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