I was at the park practicing weaves with Breeze the other day and normally if people want to stop and watch us...it is a public park and that is just good distraction training. Some of the nicest people are dog owners with their dogs at the park.
This lady was funny. Her dog had a cone on, and was lunging, growling and barking at Breeze, and of course on a flexi leash. Breeze stays with me, so I was not worried about that, but the lady kept coming and standing right where I was working at the entrance to my weave poles. I am sure the dog was very sweet, but had a little leash frustration, just not in the state of mind for an excited border collie to try to get past him to get to her weaves.
She never said anything and I was not going to walk up to her with the dog obviously not under control. If the dog had been standing where the lady was, it would have all been good.
I had not meant to film this lady and I was surprised when I found that footage on my training tapes, LOL. I know it might not be cool to post a video of others....but this is how I justify it...
1. no one in my town or state looks at my blog and would see the video, LOL,
2. I am posting it on the blog and not youtube,
3. my video camera was in clear view and able to be seen, although I had just expected to catch our weaves, not a visitor!
4. It is hard to even really see her- I would not even recognize her from the video.
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THANKS for every ones help and suggestions. This is a new striding for Breeze, which bothers me because the vet has said she might not be able to do agility much longer and we have found permanent physical changes lately, so her changing her striding in the weaves and on the aframe is a little worrisome to me.
the plan is:
teaching her to handle stride regulators
making a chute for her contact
Always releasing to another obstacle and a toy on the ground-if I throw the toy she looks to me, that is what I always did before
be really careful about never releasing when she is looking at me.
I have worked the stride regulators so she knows to jump over them now, first on the ground then putting them on the aframe, and I looked at her old stride to try to help her go back to that to try to figure out where to place the regulators.
I will make the stride regulators smaller.
I am going to fade the pvc on the side away from me on the contact fairly soon, and then fade the size of the pvc that is between her and I-hopefully that can morf into a small piece of pvc, perhaps I will spray paint it at that point to make it blend into the ground too, we will see.
This is our practice from today. I did some shaping for looking ahead and I am very happy with this stride, although the aframe is lowered, and we have the regulators in place obviously. I am concerned about too much retraining and the repetitions, especially when Breezes career is very possibly close to over, and now that winter is here-last year Breeze was not able to do agility until it warmed up in the spring....so to be honest my big goal is to finish up our open titles before she has to retire, but hopefully I am wrong about that one-and reading more into the stride changes!!! Breeze has also just been more excited so maybe that is what is happening. It would be neat if this is all just more excitement on Breeze's part!
This lady was funny. Her dog had a cone on, and was lunging, growling and barking at Breeze, and of course on a flexi leash. Breeze stays with me, so I was not worried about that, but the lady kept coming and standing right where I was working at the entrance to my weave poles. I am sure the dog was very sweet, but had a little leash frustration, just not in the state of mind for an excited border collie to try to get past him to get to her weaves.
distractins at the park from kathy bordergirlsmom on Vimeo.
She never said anything and I was not going to walk up to her with the dog obviously not under control. If the dog had been standing where the lady was, it would have all been good.
I had not meant to film this lady and I was surprised when I found that footage on my training tapes, LOL. I know it might not be cool to post a video of others....but this is how I justify it...
1. no one in my town or state looks at my blog and would see the video, LOL,
2. I am posting it on the blog and not youtube,
3. my video camera was in clear view and able to be seen, although I had just expected to catch our weaves, not a visitor!
4. It is hard to even really see her- I would not even recognize her from the video.
*******************************************************
THANKS for every ones help and suggestions. This is a new striding for Breeze, which bothers me because the vet has said she might not be able to do agility much longer and we have found permanent physical changes lately, so her changing her striding in the weaves and on the aframe is a little worrisome to me.
the plan is:
teaching her to handle stride regulators
making a chute for her contact
Always releasing to another obstacle and a toy on the ground-if I throw the toy she looks to me, that is what I always did before
be really careful about never releasing when she is looking at me.
I have worked the stride regulators so she knows to jump over them now, first on the ground then putting them on the aframe, and I looked at her old stride to try to help her go back to that to try to figure out where to place the regulators.
I will make the stride regulators smaller.
I am going to fade the pvc on the side away from me on the contact fairly soon, and then fade the size of the pvc that is between her and I-hopefully that can morf into a small piece of pvc, perhaps I will spray paint it at that point to make it blend into the ground too, we will see.
This is our practice from today. I did some shaping for looking ahead and I am very happy with this stride, although the aframe is lowered, and we have the regulators in place obviously. I am concerned about too much retraining and the repetitions, especially when Breezes career is very possibly close to over, and now that winter is here-last year Breeze was not able to do agility until it warmed up in the spring....so to be honest my big goal is to finish up our open titles before she has to retire, but hopefully I am wrong about that one-and reading more into the stride changes!!! Breeze has also just been more excited so maybe that is what is happening. It would be neat if this is all just more excitement on Breeze's part!
15 comments:
OMG, that video with the lady had me cracking up. People are so clueless it is comical.
I hope Breeze is feeling excited! Wouldn't that be the best news of all?
Oh my goodness - that's crazy! I'm glad you have a sense of humor about it, things like that peeve me to no end! I'd really like to build some jumps and use them in the park, though, I think it'd be a huge confidence booster for Marge! Luckily the park we frequent the most is right across the street and offleash is perfectly legal until 9 AM, so once I actually get some jumps it'll be totally doable for us.
Love the A-Frame video, too, she looks like she's getting some really low hits!
I really dont think that lady meant to be in the way. It looked like she was just courious about your training and was impressed by your dog.
I couldnt open the a-frame video. I try again later to watch it. Sorry about Breeze having changes. How sad. She is such a great dog. Diana
Yea, I know that lady was not trying to be in the way, and she was standing out of the way, actually at a good spot, but I think she was not factoring in where the dog on the flexi leash was at, LOL. I would have went up and said HI if the do had not been so wild, I have talked to a lot of nice dog owners at the park because when they see someone practicing a lot of them want to come up and talk dogs, which is always pleasant. I just thought her dog looked so funny pulling on his lash and sitting right next to the weave entrance, LOL
That lady cracked me up too! I am sure she was curious and impressed but so very clueless as to how close her dog was and how she was affecting your training! People...
I sure hope the changes in Breeze's stride are due to her excitement and not a physical problem. Fingers crossed for you guys. She looks really good in the video. Love the solutions you came up with to help her hit the yellow and drive forward. You are a wonderful trainer and I learn so much from you!
LOL people are such dorks! Do they think we can train when they are 2 feet away from us? I have had that happen too... I just gotta wonder what people are thinking. ;)
Hehe, maybe they thought that they'd learn to weave too, if they stood really, really close.
The Aframe clip looked great! I really hope that the new striding is Breeze just getting excited.
The lady was obviously curious, but clueless. You did handle it well. Breeze is fast!
So good that Breeze was so focused on you! That lady sure didn't know how to take care of her dog!!!! I think she was just curious about your training, like Diana said, but it would have been better to have the dog sitting instead of lunging!
That is too funny! I can't believe how close she let her dog get to the weaves though- HELLO!!! Some people have no idea. Breeze sure did a great job with focusing and using the opportunity as proofing though! Thanks for sharing, it made me laugh!
Some people just don't know. I mean...I have to admit, I used to be a crazy one with a flexi until I started going to our training club. But the video is funny. :)
LOL!!!! What was she thinking? That you'd just run your dog through the weaves with her little yapper right there?
I so admire your attitude towards training! I would have been so flustered by that lady.
While I don't do agility, I'm always amazed at how intricate the sport can be. Eventhough Kona's no agility pup, I'm always taking new training tips and ideas from your posts.
Hahaha great video! Something new always happens at the local park.
Contacts are so interesting for me, and it looks like Breeze is doing really well! I hope that she'll be able to continue in agility for a while longer. I think you're being such a good owner and handler in doing what's necessary to keep her comfortable!
haha that lady was just Really impressed with breeze and you, and so am I. Breeze is totally like how teenagers ignore their parents at home and focus on their thing. You've the dogs with best behavior ever!
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