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Greg & Laura Derrett December 15th & 16th 2007

Greg and Laura are booked to come and see us in December! The details are available here. We will have a write up here when it has happened! All spaces are now booked. Groups are as below:

Well what a fantastic weekend we had! We are shattered but it really made us think. I asked a few people to do reports on the weekend and here they are... enjoy!

Laura Derrett training day Saturday15th December 2007

Session two (Yvette Curtis) 

Myself and Skate were on session two of the training day and met everyone up the barn, it was very cold and after some intro and chit chat we got down to work. The session consisted of dogs from Mad and Thatcham and most people knew each other and if not everyone was soon made to feel welcome. The dogs were all of a very similar level and needed work on the same things which again is good as no one feels like they are holding anyone back. 

The first exercise we did were the contacts, Laura timed us over each contact telling us our times, I was pleased with skate he flew over them, oh yes he flew, the see-saw didn’t even tip, very rare for skate who normally has excellent contacts, when we got a time for skates see-saw it was very slow as he knew he was a naughty merlie boy so compensated by being too cautious. On the whole his contacts are very nearly spot on,  Laura then did some work to see if the dogs actually knew the job of the final position we were after by making us veer off and also by hanging back, this showed lots of inconsistency with some of the dogs which is something that can be worked on, she also picked that we need to reward better when they are on the contacts with a game or treats so the dog is very high drive to his position, again all this can be worked on and would increase the speed. 

We then did the weaves she timed us again to give a rough idea of what was required and she told us the dogs action and maybe how to better it, again skate was pretty much spot on just got to sort out his inconsistent action, which again is something to work on.  

Then we went on to the jump sequences well it was based on a double box which we all work on nearly every week and we concentrated on front crosses, my worst nightmare but I knew it was not going to be an easy day and I knew this was the Derretts favoured way of training, we did about 5 or 6 exercises, we walked the course how we thought it should be handled then discussed any differences and what the rules of the front cross were all the dogs and handlers eventually got the hang of it, including me (but don’t tell Nic). 

To finish we did some snake work, again not my best subject as I have handled them from behind for so long to do them with crosses was mind blowing, we broke it down for skate who would rather power off down the jumps than do some turns but he eventually got the idea that mummy can be near a fence. 

All in all it was a very pleasant day and although my worst nightmare I feel I coped very well, it is no good doing a training day if you think you will get everything right after all it is a training day and specifically set up to try new things and ideas, it was a very open day and if we had any doubts about handling Laura would talk it through and everyone seemed to be o.k.

Thanks very much to Gem for organising the day, it isn’t easy to get such high quality trainers but it was a very nice afternoon. Skate came home and slept til the morning so I think he enjoyed himself, thanks again Gem. 

Yvette.

Session Four (Sue Choux)

Sassy and I joined the final session with Greg with some trepidation, because:

(a) we were in a group with some excellent handlers

(b) Gemma told me that Greg’s training leaves her in a “slash her wrists” frame of mind (note from Gem… ‘LOL What I meant to say was that Greg isn’t a ‘happy go lucky’ type trainer but is perfect is you really want to find your weaknesses’)

(c) I am notorious for making a burke of myself when training with someone new

However, I found the whole experience completely brilliant, and left feeling that I had achieved quite a lot.

We started off with Contacts, proofing each one for independence regardless of the handler’s position, and exposing inconsistency in the criteria that we displayed.  Greg timed the contacts from “first foot on” to “final position”, and only the formidable Miss Dawkins had bomb-proof contacts with times within 0.02 of a second, regardless of her position, although I don’t think that came as a surprise to anyone.

Greg explained that his “must-have” for contacts is:

Clear Criteria (oops … failed on that one)

High Reinforcement (which I need to get better and more consistent at!)

Independence (I know I need to work on this)

Verbal Release (usually get this right!)

I have set out the exercises below that we did, and I can’t wait to try some of them again to see if I have got any better!

The second half of the session was given over to jumping courses, all based around an extended double box.  Greg’s handling system is very structured and disciplined (well suited to me, eh Gem?), but certainly seemed to work well for all of the dogs, although I personally struggled on a couple of the exercises… so much so that Sassy was threatening to rehome me at one point! (again!)

As you can see from the course plans below, some were particularly challenging – particularly those with a pull – out around the outside of the box. 

All in all, we really enjoyed ourselves, and a large part of that was the high spirits in the group.  Many thanks to Greg for an excellent session, and to Gemma for arranging it.  More please!

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