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Kaladin & Min – Threadle Wraps with more motion- 8/2/21
Yay for less smoke and lower 60s in the morning! (enjoying it until the heat comes back in a few days). This was our 2nd session with more motion, by adding the barrel. I’m noticing both dogs looking up at me more on the left wraps. Not sure if it’s because I tend to use the inside arm cue more on the left because I know it’s their weaker turning direction? Planning to add a low jump bar next.In other news, Kaladin has been doing better in very short sessions in the backyard. I brought Nemo back out plus meatballs and he was even doing short easy jump/tunnel sequences right over the mulberries last week.
He did amazingly well over the weekend. He tagged along to the USDAA trial on Saturday and got to play in the big field with me. He was doing so well with the pattern game and motion override in the vicinty of the ring that we even did a few practice jumps for Nemo. By then it was hot and muggy so he wasn’t zippy, but he also stayed engaged and ignored dogs barking in a car about 20ft away. Sunday he got to do 3 runs at UpDog and didn’t blink at the soccer games (a field away) or the passing cars (closer and behind him but with a fence). In the first game my rogue roll ended up near the line judge so he kept going and sniffed her (she pointedly ignored him and he didn’t jump up) I went over to him and said his name and then he chased me back to the throwing zone and didn’t go visit anyone else after. In the next game another rogue roll sent the frizzer really close to his happy hour meatball container (which was 15ft away from the “ring boundaries”). He sniffed briefly but then spun around when I called and raced back. Before this weekend I had decided to not enter him in UKI at the end of August and now I’m questioning that…a bit. (mainly because the next local UKI is early October and then maybe Dec if the OTR trial happens. Min gets a solo trip to the Midwest Cup in Sept so that I can focus on her) Feel free to talk me off the ledge. He has 1 more day of UpDog next weekend and then he can also just tag along to Duluth and do more work on the practice jump and around the ring.
I pushed the distance and sends & goes more with Min at USDAA on Saturday and she was brilliant. In fact she was so confident I got an extra jump (and the backside which was on her line) in Gamblers when I didn’t spit out the wrap cue soon enough (only dog to carry out that far in Gamblers but she was correct). I will have to go re-watch my videos to confirm but I am pretty sure I didnt’ say yes or yay nearly as often as I normally do. She also put on her cape and launched off the DW (penultimate obstacle in standard) so we Fix & Continued for a brilliant running contact on the 2nd try and headed out for her happy hour meatballs.
Kaladin – Distraction Training – 7/29/21
This is our 2nd session with the mulberries. I did one a few days earlier but it was already pretty hot & steamy and I let it go too long so I started losing him. This one went better. Other than chopping off me getting organized at the beginning, I left the video intact because I wanted to make sure I was going about this the right way. He’s looking up more even as we walk through the mulberries. He was also better about playing with the toy this time. I was using the tug toy as a bit of a test since we all know he almost always will catch Nemo.
I don’t know if it’s the extended heat wave or some delayed hormones or just his age (21 months), but I feel like he’s been more susceptible to distractions in the last several months and less into doing anything that requires more thought (like agility). Or maybe it’s just that we’ve been able to get out and about more in the summer so that’s made it more obvious what he didn’t get to learn when younger when we were locked down.
On the bright side, the pattern game is helping a lot on walks and he’s getting pretty good at glancing at but not reacting to even reactive dogs as long as we are at least 10ft away.It’s actually getting cooler tomorrow, but now we have the Canadian wildfire smoke so I don’t want to run me or the dogs around outside so I may have to wait a bit before I try earlier blinds with a threadle with Min. It’s supposed to get blown away sometime on Friday (and before the USDAA trial on Sat and our UpDog on Sunday)
Min – Games 3 – Seq 3 – 7/28/21
We got a short storm with rain this morning which cooled things off marginally for about an hour before it turned into a sauna again. (If I liked this weather, I’d move back to Singapore!) I snuck in Seq #3 as the sauna was ramping up again and wisely quit instead of trying Seq 4.
I managed some reps without saying Yay! (and Don’t Say Yay also rhymes better). You probably can’t tell on the video, but I did notice that she was flicking her eyes up at me after the wing wrap in expectation of a yes or yay.
If the fence hadn’t been there, I might have needed a left for the 180 but cueing it and turning away too quickly clearly made her think she should come through the gap on the first rep. Then I cued the BC to get the penultimate jump too early and got the other direction. Whoops!Well given the heat indices for this week, walking around and tossing treats sounds like a great use of time.
The hard part for me is determining whether he’s fully engaged or only faking it and prone to get distracted again. He will do the pattern game and quickly turn his head up at me after each treat and then we’ll do some tricks which he does quickly. Then we try something else and he’s off cleaning up mulberries!
Sometimes I can tell because he is mouthy about a tug toy and not really grabbing on, but he doesn’t always act that way when he’s only partially tuned in.Kaladin & Min – Games 3 – Sequences 1&2 – 7/26/21
Got rid of the furthest out jump so I could get the other jumps at the real distances. Cropped it out, but we did the Instant Focus game 2x and he immediately engaged with the cap. Then did a few tricks. He was feeling poky about the wing so started in a sit stay and then promptly lost him to the stupid mulberries right at the tunnel exit. He was so busy scarfing them down, I did block him from them and then did the pattern game. Had mixed results with that until I did it walking back and forth through the edge of the mulberries by the jump. Should I proactively do the pattern game through the mulberry detritus right at the beginning?Min – 7/26/21
I had done these on Sunday with all the jumps set up and shorter distance which felt cramped even with Min. So I decided to do them again with the jumps at 18 or more feet apart.
There’s still a lot of “yes”‘ floating around but the “toss” cue to go get the food on the ground at the end sounds a lot like yes on the video so the “don’t say yes” program is slowly starting to work.Kaldin & Min – Skills 3 – Threadle Wrap with Motion – 7/26/21
Moved to the front yard. Both of them are not convinced that “in in” is a release word so I decided to do the tossed treat for some reps instead. They were both doing well so I added a wrap to the “front” side of the wrap and then went back to the threadle wrap.
Perfect – I was just thinking I should take the threadle wrap wing game outside.
Is this the correct timing?
Dog is in sit and I start moving to the wing
I cue In In. This releases the dog
I use a small outside arm for the flipor should I cue and then move?
I think I’m going to remove the furthest out jump on the games 3 sequences so that I can spread out the rest of them. I had to crunch it down by 3-4 ft from the map to fit all the jumps in but really the handling happens on the 3 closer to the tunnel. And I bet I can recreate the mulberry distraction even though I flipped the sequence 90 deg to get better footing and not leave jumps under the mulberries (they stain PVC)
Min got into your OTR Event Prep on Sunday in Sept! Sadly the Young dog lines/turns on Friday filled up with Nancy’s students before it got to my group of past seminar participants. I was debating the young masters dog on Thursday for Kaladin since he has good skills, but I wasn’t sure if he would fit with that group if he decided to be Distracto-Boy. While I was thinking about it, Thursday filled up too. Kaladin is on the wait list right now for Friday.
Kaladin & Min – Skills 3 – Threadle Wrap with Cue – 7/25/21
Added the “In In In” cue and tried to be more subtle with the outside arm flick. I think I was mashing the verbal and the arm cue too much.
Kaladin – Games 3 – Sequences 1&2 – 7/25/21
Took the Instant Focus Game outside and got him interested in an actual tug toy instead of Nemo or the frizzer. Thought he was engaged and then lost him to the mulberries next to the starting wing. (Something shiny!)
Sequence 1 –
He turns well both directions but I felt like I was late on my rotation. (Take 2 weeks off and my timing is rusty with him compared to Min!)
Sequence 2 –
Again felt late on the FCs and completely lost him on the first BC.
At least he was happy tugging on the fleece ring.
Kaladin & Min – Skills 3 – Threadle Wrap – 7/21/21
Kaladin is doing nicely and Min keeps thinking she should wrap the wing. Is it because I’m leaning forward? (Really hard not to do with the little shrimp)
Min – Games 1 – Std 1 – 7/13/21
I don’t usually push her this much on distance in the weaves so was really pleased about her weaving ahead of me and the 2nd option when I faded laterally. Clearly I should have cued the tunnel next or a get it.
Kaladin – Games 2 – Sequence #2 &3 – 7/11&12/21
Great feedback on seq #1. Not sure when I will get back to it, but have made notes to try more business and less cheerleading and send and go more. I find that hard in the backyard because it is cramped. I had to squeeze everything in 2-3ft to get it to fit with 2/3 of a DW on the side. Here are sequences 2 &3 that were done more than a week ago.
Seq 2 – 7/11/21
I liked 1-3. Very late in my dig-dig to 5 so he was wide. I liked the BC to the 2nd tunnel. He jumped the inside of 8. Completely lost connection on the way to the last jump so he came inside the jump. Good boy. Think I should have said the Go before he went in the tunnel but I was on my third tunnel at the time!Practice – Earlier dig dig cue 4-5 and use “yes” for him to drive to me, Cue Go before last tunnel & connection after. Practice FC before 2nd tunnel just for kicks
Seq 3 – 7/12/21
Kaladin – Games 1 – Std 1 – 7/13/21
This was the night before his neuter but I’m just getting around to posting it now.
This was his first visit to Chaia’s. We did some environmental acclimation, Teeter games and a set of 6 poles as a warm up and then I popped him back in his crate to chill while I ran Min. Video is his 2nd session but first running the course. We had a detour to go visit Chaia that I had to collect him from, but at the end I noticed he flicked his eyes to her while going by but then refocused on the course (Yay! Frisbie time!). I had intended to reward right before the teeter but was late and he was headed to it so I went with it and he got his meatball after. It was hot and muggy and his little fluffy puppy brain was working hard with all the new stuff so I didn’t experiment with different handling. He got to rest after this while Min ran the other course.Kaladin – Instant Focus – 7/21/21
I decided to be lazy and use the old baseball cap and a front foot target. It’s portable and I didn’t have anything else lying around that was appropriate.
Did the first session as a warm up since we hadn’t done anything with the cap for months. Didn’t intend to have Demi wandering around as an added distraction but Kaladin ignored her and was fine working in his doughnut.
Second session was a few hours later with the cap and treats planted ahead of time.Kaladin is having a fun farm stay with Skye for the next few days and the girls are hanging out in Karen Marquardt’s “Sheltie Room” with her two Shelties and 2 MNSR fosters. I have videos to catch up on posting but won’t be back in MN with the dogs until Saturday afternoon.
