Hoaxey was a very good girl tonight (besides doing the 'medium merle belly slide' on the start line) which I had to keep correcting. She is so twitchy on her starts/ waits and I am not sure I will ever change that. I think her start line will be a constant challenge to me.
Her speed was good tonight including contacts. She was very quick accross the ground. I havent worked a small dog before but find she is easier to 'lose' mid course. I always know where Boo is, I can hear him, see him out the corner of my eye and feel him jumping. Hoax is light footed and seems to jump silently, because she is never above knee height it seems much harder to know where she is, unless I am literally watching her. Therefore running ahead and leaving her to jump a fast line is hard for me as I can't really sense what she is doing!
We also have a small issue right now of the mix between speed and tight turns. I have done quite a lot with her getting accelleration out of turns. which is fine until you have two in a row. It means she completes the first turn nicely then puts power on immediately making it near impossible to get another neat turn. I guess this is the downside of a medium collies- they commit so early to a jump (jumping long and quite flat) that a turn has to be well cued. However, after rattling on about this I am not to worried. She is gaining confidence and I would prefer her to be a quick dog rather than a steadier one who watches me all the time.I found it so intresting watching the Mediums at Crufts this year and comparing Hoaxey to the top dogs. Minx is still probably the fastest dog I have seen. I don't know what she was like at full height but she just skims accross the ground so very fast. She must be scary to work as she just doesn't waste a split second in the air or anywhere else she seems to win if she goes clear regardless of the odd wide turn! I also loved watching Jo Lathams Jinny, she is so elegant when she works and really stretches over jumps, she has the speed again but seems to have some lovely turns when she knows they are coming. Lisas Chi was fantastic at Crufts, I think his weaves are quicker than any medium dog out! He looks like he works so well on that surface and just didnt seem to have trouble with anything! They did make it look easy!!!
The thing all the quick medium collies seem to have in common are they tend to drift quite wide unless the KNOW the turn is coming. I think it is to do with jump trajectory again. The shelties running in medium however don't seem to have that, they jump quite a lot shorter and although are really fast don't seem to have the same issue at the collies. I wonder if it is to do with stride length? (But I have heard that one little medium merle called Dizzy is coming out who has speed AND the turns)!!! I think I will be having the jumping long issue with Hoax. I have always encouraged her to stretch over jumps which she now does, she can bounce a fair few distances and does so on quite a few excersises and courses. Just wondering if you get that with shelties or if they tend to add an extra stride?
Anyway, Hoax did the excersises really nicely bar the odd turn- I think they are fantastic excersises for Novice dogs and hope we keep the same setup next week!
4 comments:
WELL DONE at Crufts Gemma, i love to see Boo running, he loves it!
At uka gt, Oz,Rudi,Roo and Cody are all competing in nursery will you be there to hold our hands!!!
Two posts in one week... are you bored!!!!
I think you have to be careful (generic you, not you personally!)that you don't sacrifice speed for turns. In an ideal world we would have both. And I hate to say "if I have to choos!" but if I do have to choose then it would be speed. Jag has oodles of speed and has learnt to turn better as he has got older. But it is a constant fight! And if I leave off training his steady for a few weeks, it disappears.
But you are right, I think they do need early cues to what is coming up.
Oh and Minx over full height... very quick till. Minx won a novice at full height. I think her jumping trajectory was different though. But she almost tunrned wider on full height. I think she put soo much into jumping up that she length came with it. Hope that makes sense.
Good luck at Chippenham. Not that you need luck, just skill and I'm sure that is there.
Hi Steph- Which GT? If its the May one then No :( Thats Tunbridge Wells I think?
Thanks for your tips Mand. Appreciate them. Toni commented when she saw Hoax that she was quite like Minx. I don't think Hoax is as fast, but does have simularities. It is nice to hear what you said. And I guess the problem is we want everything. It's silly coz I always tell people that dogs tend to come out with either straight line speed or tight turns and that I would prefer they have speed!!
And yes- skill... hmmm lets go the luck route for now... :D
totally agree, skate is very fast and does tend to have quite wide turns as you all know, i have worked on this with nic and now he antipates it sometimes ending in a mess at the jump he too has got better but i must always remember not to do too many turns or it is a mess then i get all uptight a vicious circle, i have seen hoaxey and she is doing fine, she will gain the confidence and so will you so enjoy her she is a fab little thing.
y xxx
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