Training on Tuesday 29/4/08

Andy wanted me to set a course that he could walk and run without practising and specifically he wanted a straight weave entry included. We don't often train straight weave entries and they can be deceptively difficult. There was a string on agility forum recently discussing that straight weave entries are a difficult thing to set for the lower grades and I agree with this sentiment.

I designed a course that included this feature, plus three jumps where we could practise pull throughs, push throughs and snakes. A tunnel where we could practise a go round entry from the back, a long jump into nothing and some other "nice" features.

We had two course designs and some exercises using the three jumps. The puppy class ran the course in light circles first and Kizzy did really well. Their only mistake was when Andy did a front cross at #9 to bring Kizzy round the right wing to the A-Frame. He moved off too soon and Kizzy took the back of #6. Then they ran the second course in black circles which I think was slightly tougher. Kizzy ran the course faultlessly and got a clear round.

We also did the exercise in red circles which included the push through and then a go round to the tunnel. Kizzy did this exercise without fault.

I really enjoyed my class with Niamh. We did the same exercises. Her push throughs and go rounds were excellent. I was really happy with our training last night. Her weaves were faultless and her contacts were good. All in all "good job".

It was a good course to train on so here it is in case anyone wants to try it. It can be used for much simpler sequences but we chose to go for the tougher options in order to push ourselves out of the comfort zone. This training session gave Andy a lot of confidence for Kizzy's first outing at Dordale at the weekend. Now we hope for the weather to improve!