June 13 & 14, 2011

nice work with both girls on single striding weaves at 24 inches........good fast teeter with a nose touch............nice cip/cap at 16 inches........

Backyard School 6/11/2011

I put up 6 weave poles in a straight line at 24 inches to work on single striding. When she first learned we used 22 inch spacing. Last winter we worked at 23 and now I am trying 24. I want that single stride with 24. It looks so cool! I worked Annie and Juice using a tennis ball as a reward and they both looked good. I re-read Susan Garrett's 2x2's this morning while waiting to get my car repaired. Might do some teeter work today.

still workin' the parts

After the last couple of trials I realized that I am not helping Juice by entering her. I need much more work on cueing her quickly instead of standing still. I need motion and I have been afraid to run because she is so fast. I need to work all of the skills I have been learning in class and use them appropriately. I have a great foundation with her so I just have to get me on board. It is not the dog. She is awesome! I had class with her on Wednesday and we worked the A-Frame low with a running contact. I was able to walk, run, and jog and she landed where she was supposed too and took a jump. She is running down the end of the dog walk and nailing her nose touch and not looking up until I release her over a jump for a high value reward. If she is not successful we give her another chance and if she is incorrect we help her understand what is wanted. We also worked collection cues to help her understand to read my body language. It was one of the best classes I have had and it gives me much to build on.

Great Private Lesson

I had a great class with JDawg yesterday. She hit the teeter at full speed and landed it! Impressive. I still do much piecework with the teeter. We play the Bang game at home and games of tug from the down side and make sure her feet don't come off. I also have her run up the teeter at full speed without it dropping down and feed, feed, feed. We also play the Bam game with is her digging her nose in the ground. Quite amusing and funny. She ran the down end of the dogwalk at normal height. She doesn't know what to do with her speed right now so she about does a flip at the end if she runs the entire dogwalk. We also focused on the end behavior so she did not come off with my movement. We worked the A-Frame at a very low height. If I am behind her or slightly facing her she lands beautifully in the box. If I am in front of her she does not collect and jumps over the box. Deb helped me work with her in small steps and the end result was very good. I need to continue slowly. This dog is friggin' awesome. One day just wait and see we will be kickin' some dust. I'm just sayin'.

Collection

Just did a quick session with J on collection with speed. I saw improvement. She is reading it better and figuring out what to do with her body. This agility is so friggin' cool.

Running A-Frame

JDawg had class this morning and worked the A-Frame at 2 1/2 feet. She had 2 jumps before the frame to give her speed and one jump after. I was very happy with how she looked. I will slowly raise it. There is no hurry. She also ran the dog walk at full height. She is trying to figure out how to do the nose touch at the end. She had so much speed a couple of times she almost did a handstand. :)I wasn't to excited about the dog walk. While we were in Council Bluffs Iowa she ran the dog walk at 2 feet and ran it fast with a nice nose touch. We will get there.

Still been working Sylvia Trkman's cik/cap. I am starting to work again on collection with speed. Juice doesn't collect but I didn't teach it with speed. I see so many fast dogs that don't collect. There is such a waste of time with all of that speed. I am determined to teach Juice to know when and how to collect by me giving her the appropriate cues.

Much work to do!

I went to a workshop in Council Bluffs Iowa a couple of weekends ago. It was a good time. Juice was all over the place and did not even pay attention to the hand that says collect. It was just a reminder of how green she and I are. We did refreshers on recall to heel. I worked them much last year but didn't incorporate all the speed she has. So I am going back to the basics and then will add speed. I am working it with both girls. I am working cip/cap by Sylvia Trkman again with both girls. We are also doing refreshers with the rear cross.

At the last trial Juice got her 2nd Jumpers leg. She was all over the place though the day before. I'll get it. Anything worth having is worth working for. I am dedicated and persistent.

Last Agility Trial

It wasn't pretty! I just let her run the course and then I would stop. She would come back but when we started again she was off and running. It was UGLY. I didn't get it together until Sunday afternoon on jumpers. Gambler's was good because I had her hit the teeter and do the weaves. We are getting better slow but sure. It is much fun working with her. I am excited that agility classes will start up on Sunday.

Cik/Cap

Well I finally have it spelled the Silvia Trkman way. I downloaded her video yesterday and watched it once. Then I did a small amount of work with both of my girls. Annie who is almost 10 and hasn't had much clicker training says I can turn in a circle by myself why is that stupid cone on the floor. On Silvia's video she shows a comparison of her dog with extremely fast and tight turns and another dog that is fast on the flat but wide on the turns. Her dogs turns are impressive. I'll work with this one for awhile. Annie is pretty tight on the turns as long as I cue her correctly. I want Juice to be also.
Stay tuned for more...................

Weaves and Kap

Just finished a great session of 6 weave poles with all different angles on the wrap side with both Annie and JDawg. Also, finished off with some wraps to the left that I am calling Kap which is different from a left turn. Another great day of practice. I love all of the piece work of agility.

Teeter Pieces

Last night I played the bang game, 1RTO, and some nose touches with Juice. I am liking the 1RTO right now and it may translate into a pseudo running contact. It might be an alternative to a touch end behavior with a stop. I'm thinking it could be a slight slow down to make sure she stays in the yellow but not a total stop. We shall see.

We also worked the Kap of Kip and Kap. It is a wrap around the left side. I am hoping to practice some weaves this afternoon as long as it doesn't rain.

Kip/Kap

I started this with both Juice and Annie. It will mean either wrap to the right or wrap to the left. I'm not sure that I will need it but why not learn it. Juice knows left and right. Annie only knows left at the present time. I just spent some time in the back yard with the girls. I also had them both work 6 weave poles. Hopefully it doesn't rain tonight or tomorrow and we could do a little work in the yard. I'd like to practice some tight rear crosses into the weaves. I messed Annie up in Grand Prix by rear crossing as she entered the poles. I'd also like to practice some running down a plank with the 1RTO.

Morning Teeter, Evening Teeter

By the time she is actually running a true teeter it should be really good. I practiced this morning at 6:30 and then again when I got home. The focus is still piece work and an occasional unexcpected drop down of a full height teeter to a tug. I started Kip/Kap today. My focus was on Kip. I will teach Kip first and then Kap.

I can't wait until I can get to some private sessions with Deb Frank. I need to start working the dog walk at a low height and get back to Rachel Saunders running A-Frame.
Later................

Indiana USDAA Trial

What a great weekend for me and Juice. We were unable to move up in Gambler's since last weekend. She got a 4th Starters Gambler's Leg. It really was good that we couldn't move up because Advanced Gambler's had the dog walk in the gamble. We are not anywhere near ready for the dog walk. I have stopped trying for the running contacts and have taught her the 1RTO during the winter.

Her jumper's run was FABULOUS! She watched me and my cues and ran without error. I was so impressed. I heard some of the people watching saying OMG because she was so fast. She ran a 28 second course in 18.16 seconds and took 1st place. I was so happy with her and myself. To be continued................

Chicago USDAA Trial

Juice got her 3rd Starters Gamblers Leg and took first place. Her first title ever. We had to take a 2nd try at the weaves but she did them and we moved on. We missed on her Jumpers leg but it was better than we have had before. She is starting to look at me instead of "see jump take jump". I had one run with her on Saturday and one on Sunday. I feel positive that we are improving.

Morning Session

It is 6:30 am and we just worked the teeter. The teeter still lives inside. The ice is about all gone. There is still some in the back yard and then it will be muddy for awhile. I did some work with Juice pushing off of the couch and then flying up the teeter. Sometimes I let her drop it down but other times she expects it and hesitate a bit. So I only let it drop when she doesn't expect it too. Today was really good. I used the tug instead of food so she really was psyched. I have been doing all types of piece work with the teeter. It is at full height now. Stay tuned!

Later today I will write about our fabulous weekend in Indiana.............

Wow, what a teeter!

I had a couple good runs with J and learned more about what to do next time. On her Jumpers run I pulled her off of a jump because I pulled away from a wing jump. I didn't put my arm out far enough to push her. She followed me instead. After that she did everything else really well. We would have had a Q but ........I don't really care about the Q. I care more about getting better.

You should have seen her first teeter ever. I have been practicing at home but have never put all of the pieces together. I liked the way the course was laid out and the teeter was after the weaves. I figured why not try it. I would either like it or not. I loved it. Even though I loved it I am back to the piece work at home again. She wasn't expecting that teeter to drop with the speed she had going. She landed it and did not fly off. I'm not sure if I will have her do it again this weekend. It just depends on how I feel in the moment.

She did well on her weaves but I had to send her twice. It as usual was my fault. I did not give her cue fast enough.

to be continued.................

Along for the ride

Juice is coming along just to hang out and get acclimated to the agility enviroment. She is entered in Gamblers on one day and jumpers on the other day. I am going to look at the course and decide if we just do a part and get off the mat and celebrate or if we do more. I'm thinking just part right now. We will see what things look like and I will decide from there. I want her to be successful. Stay tuned..........

Teeter

The teeter lives in the living room right now. I have had it in the house for about 10 days because of all of the snow. I am doing a lot of piece work with it and it is so fun for both girls. Juice has been able to learn that a nose touch on the ground (dirt) can be done on wood and carpeting. I need to go out and buy a small piece of artificial turf so it translates to that also. I don't know that I will have her do a nose touch but I might. I started 1RTO with just a 5 foot by 1 foot piece of wood on the floor about a month ago. Now she is doing 1RTO on the actual teeter end. I haven't put all of the parts of the teeter together yet. I am still doing the bang game, BAM (nose touch), food coming from underneath the teeter, and the 2 table method. I wonder what it will look like one day. I haven't worked her on the A Frame with the box method since I decided not to teach flyball at Westin anymore. I will meet with Deb Frank for some private lessons and will practice the dogwalk and AFrame by back training.

What an absolute agility NERD I have become. So fun............later

No more Plank and running contact work

I have decided to give up on this. I have worked at home since March of last year on learning running contacts. I have read and talked with numerous people about this. Some sessions were really good and others were not. After attending the New Year's Agility Trial and watching Stacy and Lori's dogs miss the running contacts numerous times I decided to stop. They have been training for much longer than I have and are having trouble. I am now training the 1RTO. Juice now has a nose touch at the end of the teeter and that may translate to the dog walk if I need it.