Cones and Circles

Yesterday evening I worked with Tessa a bit on the lateral sends around cones, and circles for Freestyle.  I actually ended up reworking a piece of our routine because Tessa was sitting in front of me before circling when I cued the circle from heel.  I can work the sit in, and I think it will actually provide a nice point of contrast, so I changed the routine slightly.

We started off with the cone work.  She just LOVES working with cones!!  She wags her tail and preens around!  She totally understood what I wanted from her, and she only made one mistake.  That was pretty good, considering I hadn't done this with her before.  I already need more room to work on this, though.  There isn't much more space in my living room.

Next we did some work with a NADAC hoop, at first just building drive through the hoop.  After that I worked on the rear crosses on the flat into the hoop by doing what we were doing at the seminar.  That worked really well.  Tessa and I both found it to be much clearer and I can see how eventually it will be very fluid.  I actually need more room to work on that, too.  Come on, spring!!

Then we worked on scallops.  I am looking to build fluency as she loops to my side by feeding her waaaay back and then reinforcing her for coming into position straight.  She liked the exercise.  I am also working on it with her in a stand.  I'd like for her to start doing more standing work.

Then we worked on the circles and that was where I discovered that she needs the sit in front of me right now, so I tweaked the routine.

All in all it was an excellent little training session.  A little bit of Agility and a little bit of Freestyle for just the right balance!