly embarrassing moment which I am sure you will all find very funny.
But before all that here is Beep’s first agility photo and she is not looking too ugly in this one!
So, when I left you last time I was about to go on a Molly Munning’s training day. It was just two hours so you can’t do that much but I think any longer is too much for most young dogs anyway. Beep was very well behaved and did everything perfectly as always, just not with great drive at all. Dave picked up that I tend to leave her too early on turns due to rushing her and said not to do this. This is a good point and something I tell others off for but you don’t always see what you are doing yourself. He also said that he thinks her speed will come with confidence and I shouldn’t worry about it. The only other thing was that her a-frames where quite high and I couldn’t understand why but the one we were using looked very steep. It turns out the ones used for UKA don’t splay at the bottom so look steeper. Of course if they look steeper to me they will to Beep as well which affected where she came off it. She didn’t miss any though which was good.
The training day was at the UKA venue so I judged on the Sat and then had entered Beep in Nursery classes on the Sunday. She only had two classes, Nursery agility and Beginners steeplechase so not too much. In the agility she made me look very silly but this time for a good reason as I was telling some friends before I ran that she was quite slow. I took her in and just left the dogwalk out so broke the course into two sections, the first being just two jumps to the a-frame which she did at a nice speed, I then reset her up for a flowing jumping section to and from a tunnel and she took off and did three jumps to a tunnel without even looking back to see where I was. I had to move quickly into position to pick her up when I realised that I didn’t have as much time as I thought. Of course then everyone thought I had been lying about my slow dog! The steeplechase was not as quick as the jumps were higher than she was used to but again I took my toy in and broke it into sections and was very pleased.
So a good start but it goes downhill from here. The next training was a Tash Wise one and just jumping which is what I still feel I need to work on. Again just two hours so not too long but due to van problems I was late so Beep and I had to go into a strange place and work without Beep getting used to the new surroundings and dogs. Well she hardly ran at all, was really slow, in fact I don’t think she had ever been that slow. She didn’t want to play with the toy because the other dogs were near where it was being thrown. Tash was great and tried holding her to wind her up at the start and tried to play with her but she didn’t want to know. Then halfway though the lesson she got up out of a wait, went to the side of the school and threw up, everyone looked as something black came out. It was a sock!! I found this extremely embarrassing as not only was I running a slow Beep but she then threw a sock up and I was teaching the same people the next day. It is a good job they all know me. Poor Beep she must have been feeling pretty awful with a sock in her and to make it worse she threw up another one in the Travelodge that night. (I guess at least that made a pair). So she was feeling poorly which would explain why she was so off colour.
I then did a morning with Sharon Eldridge and although Beep again did everything perfectly she was slow and got slower as the morning went on. Her a-frames were good but I couldn’t get the right behaviour on the DW because she was not going as fast as at home. The next few times I tried DW’s in different locations I just couldn’t get the right behaviour at all. This meant I couldn’t reward which meant Beep went slower and it got worse.
A bit of rethinking was needed. First no more training days as she can’t cope with too much training in one go, she is not confident in a strange place and it’s of no use to her then. I am also really fed up with all the repetitions for running contacts and if I am Beep must be and it can’t be helping. I gave Beep two weeks off everything and now am only doing the DW three times a week. She is training a full class just Mondays and its only a 40min class, on Thurs when I would normally do another class I get her out after Kite and Minx and just do whatever sequence is around the DW. Then if I get a free day at the weekend I will do some DW’s so total time is probably about 1hr per week.
I have also spent some time talking to Dawn Weaver as she is more experienced with running contacts than I am. Her method is different to mine but one big difference is that she gets the dog looking ahead without the toy so she can reward if its correct but not have to call off the toy if it isn’t. I have always put the toy out and called Beep off it when the contact is not right, this would be fine for a high drive dog as if I do this for Kite she tries harder to get the toy but for Beep the harder I make her work for the toy the less she wants it. So Dawn is right in that I need to stop this but not everyone has a Sheila to help them with training, I do most of my training alone so need to find a way to focus Beep ahead. I have done this by using the next obstacle so there is always a jump or a tunnel to send her to. Then if the contact is right and I throw the toy she knows she can have it.
So far this seems to be working and she gets very jealous of the other two girls so I always make sure she is never the first one to work. Last Thurs I got two really good DW’s from a turn to a tunnel and last night four good DW’s with jumps minimum distance on and from it. She has not missed any for a few weeks now and this is good, I won’t do agility in the ring until she is 100% consistent but this will be March 2009 anyway so we should be fine by then.
She is now old enough to compete and I could put her in a show and probably get her round clear on most courses but I am sticking with Ribble for her first show. This is for two reasons; I want her to be happier about running fast and I am a wimp and don’t like the cold winter shows.
Kite and Minx
On to Kite and Minx then as they have finished their rest and both seem really well. They are training again, Kite just once a week and Minx twice. Kite does not really need training anymore but I think you need to keep them jump fit so once a week is enough for that. In the summer when competing I don’t train her at all. Minx is another story and we need the training still and as much as possible. I have been working on speeding Minx’s DW up as I have been videoing again to see the difference between Kite and Minx’s DW compared to Beeps. However fast Kite and Minx look and they both have very fast stop contacts, they are putting in up to four times the strides that Beep is. This is obviously because they know they are stopping but I want to take some of those strides out, Kite at nine and a half years is not going to be easy to change so I will leave her alone but I am sure I can lengthen Minx’s stride a little. What is obvious from the video is that all three dogs are about the same to the top of the down plank but then Beep takes two strides and is off, Minx and Kite take about 6-8! They start to shorten stride right at the top of the down plank so I have put a stride regulator on the first slat to get Minx to extend there rather than shorten. I have also done the same on the a-frame and she is jumping over the top really nicely. I think this is the most you can do as they will have to shorten their stride somewhere to stop and to make them take longer strides all the way down will just make the impact on them when they stop harder.
I took Minx too Discover dogs at the weekend and her DW was really fast, wish I had timed it. She did run past the last jump though to search for her lead but, that’s Minx.
Olympia Training
Olympia is coming up very quickly so there are a few things I am working on in preparation for this. For me the most important things to have for any final are waits and contacts. There is enough to worry about with handling, courses, noise and nerves so I need to trust my contacts so I can at least forget about them. Hence I am proofing contacts and waits continuously between now and Olympia more than usual. So, trying everything I can think of to pull my dogs off the contacts or get them to break a wait. Now, for anyone who knows me well you will know that waits are always a problem for me. I have them but as I have said before they are what I call twitchy waits so its means I don’t completely trust them. Whatever proofing I do I will never take my eyes off them when I leave them in a wait at Olympia. I can’t imagine ruining my run at a final because my dog broke a wait and I didn’t notice. Contacts are a different issue as I know I can trust them 100%, its only Kite’s seesaw (and you know all about that) that I will keep an eye on but she should be so used to the toy being there by Olympia that it should be fine.
Both the girls seem fit and happy, injury free (touch wood) and running really fast so other than normal training I don’t feel I have to do anything else.
What am I doing though for myself? Sounds silly but Olympia is a big place and a long way round to run. I am not the fastest runner and this is one place where I need to use my independent contacts and weaves as much as possible. I also want to feel I can run as fast as I can. So for fitness I am playing squash every week with Amanda Pigg. I am mentioning who I play with as Amanda is a scary person to play squash with, sometimes when she hits the ball I just get out of the way! She also uses my height to win and hits the ball really high so I can’t reach it but it does mean I have to work hard. I have a rowing machine at home which I am using every other day and to help with my sprinting I am using Beep as you really have to run when your dog does a running DW.
Well sorry this is a long article but it’s probably the last one before Xmas so please wish me luck at Olympia with both my girls and I will give you a Beep update in the New Year.
I have attached some photos of Beep growing up as I have been writing my articles.
Have a great Xmas
Love
Toni and Beep
xx
8 weeks to 18 months
