Why Record?
Everything seems to come with a camera these days! Do you use yours for agility? I think it’s a great idea to set up a camera or have your agility buddy film you as you practice. There’s so much you can’t catch because you’re running that you see in sharp relief on film after the fact.
- Contacts – this is almost a must if you are trying to train a running contact. You can watch your progress, and judge for yourself if you are marking the correct behaviors, and see how the dog’s stride affects their performance.
- Handling – when you see that you’re leaning to the left towards the tunnel, while shouting A-frame (which is what you meant to say) you’ll understand how your dog is getting confused.
- Watch your dog – often on course your attention is split between the course, your dog, your own feet, and trying to remember the next obstacle in the training sequence. With video, you can tell what your dog is doing while you’re handling. Is he hesitating on an obstacle? Does her jumping need help? Is there any injury you’ve missed seeing in person?
What do you think of filming practice? It might not be practical for everyone, all the time, but the beauty of digital cameras is it’s so easy to share, and if you never want to see the run where you fell over your own feet, you can erase it!
Do you have any preferences on video cameras, or any cameras, actually?
The video we have was filmed by a professional who was at the trial, and filmed all the runs. The you could view and purchase if you wanted.
So you didn’t have to worry about being filmed, it was just going to happen. But you didn’t have to see.
And I did pick up some clues from watching the video to do better.
Now to loose some more weight before the next trial that has filming 🙂
I think it’s a great idea, though if I knew someone was doing it I would feel so self-conscious about how fat I’d appear on the camera!
Guess I better lose some weight before I get to the point of needing video!
My husband recently purchased a video of one of his runs (a Q) followed by one of my runs (a non_Q) and all I really noticed was my big butt and my lack of running ability. Depressing. Although I did see that I gave the commands early enough for my fast corgi.
But you did give your commands soon enough, and that’s a really great thing! I know it can be a big problem for many handlers with fast dogs.
Q’s or no Q’s, I think the important thing is you and your dog had fun- many agility handlers can’t really run very well, and you counteract that very well with your commands from the sounds of things! Keep working, keep having fun, and I’m sorry your video made you sad 🙁