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Thank you for all of the feedback from last week.
Wilder has poor depth perception – it shows up in daily tasks like walking up different flights of stairs or climbing up the patio stairs. He misjudges the depth of the steps. That translates to knocked bars in agility when he takes off too early. He does better when I keep an eye on him when we are parallel but in distance work when I can send him ahead he does much better.Lit’l Bit is still in PT but she is improving. She is full of herself and working off her energy in scent trials which don’t require stress on the body. She is treated by Dr. Faith Lotsikas at Skylos in Maryland – great staff.
Tracy, this was a different assignment and very helpful. Now that I have the course setup I’ll try for a different course tomorrow morning. Along with the intense heat we have storms last week breaking off tops of 3 large trees in our backyard. All the damage was finally cut up and hauled away yesterday so I can play in the yard again.
We ran Master Sequence 1 twice because of 2 knocked bars (disconnect on BC and/or sunlight in my eyes – not sure which was the cause.) Had 1 one refusal in the 2nd run but it was a much better run – Wilder looked happy!
I will try the overlay in iMovie on my next video – that is new for me but found instructions and I’ve always wanted to try that.
thank you,Package 3 Master Sequences 2 & 3 in same video with Wilder (my analysis…)
Sequence 2: Once we were successful on the backside push at jump #6 I kept faulting on the turn at #7. Not sure what happened in the first attempt – he did a rear cross to the left and I’m trying to do a wrap to the right. Next time I used an early switch command trying for the rear cross (should have said Jump, Switch) so he switched on the flat in front of #7. Good boy.
Sequence 3: BC from #4 to backside push #5 proved more difficult than I expected. I was successful on the BC when I got eye contact immediately after the BC before he took #4 jump. Backside push to #8 then #9 is better for us when I FC between #8 to #9. Just keeping my eye on him allows me to move faster up the line.Package 3 Novice Sequences with Wilder
had lots of fun with these – this is a good setup for many variations of exercises.
Package 3 Skill Sets with Wilder – I’m posting late due to the extreme heat – getting outside at 6am is helping so we just are doing shorter practice sessions.
Really struggling with backside pushes and threadles; on 2 video clips.
2nd clip with threadles – Wilder took the front side of the jump about 10 times. We finally walked through it; then I tried it with him on by right side with a force front/BC. It works – just not as smooth.
Package 2, Skills Sets – Tunnel Exits
Wilder
Lit’l Bit (this is her last submission for awhile – left shoulder soreness, PT and rest for at least a month)
Pkg 2 Master Sequences – Wilder. Sequences show we need more work with longer spacing between jumps. Unless I am sending him ahead for a distance challenge, I have to pace myself with him or he knocks bars when I move ahead. He knocks more bars at 4″ than 8″ so I finally moved bars up at the end. We tried a few variations of the ending on the sequence 3.
Master Sequences with Wilder
Running at 6:30am to avoid the heat – unfortunately the sunrise is blinding me…Will start earlier next time.
Did a few restarts here due to Wilder releasing himself on the first run and I could not see him doing it; and some of my handling did not go as well as planned.I am very pleased with his improvement on taking the backside of the jump – BIG improvement.
Package 1 Skill Sets
Exercise 1-8 (omit 5) – these were fun but hard to remember which way to turn; much like agility class when multiple courses are setup with same equipment so good practice for the brain.
Here is Lit’l Bit with bars on the ground:
Here is Wilder running lower height 4″ – not sure if we did them in the correct order or flow but I’m happy he kept working (we did a bit of “Wabbit Hunting” in the middle of the sets to keep him motivated.)
Good morning – unfortunately work schedule prevented us from additional video posting and our agility classes stopped about 4 weeks ago so no place to work through distractions.
Planned to take Lit’l Bit to a trial on Saturday Dec 28 (same show as Susan and Avery) but Lit’l Bit was out of sorts in the early AM on Saturday. She would not do stairs in the house and I had to carry her out to potty. She recovered in about 2 hours and was her usual sassy self so we practiced in the backyard instead.I have really enjoyed this course – it wasn’t quite what I thought it would be but I am very pleased with the reading material and exercises. I didn’t realize the importance of “sniff walks”. In the past few months my little dog was been refusing to walk with me on leash at trial sites and classes. When I purchased a halter this behavior was less frequent but still extreme – have never had this problem with any of my other dogs. When I started giving her long sniff walks she was happy again. Then I started remembering 20 years ago when I started agility with my first female mini schnauzer and I always arrived early to allow her time to sniff the grounds, outside the trial ring, etc. Gee…I was on to something way back then.
Plan to catch up with the exercises and work through all the steps.
thank you,
DeniseMost trials require us to enter the ring prior to the other dog finishing so no treats allowed and if she is really focused on another dog she won’t eat. But picking her up is a good idea (which I have tried before.) This past weekend I had great success with carrying her into the ring, sitting her down and not moving until she stopped looking at the dog leaving the ring. She is so intent on the dog leaving that the judge is watching Lit’l Bit to see what might be happening!
I carried her into the ring on 2 of the runs, pushed her butt gently down, maintained eye contact while leading out and she ran great. We ended Sunday afternoon with a Q in standard class which has not happened in awhile. She was running fast and happy. I only ran her in 2 classes a day and skipped the other classes even though we had entered them prior to starting this class. She came close to Q’ing in the snooker but smoked me halfway through the course by running to the table about 30 feet away because she thought I was sending her there (in CPE the table is used to end the run.)
I was so excited to see her running so fast and about 80% focused on her runs.
Thanks for the advice – now I need to catch up on assignments.very nice of you to extend course – please take care of yourself so you can enjoy some of the holiday season
Lit’t Bit and I started Rally about 3 months ago (I’ve shown other dogs before.) I use rally practice as part of our warm up routine for agility. This seems to calm her and creates more focus on me; I feel this is because she knows what is expected and has been heavily rewarded for each of this exercises (tricks) she offers a very nice and peppy performance. Along with warm up exercises and verbal commands (most of these were learned from other online Agility University courses) she has a good routine.
I also found if I ask for a nose touch to my hand when lining her up at the start jump she is happy and holds her stay.
Could this be considered a type of “shadow handling?”
We will also be working on the circling work but do I need to keep her on leash? She is happy to work off leash with me.
thanks for feedback,I can ask my classmates to help me out when class resume or when we have an open practice session.
Right now Lit’l Bit has trouble focusing when the dog before us is preparing to leave the ring in class or at a trial so I keep her on leash until the other team has cleared the ring.
I am able to do rally exercises (on leash) next to the agility ring while a dog is running in the ring and other people are warming up their dogs near us.Agility video – this is video of the first exercise from a jump seminar we are attending Sat and Sun this weekend. Same location as our agility classes and the rally trial we attended Friday.
This starts with just moving her to the first grid jump with the distraction of a group of people to our right (out of camera view.) She loves to sniff shoes and is trying to get past me to get to the instructor. This also includes 2 do-overs which can lead to a “flat” performance. I think she handled this well.
At the end is a short clip back at the crate area where I had put a blanket down and she settled herself into a down laying on 1 hip. When I noticed what she was offering I reinforced with treats and taped her. This is the first time she has offered this behavior (at home or away.)
Here is a short snuffle mat video taken yesterday at a rally trial. Building has 2 large rooms – rally was in the next room and an agility seminar was in our room. Small section was fenced out for overflow crating for the rally trial. There are 9 dogs crated close by and a few are out of crates with handlers warming up for their rally runs. I was crated next to the swinging doors separating the 2 rooms.
Spent about 6 minutes with mat but I cut it short as my friends and I were talking the entire time (sorry for the constant chatter.) Loved how she was not distracted by the other dogs.
I also used a mat yesterday to help calm Lit’l Bit down. In her morning run she was very happy and eager to be in the ring. In the afternoon my friend’s dog was injured next to our crate area – lots of yelping from the dog. I went over to help the handler and dog, fortunately it was a minor injury. When I came back Lit’l Bit would not come out of her crate, was very hesitate when I was walking her and the warm up for the next trial was not going well. So I pulled out a small blanket, used it as a mat and we spent a few minutes on the relaxation routine. She calmed down, we repeated our rally warm up and a very peppy dog was back in the rally ring with a high score.
I was so pleased with her performance and the calming effect from the mat and snuffle mat work. Thank you for this course – just what we needed.
