Easy does it

General:
Kola is getting a new house! Its got 8,800 square foot lot. Most of that is in the back. Its got enough space for agility equipment. Although probably not a whole course. Its big enough to maybe fulfill my fantasy of getting some herding-broke ducks for Kola to work. Obviously theres a lot to do before that can happen. (Not the least of which is get Kola driving well so we can start her on ducks.)

Herding:
Dave is out of town this week (and next week and, shockingly, the week after that) so we practiced on our own on Thursday at brigands. I used all six practice sheep because I thought that would be fun. Dave suggested that we do some work along the fence line working on Kola keeping her distance and working on her keeping the sheep between us, and so on. That was moderately effecting. I also introduced a new command: get out. Its not really new per se, but "out" is getting transferred over to agility and so I'm making a fresh start with "get out." So far so good. She's moving off me pretty well. The problem is that she doesn't know that she's supposed to be moving off the sheep! Oh well, that will come in time.

The best thing we did was use her "down" command to work on "easy." I was reading a sheep herding book recently that reminded me the importance of keeping "down" from becoming a correction. Even though most of the time it kinda is. I kept my "down" commands nice and pleasant until she ignored it and then she got the growly kind.

When she hit balance I asked for my "down." Once she was down and I'd gotten a little distace I'd ask for "easy walk" as soon as she trotted (which was frequently right away) I asked for another "down." If she walked nicely for her "easy walk" I'd tell her "good girl." This almost invariably caused her to start trotting. So basically I spent my time repeating a command followed by good girl followed by aigh (correction noise) followed by another command. Rinse repeat.

The good news is that by the end she was slowing down when she hit balance, she wasn't resenting being asked for the "down," she held an easy walk progressively longer and longer, sometimes even after being told "good girl." She also didn't do any crazy flanking but I think that's because she felt pretty in control of these sheep.

Agility:

Kola had her first lesson in Advanced Agility class. I think she did really well, and boy was it a lot more fun.

For one thing, instead of patiently waiting in line while dogs are introduced to various obstacles with varying degrees of success, we ran a small course (usually 6 to 12 obstacles) one by one. Much more fun for me to watch. Also much more educational. Beginning agility doesn't do very much to teach you about being a handler. Watching other people and their dogs run a course and then running it yourself and then watching more people run it is a great way to learn. Another thing that was cool is the jumps are higher so Kola has a little more challenge. The courses are run off-leash, which is how Kola has been trained at home and has eliminated that difficulty we were having before.

Kola did a chute for the first time with no problem. I think it really helps her to watch other dogs do something like that.

Weave poles are the biggest thing we need to work on to keep up with the rest of the class. I was relieved to see that we're not the only dog who doesn't have the weave poles down yet. Right now we're practicing at home with the poles in a Weave-a-Matic style set up. Which is to say they're set at ~80 degree angles alternating left and right to help Kola see how she needs to weave. I'm thinking of switching to 2x2 and a clicker. I don't want to confuse her though. Also, 2x2 is probably the most tedious way of teaching the weave poles I know of.

Kola also needs to work on not blowing through her A-frame and teeter totter work. We're using the same word for slowing down while herding as slowing down for obstacles. Easy does it. Unfortunately we can't "down" her while she's on the equipment. Oh well, she'll get it eventually.

Overall I think we fit in pretty nicely with this group, although now I need to learn a new set of dog-handler names. (Oh, who am I kidding, I really only ever learn the dog's names.)