Training session

This morning we worked on line of motion and convergence. Summit did not respond at all to my lateral motion to the wp's (handler's red path) and kept taking the green jump. I got a little frustrated because he kept driving ahead and taking the green jump. I finally came to a complete stop and then yes, he did turn and look at me but that is not the cue I wanted him to respond to. So I put him in the house and got out Sage. I was thinking maybe the red path was too difficult but Sage read my lateral motion very well and converged and performed the wp's. Sage is my test for whether my motion is cueing the correct path.

So then I brought Summit back and he did much better this time. I realized I needed to move laterally sooner since his committment point is so much sooner than Sage. Sage will change her path the instant she senses a change in my motion. The exercise looks fairly simple but was not. Especially with a very fast, drivey dog like Summit.

I ran these variations many times with both dogs. Adjusting my starting point (how far lateral to the dog), LOM, and location of lateral motion. The dogs didn't care, they were just into the big tug game at the end of each sequence but the information was valuable to me. I think it is just amazing how much can be learned by working such simple drills.