Stride

In considering Zio's turns during the demo at Twister Agility, I've decided to go back to using a stride regulator rather than the jump board. This was also influenced by a video review of the past year in which I watched him do a few perfect turns in Memphis over Memorial Day weekend in May.

In reflecting on how I was training the turn prior to our Memphis trip, I had determined that he was too dependent on the prop being there as a cue. I had started training him to do his turns without the jump board so that he would realize that he needed to do a turn whether it's there or not. I think I went back to the board because it was easier to use in practice with other dogs running.

Zio can turn correctly all day long with the prop in place, but put him in a race situation without the board... he completely reverts back to punching the box. The strider has the same affect on his turns (for the most part) but is less visual than the board. The last two evenings went well with just the stride regulator, so we'll try this for a while and see how he does in practices.

I've been playing around with a new simplified team logo that will be easier to silk screen onto a red shirt and this is what I've come up with so far.