Monday, 14 May 2012
ok - so its me not Pip - now I need a plan
After another weekend where I struggled to find the positive as Pip knock down copious poles and started breaking waits I have made some discoveries....
1. The problem is in jumping and Steeplechase. He is a different dog in agility rounds and much more like at home barely knocking poles.
2. In jumping when you have weaves and tunnels at the beginning he is much better and doesnt knock fences until later in the round when its just jumps.
3. He isn't happy when I leave him on the start line even though I'm not going beyond fence 2 (per last plan) His wait has always been great but he broke it spectacularly on Sunday.
4. Queueing - he is queueing much better now and only being barky if he queues too long. We can queue for 5-6 dogs with little problem. Queue or not queue does not affect behaviour in the ring. (have tried both this weekend on sc and agility)
4. At home last night I put up a 19 obstacle course with 1 tunnel 1 set weaves and the rest jumps. Nothing hard - a beginners jumping course. Pip held the wait and didnt hit a fence. that was sunday evening after 2 days of competing - so if it was a physical problem it should have shown worse when he was tired.
Conclusions:- I am doing something at shows which is worrying him and he is panicking, rushing and having poles down.
Options...
1. just do agility and games for next few shows which he isnt getting upset with as I'm obviously doing something different in the hope he regains some confidence
2. practice lots of jumping and sc rounds at home and try to get my body to remember the feeling
3. practice the waits and push the distractions at home in the hope that he feels more confident in them.
4. do all my sc and jumping nfc with a toy so it feels more like home
5. ???
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