August stories

Enjoying warm rays of sun

Last week in our agility class I worked on Kumma's 2-on-2-off on the A-frame. He did great, with a tunnel ahead as a distraction, and with a front cross. Then we performed a little test. A long straight tunnel in front of the A-frame and what happened? Beautiful jump right onto the edge of the contact zone. One more 2o2o without any speed, and he didn't touch the upside contact zone at all. I wanted to believe that A-frame wouldn't be a problem, only the dogwalk, but evidence is there. Disappointing, but not surprising. Kumma is a big boy with a strong engine. Now I have put A-frame and dogwalk training on hold, there is no point to reinforce wrong performance until I have told Kumma what to do with upside contact zones.

We have started working on this at home, using first a wooden frame, and now a taped frame on the floor. I plan to transfer that onto the training board, then to real obstacles.

Taking a nap in the greenhouse

I haven't done too much weave training lately with Kumma, some reps with 6 poles every now and then with or without a jump in front. A week ago I introduced full 12 poles for the first time. He did them twice, but rather slowly. Yesterday evening, when temperature was a bit lower, I started a training session with 6 poles. Just two repetitions, and Kumma's speed and rhythm was fantastic! I have only 6 poles on the backyard, so training a full set requires going somewhere else.

We also visited Vappu recently with aussie friends Rinna and Sara. Kumma got some new jumping exercises in front of him.He started with a basic grid, but instead of standard 5 jumps there were 9 jumps. First he run through without good body management, then he started thinking and trying. Second exercise was a combination of landing (with a 40cm double jump), bending (5 jumps), and progressive grid. I have videos, try to add them later. Comments and homework:

• Kumma works and uses his body well, but needs challenges to keep him interested and focused. I need to keep him motivated and in high arousal zone with play and games. "Racing to a toy" is a game that can be used with jumping exercises occasionally to add fun and speed.
• Basic grid with double jumps, height 20-25cm.
• Landing exercise (spaces 6-9-9).
• Mix and match exercises, adding handler movement.

Today Kummajainen enjoyed running in the woods with a havanese friend Vili. Neeo was also with us, but he didn't appreciate children's rough play. No wonder, Neeo will be 12 in two weeks! Hoppu got his own walk later in the evening. My daughter cycled and we needed to run a little to keep up with her. Running with a blind dog, something I haven't tried before... Hoppu was a happy little hurricane, he trusts me as his guide human :)

Sweet Hoppu 12.5 years

Neeo in summer cottage