2 X 2 Weave training with Nugget

Nug getting ready to try the freshly taped poles.

 

This weekend I started weave training with Nugget. After several sessions we have gone from 2 poles angled on the reward line at 9 and 3 (of a clock face) to 2 sets of poles angled at 1 and 7 and about 7 feet apart. 

Things seem to be clipping along at a pretty good rate. One factor is that Nugget really seems to like the pole game as much as she likes to retrieve. My struggle has been the timing of my throw and the accuracy, but she is forgiving on all accounts and just keeps playing.

Work and Play / Just once more!

Today while Deb and I were training, we got out the stop watch and for every second of work, we had a second of play.
The 7 obstacle sequences we were running were taking between 20 and 27 seconds, from the beginning of the lead out to the last obstacle. Some runs went smoothly, and others not so much, but after each sequence I tugged with Reese for the amount of time we spent on the sequence.

This idea came to me after reading part of Marsha Houston’s Blog “The Two Minute Dog Trainer”. In the blog, Marsha talked about working drills, and that often we get so caught up in getting it right that we don’t reward our dogs for their efforts. I like to think that I am not guilty of doing everything "Just one more time" and forgetting to reward, praise and end when Reese still wants to play. So doing this was a bit of an eye opener for me.

Playing for the same amount of time as we worked was very exhausting, but exhilarating for both Reese and I.
Some observations:
1. Reese was totally focused on what we were doing..Before the sequence, during the sequence and after the sequence.
2. Physically, there was no way that I could tug for a full 27 seconds, though I am sure Reese could. So in the play time, I started running with Reese, so she had to stay with me rather then tug against me. She really seemed to like this and surprising to me she did not cross in front of me, behind me, jump on me or miscue to the tug (read bite me).
3. Having to play for the same amount of time that we worked, really had me breaking things down in to smaller, manageable parts. I worked on 3 obstacles and when I got the hard part., I stopped and played.

My criteria in training is for Reese to do things with speed and motivation. So it makes sense to keep things short and fun rather then try to train when she is tired or disinterested. So really Less is More!.

Reese's 1st Agility Trial-

On January 22, 2011, Reese was entered in her 1st Agility Trial. It was held in Moose Jaw by the Band City Kennel and Obedience Club.

We entered 2 Gambler Rounds and 2 Standard rounds. Reese had some really good stuff happening despite the allure of the horse nuggets. She held all her start lines, did 6 and 12 weaves and completed one of the main gambles. She also maintained her criteria of a 2 on 2 off on all contacts, except 1. That one was a biggy and despite it having great crowd appeal, it was not so entertaining to me. In fairness though, I don't think they were laughing at the flyoff, but more at her retaliation to the teeter.




The video shows the flyoff in her 1st Standard run and then after the table it goes on to her 2nd Standard run and it shows she remembers the proper way to do the teeter. Even though Reese was over taken by the arena smells and the zoomies in a few places, I was very happy with a lot of stuff she did and it gave me a good indication of where we are with our training.

Agility Grids - Blank course maps

Have you ever wanted or needed a grid to map a course in competition or at a seminar? The Agility Nerd has a web site where you can create blank course maps of any size, download them as PDFs, print them and share them with your friends.
Here is the web site. http://agilitycourses.com/
It sounds like the page may have more capablilities in the future. The grids would also be useful for Rally O Courses.

Teaching the dog to "GO ON"

I was looking for an exercise to help Reese realize, when given permission, it is okay to move ahead and take what is in her path. I found an exercise in Bud Houston’s “Joker’s Notebook” , where he uses hoops set at an equal distance apart to do this.

We got 3 hula hoops and taped them to the jump standards. We took just 1 hula hoop and got the dog to go through it, throwing a toy along an established reward line. Then added hoop 2 about 5 feet away, with success we moved on to adding the 3rd, hoop. Once the dogs were doing all 3 hoops, we started increasing the distance between the hoops. We were working with 5 dogs. Three of the dogs were fairly young and inexperienced. By the time we completed a 5 minute session, they were travelling about 15 to 20 feet ahead of their handlers on the “GO” The two more experienced dogs were travelling 30 to 35 feet ahead of their handlers and the handlers were getting enough lateral distance to be able to layer a tunnel 10 ft from the jumps. It was a fun exercise for the dogs and you could see their confidence increase with each run. We will do this again.

Rear End Awareness - More Puppy Stuff

In all we do with our dogs we ask for some very precise movements. It only makes sense to take some time to develop their back end awareness . I like ladder work as well as different pole configurations to help dogs of all ages develop co-ordination and rear end awareness.

With the ladder the dog should step in each rung. Speed is not important and the dog should not hop through the ladder. The poles are one of my favourite things, this configuration came from a Tellington Touch book. The book uses cavelletti poles in all different configurations to develop confidence in horses and dogs, the confidence comes through body awareness and shows up in movement and carriage. This particular pattern (I call it the star) can be made more challenging by lifting the poles to rest on the tunnel. The handler can actually stand inside the tunnel and have the dog walk the raised portion of the pole. This would be pretty advanced for a puppy, not to mention too easy for the handler.

The video below is of a typical training session with 17 week old Reese. She is loosing teeth left and right, or we would normally tug once we completed an exercise. For this session we used praise and treats. It works , and I think it is good to alternate motivators and reinforcers.

Baby it's cold outside!!!!!

The weather has been very cold (-29C feeling like -38 with the windchill) , preventing Reese from flying here. Not only that, Ardi is not getting out for much exercise. We took advantage of me being off of work and went indoors to do some jump work.
Below are the 2 combinations we set up. The first is just 3 jumps, set very close together, height was fairly low. We started with the wing jump and and did the right or left jump depending which side I was on. This got Ardi bounce striding and at the same time bending to complete the next jump. We did 3 each way then moved on to the second set up.

The second set up offers a lot of combinations to practise pinwheels, turns and crosses. We had a lot of fun with this and I had a chance to practice some of my verbal cues as well.

Week 14 - Suzanne Clothier's Jumping Chute

This is a picture of the set up for week 14 of Suzanne Clothier's Jumping chute. Deb and I have been working Rush a 2 year ol Sheltie and Ardi an almost 7 year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever. This picture was taken when the jumps were set for Ardi. The set up is a Vertical Jump-2 Strides- Tire Jump-2 Strides-Vertical Jump-1 Stride- Higher Vertical-2 Strides-Crossed Vertical Jump-1 Stride-Oxer Jump.

The interesting thing about this set up, is that it adds many challenges at one time. It introduces 2 new jumps, we chose the tire and the cross vertical. Also adds one jump at higher then normal height and although the intitial instructions say there are 5 jumps, the instructions for set up include 6 jumps. One more then any of the previous 13 weeks. We thought it may be a test to see if anyone sticks with it to the 14th week. We could have eliminated the 6th jump, but decided to do it as out lined. It did present some challenges to both Ardi and Rush. Rush's challenge was the tire, but he found no problems with the other jumps. Ardi's challenge came at the cross vertical after the higher jump. The instructions for the program suggests you stay at the same lesson until the dogs have mastered the chute rhythmically and smoothly. Here are the clips of both Ardi and Rush completing the chute. We repeated the lesson 3 times and these were taken on the last repeat.