Friday, November 5, 2010

Still on the Journey! needing a little maintaince..

I am always having to remind mysef it is about the journey, right???

First off I have notied that Breeze is striding way differently over the Aframe. She used to be very consistent and have two hits on the way down, landing really solidly in the yellow, on the upper third but it was easy to see. So this stride is still working so far, kind of working if you squint, am I being too much of a freak to worry about it? It just does not meet the criteria I had set and seems like it has the potential to get a lot uglier, and seems like it could be worked on. Actually after I was watching I think the excited performance is better then her performance when she is not over the top, LOL, go figure.

I could see when I was running and watching I thought she was hitting the yellow, but a lot of times it really looks iffy.

Not sure if she is getting more confident, or less confident, if that is a normal break down of a behavior that just needs maintaining, or if she is just landing where she is planning to reach on that last stride to get into her position.

Soooooo ANY THOUGHTS ON HOW TO MAKE THIS LOOK PRETTIER-throw them out! I am thinking perhaps a stride regulator to make her reach further down after the apex, then encourage her to reach further down for her second hit??? To me it looks like when she lands further down from the apex she puts in a couple of strides, so that she can still hit the TOP of the yellow and reach for her position. Maybe some jump grids like Rachel Saunders does in her running Aframe video???? I just dont want this to deteriorate further!







The other bummer is that I seemed to have scratched my video camera lense, there is a big blurry spot in the middle of the screen, ughghghg, and that isn't getting better by ignoring it either, LOL. The video camera works wonderfully, but I think I might have ruined it with the big scratch or what ever that is. I feel like a doof for not being more careful with my poor little camera.

13 comments:

Sara said...

I'm assuming you tried cleaning your lens? I get marks like that all the time on my lens, but usually it is from doggy noses, or sunblock. Lens cleaner usually does the trick.

I have no advice on your a-frame. Clueless! You'll need Diana for that analysis :)

Chris and Ricky said...

I agree that Diana will be the best one to help you! :)

But, I think it's not a great thing that Breeze finishes her aframe looking back at you and if you could get her to be looking forward at the bottom it might help (you probably already know that and I'm just stating the obvious). I did think I noticed that she ends the weaves by looking back at you often too and was wondering if that is a problem for her there also?

Hope your lens is just smudged and not scratched!

Diana said...

So she knows the end , lie down at the bottom but doesnt understand about hitting the yellow. She wouldnt be able to miss the yellow if she laid down straight and not sideways to the a-frame. For most people I would say go the the box method to teach the running a-frame. But not for Breeze because of her hips and it requires to may reps. So how can you fix her to lie down staright off the a-frame in not sideways. You will have to reteach the end behavior. Sorry, I know thats a pain. I dont think adding a stride regular will help because when you take them off, they go back to the old behavior. Let me know what you think about that. Thanks, Diana

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

Since the four on the floor had not addressed a straighter lay down at the end when it came out, Ann Croft addressed that about a year after, the sideways lay down is the first behavior and I have retrained it a bunch of times, but it just reverts to this over and over, and it has worked until the last few weeks, but I really dont think the straight lay down has anything to do with her going over the yellow, Liz had a very straight four on the floor and she still sailed over the yellow, she started doing what Breeze is doing but from a few inches higher...Unfortunately I think she could have the same stride and lay straight with the way she is stretching over the end....I am hoping if I try stride regulators since this stride is new....and she did a much nicer stride for close to three years before she started this..this is very new, hopefully with some encouragement she will revert to her origional behavior??? which is a nicer stride???? ..I am hoping if I can get her to do a nicer stride a couple of times that she will abandon this new stride...which would probably be way too easy a solution to really work....I might be really wrong.....

Anonymous said...

I'd test it to see if the behavior is related to your position. So, three reps you out in front, three reps you running with her to the end and three reps you are behind.

In my experience with an off the board performance, there is a big difference in performance in relation to how the dog exits. I don't have any four on the floor experience, but my experience with running contacts, when the dogs are asked to turn off the board they almost always hit higher. By her pivoting to look back at you, her front feet land very close to the bottom of aframe and she can pivot her body around which influences how she exits. I would really push for the straighter body so she has to exit in a different manner. I think that would encourage her to drive forward and down farther through the yellow.

Just my two cents:)

Unknown said...

Sorry that I can't help with your a-frame as I'm not doing agility.

However, I learn a lot about agility from reading your posts! Thanks for sharing!!!

LauraK said...

I really enjoy reading your blog- I found it off of Sara and Diana's blogs :) Thank you for posting about the cik/cap training- my agility dog doesn't believe in tight turns- so I will definitely look into that! Your dogs are all beautiful, I look forward to reading your blog frequently!

Hillcrest Border Collies said...

For teaching her to lay straight while on the ground, I would take 2 PVC pipes and put them on the ground at the bottom of the A-Frame, like a continuation of her path. I would teach her to lay down in between the PVC pipes and reward that heavily. By having them narrow enough you will teach her that she has to lay down in between them. I would then do a little backchaining with this so that you can help her with the end behavior of going from the yellow to the pathway. You can then make the PVC pipes shorter and shorter as you wean them away.
As for her striding, you want more of a 2 strided (2 hit) down side. The most I would ever allow a dog is 3 and that is only due to structural issues. You don't really want the running stride, like she is giving you. I would use 2 stride regulators to help her understand it. I will send you some videos that show this.

Marie said...

I think you got a lot of good suggestions, and I'm certainly no expert, but I was wondering about placing the toy out in front of the aframe or tossing it out there as she's running. That is if she's turning to look to you for the reward. That might keep her focus forward, rather than back on you.

Aframe striding is difficult. I didn't think so with Zoe, but she just had a natural running Aframe that I never trained and it's been great. No other dog of mine has had it, and I see now how rare it is.

Sam said...

I like Ricky's thought about Breeze looking back at you - I, too, think if she was straighter, she'd probably get a better hit. The only thing I ever used when I was thinking about a running/modified running contact was a zoner honer (those little hoop things).. don't know if that'd be of help to you, since just like the stride regulator, she might revert to jumping the contact after it's gone.

Patti and DeBoys said...

No advise from us because we are just learning...But, thank you for posting so that we can learn with you. -- Brutus & Tytus

Patti and DeBoys said...

No advise from us because we are just learning...But, thank you for posting so that we can learn with you. -- Brutus & Tytus

Cynthia said...

I have nothing to offer... I train a 2o2o because I don't trust runnings, or 4 on the floors. :) I don't know how to train anything but a 2o2o.