Training again

Thought I'd do a post about this as a couple of people have asked me how long it has taken to get Zeki jumping at full height and the answer is not very long at all.

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I'd been for a lesson with Lesely; well that was less than a month ago and at that point Zeki was still running between wings. (I personally don't use poles on the ground because I worry about a dog turning a foot/wrist if they tread on the poles.)

The little sequences that Zeki has learnt thus far have all been taught using wings. Only in the past couple of weeks have I started putting up poles. She took this in her stride which is what I expected. She will be one year next week and so I feel it is the right time for her. That said, I don't do masses of jumping as all her training sessions are short and sweet.

With my collies I have never jumped them over full height until about a month before their first show. This is partly not to overwork a young dog but also in my experience it eliminates issues with dogs possibly running under jumps. With difficult or new sequences I always lower the poles, even for an experienced dog. With Zeki I feel it's a little different as she is very mature in a physical sense and obviously much smaller and more compact.

The stuff I'm teaching Zeki now is coming easily because we've put lots of effort into her foundation training which I really love. Our weekly class is still focused on foundation and I will keep working on this stuff with Zeki as she is learning so much by doing it. Zeki is the oldest dog in the class but we stay at the right level for the youngest dog and this really suits me because I just love doing the basics and seeing my little dog learn and improve. The agility and jumping is easy in comparison ... except for the contacts when you can't make up your mind what to do!

Anyway, I hope this helps.