fall weekend
Watched some of the random 2010 Agility World Champs on youtube. Really beautiful to watch some of those dogs runs. And I was surprised by how tight all the pros work with their dogs. And by tight I don't mean in that larger sense, moving in perfect sync like a team, which they all were, thrilling to seee, but I mean close. Right up there in close at every obstacle cue. Like right AT the entrance to the weave poles, and then staying beside the dog all the way through. Not much distance work at all.
I first thought maybe when the stakes are world high maybe you just don't risk any miscommunication. You literally don't leave any room for mistakes. Then, I thought maybe its the nature of these courses with all their fast twists and turns, so maybe there really isn't any other way to handle them. It was useful to watch how really definite and even exaggerated all the cues were. I don't know, I guess I expected at that level the language between handler and dog would have become shorthand, more subtle. I don't know why I expected that. But, anyway, it made me think how much more UNwishywashy my cues need to be.
Anyway, other than every once in a while on walks working toward that handstand by getting Stella to climb up trees backwards... we goofed off...
I first thought maybe when the stakes are world high maybe you just don't risk any miscommunication. You literally don't leave any room for mistakes. Then, I thought maybe its the nature of these courses with all their fast twists and turns, so maybe there really isn't any other way to handle them. It was useful to watch how really definite and even exaggerated all the cues were. I don't know, I guess I expected at that level the language between handler and dog would have become shorthand, more subtle. I don't know why I expected that. But, anyway, it made me think how much more UNwishywashy my cues need to be.
Anyway, other than every once in a while on walks working toward that handstand by getting Stella to climb up trees backwards... we goofed off...