Thursday, November 26, 2009

to speed up or not?

We had a good training with Sizzle today. He was crazily fast but responsive! We moved back to indoor school last week. I have a feeling that he prefers indoor than outdoor. I can see he goes faster indoor but he is more casual in speed when we train outdoor. I do not know if the toy I am using today made him go crazy. He always prefers a "talking" toy, he is not keen on squeeky. I only discover that early this year when we went to Bernadette, she had a crazy laugh toy by Red Nose Day, I went and bought one from Sainsbury and Sizzle was mad about it, unfortunately we over play with the toy and it stop laughing now. Colin was glad it finally went dead as he said that toy made him go mad! Anyway, since then, I started collecting "talking" toys for him. I bought a Shrek and the Donkey from 99p store a few months ago, Shrek is now dead, yes, over play again! Today, I took Donkey to training. I show the Donkey to Sizzle on the startline, he didn't show he is hyper (he nevers did!) but when he goes, he shoot like a rocket. I was shocked and don't know how to response to his speed so we went wrong the first time, so when I got him back and restart him again, I was more prepare and we both went really well. We did the pull through and tough weave entries and Sizzle didn't put a foot wrong. Almost towards the end of the training, we had a small disaster. It was a tunnel and 3 straight jumps home, I pushed him to GO ON and he was fast and misjudged his pacing and knocked hard on the 2nd jump. This reminded me of KC Festival where he hit himself so badly on the pole at the practise ring. Luckily Sizzle is getting mature since, he was happy to go again after the knocked but show himself down. Sensible!
After today's training, I have two questions in mind ...
1. TOY - I always know Sizzle prefers a "talking" toy but because it talks so I cannot take the toy to competition near the ring to wind him up, what should I do? I tried to vary the toys at training but he definitely put up more gears when comes to his favourite talk toys.
2. SPEED - to speed up or not? Sizzle is teeny weeny 12", up against those 13.5" fast dogs, we don't stand a chance, so I always encourage him to speed up. At many occassions (at training), when we have a straightline jumps, I tried to push him so hard that he lost his pacing and kncok the bar. I really don't know what to do, to push or let him go on his own pace? I want him to understand that he should go as fast as he could when comes to straightline?
here is tired Sizzle with his talking Donkey, after training.


4 comments:

Vonnie said...

Picture way too cute! Wee poser!

Why not let him speed up naturally but still encouraging him! Keeping a nice balance of both!

I know what you mean by speed, sis is the same!

Diana said...

I think its ok to push your dog for speed but I would work on it at home and practice. He will learn to judge the jumps better, it will just take time. Dogs make mistakes sometimes,Sizzle will work it out. Cute picture. Diana

Teresa said...

You might look into Susan Salo's videos on jump grids. There are some exercises that work on having them learn to adjust their stride so they can jump cleanly in both collection and extension.

Chris and Ricky said...

I too think that Sizzle will figure out how to judge jumps at any speed as he gets older. My goodness that is a darling photo of him!