Help with the A Frame
Is there anything I can do to help build that up? Lisa Frankie and Mattie |
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| no help here, but when I read the subject line I thought you were talking about a house!  |
| Makes sense about the hip...can you use it lower until his rear legs build up some muscle? The raise it a little at a time once his rear legs are stronger? |
| A couple thoughts... Doing the frame for the 1st time late in the class when he's more likely tired is not a good thing. The A frame requires a lot of energy and thrust - so when they are pooped, it's just not going to happen. It also requires some practice on the dog's part - getting a good amount of momentum to get up, yet still have control for the decent. It's a bit more complex than it looks. If you watch a trial, there are actually lots of dogs in the lower levels who are still working through issues with this obstacle. And fat, out of condition dogs who are just painful to watch struggle up it  Lowering it would be an option, although it does have negatives too. He could gain some confidence with it as an obstacle, but he still needs to learn to gauge it when higher to have proper speed and power. Chewie had several false starts and really didn't like it for quite awhile when we were learning. Then he figured it out and knows just how to do it. Then there are Frankie's very real hip issues - if it may be harmful to him, it never would make sense to push him that hard. One thing he would benefit from is some rear end strengthening and muscle building. It would just make good sense all around, plus help him when he really needs to use those muscles hard. It sounds a lot like he stumbled, causing him to lose his confidence...it is pretty much guaranteed to happen to us all at some point. Chewie had a tunnel accident (forgot to duck and caught the tunnel upper edge in the throat ) and he was tunnel shy for a bit....but we made it fun, worked it right away and he was fine. Luckily  |
| Have them start out with the A-frame flat on the ground & gradually raise it bit by bit for Frankie. This will help him learn how much "more" he has to give to get to the top. One thing to remember is to have him warmed up & in condition for the A-frame. My instructors always said once or twice on the A-frame during a practice session is plenty. More dogs injure their ACL on the A-frame than anywhere else. Like Dawn said, rear end strengthening is a must. |
They may be hesitant to do the lowering during class - depends on the number of dogs and how much help there is.  Do you have the opportunity to work it in some private lessons? Or this may be one piece you may want to consider having at home and working on. Setting it low and making it fun would help his confidence, and be a great rear conditioning tool. You also may want to just skip this obstacle for now if you feel it is more of a physical issue than a mental one. |
| Of course the timing of the class may make a difference, but our class was the last class of the night & after class they lowered it for us to work on. |
| Lisa - did all of you learn on a lowered frame and the others are OK with full height and he isn't quite there yet, or did they start you all out at full height? It should be learned on a lowered frame and then gradually raised, teaches them better fundamentals and more confidence, and also allows them to build themselves up to it. If you did that and he's still struggling, yes, more butt and core exercises for the boy, and make sure he gets a good running start. They could lower it six inches even, and it would make a big difference, and if you ask your classmates I bet they would be kind enough to accomodate for a few weeks till he gets the hang of it. It's not like any of these dogs are near competition and they would benefit from lowering it a bit too. I've had that happen in a number of classes re the weaves and opening up the channels - someone has a dog who needs some remedial work and the rest of us agree to just run our dogs on the reopened channels for a little while as well. Don't stress over it. Dogs will often go through stages where they surge forward, then regress (handler thinks: OMG! An insurmountable obstacle!) and then a week or two later issue is history and they've moved on to some other interesting challenge  Kristine |
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