Box Drills

It was super crappy yesterday and it rained pretty much all day. (Hey, at least it wasn't snow, I guess!) It was almost dark out by the time I got home from work, but darn it, the rain had more or less stopped and I wanted to do something with Secret (plus she was just flipping nuts and annoying from not doing anything all weekend).

Because it was too dark to pick poo from the yard, I settled on something that would have a relatively small footprint in the yard that I could localize to the "safe" poo-free area. Box drills!

I don't believe this is something I've worked on with Secret in the past, mostly because my boys don't like them and thus, I don't tend to work on such skills. I've focused on creating a more versatile dog with Secret (ie: not just "NADAC-focused" like the boys) and boy did that show in our work last night. Secret totally nailed everything I threw at her in the box.

Box work involves wraps, threadles, 270's and other such wonky stuff that you will never, ever see in a NADAC course. It totally blows my boys' minds when I ask them to do this (which I did, after Secret was done). Secret stayed upbeat, fast and drivey the whole time, and I threw a LOT of exercises at her. She let me know when my timing sucked, but overall it went really well.

Because of the cruddy weather and the slick ground, I started Secret out with 20" jumps. She wasn't having any footing problems whatsoever, though, so I bumped them up and finished with 24" jumps. I have to say, although I have always loved distance work, it is awfully fun to have such a handy dog as Secret. She seems to enjoy the tight, twisty stuff and I know it's making me a better handler to work on all of these things.

But the boys still think it sucks. :o)