Cadbury, Sparrow, Merlin, Swift and Me
I've started working through the book Alphabet Drills. The drills are all based on the letters of the alphabet. So here is letter A (and there are a lot of drills based on this letter, lol!). This is the first version, which at a glance looks simple enough. No big deal, right? All on one... Continue Reading →
This week we had what at first glanced seemed a straightforward setup - five jumps, two tunnels and the weaves, but the complexities of this course proved a real brain teaser. There were two versions of the course, and naturally we started on the easier one (above) The obvious trap was 2-3, though I don't... Continue Reading →
https://youtu.be/iiilC4pHMF0 Sparrow's running contacts have been an ongoing experiment as I have adapted my training to suit her and to re-teach her what to do with contacts. We are reaching a stage of consistency that is very exciting, but I want to push Sparrow's understandings of her contacts, to discover if she is really grasping... Continue Reading →
Sometimes you have to go back to go forwards. In fact that happens a lot in dog training. Recently I felt Sparrow was not quite clear on the criteria I was asking for with her running contacts, so I took a step back, I reassessed and I decided to go back to groundwork. I began... Continue Reading →
Today's session of running contacts involved trying to phase out the use of the toy. Sparrow normally runs down the contact to a click and treat box, now we want to have her driving from the dogwalk onto another obstacle. Naomi was helping me today (thanks Naomi!), she has been helping me iron out the... Continue Reading →
Sparrow has come a long way since we started training her running dogwalk using a piece of carpet. She is now running a full dogwalk and we are incorporating distance, speed and other obstacles. She still has a lot to learn and a lot to proof, but already she is faster and more confident, which... Continue Reading →
Tuesday night means Broads night, which has got to be just about the best evening of the week. Heck, we even had coconut tarts to munch on between classes! Two smaller courses had been set up to test us, each one having enough sneaky traps and variants to keep us busy. As there was a... Continue Reading →
Running contacts are not an easy thing to teach, but I am determined to succeed with little Sparrow. We have gone from flat work to now being on a full-size dogwalk set at a low height. Sparrow has been doing good, but on our Wednesday session I was concerned she was over-reaching at the contact,... Continue Reading →
This week at Broads we were working on various sequences. The first was a series of jumps that could be done in a variety of ways, and the trainers certainly found some inventive layouts! I have been working hard on my body language for Ketschkers. In all honesty in has taken me two years to... Continue Reading →
What a fab way to spend a Monday afternoon, training with the amazing Helen Anderson! Both Merlin and Sparrow had their turns. Sparrow is working on tunnel avoidance and it was clear her issue was understanding turning away from the tunnel. We worked at breaking down the exercise and we achieved some success, but have... Continue Reading →
Team Jackson 