2 by 2 method

I love this method. Juice is a fiend on the weave poles. I have her take a couple of jumps at different angles then weave and finish off with another jump and then we tug.

Orientation @ Woof

JDawg was demo dog for agility and flyball. She ran 4 heats and did not have a stride regulator on the floor. In flyball class that morning she did run backs with a regulator and took 3 really nice steps. I have not done recalls with her for a very long time because she wouldn't take 3 strides. We are workin' it. Now she is doing wind sprints when I take her for a bike ride. I'm excited about Amana next week end to see how she does.

12 weave poles

It has been awhile since I have been able to have Juice work the poles with all the rain and my obsession with the 3 strides in flyball. Last night she worked them head on with some speed and had the single stride. It was impressive. I have never had a dog that could do that. I stood at the end of them and had her weave to me. I stood at the beginning and had her weave away from me and last I ran past her while she was weaving. She did well with all of them. It seemed like she had some trouble coming out of them if I started running before her. We will work that one more. She is going to be good when she is up and running. We have a lot more to do to get ready. I am shooting for the December trial.

Agility is so much fun..............

Agility class went well on Tuesday night. Juice did piece work. She is starting to do 4 or 5 obstacles at a time. I am liking her 2 on 2 off. She runs down the frame or dog walk and sticks her contact. Of course not evey time but many times. She's a fun dog to work with in flyball and agility. Well, she is a fun dog to work with anything.

Weaving 12 Successfully

Juice is weaving the 12 regularly. At home she has more single stepping than she did at WOOF or at agility practice last night. They were more of the hop from side to side. I watched some of Susan Garrett yesterday and after they weave the 12 she goes back to 6 and works distractions. I will go back to 6 now and keep her driving through because when she does that it is the single step and it looks good.

12 Poles

When I get home I will have Juice do a short session of 12 weave poles. I watched some of Susan Garrett today on the big screen @ school. I'll see if Juice is getting comfortable with single stepping. I hope it doesn't rain but it looks like it is going too.

Yes, she is weaving 12

Saturday evening I moved the 6 & 6 together to see what Juice would do. She failed a couple of times so I moved the 1st two poles of the last 6 at 1 & 7. She then weaved them all. After a couple of times I moved them to them back to regulation and she weaved them all. At Sharon's yesterday Juice was agility and flyball demo dog at orientation. We representated Bi-State well. She weaved all 12 of them two separate times.

Now I will let her get comfortable with 12 before adding distractions.

6 poles and another 6 poles

I added the second set of 6 about 8 feet away from the first and Juice acted like she did not know how to do them. I let her do the first 6 and rewarded her and tried again. Same thing! So, I had her try the second set a few times and was only frustrating her. I then put the 3 sets of 2 at 1 & 7 and she would do the first 6 and drive through the last 6. I think I will do that a few more times and then move them in.

I practiced having her turn right and left while sitting at my side. She has gotten much better. I think tonight I will work with the dog walk and 2 on 2 off with a target. Any one else?

First flyball in 5 months

Initially I was bumming with the stride issue. I'm even tired of talking about it but I will not give up. A 3.8? with 2 strides isn't bad but it is not good enough. I know with patient, proper, practice Juice can regain the 3 strides. When I was being my obsessive compulsive self yesterday my BFF Angie looked at me and said, Cindy STOP. Guess what I did? I stopped. :)) Thanks ANG!

the @#$%^& 3 strides

I was doing some 3 stride work off the box with Juice last night and I decided I am about ready to give up. I even had the big ole alligator tears in my eyes. Giving up doesn't mean I will except 2 strides it means she will be an agility dog like Annie and won't play flyball. I was so frustrated that I resorted back to putting a slat on the ground. After that there were 3 beautiful, short strides. If I could get that back she would be friggin' awesome. But........I'm really tired of trying to fix it. I even thought about taking a few months off and not even practicing her. I did that with Rudy early on when I would get so frustrated.

Well, my agility dog Juice has some nice 6 pole weaves and some good running contacts. Who knows maybe she and Prank could maybe work the agility circuit together and be on the World Team.

Later

Mija 2x2 2nd Time

Mija thinks it is pretty stupid to run between 2 poles to get a ball. She would much rather go over the 3 flyball jumps in the back yard. She did catch on and humor me though. Denise sent me a text to hurry up and get her to weave before she comes home! I guess she will be staying with me a couple of months. :)))

Juice weaving 6

JDawg was weaving 6 at agility class Tuesday night. She has too much speed when she comes over a jump and had to spend time figuring out how to collect herself. She did a sequence of table, triple jump, tire, dog walk, and a jump. Deb was a distraction and was running with me at the dog walk or on the other side of the dog walk running in the opposite direction. It was a fun class.

Mija and 2 by 2

Mija seemed to catch on quickly with the 2 poles that she was supposed to go through them. The yard was muddy so we did the 2 by 2's in the kitchen because the dog walk is in the living room/dining room. Hopefully it stops with the April showers soon.

What a Weekend @ Agility

I am getting better at giving Annie the information she needs. I was very happy with Friday and Saturdays performances even those we did not qualify in. I liked both Jumpers runs. I liked the Open Standard run except for the weaves. I need to work on her weaves. I tried to make her weaves better and went to the channel method. I hadn't closed them all the way and then went to a trial in the past and realized I had messed them up. Obviously I haven't fixed them. I will work on that and improving my handling skills. Initially, I did not like my first excellent run but after talking with my agility coach (Angie) I now feel better about it. I still have much to learn and am excited about getting better as a handler.

I had an awesome time with all my flyball turned agility buds this weekend.

yes she is weaving 6

I got to work outside with Juice last night and she is doing 6 very well................I'm going to stay with it while before I add another 6. I want to make sure I have it from all areas, with a jump, and me rear crossing.

We had agility class last night and Juice was doing well at sticking her contacts. We didn't do any weaves but we worked contacts with distractions. Annie did a nice job too on her contacts but didn't wait at the starts well. Deb laughed because Juice did better waiting that Annie did.

c'ya this weekend

now we're weaving 6

I was pleasantly surprised this past weekend that Juice went right from 4 poles in a line to 6 at my BFF's house. It was the 1st time that had happened. Initially when she did 4 at my house and I put 2 more in at 2 & 8 she was confused. At Cathy's I had her weave 4 and she did well so I thought I would try the 6. It looked good and she was starting to bend. When I got home I went to have her do 6 the next day and she acted like she had not seen 6 before and did 4. We have agility class tonight so I'll see if she remembers 6.

I'm still concerned and frustrated with the 3 stride issue. Sometimes I think I won't be able to fix it. Then at other times I know I can I just need to continue to have patience. I am running out of patience right now since it is so close to getting to play. I still will not run her with 2 strides. I just can't give up because at times she is so close. Any feedback from my 2 followers? I ONLY have 2!

1st Agility Class

It was really exciting to get back to agility class last night with Juice and Annie. It was fun to see what they had learned during the off season. Thanks to Angie and her puppy dog walk (in my living room) both dogs had GREAT 2 on and 2 off and stayed there until released. (even with a tunnel 8 feet away from the A-frame. Juice was much better at staying at the start line. Annie did some nice work with me further away from her. I need to work more on that at home and in class. I realized I have too much motion and movement in me which makes her want to be faster. I remember Susan Salo talking about fluid motion. I need to work on that.

Foot Work

At practice on Saturday I did some of what I learned at the Susan Salo Jumping Seminar with Juice. Linda held Juice behind the 2nd jump and released her. I put a tug (target) in front of the 1st jump after the box for juice to put in a 3rd stride and pick it up. Once she did she would then go over the jump. The second set of 5 I put the tug in front of the jump on 1 &2 and after the jump on number 3. She took 3 strides. On the 4th and 5th repetition I again put it in front to encourage the 3 strides. Susan said if you give them the space they need to use it.

At home this morning before work I put down her cardboard for her to put her front feet on. We have been shaping that behavior for weeks now. I put a flyball jump about 6-8 inches away from the cardboard and had her do feet (that is what I labeled it) and then when she did I had her jump over a 9 inch jump for her target. Sometimes she would not touch the cardboard because of her excitement so no reward until it was right. It was like the 2 by 2. When she failed a time or two she understood what not to do. I pray this new work will payoff because I do not have a clue of what else to do. If I can stay with this and hang in there I know we can get it back. I just need to be patient.

4 plus 2

Once I had Juice weaving 4 I added 5 & 6 at 2 & 8 o'clock. I set them at regulation distance and it blew J-dawgs mind. I should have (but didn't know) to put 5 & 6 further away. Now I have them about 8 feet from the 4 and it is working well. I have pole number 3 at about 7 o'clock and she is weaving all poles and running through 5 & 6. I am slowly moving #3 to 6 o'clock. The weather has made it impossible to work the weaves so I guess she will get a bike ride. Later I might work with the tug in front of a jump and getting her to put her front feet on a piece of cardboard in front of a jump.

Quick Morning Session

Worked a quick session before work this am. Poles still at 1 & 7 and at the normal distance apart. We got further around the arc with some nice bending which will soon be called weaving. I'll see what happens tonight and I may tighten them up some. I am going to use a jump and start having her go over it and then find her entrance.

Later

Poles Closer Together

I kept the poles at 1 & 7 but moved them to normal distance and at the easy part of the arc she was doing well. Her little body was starting to weave. I had to sub for another instructor tonight so we did not get to practice. I will tomorrow as long as the weather holds up. I will keep them at 1 & 7 and see if I can move her further around the arc. This 2 by 2 method is unbelievable. It makes so much sense and I love letting Juice fail and then figure out why she did not get her reward.

Stride

At Angie's reommendation I added a cone for Juice to wrap her body around before she places her feet on the cardboard. After she does that her next command is hup (over) a slat placed on the floor. I think that this will be the way she is going to get her 3 strides back. This has been a difficult and challenging task. Just remind me to hang in there please. I got frustrated again after this weekends practice.

New Location

It worked pretty well at Cathy's this weekend. Juice did 1 & 7 four feet apart. Her success rate was not 80% but she did well at a new habitat. Tonight I will do 1 & 7 closer than 4 feet apart and see how that goes. I did notice yesterday the she was starting to bend her body. It looked good.

A whole different story

I am working with the clicker at home to get Juice to put her feet on a piece of cardboard taped to the floor. We had been doing that for a week now and I just gave it a name yesterday. I call it feet. When I tell her feet she looks for her cardboard and puts her front feet on it. Sometimes one foot is on and one is off but it is coming along. I think I will work with it a week more before I do anything that might be flyball related. I will talk to my coaches (Ang, Chris, Denise, Linda, and Cathy before I do anything else with it.)

Still at 1 & 7

Juice is doing well up to a point in the arc. When we get further into the arc she takes the 2nd set first and then has to figure out why she is not getting her toy. We will work on this again tomorrow and see if she has it a little better before we move on. I am not in a hurry to get this done. The 3 strides, that is a whole different story. :)

Red Dawg Day 2

I used food to motivate Rush and it worked. Once he realized what was up I used the tug instead and played. We didn't move into the arc we just kept it simple. He is a sweet boy. He so reminds me of my Big Ole Criuser.

The Red Dawg

Rush is working on the 2 poles side by side. He understands he gets a tug if he goes through them. He doesn't seem to love the tug as a reward. He only likes it. He finds different smells in the yard that are more interesting but he does go through them. I need to make the tug more exciting so we are playing tug in the house and I am pushing him away from me so he drives back. To be continued

Adding 2 Poles

I added 2 poles at 2 & 8 15 feet from the first set. When Juice went through the first set she did not drive to the 2nd set she looked for her reward. She did the same thing the next few times and then she saw the 2nd set and went through them. That seemed to go well so I moved them 7 feet apart and rewarded 50% of the time in between the 2 sets. I then moved them 4 feet apart. She was driving so fast that it was difficult 2 reward her between the 2 but I attempted to do so.

Next we moved to 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock with the 2 sets and that is where we are right now working into the toughest part of the arc. We will stick with this for a day or 2 and then I need to be on the move to different locations. Cathy, Ang, Linda, D what about you guy's.

2 & 8 o'clock

JDawg is doing well with the poles set @ 2 & 8. We are working in all area and she is driving for the entrance. I will do one set tonight at 2 & 8 and the I will add 2 more poles if all goes well.

The Red Dog will have his first session of 2 by 2's tonight. I'll keep you posted.

Starting Over

I started over with the two by two's. Juice is doing well with the poles from the low challenge area so we moved into the higher challenge. After three sessions she handled it well so yesterday we moved to 2 and 8 o'clock. Initially she got confused when I move towards more of a challenge. The 2nd time out it was better. We will try it again this afternoon to see where she is. If it is good we will move to 2 sets of poles possibly tomorrow.

I'm going to take Annie and Juice out for the first bike ride of the season since it is so beautiful outside.

Later

Left & Right Turns

I asked Stephanie (Clicker Teacher) what to do with Juice once she could turn left and right. Stephanie told me to have her turn right and left when Juice was at my side. So I initially had her in heel position and asked for a left and a right and she gave them to me. I thought man this is cool so we attempted the other side. This was a trip every time I said left she turned right. I became a lumper. She kept turning right when I said left. The next day I tried it again and the very same thing happened. I couldn't figure it out. I decided to tell her to turn right because that is what she kept doing. I rewarded her and tried left again. She turned half way to the right and immediately fixed it to the left. Big time motherload and we were done. It is amazing how a change in the picture can make such a difference. More later............

Agility Weekend

Congratulations to Annie, Klepto, and Baby Cherish on an awesome weekend of agility. Annie and I worked together as a team on 3 out of 4 runs. We took 1st in Novice B Jumpers and moved up to Open. We also took 1st in Standard Open. It felt really good. It felt especially good to have Angie and Klepto as competition. Angie and Klepto had some nice runs where they were working as a team. I have seen improvement in their teamwork and they are getting better. When they get their groove on WATCH OUT! Angie did some really nice runs with Baby Cherish and pulled off a beautiful 1st Place.
On another note, Cathy got all the attention this weekend from most everyone at the trial. I guess you have to get hurt to get people to pay attention to you. :) A big thanks to Denise and Chris for coming to support us. I had a wonderful time with everyone of my BFF's in no particular order.......................

Fifth Session

I have been good at keeping the sessions short. (how 'bout that Angie :)) Still working 2 and 8 and moved from side to side. Still having trouble on the 2 o'clock side and I had not been working outside of the initial arc. I thought that was for later. I am going to go back to 2 poles right next to each other for a day or 2 and then go back to 2 & 8. I don't know when that will be because of all the snow.

Fourth Session

Moved the poles to 2 o'clock and 8 o'clock and worked close up. All was good and successful so I started my arc and she still had some difficulties on the 2 o'clock side. I worked slowly on that side but when I would get to the same point as previous she seemed confused.

Third Session

Just a continuation of the last one. She still seemed to have some difficulty from the right side. For the first set of sessions I think we were successful.

Second Session

Once we went outside and she saw the poles we started right where we left off. There was no spinning off of the wall or barking or running. I moved to the right and the left and she new what to do. The further I got to my right (while facing the poles) the more difficult it seemed to be for her. She did well on the left side.

First session

Juice's first session was a real trip. We were in the back yard and she ran around like the crazy wild child that she is. She barked at me and did a push off of the house and came back and just looked at me. Then she looked at the 2 weave polls as if to say what are those silly things and I threw her wabba. She thought that was pretty cool! She ran around again barking and pushing and came back to me. She looked at the polls again and I threw her toy. Then she had the idea to go through them and we were off. I bet I was outside for 4-5 minutes. It was fun to watch her think.

Wednesday 5:00pm

I have just watched half of the first CD. I have not started the weave poles as of yet. My plan is to start tomorrow after work. It appears it will be a beautiful day weather wise for it. I'll let you know how it goes.