Flying Poodles

Keeping standards high…

I went to agility class yesterday and watched really carefully. I even took videos and watched those.

Two years ago I took a seminar with Susan Perry and she asked “what are your criteria for the dogwalk contact?” My tentative reply of “one toe in the yellow” was not satisfactory.

This is the answer I eventually arrived at, and which I was pleased to give her this spring when I took her proofing seminar: “Stopped, front paws in the dirt, back paws on the board, head up and watching me for the cue for the next obstacle. Release word is ‘okay!’ ”

Since I’ve arrived at that point, Debbie has been very good about making sure I maintain my criteria for dogwalk performance. I’m now keenly aware when I let my standards slip.

Which is why, yesterday at class, I was dismayed to watch as my fellow students let their criteria go over and over and over again. I understand the rationale: it’s hard to focus on everything. I know I decided not to fight with Dancer about her table performance–I let her stand instead of sit. But hey, I don’t do USDAA, AKC is going to “any position”, and CPE just wants the dog to get on the table to end the run. So that’s okay. (I’m sure I’ll regret it if I ever go back to USDAA.)

Last weekend, at the CPE trial, I watched as a friend ignored her dog’s jumping off the a-frame from pretty near the top. Not even a sigh escaped her, she just went on. I get that, it’s more fun, but… Dancer’s done much better at her contacts since I started following Debbie’s advance and asking for the stop I didn’t get as soon as she doesn’t stop. So.. Dancer jumps the a-frame contact, I stop dead, I say “wait”, she stops, I say “okay!” and we go on. So now the a-frame consistently means “wait” even if it’s not perfect. It always means “wait.” That turns out to matter.

It also turns out to matter that I’m training the moving wait that Sharon Nelson introduced in her seminar back in March. The moving wait is: stop right there. Hang on a moment and I’ll give you another instruction. Very useful for all kinds of things, as it turns out, although Sharon uses it as part of handling distance lines, where you want your dog to stop “out there” rather than come in to you for the next instruction.