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speeding up slaloms


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Hi everybody,

my 4years old blue merle 'Bernie' and I are both training for agility regularly with the supervision of a trainer since one year. We are doing not too bad...and most of we both are having a great time...shouldn't it be so...? The one thing that appears to fall back a little is the speed in slaloms. Of course the trainer has his opinion, namely that I've been doing a bit too much of it and the dog being too...how could I say....compressed (leading him with both arm and voice on this obstacle)...

I trust the trainer but still would like to hear more than one voice on this.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Giuseppe

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I have no experience with agility. So, hopefully someone who does will give you a more informed response. However, I play a lot of frisbee with my Gypsy and also have other occasions to see her run "full out". Running at top speed seems to require both a "wild abandon" and a focus on moving forward.

 

In my opinion, your trainer is exactly right. Running at full speed requires a focus on pushing forward with as much speed as possible. Any outside distracton provided by you with voice or arms will necessarily detract from the necessary focus and slow Bernie down. The direction may be necessary, but it does provide a distraction.

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Personally for me, I have to use a verbal command rather than a non-verbal command with Keegan for weave poles. However, on every thing else, he does better by non-verbal command.

 

The funny thing is that I'm trying to slow Keegan down a bit and get him to have more control so I have the opposite problem that you do.

 

I would try using either a verbal or non-verbal command and see which one the dog responds to better then stick with that for now.

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Originally posted by Keegan's Mom:

The funny thing is that I'm trying to slow Keegan down a bit and get him to have more control so I have the opposite problem that you do.

...Yup...I think I know what you are talking about This slow down kind of thing only happens with the slalom obstacle. As for the rest of the course I'm trying my best to find good lines. As I told I'm only practicing Agility since one year...and it took me some time to figure out that you can't simply go full-throttle...just like with a racing car, or you will be way off of the ideal lines loosing an huge amount of time.

It was real fun at the beginning though...sort of 'hey someone must have taken the brakes pedal from this dog...how do I stop him... :rolleyes: '

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