[Liesje]

Indy is doing really well! I've had her 2.5 weeks and we've done about 5-6 sessions of pushboard or box work (lately I've been borrowing a club box). These are the clips I have so far, the latest being earlier this evening.

In the past two days she's really started to pound the box and I'm slowly bringing up her drive. At first I worked her way under threshold because she can be so freakin crazy (and mouthy!) but as she understands the game I can help her express more drive channeled into the *tug* and not my left hand, lol. For our next sessions I'll start working on getting her on and off the box lower and faster. As you can see she has a tendency to be too high rather than too low, but I think part of that is drive. As her speed and drive increase, she lands better and comes off better. Also I need to tweak the jump board so she's not being forced to launch on too soon.

She is SO crazy for tugging! When we do full runbacks at training she is already growling for the tug before she reaches me and launches for it. Since she is so small I feel OK letting her launch and catching it (Nikon no freaking way) but it's tricky especially with her still targeting high at my hand, naughty girl. She's a ton of fun!

Please critique/suggest!!!

 

[Merciel]

I don't know remotely enough to critique, but it's really awesome to see the progression in these videos. Indy's a quick study!

 

[mycobraracr]

Nice! I've never seen how that's started. Very cool!

 

[Liesje]

It's slow and not very exciting at the start! Our team starts dogs by having them basically pop over and back with a low jump, usually tossing food as the lure. Slowly you move the jump closer to the board or box until they're bouncing off the board/box before they even know it. Once the dog is comfortable on the board/box I switch from food to toy. I like to switch that pretty quickly, even if the dog is not turning real fast or correctly yet, but even with the two sessions of food Indy was already offering turns for me any time we went in the basement.

Another thing I realized I could improve on is her snap off. Unfortunately because that little piece of wall at the bottom of the stairs is the only workable place for my box, I can't do real good snap offs with a left-turning dog. The edge of the futon sticks out so the only available space is the actual "lane" space directly in front of the box. I have more space on the left side which is great for doing snap offs with a right-turning dog like Nikon, but with Indy I'm limited to pulling her right up the center and can't work a nice exaggerated snap in that space.

Merciel, it helps starting with a physically mature dog! I don't have to wait for her to grow up before she can jump and turn.