Open agility time: Another change for Lance

Today the boys went out to Cloud Nine for some open agility.  I am very proud of how they did!  I wanted to work mainly on the dog walk but did some short sequences as well.

Vito had some fantastic running dog walks especially after I exchanged the lower level toy for the tennis ball.  I think that he has been doing better with the extreme value of the tennis ball rather then the other toys since he gets in full sprint mode and doesn't break his stride at all so goes all the way to the end.  When he's running but not sprinting, Vito's stride isn't quite the same and while it still looks good it's just not as pretty :)  Vito also weaved nicely, had some great serpentines and actually did really well with a tricky rear cross.  I am still debating about what to do on his teeter.  We're still practicing our 4ft on stopped behavior but he's not driving all the way to the end like I want.  It looks good but not as good as I know it can be.  So in the back of my mind I'm still contemplating doing a 2o2o or running.  The running teeter scares me though since I know how much Vito LOVES the teeter and I don't want him flinging himself into space.

Lance also did well today even though I flipped his world upside down, again.  I was working on his 2o2o on the dogwalk and Lance was doing pretty well, he was actually driving into position instead of slowing down and being hesitant.  But everyone there commented on the whacked up position his body was in while doing it.  His head was high, his long body was curved and it just didn't look comfortable.  Plus now that he was going faster into position his front feet were doing more of a slam into the ground.  So I played around with asking for a nose touch at the bottom to keep his head low and he did well with that but his back was still not good.  I think that he's been doing this all along but I didn't notice as much since he was slower and I don't really know what to look for.  So just because I like messing with Lance's understanding we are now going to be doing 4 on the floor on the dog walk.  I brought out his mat, put it at the end, and then tried to get Lance to do the down at the end (which he knows from the aframe).  At first he would just down in the 2o2o position, or one rear toe, put after a few attempts we did the whole dog walk and he was flying over into a perfect down at the end.  I was VERY happy with the speed, no weird stride changes, and it just looked nicer. Unfortunately this means that we are back several steps in our training, again.