Start-Line Stays…
July 21st, 2009 Posted in trainingEveryone who knows Elly knows that I have no (zip, zero, nada, not-no-way-no-how) start-line stay with her. Of course, I said that to Debbie, and what did she say? “That’s a training issue.”
Okay. Throw a challenge in front of me, and I mostly don’t resist. What can I say?
Elly has gotten so fit, as a result of the Walkeez harness (no, it doesn’t stop her pulling but it does stop her choking herself and require that she pull with both shoulders and push with both hips), that she can now outrun me from the first jump. So I had to agree with Debbie that it was time to hunker down and (re)train a start-line stay. I worked on it at the CAT barn for a few weeks, and last week I demonstrated it to Debbie, who immediately made this observation:
“She self-releases the second you stop and look at her, so just release while you’re moving, and move quickly to the position you want so she can’t anticipate when you’re going to release her.”
After years of stopping, counting a second, then releasing, that was really hard… but damned if it didn’t work! She doesn’t take her eyes off me, she just waits for that okay and takes off to come to me. Now, we’ve got some work to do on that first obstacle–she goes around it if that’s a straight line to where I am–but guess what? “That’s a training issue.”
(And yes, I know the pulling on leash is also a training issue–but the harness, combined with the pulling, has done such an amazing job of muscling up her hips that I’m going to keep letting her pull… it’s done amazing things for her hip dysplasia.)
One Response to “Start-Line Stays…”
By amy on Jul 21, 2009
It’s all about compromise and what you are willing to be okay with!! Me? I couldn’t handle a dog barking at me the entire time we ran. It’s just something I can’t handle…pulling? As long as I have them in my right hand (the one that didn’t get broken) and they stop when I use that “tone” that I mean it, I’m okay with them pulling!