REAPing the Rewards

REAPing Part I

Definition of REAP: (transitive verb) to obtain, to win

Reviewing

We, as humans, tend to practice agility exercises that make us feel good. Besides the bond we create with our best friend, playing agility together makes us feel good. Practicing agility exercises that frustrates us isn't what we we want when we head out to the training field.

I love running my Cattledog, Bug, but one thing that frustrates me is when I'm doing lateral sends. Bug didn't learn this type of handling until she was much older and seasoned agility dog. Bug likes to go as fast as possible and any movement on my part, sends her exploding forward. Turning the Cattledog is like trying to race a Greyhound bus around the Daytona 500! Eventually it will turn but there is going to be a lot of noise.

Exercises

Back to the drawing board once again. 1 jump, 2 jump, 3 jump. It took about 100 reps (ok maybe 5-8 reps) for Bug to turn without landing 30 feet past the jump I was doing a lateral send on. It wasn't fun. It was frustrating. I train alone so I don't have anyone telling me what I'm doing wrong. Bars were coming down. There was a lot of barking and yelling (from Bug of course). She's such a good girl and keeps on trying. We got it, she turns not once, not twice but 3 times! Lots of reward and fun, finally.

Agility

Bug's reward, and mine, was to put the lateral sends aside and run a short sequence. We put it together, did fun "international" style handling and Bug got to do some Bugframes (aframes). We can do this!

Perfection

We perfected our lateral send, for today at least. It was frustrating at first and I just wanted to stop and maybe do some obstacle training. In the end, it made me feel good. I accomplished what I set out to do. Bug was happy because she got to play agility with me :-)

That's our Reward for the day