The wild Lizzie Lou

So we had an AWESOME private lesson with Lizzie yesterday, it has been several lessons since Liz has run off in lessons-so that is a huge victory-she is doing great even though we are doing a lot of handling with her now. Why is it when I left I felt so discouraged? Now sitting and thinking of how the private lesson and then the class went....I should be happy, and I am today. Just hard not to want more when we are in the moment I guess. Lizzie is getting some of the exercises better then I am, so I am really pleased with how she is doing, we are doing some of the Linda M exercises. I think the LM handling is looking like it will be very nice for her. We had some major things going on with her contacts, now she really wants to do her 4 on the floor and sees no use for a 2020 :-0 . Have I ever said that I hate contacts, probably my fault my dogs arent so excited about them, now wait, Breeze and Chloe like contacts! The real work of our lesson came when I brought Liz out during the beginners class. Alicia has let us hang out and work around the beginning class and wow, did that fry Lizzies brain? YES IT DID! She gets very excited/aroused/scared??? or some combo of those things when she sees the little dogs, there is a very sweet tiny black poodle that Lizzie really can not figure out how she should feel about that dog, and there is a little dachshaund that she seems to be getting used to how she looks, and then there is the JRT, hummm, Liz knows that dog is very exciting to watch because you never know what she is going to do. She was very excited by Trevor the BC running small parts of a course, and really wanted to try to play with the big collie. Liz does get overaroused with some of the fast movement, but that is much easier to work through then some of the other issues we are working on. Needless to say I went through a HUGE bag of food, but I think we made some progress because by the time we left for the last time when class was over we left with a relaxed body posture and a loose leash, we were also able to sit and do stretches and Liz was able to lie down calm enough to relax and let me do that, so even though I get discouraged at times, she is making progress I think. I am using the "Leave It" game and when the class first started the rate of reward had to be VERY high, my clicker was clicking almost non-stop. We did sit and do some mat work but I am thinking I should have brought a mat and started some mat work and clicking for relaxed body/eyes earlier. We were able to first do a tunnel in front of the other dogs, our next turn a jump tunnel, which made me nervous-Alicia gave me a hard time about how nervous I act about Liz and was able to take Liz who performed like there was no big deal when Alicia worked with her, and like she was used to working all the time in the class, then we did a short sequence of tunnel/teeter. When I went back and did tunnel/teeter the second time she did try to run off, but we were able to get her very quickly so she wasnt self rewarding. So with Lizzie think the moral is that we dont expect huge things and be grateful for what we get, be careful of putting too much pressure on this girl and set her up for success. THINK of the feeling of victory when that little girl is finally able to run a course in a trial. I really think it is going to happen, and I havent always felt like that but gosh, I am ready for it to happen today.....too bad Liz and I are on different time tables, LOL, Patience is hard!
Breeze did some work for the first time in several weeks in our private-because we have been sticking to the plan and she was just doing limited jumping and not combining it with speed or collection, we were very good trainers and kept with her little rehab plan and did not go longer then we planned. She forgot how to complete her weave poles which she has been doing at home, really she can do it at home, LOL, but they are looking really fast and she did get it together, she is doing some nice collection with the jumps and she is just so happy to be the one who got to work in the yard last night. I love that dog, she is just the sweetest thing alive, such a sweet girl. OOH but last night an old friend showed up, one I have not seen in a long time, that DURN alarm barking. Breeze used to be the worst alarm barker, when we were in our privates she would sit and bark and bark in a posture where I was not sure she wasnt going to bite if Alicia would come up, so we would divert her and have her do her tricks, until she calmed down, but then she would sit and maybe be working with someone, interacting fine, she would turn her head and boom she was back into a fit of alarm barking. Like she was saying ooooh I forgot you were right there and now that I think about it, I should be very scared. So we have worked through that with the diversion and then with the Look at That game and of course I think that was the height of her fear period, so we have more maturity on our side and she has not been spacey like that in awhile, but last night she did all of a sudden just start getting alarmed at everyone in the yard. Actually it didnt look like it had the fear associated with it that she used to have, she was just standing there like she thought that barking might be the thing to do, anyway, pretty short lived, but she still has it in her! I think it was just a friendly reminder about how far she has come! Yippie, good work Breeze!
Alicia set up a small course for Chloe, think that was to build my confidence for the trial this weekend and that left me feeling way more prepaired.
We will be at the Fillmore trial this weekend, Chloe is running and Lizzie is going to work around the rings and the other dogs. Looking forward to the trial it has been a long time since Chloe and I trialed, although thinking today we should have been working more, and I should have started my exercise program earlier, somehow that got lost over the summer, so.....there may be handler issues this weekend, hahahahaha. I am looking forward to the trial though, it should be fun.

FAIR WARNING: I am horrible about grabbing my camera and getting any pictures....but when I do I just get a lot of pictures, and so everyone gets subjected to all our pictures.

Breeze is finally able to do more and more and seems to be holding up well with doing some agility.....although she seems to be slightly favoring her right front leg a bit....she is the most accident prone dog and a few weeks ago she was getting all excited watching her sister do agility and then was limping on that foot, but most of the time I dont see anything except she shifts her weight off it a little when she is just standing or sitting. ANYWAY, for the most part she is doing well, she is like lightening through the 12 weave poles, she is doing better with rear crosses and looking for her line of jumps, she loves her teeter, we havent done a lot with the collection work because I feel that should be added after she gets her muscles for jumping, she is doing pretty well with her contact on the dog walk, and she keeps trying to run across the dog walk. It is on low but she keeps scrambling on it, so she isnt really allowed to run across the dog walk but we are doing a lot of playing on the dog walk with sitting, down, jumping on, jumping off, turning circles, just trying to get her feet about her and get her to figure out how to handle herself on the obstacle. ANYWAY, origionally I just was posting the picture to say LOOK HOW HAPPY SHE LOOKS sitting on her teeter!!! I didnt mean to add all this other update, but..... I wish I got a better action shot but I am not fast or talented enough and my camera is not good enough and Breeze is too fast to direct Breeze and then get over and get a picture so we get a static shot of Breezes happy face to be out on a Sunday morning in the back yard and be large and in charge of the agility obstacles, LOL.

Cherrys eyes

Ok here is a close up of Cherry's eyes-someone had asked what color her eyes were because they had not heard of a red dog (Cherry is a red merle Border Collie) with blue eyes, but here she is! So while I grabbed the camera figured I would get get a picture of her eyes.

It is so cool to watch my dogs learn.....

So I just had to comment because I had the most interesting experience today. Guess I sometimes have too much time on my hands but.....
So I was working with Cherry doing some shaping yesterday and she is really finally getting that she controls the clicks by what she is doing, so she was getting the idea to nose touch a Staples easy button pretty quickly. In one session she was able to figure out to nose touch the button and then we had got it to where she was frequently hitting it enough to make it actually say "that was easy". So that is something I have played with with the other dogs in the past, and it is just a fun little trick. Not rocket science but just a fun trick.
Today Chloe was in hanging out with Cherry and I and I was trying to think of something I could do with her to make her feel like she is working today. I brought out the Easy button I had been using with Cherry because I am basically a lazy dog trainer and so I grab what ever is closest. I do think I have done this trick in the past with Chloe, so no big suprise when she got excited and was doing a nice paw touch with the button and we get it on cue very quickly. I know we worked on this before but I really dont remember how far we got or what the cue was (bad trainer), but anyway in my defense it was awhile ago and we were just playing, so of course Chloe figured it out very quickly, no big suprise because it isnt a new thing and she is pretty operant and there were treats involved, Chloe will do anything for a treat.
So Cherry was sitting with me while I was playing with Chloe, after Chloe finished her turn I thought hummm....Cherry has been sitting here watching Chloe working and Chloe gets REALLY EXCITED so I was experimenting to see how that would affect Cherry's level of interest in this task. Cherry was a little more excited in the treats and was wanting to play my little game, but not a huge difference. Then I deceided to give Chloe another turn - Chloe who had a very strong PAW touch was now trying to do a nose touch, which is what she had been sitting and watching Cherry do. She tried the nose touch a bunch getting very excited like she had figured something out and going between the nose touch and the paw touch and finally went back to her paw touch. I swear she was watching Cherry and figureing out what was getting Cherry clicks, namely the nose touch, and figured that must be the name of the game even though she had been highly rewarded for her paw touch. Dogs are just so cool to watch when they play and when they learn, I could just sit and watch all day!!!! Arent Cherry and Chloe cute together???

and it continues....

We have just been doing the day to day training this week,nothing exciting happening except that Chloe is entered in a trial and we havent really run a full course all summer, so that will be interesting especially since Chloe is a very green trial dog, she has been doing agility for a long time but she hasnt trialed much. Add to that the handler trying to learn LM handling and how to handle the border collies who are very different, and it should be an interesting trial. Hopefully I will get some good video so we can all have a good laugh, LOL!!!
LIZZIES training:
WEAVES: So Lizzie is doing twelve weaves very fast and gorgeous, looking for and finding the entry, she loves them, she is looking ahead, I am very pleased with them. Our only problem with her weaves is that she is flinging the poles all over the place, I need to invest in some heavier, straight set. I currently have three lighter channel sets-two of them nice and one a piece of crap, a set of WAMS, but I think I will need a set that can be staked and I will have to bring stakes to class. She is a wild woman with the weaves.
CONTACTS: OK so this is sort of a sad thing for me, why, hey I dont know, but I guess I have just spent so long trying something else that it is a sad day to go to the trusted, and tried 2020 contacts.........The options I could have went back to the hoops and tried to fix my 4 on the floor, but I am getting everyone telling me it just wont be competative, but she likes it although I am seeing that in competition or with her excitement it is not holding up as well........I really do think I could do the rachel sanders box method but for reasons I am not going to go into here, guess that isnt going to be an option but I am dying to do it and Lizzie is learning it so well. So guess I am making the decision to be competative, and consistent we will try the DAMN 2020, although I really worry about my dog and her shoulders. So we started trying to train it and Liz has not had as much rear end awareness work as Breeze so she isnt as excited and she is confused thinking that of course we are by a board we get off and lie down. She really does know that part of the behavior for sure. So I am playing with some games and trying to give her the idea. I know I have to get my attitude on board or Liz is so sensitive I am sure she really isnt going to like the 2020 if I have the attitude I do. Anyway, we are finally heading somewhere I guess so we can move beyond all this contact hell.....
BREEZE
JUMING: We are doing some jumping with Breeze, trying to take it slow, and right now she is handling it well. She has totally forgotten all her collection work and is really not wanting to go by my side. She just gets very excited and wants to jump around in circles, so back to the recall to heel work. She is a LIGHTENING FAST dog though. She is going to be so exciting.
CONTACTS: I am seeing that I think she really is going to be jumping off her Aframe and I am determined to stop that before it starts so I think we are going to do some work with the hoops on the Aframe. I still would like to do a 4 on the floor on the AFrame with her because I do think she has the potentual for physical problems so I want to work with the AFrame but I am starting to change her to the 2020 on the dog walk. Several reasons for that, first I do think it is clearer and she is such an exciteable little girl, the clearer the better I think, I dont want to carry around hoops and mess with all that for the dog walk AND the Aframe, SHE LOVES the 2020, while Liz doesnt seem to like it, Breeze just always is trying to do that, so I think she will pick that up really fast, I dont think there will be the same pressure on her physically on the dog walk and then everyone will be doing the same contacts, except for Breeze on the Aframe.
WEAVES: WOW, what more can I say, she has the twelve down well, driving ahead, loves them, using a beautiful swimming motion, she can do what ever motion works for her but that is what she has chosen and it is pretty and fast. Anyway, will need to move onto the proofing, but she is looking for enteries well, very happy with this aspect of training.
Cherry, we have a really sweet bc staying here and doing Breezes rehab exercises. Really pretty cool the last few days it really seems that she is showing more range of motion. She is of course wanting to do some clicker training. She is doing 2X2 weaves and is just at the beginning of that and just starting to get it, she is playing on the rocker board, figure that will help her with balancing, core muscles and getting her used to moving surfaces, she was not wanting to go over the Aframe but loves it now, figure that will help with strengthening her back end since it is a very low aframe but it is like hill climbing. She has gotten all the house rules down and is just very easy and getting along with everyone.
So that is where we are at with EVERYTHING!

second session of learning to HIT IT in the box

second session of learning to HIT IT in box

Ok so here is our second session with Lizzie to teach her to get four feet in the box. She is still doing a lot of looking at me, the bummer is that I have taught her that when I had so much trouble getting her to stay with me so she focuses nice, but I am using reward placement across her vision line and away from me to try to get her focusing off of me. Anyway, she likes the box work, the command is Hit IT, and I am hoping to either maybe try the RAchel S method of running Aframes or use this to teach her to collect and stride on the Aframe, so she isnt jumping off the end. I am still sort of playing around and trying to figure out what I want to do wtih the Lizzie Lou. Hey but she is with me and working well, having a good time and I couldnt be more thrilled even if we do have some bugs to work out, we are on our way.

I HATE contacts, LOL!!!

WARNING THIS IS A LONG POST AND JUST WORKING OUT MY THOUGHTS AND MY PLAN FOR WHAT WE WILL BE DOING WITH OUR CONTACTS. I suspect most people will not want to wade through all these thoughts, LOL. WELL, because Breeze has a definate physical problem with her hips, whether it is causing her problems now or will ever cause her problems......she does have arthritis starting, and so after reading Chris Zinc, DVMs thoughts on the safest contact performance, and after talking to lots of people I had deceided to do a four on the floor contact with Breeze, I can be pretty consistent when I want so I felt like it was worth trying if we could make it easier on her body, and my instructor felt that it would be best to just keep it the same with both dogs, so that is what was chosen for Lizzie too. Chloe the sheltie does a gorgeous 2O2O but she has injured her shoulders in the past with that, so....I have taught her to rock back and sort of angle down on the down side and we just dont do many because she already will blow off a tunnel or jump if she sees the AFrame or dog walk, especially the dog walk, so we really dont need to make that more valuable now do we? Anyway, Liz learned it right away and LOVES going to her mat and HAD the most beautiful performance. Breeze took a long time to learn it and I was hating mat work for a bit, but she finally got it and her natural default behavior is a down so it does work really well for her too. Let me clarify this is a modified running contact if you want to define running contact meaning that they dont stop in the contact zone and stride right through. But it is a definate stopped contact. The dog strides up and over the contact, the way it has been working they lower and start to drop a stride or two before the mat and when they reach the mat they crouch into a down and then wait for a release. I have all my criteria for the obstacle written out and I review it pretty often to make sure I am watching all the criteria. YIPPIE, SKIPPIE, it all works fantastically well and gets the job done. UNTIL when my instructor was gone and we spent about a month without working contacts, Liz has gotten more confidence, and you know that border collie is always thinking of ways to do things a little easier and faster.... Anyway, first thing to happen was Liz was making this big splat sound when going on the upside of the contact. I rewound and checked the video and sure enough she was consistently missing the upcontact, she would jump right up past the upcontact, do a mighty leap over the apex and then continue on her way. The rest of it looked all right. I was not excited over putting out a big stride regulator to make her jump and land closer to the Aframe so she would have to be safer and stride in the upcontact, but we hauled it out and I tried to find it a home in my car for traveling, LOL. So that worked for.....hummmm....a few days, until I figured out where the stride regulator should be to really make my upside look good. About that time Liz started a bad curling in behavior turning toward me on the mat.....so I brought out my treat and train-worked with the mat on the flat to get her really used to driving to the mat and looking ahead and not having to look at me, and tried to get her to use more toys for her release so I could throw those over her path of vision and away from me, and I noticed....... YIKES, once we got her striding nicely over the upside, we got a leap from the upside over the Apex, down to the bottom of the green, before the contact started and then she leaps down onto the mat where her bottom is touching the bottom of the contact. HOW COULD SHE DO THAT???? A person had warned me that would happen, LOL, but I hadnt really believed them, but YIKES. So CRAP, that wasnt going to be acceptable now was it. So I reviewed all of Ann Crofts work with four on the floor which we had modified and put our own spin on it, and here is what I think was missing from my initial training:::
1. I think I taught Liz to approach the obstacle and stride up and over, but she just was happening to stride through the yellow to get to the mat. Lizzie Lou figured out a way around that and figured she would save me some time, she knows this is a game about time, so in her defence I never made it clear that striding through the yellow was part of it, just get your butt to the mat. So now I see why Ann insists on using the hoop at the bottom, a concrete way for the dog to know they have to also go to the bottom of the obstacle not just fly on down.
2. I have never rewarded striding, and as Alicia says collection on the obstacle, again I just figured because it was there to begin with it would always be there, humm, guess that isnt necessarily so.
3. I ASSUMED to hit the mat when it is very close to the bottom of the Aframe that it would be automatic that there would be a stride through the yellow contact zone, WRONG on that one, LOL.
4. I think I totally underestimated Lizzies WHOO HOO behaviors. She is a weird combination of wanting to please me and being fundamentally soft, and being totally exciteable and over the top so it makes it really hard for her to keep her head at times. I know I always need to have VERY CLEAR consistent criteria and this is one case where I think she needed more criteria and my criteria was not nearly as clear as I thought it was, there were loop holes-DRATS.
5. I think that Liz just hasnt a clue how to work out her striding, when we fix the upramp the down side is messed up, when the downside was gorgeous the upside was a mess, think she needs to actually be taught again HOW to go over the obstacle and how to handle her body, along with criteria she understands to make the obstacle safe. GUESS WE GOT SOME WORK TO DO.
So this ends up at the current conflict about what we are going to do with this contact stuff. the Options:
1. to do a 2O2o, which will probably take care of the problem EXCEPT seeing how Liz is handling stuff now I think she still needs to learn to stride correctly or I am SURE she will leap from the top of the obstacle into a 2o2o position and I can not imagine what that will look like for her shoulders. So it might take care of the hitting the yellow problem but not sure that will automatically make it a safer performance. So I think I can only do that if I do some other training too.
2. I always like new things......and reading the clean run article about the Rachel Saunders running contact training on the Aframe, just sounds very intriguing-would be totally cool to be able to teach the striding and body collection on the flat. Liz is very clicker savy and picks things up quickly. So here is the crazy idea, why couldnt I train the box and still add on the mat behavior at the end? Eventually weaning that out and ending up with a running Aframe???
3. I could go back and work on my four on the floor, add in the hoops, start with the low aframe and work on teaching Liz to collect on the obstacle, being more clear about encouraging her to look elsewhere. The bummer with this whole situation is Ann just started a series of articles with revisions for the four on the floor, some of the things that sound like they have been revised sound like they address some of my issues, so wouldnt it be nice if I could read it all now and not have to wait three more months??? That would be too easy to let me read all the new hints and tips now, right???
So, the plan.....taaaa daaaaaa, is to stay off the Aframe for the moment, no big hurry to rush into anything, and going to do some work on the flat and see how it goes, feel my way through and come up with a plan. Breeze is not working contacts right now, so .......good thing I have some time to modify my training and deceide what I want to do for her-last she was on the contacts she had a gorgeous four on the floor, but seeing her excitement, not sure how that will end up.