This Place is Fun

We had our first private practice in the brand-spankin' new training building today.  I was worried that Marge would want to spend the hour sniffing, but she took to the place without a problem.  She zoomed all over waiting for us to put the obstacles out.

Since the goal here was to have a relatively easy night but still work on some specific skills, I tried my hardest to get Marge to think and pay attention without stressing her out.  Here is the result (special thanks to my wonderful boyfriend for a plethora of videos and pictures from the evening):

Tunnels were the main focus tonight, since we've been having some problems in terms of control upon completing them.  The first thing I did was re-create as best as I could the part of the NADAC Novice Regular sequence that we screwed up at the trial.  I discovered why she didn't drive ahead to the weaves at the trial (in addition, of course, to my cautious handling) - I should have been telling her "weave" while she was still in the tunnel rather than only when she gets out of it.  I waited too long to tell her to weave while practicing tonight, and had the same botched result.

Next thing I wanted to work on was having Marge explicitly take direction after the tunnel.  This has been a very large problem for us.  In the next clip, I asked her to come into my hand and take the jump next to the tunnel instead of barrel straight down to the weaves.  My handling could have been better, yes, and I probably could have skipped the lead-out and just waited waaaay back for her as she flew through the tunnel.  But, we got it done, and I made sure that was a super happy thing for her - as you can hear by my girlish high-pitched praise.

Later on, I tried to perform some weave drills with her, but she seemed like she was really tired and kept skipping poles, so I called it quits.  The last thing we did was a jump backcross after the long red tunnel, similar to the sequence that doomed us on Tuesday at class.  (Note to self: you wait too darn long to ask for the cross, Sam!)

It was a good start.  Just like when I started renting the old training hall, tonight was all about getting a feel for the room and seeing what'll fit.  Next time, I'll try to do something similar - incorporate the learning of new skills into big, fun, flowing sequences.  When all of the outside equipment at the field gets brought in to winter, I'd LOVE to set up a mini NADAC tunnelers course with the five or six tunnels that should be available.  As we progress, we can add in weaves, too.

I'm glad she likes the place, as we'll likely be having our regular agility class in here in a couple of weeks.  Though I prefer being outside (and so does she), I'm hoping that the transition will go smooth and we can enjoy agility in the winter months indoors.