Autumn rain

It has been raining for the whole day. Real autumn feeling, walking the dogs in the darkening evening. Light rain. Streets were almost for us only, others stayed inside. Hoppu and Neeo had their coats on, and looked relatively happy and warm. Kumma was 100% happy, trying to go to all directions at the same time. A leash limited his path, and we had several silent moments of negotiation about what kind of speed was allowed.

At home a nice surprise was waiting for the doggies. We had lamb for dinner and guess who were the lucky ones getting meaty bones and other leftovers? Food is rarely wasted in our household, suppose it's the same for most families with dogs.

A week ago we had the 3rd and last day of Vappu's jumping seminar. Topic of the day was bending. I was really pleased to see how well Kumma focused on playing and jumping. It is such a joy to work (= have fun) with him! Bending exercises for advanced dogs were really challenging, and seeing the dogs thinking and trying was great. The more I learn about Susan Salo's jumping method, the more I like it and believe in it. It just makes sense. If only I could push myself to buy pipes and saw them into jump bumps. The thing is that I should emply all kinds of stuff from my car to fit it the pipes. Maybe tomorrow...

"Method" seems to be an important word in agility nowadays. Which handling method are you using? What kind of training method do you use for weave poles, contacts, this and that? I like methods. I like good consistent methods that help me to improve my handling, and allow me to choose a training method that I think best suits myself and my dog. But it's always good to think and check and double check that offered methods are really for you and for your dog. I remember when I got the first handling DVD of Greg Derrett, it felt like many loose ends tied together and I finally understood something what good consistent handling is about. On the other hand I've heard all kinds of advice that would have been a disaster with my IGs. IGs just wanna have fun :) Even if BCs have more built in motivation to work with their humans, I want to evaluate carefully any offered advice and method.

Our Say Yes Recallers e-course is finished. I have learned a lot, and we have plenty of new fun games in our toolbox, embedded in our training plan. We are still mainly training at home, but puppy agility classes will start soon offering good selection of distractions. I'm also planning to train once a week on my own, being able to have veteran agility fun with Hoppu and Neeo, and to start obstacle training with Kumma.