Week 5

February 23

I am really enjoying this distance education program put together by Kathy Keats.

We have spent quite a long time working on our front and rear crosses. Apache is my speed demon and yet, I am more comfortable doing front crosses with him. Both of us seem to better understand the information being shared in a front cross. I still get spinning when I try to rear cross. Apache is showing more understanding than in the past.

The first drill had us working all in front crosses. I am certainly most comfortable using this cross and yet running a fast dog, I can end up falling behind him. I had to make an effort to wait with him at the #8 jump so that I could drive hard to #10 so that he would have the speed to take him out and around the 270. If you are wondering why I'm stomping my feet, it is because I tripped. Normally, I do try to run quietly! Do you hear Apache hitting the bars? It is unusual to get through a drill without taking down bars.






We then redid the same drill using all rear crosses. I have a hard time mentally letting him go ahead of me. Obviously, you can't do a rear cross ahead of dog so I have to get over that problem. I think that I am going into the pocket to support the rear cross and then I review the run and it shows that I didn't go hardly at all! Grrr! An old problem resurfaced in that on the straight line across the box, Apache started veering into me to snap at me. Not sure why - thought we had moved away from that behaviour. Still get a spin at the end of the drill, no matter how many times we tried it.








We next worked on practising our front crosses in a line. I tried really hard to stay in the middle of the jumps to minimize "flinging" Apache way out over the jumps. Watching the video shows just how far out he tends to go. Apache loves to "jump big".

We then moved on to threadles. Yuck! We have a VERY, VERY long way to go. Apache is absolutely sure that he should go out and around to the next jump instead of in between the jumps. I started by checking my feet and body position, but I think it is as simple as Apache not having a clue what I want. I finally just switched to wrapping him around a jump standard to try to build understanding.




Always fun working with my wild child, Apache.