The short story, is NO q's on Sunday. Open JWW had 2 refusals, the weaves and a missed rear cross, and the standard run, well, that ended up with the judge doing his exercises raising his arms repeatedly during our run, he got a good workout, LOL. We always try to do our best to keep the judges fit in standard runs lately. I felt GREAT during the runs and was so happy with so many things I saw and I was so happy with Breeze, but as I drove home and thought of all the things that we really need to work on.....sigh...I started feeling discouraged.
I really have to say this weekend I ended up feeling a bit frustrated because now we have been making a lot of little mistakes, and some big ones...but luckily my training buddy Denise had come to the trial to watch today and she really helped me look back and more accurately look at what we have accomplished. Less then a year ago we had just got to the point of four or five obstacles and short little sequences like pinwheels, some good foundation and we had started us on our current handling system, but I had no CLUE how I was going to get into the right place on a real course or to actually handle my fast little BC girls. I had no idea how I was ever going to keep up on a course-NO CLUE. We did not even have rear crosses at that time, so it would have been really hard to imagine keeping up.
Not even a year later-I am figuring it out and I am keeping up-we have so much to learn but it is coming together. For a couple of years I have had so many people reminding me how slow I am and asking how was I going to do it, and they did intimidate and scare me a lot. When everything is said and done, Breeze and I are keeping up with each other and it really is coming together, just this weekend it was feeling a little frustrating and overwhelming thinking about all that we still have to work on. A big part of the reason I wanted to start trialing now was so I could see what we had to work on, I think some holes in our training just were not going to become apparent until we put them to the test by trialing, so shoot I can see where the holes are pretty clearly now that we hit that Open Standard ring.
The really great things that have been developing is that Breeze is getting faster and more confident. With each run Breeze is doing less looking back at me and just going on and finding her line. Our contacts are holding up really well. The best thing I have seen is that Breeze has went from pulling to get back to her crate after a run, she wanted to duck into her crate as quick as she could. This morning going to the trial her ears were set up higher and she was so happy to get into the car. On each run she pulled to go to the run, and just walked quietly back to the crate, she seemed to want to run, so that makes me really happy. Breeze enjoying agility more and more is a HUGE accomplishment I think.
I think we might end up stuck in open standard for a little while, which after going three Q's for 3 runs in novice, well, I was hoping open standard would be at least almost as easy for us, lOL. One could hope you know! We just needed our last jumpers Q to get our open JWW title and I thought we did so good but the last place I needed to do a cross the rear I had planned just did not work, and looking back I had plenty of time for a front, which I originally planned then changed my mind, grrrr, so we got a second refusal. The deal is that would NOT have been a second refusal if we had got our weave entry more then one out of four runs this weekend. We had worked weaves a LOT, and they had got so much better, and they have been awesome in class, but in trials she is just zipping on by, but she always does them the second time, yikes, that has been killing us.
BC are sooo weird, and the start line in jumpers is just not there...so that is a real bad thing but the start line is perfect (well as perfect as Breeze and I do) in standard runs. That is pretty consistent. Breeze gets an idea in her head and she just knows that is how it is supposed to be -- start lines are no exception and that is what she has decided, you stay until mom looks ready to go in jumpers, and you hold your start until released in standard runs...so that is going to need some major work. I always said I would maintain my criteria with the starts and the contacts and not let it go...and yet...here we are doing what I said I would never do and just going with the sloppy start lines. BAD handler/trainer/mom (slaps wrists).
CHECK IT OUT BREEZE HAS CHANGED HER WEAVING STYLE TO HOPPING BACK AND FORTH NOW IN THE 24 INCH WEAVES -SHE HAS FOUND A NICE RHYTHUM FOR HER AND I THINK SHE IS STILL SORT OF SINGLE STRIDING THROUGH THE 21 INCH POLES
The open Standard does not have video, but the first obstacle was a tire and Breeze ran around it, so we were done before we started. Then I had to run with her because I brought her back to do the tire... we did a rear cross into a serpentine (plan B because I had to run with her so could not do the FC I had planned) the serpentine was really nice, up to a gorgeous Aframe, then coming out of the weaves she came really close to going up the aframe but read my front cross came back for the dog walk but she was frustrated. At the end of the dog walk she really almost didn't stop and do her contact, but at that point I insisted. When Breeze gets frsutrated she switches into a herding mode and is very handler focused sort of dancing around me, so she went into the tunnel and was not looking for obstacles at all and totally veered to miss the jump. I need to figure out when she gets that frustrated if I should stop and try to collect her or say thank you and walk off because she really isn't thinking when she gets that frustrated, silly girl.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
July 10 AKC trial, JWW Q and a first, Yippie!
We trialed in Walnut, CA today. It was the first time i have been at this trial site and it was so pretty. There is a little stream right behind where we were set up, there were a lot of trees and this was a little one ring trial without a lot of entries, so it was QUIET. If the weather was not in the nineties it would have been perfect,....did I mention I am trialing next weekend and it is supposed to be TWENTY degrees hotter? Here in this part of the country Excellent ALWAYS runs first, excellent jumpers, excellent standard, open jumpers, open standard, novice...well, you get the picture. So in the summer Excellent gets to run in the cool morning, set your watch by it, when open gets to run the weather has just cranked up to boiling. How about once in awhile changing the order? The good part is that we don't have to be there until noon, maybe that would be nice in the winter months? By the time I ran my two runs I thought I was going to die! It is going to be hotter tomorrow, so we will see if I survive.
The bad news is that I was nervous and I could have paid the service there to tape my runs, but I felt like it would be bad luck, seriously....LOL. Next week I will be telling you I can only wear my holy under ware and dirty blue shirt so I can Q, LOL. So silly or not I set up my video camera on a tripod and then had to edit a lot of other peoples runs out, and if you want to see the runs you might have to squint really hard (just pretend it is all perfect while you are doing that). You can also make the video full screen on youtube if you really want to see better.
Aliens came and beamed me up and left weird, stiff, pod handler I think for our first run. I felt all shaky, and nervous and it took me a little bit to warm up. I ended up CALLING Breeze when she was heading for the tunnel I wanted....like what??? I NEVER call her when I am practicing, and I think I called her when I did the 180 into the weaves, I heard her foot tick the bar, but by the grace of the agility gods it stayed put. We missed the weave entrance, but all in all a nice run. In honor of those weirdo mistakes I picked music where Lady GaGa is reminding me DON'T CALL MY NAME! LOL, I hope you all see the humor in that. Anyway, a Q and a first, so I am not going to complain too much, but I really hate that I got so nervous.
An Open standard Q eluded us for another run....of course in the video I got all the bad stuff, which is good because I wanted to see what I did wrong....but did not catch any of the great stuff.
1. Breeze held her start line beautifully, GOOD GIRLIE!
2. We had a GORGEOUS four on the floor, but this was on the side she should have done a four on the floor, but hey I am happy about it.
3. Breeze did her Aframe contact really nice and really seemed happy about the Aframe today.
4. Breeze sat on the table and stayed which is not her favorite and it was a down all day until the open class....then it changed, yea thanks, but it still worked!
5. SECOND time Breeze did some great weaves, lets not talk about the first pass, we are staying positive remember.
6. Not caught on tape but right before the end there is a 180 and I did a landing side front cross that was GORGEOUS! Unfortunately like the fish that got away, no one else gets to see it!
7. OOOH yea, on the dog walk contact I was able to run past and Breeze held her down without being told stay, that is a first, ...getting better!
After watching the video I think first off...I was worried about the distance to the jump, triple, front cross, Aframe, so I should have STOPPED, WORK EACH OBSTACLE UNTIL IT CAN NO LONGER BE FAULTED...I should have pushed on the line from the dog walk to the tire then to the chute. Then I got all flustered and was late in my front cross and caused Breeze to drop her legs over the triple, causing a dropped bar, then....like that was not enough, did not follow the second basic agility commandment CONNECT WITH THE DOG OUT OF THE TUNNEL, if I had caught her eye and got her back to handler focus then I could have taken her past that Aframe. Well, next time. Poor Breeze, she does not like running with Pod handler.
If anyone wants a course posted I will do that, but I am tired and getting even more tired thinking of going again tomorrow, LOL, getting all stressed out takes it out of you. So I can post the courses later if anyone wants to see them, but they were all pretty nice, straightforward and not all that hard. Now the one interesting thing about the courses was that the open standard course had only ONE jump in the ending changed from the excellent course, that is right one jump--the angles were the same, nothing else was changed, and seriously the one extra jump did not add a lot of difficulty I thought.
The bad news is that I was nervous and I could have paid the service there to tape my runs, but I felt like it would be bad luck, seriously....LOL. Next week I will be telling you I can only wear my holy under ware and dirty blue shirt so I can Q, LOL. So silly or not I set up my video camera on a tripod and then had to edit a lot of other peoples runs out, and if you want to see the runs you might have to squint really hard (just pretend it is all perfect while you are doing that). You can also make the video full screen on youtube if you really want to see better.
Aliens came and beamed me up and left weird, stiff, pod handler I think for our first run. I felt all shaky, and nervous and it took me a little bit to warm up. I ended up CALLING Breeze when she was heading for the tunnel I wanted....like what??? I NEVER call her when I am practicing, and I think I called her when I did the 180 into the weaves, I heard her foot tick the bar, but by the grace of the agility gods it stayed put. We missed the weave entrance, but all in all a nice run. In honor of those weirdo mistakes I picked music where Lady GaGa is reminding me DON'T CALL MY NAME! LOL, I hope you all see the humor in that. Anyway, a Q and a first, so I am not going to complain too much, but I really hate that I got so nervous.
An Open standard Q eluded us for another run....of course in the video I got all the bad stuff, which is good because I wanted to see what I did wrong....but did not catch any of the great stuff.
1. Breeze held her start line beautifully, GOOD GIRLIE!
2. We had a GORGEOUS four on the floor, but this was on the side she should have done a four on the floor, but hey I am happy about it.
3. Breeze did her Aframe contact really nice and really seemed happy about the Aframe today.
4. Breeze sat on the table and stayed which is not her favorite and it was a down all day until the open class....then it changed, yea thanks, but it still worked!
5. SECOND time Breeze did some great weaves, lets not talk about the first pass, we are staying positive remember.
6. Not caught on tape but right before the end there is a 180 and I did a landing side front cross that was GORGEOUS! Unfortunately like the fish that got away, no one else gets to see it!
7. OOOH yea, on the dog walk contact I was able to run past and Breeze held her down without being told stay, that is a first, ...getting better!
After watching the video I think first off...I was worried about the distance to the jump, triple, front cross, Aframe, so I should have STOPPED, WORK EACH OBSTACLE UNTIL IT CAN NO LONGER BE FAULTED...I should have pushed on the line from the dog walk to the tire then to the chute. Then I got all flustered and was late in my front cross and caused Breeze to drop her legs over the triple, causing a dropped bar, then....like that was not enough, did not follow the second basic agility commandment CONNECT WITH THE DOG OUT OF THE TUNNEL, if I had caught her eye and got her back to handler focus then I could have taken her past that Aframe. Well, next time. Poor Breeze, she does not like running with Pod handler.
If anyone wants a course posted I will do that, but I am tired and getting even more tired thinking of going again tomorrow, LOL, getting all stressed out takes it out of you. So I can post the courses later if anyone wants to see them, but they were all pretty nice, straightforward and not all that hard. Now the one interesting thing about the courses was that the open standard course had only ONE jump in the ending changed from the excellent course, that is right one jump--the angles were the same, nothing else was changed, and seriously the one extra jump did not add a lot of difficulty I thought.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Staying the Course-non dog related!
Some of my new best friends, LOVE that it is summer and all the great fruits and veggies are in season! Do you know how many berries you can eat and it is still just a point on weight watchers? A LOT!
I have been trying to lose some weight and get healthy and I do feel so much better, BUT...for almost 4 weeks nothing was happening! I was weighing and measuring all my food, tracking everything I ate, taking my walks, doing all the right things and the scale went up a bit at first then just refused to budge. It was not like my clothes were getting loser..so it was frustrating. I reminded myself that I needed a change of life so really did it matter in the long run how long things took? Toward the end of thise little stretch I have to say it was a little harder to stay on track with nothing happening, but I felt like what other choice did I have, I had come too far to just throw the whole plan out the window.
WELL, all of a sudden things are paying off and the scale is moving once again, like I went down three pounds in a matter of days, YIPPIE! Guess with all things really worth doing...you have to be patient and stay the course. It sure is easier to do all the right things though when it feels like it is paying off, LOL!
I have done WW before and I really like the program, but I have to say this is the easiest time by far to stay on the program. It is a little harder being vegetarian, I am going to have to do a lot more cooking and get creative because it is harder to find easy things that do not have meat. On the plus side meat has a lot of calories and points so not eating meat has made keeping on track with points easier!
I do consider myself very lucky because it is summer and the summer fruits and veggies are all in season. I love the produce I have been getting at Costco, and that makes it so much easier to eat healthy and stay on track!
I have been trying to lose some weight and get healthy and I do feel so much better, BUT...for almost 4 weeks nothing was happening! I was weighing and measuring all my food, tracking everything I ate, taking my walks, doing all the right things and the scale went up a bit at first then just refused to budge. It was not like my clothes were getting loser..so it was frustrating. I reminded myself that I needed a change of life so really did it matter in the long run how long things took? Toward the end of thise little stretch I have to say it was a little harder to stay on track with nothing happening, but I felt like what other choice did I have, I had come too far to just throw the whole plan out the window.
WELL, all of a sudden things are paying off and the scale is moving once again, like I went down three pounds in a matter of days, YIPPIE! Guess with all things really worth doing...you have to be patient and stay the course. It sure is easier to do all the right things though when it feels like it is paying off, LOL!
I have done WW before and I really like the program, but I have to say this is the easiest time by far to stay on the program. It is a little harder being vegetarian, I am going to have to do a lot more cooking and get creative because it is harder to find easy things that do not have meat. On the plus side meat has a lot of calories and points so not eating meat has made keeping on track with points easier!
I do consider myself very lucky because it is summer and the summer fruits and veggies are all in season. I love the produce I have been getting at Costco, and that makes it so much easier to eat healthy and stay on track!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
CONTACTS and SUMMER IS HERE!
Well, it is officially summer and way over 100 degrees, I am not a fan of the heat! Having to work three dogs in this heat really is an incentive to plan my sessions, have everything ready and know exactly what I want to work on and keep the sessions short.
In trials Breeze has CONSISTENTLY done a 2020 when she is on my left side going over the dog walk, and done a four on the floor when she is on my right side. All the recent trials have had the dog walk on the left side so I have got a 2020 consistently, a beautiful 2020, but not a four on the floor. I really just thought it was doing the job so if she gave me a four on the floor or a 2020, it would all be good, until I talked to Daneen Fox at the trial last weekend and she gave me her opinion about remaining consistent and making sure criteria was black and white and always the same-I am glad I asked her about it. As soon as she voiced her concerns I knew she was so right, and I do not want to have to remember to keep the contacts on the dog walk different for different sides of the dog walk, it would be so much easier if she is supposed to do one behavior no matter what way we are going! See how picky I can get? I went to practice today at the yard and got some video of her dog walk contacts. Guess I am going to just have to keep training it and hope it all kicks in and if she does the 2020 in the next trial then I will know it is a trial thing, either way I am going to have to find some fun matches and different places to keep working it and see if we can fix this problem. I was suprised to see my four on the floor was back at my house and at the practice yard, the last few days anyway...So I will be anxious to see what contact the next trial will have in about ten days if I keep working and doing frequent reps until that time.
BREEZE CONTACTS, ABOUT THIRTY SECONDS IN I GOT SOME MORE CLOSE UP SHOTS OF WHAT THE FOUR ON THE FLOOR IS LOOKING LIKE-I LOVE WATCHING HER STRIDE INTO POSITION.
Breeze did NOT get to go to class last night, it was so hot and she had counter surfed and got about 2 1/2 pounds of Natural Balance I had set out to cut up for treats. Of course right after that my husband gave her her dinner and she ate all that too!!! Is Breeze a little food motivated? She likes her vittles! I was scared she was going to get really sick and more then a little annoyed. I did not want her to go out in that heat and run and get bloat or something, so no agility for her!
Liz did get to go to class-she is doing so good but I have got in the habit of using my arms to tell her where to go a lot, and she waits for me to give my late hand cue and gets frustrated and mad. I am working hard on not using my hands and teaching her to trust my feet and body again which will give her much more timely info and help with her frustration, me and Lizzie are always a work in progress!
This is Lizzie this morning at our little practice, just loving life and how I usually see her, she is always so happy and I just love seeing her smile! She really is the best doggie ever! She is a smart doggie with the water because it was over 100 degrees!!! Did I mention it was HOT?
I did get some video of the CRICKSTER doing baby dog agility and I will post those later, she is just soooo cute!
In trials Breeze has CONSISTENTLY done a 2020 when she is on my left side going over the dog walk, and done a four on the floor when she is on my right side. All the recent trials have had the dog walk on the left side so I have got a 2020 consistently, a beautiful 2020, but not a four on the floor. I really just thought it was doing the job so if she gave me a four on the floor or a 2020, it would all be good, until I talked to Daneen Fox at the trial last weekend and she gave me her opinion about remaining consistent and making sure criteria was black and white and always the same-I am glad I asked her about it. As soon as she voiced her concerns I knew she was so right, and I do not want to have to remember to keep the contacts on the dog walk different for different sides of the dog walk, it would be so much easier if she is supposed to do one behavior no matter what way we are going! See how picky I can get? I went to practice today at the yard and got some video of her dog walk contacts. Guess I am going to just have to keep training it and hope it all kicks in and if she does the 2020 in the next trial then I will know it is a trial thing, either way I am going to have to find some fun matches and different places to keep working it and see if we can fix this problem. I was suprised to see my four on the floor was back at my house and at the practice yard, the last few days anyway...So I will be anxious to see what contact the next trial will have in about ten days if I keep working and doing frequent reps until that time.
BREEZE CONTACTS, ABOUT THIRTY SECONDS IN I GOT SOME MORE CLOSE UP SHOTS OF WHAT THE FOUR ON THE FLOOR IS LOOKING LIKE-I LOVE WATCHING HER STRIDE INTO POSITION.
Breeze did NOT get to go to class last night, it was so hot and she had counter surfed and got about 2 1/2 pounds of Natural Balance I had set out to cut up for treats. Of course right after that my husband gave her her dinner and she ate all that too!!! Is Breeze a little food motivated? She likes her vittles! I was scared she was going to get really sick and more then a little annoyed. I did not want her to go out in that heat and run and get bloat or something, so no agility for her!
Liz did get to go to class-she is doing so good but I have got in the habit of using my arms to tell her where to go a lot, and she waits for me to give my late hand cue and gets frustrated and mad. I am working hard on not using my hands and teaching her to trust my feet and body again which will give her much more timely info and help with her frustration, me and Lizzie are always a work in progress!
This is Lizzie this morning at our little practice, just loving life and how I usually see her, she is always so happy and I just love seeing her smile! She really is the best doggie ever! She is a smart doggie with the water because it was over 100 degrees!!! Did I mention it was HOT?
I did get some video of the CRICKSTER doing baby dog agility and I will post those later, she is just soooo cute!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Three Border Collies Dreams Can Come True.....in the CA desert!
How cool is this? We were hanging around the house and I took the the dogs out for a walk and found this.....sheep....as far as the eye can see. We all wanted to herd them, LOL, wouldn't that have been FUN! Of course the most we have ever worked is four or maybe five??? Anyway, a lot less then were running around our little town. There was one person tending the sheep with the most laid back border collie, I went up to find out where they take the sheep to and where they are coming from, but he only spoke Spanish, and I just speak broken medical Spanish, which was not a help in this situation, so it will remain a mystery, LOL. The sheep used to come through a few miles away where there is now a Lowes, and a Home Depot and a Target, so it has been a couple of years since I have seen the sheep come through here and it does not take a lot to get me excited, I love seeing the sheep ;-). So the border collies thought they were very lucky someone was bringing sheep to their house, and they did not have to drive hours to see the sheep....although they were disappointed we did not get to play with the sheep!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
GREAT DOG, SHAME ABOUT MY FEET!
I really had a great time today, I did much better and just decided I was not going to let ring nerves get me too wigged out. We did not melt at our trial today-that was good. Actually it was over cast until an hour or two before our run, but it was really hot when it was finally our turn. Breeze ran better, and looked happier, watching her tail in the videos makes me happy because she was having a good time. She did not keep looking behind for me and seemed more confident, and I will take that with or without a Q-which is a good thing because thanks to my BAD feet, there were no Q's to be found today for Breeze and I! LOL
What can I say, but I am very lucky Breeze puts up with me, LOL.
STANDARD RUN
First the standard run-it was a challenging course, but we did not mess up on the challenging part, LOL. Figures. Here is the course-you can make it bigger by clicking on it if you want to.
I was sooo happy because even with the heat Breeze looked happy today, she did like the parts of this course where she could extend and open up a little bit. Breeze did EXACTLY what I told her, that was the good news and the bad news!
First obstacle was a tunnel, and I was sort of standing there trying to figure out how to handle it and not paying attention to my position when Breeze got out of the tunnel, I just was thinking so much about further down the line that I was not careful, I just took it for granted that it looked like a super easy entrance to the weaves. Well, of course I had not rotated around and in the video I spent a long time with my WHOLE body telling her to go to the dog walk, and good doggie that she is-that is EXACTLY what she did.
Of course when I messed that up, I was all a twitter sending her to the weaves, did some funky front cross and pulled her out of the weaves at the end, something she never does....she was mad and yelling at me, so I gathered myself and the rest of the run was fabulous, LOL. After the table there was a serpentine with a pull through to the tire and I was really worried about that but she did stellar.
She did not read the rear cross I did before the Aframe, so it was funny because it has never happened to us that she ended up laying facing in the opposite direction from where I was, so that looked pretty funny.
FREAKY CONTACT PROBLEM REVEALED
OK REALLY WEIRD thing that I have been noticing is that Breeze thinks when she is on my right side on the dog walk, she does a four on the floor contact. When she is on the left side she does a 2020. YEP, only my dog could be doing that. Well, I figure no big deal, but then I was talking to Daneen Fox who runs papillons and is on the world team, and she said well, that is ok if you make sure that is how it is every time, but how do I handle making sure her expected behavior is black and white, what if she gives me the four on the floor after I have been saying that yes the 2020 on that side is what I want, anyway, she gave me a lot to think about... and she warned me about the problems of doing retrains on the contacts, yea, I know about that ;-). So I am still not sure what to do about it. I am going to have to do a lot of thinking about what I want to do so I can be clear with Breeze and know what to reward and what not to reward, I guess we are going down a grey zone if I accept that, it might be really hard for me to remember what I expect on what side, ughghghghg, why do contacts have to be so hard??? I noticed this weirdness a few weeks ago, it started at trials, and I trained the four on the floor a couple of times a day for the last two weeks and thought we had it all squared away but when I walked today I thought, hummm, this is the left side and the 2020 side, wonder what is going to happen? Well, she did the 2020. Ahhhhhh, ADD IT TO THE LIST.
JUMPERS WITH WEAVES RUN
The JWW run, same song different verse. Breeze did fantastic, released slightly before I released her but I did release her while I was walking to my place...I sort of got stuck in the pin wheel walking too much so we both sort of stalled right before a jump and got a refusal, Breeze did a marvelous job with the weaves, we got through the next part and second to last jump I think my feet told her to go to the weaves, and I should have did a cross on the take off side and not the landing side of the jump, but, always easier to see that afterwards... but the run was happy and fast, and she did fantastic at the weaves and caught the entry without me having to have her check her speed, so I am WAY happy with that.
SO NO Q's but a happy dog who I think ran really well, I am pleased. I would not have minded giving better info to my dog and Qing, but we got the really hard parts of the courses we worried about so it could have been a whole lot worse.
THE HEAT AND DEALING WITH POOR HANDLING TAKES ITS TOOL ON A DOG:
SWEET GIRL SHE IS, I KNOW SHE WILL BE HAPPY TO RUN WITH ME AGAIN NEXT TIME, HOW GREAT ARE DOGS?
THANKS DENISE! YOU ROCK!
My Buddy Denise came to watch today, she filmed my runs and she brought me this great ribbon board that is to hang my ribbons on. No ribbons to add today, but hopefully soon ;-), so I put Breeze's title ribbons on it and can hang it in the hall by the dogs agility pictures. THANKS Denise!
What can I say, but I am very lucky Breeze puts up with me, LOL.
STANDARD RUN
First the standard run-it was a challenging course, but we did not mess up on the challenging part, LOL. Figures. Here is the course-you can make it bigger by clicking on it if you want to.
I was sooo happy because even with the heat Breeze looked happy today, she did like the parts of this course where she could extend and open up a little bit. Breeze did EXACTLY what I told her, that was the good news and the bad news!
First obstacle was a tunnel, and I was sort of standing there trying to figure out how to handle it and not paying attention to my position when Breeze got out of the tunnel, I just was thinking so much about further down the line that I was not careful, I just took it for granted that it looked like a super easy entrance to the weaves. Well, of course I had not rotated around and in the video I spent a long time with my WHOLE body telling her to go to the dog walk, and good doggie that she is-that is EXACTLY what she did.
Of course when I messed that up, I was all a twitter sending her to the weaves, did some funky front cross and pulled her out of the weaves at the end, something she never does....she was mad and yelling at me, so I gathered myself and the rest of the run was fabulous, LOL. After the table there was a serpentine with a pull through to the tire and I was really worried about that but she did stellar.
She did not read the rear cross I did before the Aframe, so it was funny because it has never happened to us that she ended up laying facing in the opposite direction from where I was, so that looked pretty funny.
FREAKY CONTACT PROBLEM REVEALED
OK REALLY WEIRD thing that I have been noticing is that Breeze thinks when she is on my right side on the dog walk, she does a four on the floor contact. When she is on the left side she does a 2020. YEP, only my dog could be doing that. Well, I figure no big deal, but then I was talking to Daneen Fox who runs papillons and is on the world team, and she said well, that is ok if you make sure that is how it is every time, but how do I handle making sure her expected behavior is black and white, what if she gives me the four on the floor after I have been saying that yes the 2020 on that side is what I want, anyway, she gave me a lot to think about... and she warned me about the problems of doing retrains on the contacts, yea, I know about that ;-). So I am still not sure what to do about it. I am going to have to do a lot of thinking about what I want to do so I can be clear with Breeze and know what to reward and what not to reward, I guess we are going down a grey zone if I accept that, it might be really hard for me to remember what I expect on what side, ughghghghg, why do contacts have to be so hard??? I noticed this weirdness a few weeks ago, it started at trials, and I trained the four on the floor a couple of times a day for the last two weeks and thought we had it all squared away but when I walked today I thought, hummm, this is the left side and the 2020 side, wonder what is going to happen? Well, she did the 2020. Ahhhhhh, ADD IT TO THE LIST.
JUMPERS WITH WEAVES RUN
The JWW run, same song different verse. Breeze did fantastic, released slightly before I released her but I did release her while I was walking to my place...I sort of got stuck in the pin wheel walking too much so we both sort of stalled right before a jump and got a refusal, Breeze did a marvelous job with the weaves, we got through the next part and second to last jump I think my feet told her to go to the weaves, and I should have did a cross on the take off side and not the landing side of the jump, but, always easier to see that afterwards... but the run was happy and fast, and she did fantastic at the weaves and caught the entry without me having to have her check her speed, so I am WAY happy with that.
SO NO Q's but a happy dog who I think ran really well, I am pleased. I would not have minded giving better info to my dog and Qing, but we got the really hard parts of the courses we worried about so it could have been a whole lot worse.
THE HEAT AND DEALING WITH POOR HANDLING TAKES ITS TOOL ON A DOG:
SWEET GIRL SHE IS, I KNOW SHE WILL BE HAPPY TO RUN WITH ME AGAIN NEXT TIME, HOW GREAT ARE DOGS?
THANKS DENISE! YOU ROCK!
My Buddy Denise came to watch today, she filmed my runs and she brought me this great ribbon board that is to hang my ribbons on. No ribbons to add today, but hopefully soon ;-), so I put Breeze's title ribbons on it and can hang it in the hall by the dogs agility pictures. THANKS Denise!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Wish my luck on the weather, LOL!
WHAT HAVE I DONE? LOL, I decided that I would sign up for some trials while we were still doing classes (there will be up to a three month break before the next sessions start), and try to just get myself and Breeze more used to trialing before we have to take time off classes and after that we can work on what training holes I am sure we will find as we are trialing. Of course we will add the new found holes in our training to the ones I am pretty well aware of already, LOL. I am sure we will have a hefty training list by the time we finish the trials we signed up for......
So all that sounded like a marvelous plan when I signed up but.....we live in Southern CA, and in my area anyway, in July the temps are usually well over 100. I am a melter....I melt in the heat, so as soon as I sent off the registrations I thought, YIKES!!! I just might die if we get a heat wave in July, and you know that is not that unlikely..... I am a worry wart, so I will stress on the temperature until the trial dates get here, although that won't change anything! If you all read about a trial where they found a competitor in a little melted puddle in Southern CA and they are wondering who that could have been.... you all can let them know it could be me!
SO.... I may be lucking out this first weekend-I am trialing at Woodley Park in Van Nuys, this is the forecast for Saturday as of right now....
Saturday: Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High around 80F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
As far as our training, Cricket did FANTASTIC in our last stretching, and strengthening class. We did some recalls in an open field and we were supposed to have the dogs run between two people. Just so happens that my partner was the girl that taught the recall class I did with Cricket. Well, in the recall class Cindy had tried to lure Cricket away from coming to me by showing her food, and Cricket learned that reward was way more likely if she stayed with me. So not sure if that is why when we did recalls she would not leave me. When we really lured and got her to run towards Cindy ( a really slow run..) when she almost got to her she would WHIP around and run to me at warp speed, as fast as her little legs would go.., she was so happy to come to me. LOL, it sure made me feel good and built up my ego.....MY PUPPY LOVES ME! WHO KNEW?
Breeze is doing SO much better at the weaves, but during class she was supposed to catch the weaves after a long stretch and a tunnel....so she was going so fast and it took several tries for her to figure out how to check her speed. I have been working weave entries a lot and she catches them from all angles, but we have not put in tons of speed yet... so we are working on it. Well, the rest of the night she was supposed to come out that tunnel and do a sharp turn into a serpentine of three jumps. Breeze was sure she was catching those weaves again, she would pop out of the tunnel and race for the weaves, she knew she was right, and because I have done so much weave work lately she has been heavily rewarded for the weaves-she thinks those are pretty cool, so hopefully her next trial will not have a really fast entry into the weaves, or some sort of trap where I have to pull her off where she thinks the weaves belong in the course, we may be in trouble. ;-).
Lizzie, poor Lizzie, she has went back to taking a jump and whirling in front of me-one of us is going to be killed when I trip over her one day. I think I just need to work some baby dog sequences with her where I just encourage her to drive ahead. She does gorgeous treadles, some really difficult sequences, and gets huge lateral distance from the weaves, she can do amazing things, but give her a straight line and it falls apart very quickly. Poor Lizzie, I just love her, but, she is a lot of dog! She is fond of pointing out my holes in my training skills!!!
So all that sounded like a marvelous plan when I signed up but.....we live in Southern CA, and in my area anyway, in July the temps are usually well over 100. I am a melter....I melt in the heat, so as soon as I sent off the registrations I thought, YIKES!!! I just might die if we get a heat wave in July, and you know that is not that unlikely..... I am a worry wart, so I will stress on the temperature until the trial dates get here, although that won't change anything! If you all read about a trial where they found a competitor in a little melted puddle in Southern CA and they are wondering who that could have been.... you all can let them know it could be me!
SO.... I may be lucking out this first weekend-I am trialing at Woodley Park in Van Nuys, this is the forecast for Saturday as of right now....
Saturday: Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High around 80F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
As far as our training, Cricket did FANTASTIC in our last stretching, and strengthening class. We did some recalls in an open field and we were supposed to have the dogs run between two people. Just so happens that my partner was the girl that taught the recall class I did with Cricket. Well, in the recall class Cindy had tried to lure Cricket away from coming to me by showing her food, and Cricket learned that reward was way more likely if she stayed with me. So not sure if that is why when we did recalls she would not leave me. When we really lured and got her to run towards Cindy ( a really slow run..) when she almost got to her she would WHIP around and run to me at warp speed, as fast as her little legs would go.., she was so happy to come to me. LOL, it sure made me feel good and built up my ego.....MY PUPPY LOVES ME! WHO KNEW?
Breeze is doing SO much better at the weaves, but during class she was supposed to catch the weaves after a long stretch and a tunnel....so she was going so fast and it took several tries for her to figure out how to check her speed. I have been working weave entries a lot and she catches them from all angles, but we have not put in tons of speed yet... so we are working on it. Well, the rest of the night she was supposed to come out that tunnel and do a sharp turn into a serpentine of three jumps. Breeze was sure she was catching those weaves again, she would pop out of the tunnel and race for the weaves, she knew she was right, and because I have done so much weave work lately she has been heavily rewarded for the weaves-she thinks those are pretty cool, so hopefully her next trial will not have a really fast entry into the weaves, or some sort of trap where I have to pull her off where she thinks the weaves belong in the course, we may be in trouble. ;-).
Lizzie, poor Lizzie, she has went back to taking a jump and whirling in front of me-one of us is going to be killed when I trip over her one day. I think I just need to work some baby dog sequences with her where I just encourage her to drive ahead. She does gorgeous treadles, some really difficult sequences, and gets huge lateral distance from the weaves, she can do amazing things, but give her a straight line and it falls apart very quickly. Poor Lizzie, I just love her, but, she is a lot of dog! She is fond of pointing out my holes in my training skills!!!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Stretching and Strengthening Class
As a person who hates change....I hope the new layout of the blog is going to work well, it seemed to fit and feel a lot like the current summer season.....however, it was too easy to do, so now I am worried that there is some little thing I am missing, LOL. I am wondering if it is going to be hard for some computers to load??? so if anyone has problems, let me know, not that anyone could not live without my blog, I am sure it would not be missed that much, but I do like to make things easy ;-) and I love all my blogger friends, what would I do without you all and your posts when I get up in the morning?
CHECK OUT RELAXED LITTLE CRICKET DURING OUR CLASS, WITH LOTS OF DOGS WORKING ALL AROUND HER-She is going to be a fantastic dog!
I started attending a fitness, stretching and endurance class. It is 3 weeks and was meant as a fund raiser for a friend who is very ill, and is taught by the lady I took the tricks class with several months ago, and Deanna who is my agility instructor.
A HUGE BENEFIT to this class or doing any of the massage or strengthening work is that I was really sorry when Breeze got hurt that it was harder on her then it had to be because I had thought I had her used to being touched and manipulated, but really it was very hard on her to have the doctors, therapists and myself doing all that we needed to do with her when she was hurt. I hope that I will have everyone more used to these things in the future so if they do get hurt we do not have to add the stress of being handled like they are not used to to the list of stressors they have to go through. I also wanted to learn as much as I can about how each dog usually feels so that when there is something different I can get on it right away, and doing the stretches might help find small injuries before they become big injuries. I did the warm up routines and stretching with Breeze at agility class last week and had an UNEXPECTED HUGE bonus. Breeze was more focused and felt way more connected. I am wondering if adding this into our warm up will help Breeze be more relaxed and excited at agility trials, because I have not been as good as I should about warming her up and just getting her all mentally ready before her runs. It only makes sense that would help us both.
Cricket got to be the lucky participant...even though I wanted it mostly for Breeze, but Cricket has not gone to that many classes and I wanted to see how she could work. I knew this would be a great opportunity to work on our relaxation and focus work.
This turned out to be a super fun class. We taught TONS of tricks that we are now working on. Tricks are fantastic for stretching and strengthening dogs. Play relieves stress and increases focus and strengthens the bond between human and dog-so you can see where this is going, it was a great class. We went over stretching your dog and then we worked on a lot of tricks with clicker training (I LOVE clicker classes), so I thought I would list some of the tricks we are working on. The thing with tricks for stretching or strengthening is you can lure to get the tricks, it still works the muscles we are trying to work, so even if you don't have the tricks perfected you can get their benefit by luring the trick.
So these are some of the things we worked on in the first two classes-
Weave through your legs, figure eight-great for the dogs sides, you can start with your legs wide and then make it more challenging by putting your legs closer together, you can also have the dog weave around cones.
Bow-I have a super cool way to teach that, you get the dog sort of going down and when the elbows just bend then you throw the treat so the dog has to go and get it without finishing the down. Takes a few tries to get the timing but it really works. You want the dogs head to be really low to stretch out that spine and have them hold it for about 15 sec eventually
Dig-another super fun trick, I am using it to teach the dog to scratch their nails on a board I covered with sand paper to do their nails. You can call this wipe your paws which would work really nice for days when your dog has muddy feet. We learned that by letting the dog see us put a treat under a blanket, and then shaped them digging, OR you can capture them digging outside or digging their "nest" before they go to sleep. To shape them to do their nails, once they are digging on the blanket put the blanket on a board covered with sandpaper, and fade out the blanket.
High Five, Wave-you want to make sure to do this on both sides. I realized I have lost one side on Cricket because I always do Paw on her side she does the best with, so now that is the only one she wants to give me. The wave can stretch and make the muscles that take the brunt of the landing after a jump more flexible.
Beg/Sit up and Beg-again great for the core and balance and the back. You want to get where they can sit for 15-30 seconds eventually.
Roll Over-you want to go both ways, a fantastic strength builder.
Back up -rear end awareness and strengthens the spine and back and increases the suppleness of the back
Crunches-those are the dog sitting and you stand right in front so they do not move their legs forward on standing up.
Down to Stand
Sit to Stand-you want both of these to be very slow, controlled, deliberate movements, not just popping up. I did not realize until Breeze was hurt that she could not do that.
Crawl-great for everything
Straight up on back legstand >-this is a great spine and core exercise but ONLY for dogs WITH NO BACK PROBLEMS
Catch a treat or a ball-great for focus, eye mouth coordination, concentration and attention
Tug-great for spine flexing, overall strength, release of stress and tension. Try to keep the dogs spine in a straight line and no jerking or lifting dog off the ground.
Tomorrow is our last class and I will be sad because it has been a lot of fun. Cricket has been a super star. She gets really excited when she walks in the room but then just settles in and has learned all the tricks really fast and been able to work around the other dogs without going over the top.
CHECK OUT RELAXED LITTLE CRICKET DURING OUR CLASS, WITH LOTS OF DOGS WORKING ALL AROUND HER-She is going to be a fantastic dog!
I started attending a fitness, stretching and endurance class. It is 3 weeks and was meant as a fund raiser for a friend who is very ill, and is taught by the lady I took the tricks class with several months ago, and Deanna who is my agility instructor.
A HUGE BENEFIT to this class or doing any of the massage or strengthening work is that I was really sorry when Breeze got hurt that it was harder on her then it had to be because I had thought I had her used to being touched and manipulated, but really it was very hard on her to have the doctors, therapists and myself doing all that we needed to do with her when she was hurt. I hope that I will have everyone more used to these things in the future so if they do get hurt we do not have to add the stress of being handled like they are not used to to the list of stressors they have to go through. I also wanted to learn as much as I can about how each dog usually feels so that when there is something different I can get on it right away, and doing the stretches might help find small injuries before they become big injuries. I did the warm up routines and stretching with Breeze at agility class last week and had an UNEXPECTED HUGE bonus. Breeze was more focused and felt way more connected. I am wondering if adding this into our warm up will help Breeze be more relaxed and excited at agility trials, because I have not been as good as I should about warming her up and just getting her all mentally ready before her runs. It only makes sense that would help us both.
Cricket got to be the lucky participant...even though I wanted it mostly for Breeze, but Cricket has not gone to that many classes and I wanted to see how she could work. I knew this would be a great opportunity to work on our relaxation and focus work.
This turned out to be a super fun class. We taught TONS of tricks that we are now working on. Tricks are fantastic for stretching and strengthening dogs. Play relieves stress and increases focus and strengthens the bond between human and dog-so you can see where this is going, it was a great class. We went over stretching your dog and then we worked on a lot of tricks with clicker training (I LOVE clicker classes), so I thought I would list some of the tricks we are working on. The thing with tricks for stretching or strengthening is you can lure to get the tricks, it still works the muscles we are trying to work, so even if you don't have the tricks perfected you can get their benefit by luring the trick.
So these are some of the things we worked on in the first two classes-
Weave through your legs, figure eight-great for the dogs sides, you can start with your legs wide and then make it more challenging by putting your legs closer together, you can also have the dog weave around cones.
Bow-I have a super cool way to teach that, you get the dog sort of going down and when the elbows just bend then you throw the treat so the dog has to go and get it without finishing the down. Takes a few tries to get the timing but it really works. You want the dogs head to be really low to stretch out that spine and have them hold it for about 15 sec eventually
Dig-another super fun trick, I am using it to teach the dog to scratch their nails on a board I covered with sand paper to do their nails. You can call this wipe your paws which would work really nice for days when your dog has muddy feet. We learned that by letting the dog see us put a treat under a blanket, and then shaped them digging, OR you can capture them digging outside or digging their "nest" before they go to sleep. To shape them to do their nails, once they are digging on the blanket put the blanket on a board covered with sandpaper, and fade out the blanket.
High Five, Wave-you want to make sure to do this on both sides. I realized I have lost one side on Cricket because I always do Paw on her side she does the best with, so now that is the only one she wants to give me. The wave can stretch and make the muscles that take the brunt of the landing after a jump more flexible.
Beg/Sit up and Beg-again great for the core and balance and the back. You want to get where they can sit for 15-30 seconds eventually.
Roll Over-you want to go both ways, a fantastic strength builder.
Back up -rear end awareness and strengthens the spine and back and increases the suppleness of the back
Crunches-those are the dog sitting and you stand right in front so they do not move their legs forward on standing up.
Down to Stand
Sit to Stand-you want both of these to be very slow, controlled, deliberate movements, not just popping up. I did not realize until Breeze was hurt that she could not do that.
Crawl-great for everything
Straight up on back legstand >-this is a great spine and core exercise but ONLY for dogs WITH NO BACK PROBLEMS
Catch a treat or a ball-great for focus, eye mouth coordination, concentration and attention
Tug-great for spine flexing, overall strength, release of stress and tension. Try to keep the dogs spine in a straight line and no jerking or lifting dog off the ground.
Tomorrow is our last class and I will be sad because it has been a lot of fun. Cricket has been a super star. She gets really excited when she walks in the room but then just settles in and has learned all the tricks really fast and been able to work around the other dogs without going over the top.
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