[Julie Heller]

Kaladin – Send to Weaves – 6/25/21
Bit slower when I’m hanging back or fading laterally but he did his weaves! I ran with him on the last one to end on an easier one.

Teeter & Happy Hour – 6/24/21
I had intended to do a few Teeter games, a full one and then see how he sent ahead but he is stalling out a bit as he rides it down so I decided not to send him on ahead without me. He started this the last session about a week earlier so I added the target back in to to see if that moved him into 2o2o faster. I think it did but he still looks a bit sticky to me.

And yes- for the RDW, what I was excited to see was you focus forward on your job and when cued, we run to your jackpot raw food. It sure beats him looking at me as he’s striding through the target.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Julie Heller.

[Julie Heller]

Kaladin’s Happy Hour – 6/22 & 6/25/21
Did a refresher session with Nemo with our new word (Happy Hour) and discovered we need to tug more with our agility leash as he wasn’t sure about grabbing it at first.

Did a couple more short sessions for Nemo (outside) and treats (inside) and then decided to see what would happen when I combined “happy hour” with his RDW. The best reward I’ve found for that is to send ahead to the Pet Tutor followed by some raw food in a toppl so he can’t scarf it down. Only problem is that if I carried the toppl or placed it off to the side on the grond, he would turn his head as he hit the target. Put it on a mill crate and he looked back at it as we left but kept his head forward on the DW! (The first rep he tried to start running up the teeter after the PT but then he sorted it out)

[Julie Heller]

DW at 28in -6/25/21

I think I must have had the DW lower than 24in as I moved it up several rungs and now it’s at 28in. I used a game from Tracy’s Camp where “happy hour” is his cue that we are running to his reward (his raw food on the milk crate). That got the distracting raw food out of my hand so he focused forward!
First 2 reps I had the regulator at Min’s distance (6in above). Whoops! He had a much easier time of it when I moved it to 12in above the target.

[Julie Heller]

Kaladin – Send to Tunnel – 6/22/21
I need a bigger yard! (The DW is diagonally across my back yard right now). He seemed happy to send to the tunnel but my throwing really sucks.(yes the frizzer hit the tripod on the first throw. Luckily I have a new tripod. The old one would have fallen over.

We did the Tunnel since I’m not sure his teeter or weave skills are strong enough for this much independence yet. I plan to try but am expecting I will need to move forward more. And for his teeter, I plan to put the target back out. Should I run up to reward him in position with food or try releasing and throwing a toy?

Min – Send to Tunnel & Weaves – 6/22/21
Did a few tunnels to warm up and them swapped it out for weaves. I think Sunday warmed her up for this as she doesn’t usually send straight ahead in the weaves if I am not going at least partly with her.

[Julie Heller]

Low DW with Stride Regulator – 6/14&6/15/21
Experimented with a stride regulator. My target mat is currently about 2 slatted sections worth.
6/14 video
Started with it about 6in above the target and didn’t like that. He tended to jump over it and miss the target. Moved it to about 12in above the target and that was better

6/15 video
Tried it at the top of the yellow (36in USDAA contact) and that also didn;t seem to help. Moved it back to about 12in above the target (near that top slat) and I think that’s what works best at least at this low height.

Should I start raising the DW a bit so that he doesnt’ get too stuck in a rut at this low height? If so, do I go up gradually? Looking in the lessons it looks like you go from about half height to full height or maybe I missed more intermediate heights. And will the placement of the stride regulator shift as the DW angle changes?

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Julie Heller.

[Julie Heller]

Low DW – 6/13/21
Full DW (at least with PT & Raw food) meets his criteria for being interesting enough to run. I tried this session without a stride regulator above the target to get a baseline. Since his current mat is about the length of 2 slats, I’ll try the stride regulator somewhere in the slat above it (or maybe close to the slat if it looks like having it in the middle part throws him off)

I have questions on the 3rd & 4th reps – His front feet strode into the contact, but he missed the target (or only hit with 1 foot) and he also gathered himself to launch off so I didn’t reward those. Just wanted to confirm that was the right decision since he didnt’ get 2 feet into the target. Interestingly he did them in a row so apparently the first non-reward didn’t really sink in. (we did a trick for a cookie before we did the next session just to help prevent him from slowing down and trotting)

Have you noticed differences in dogs learning a RDW with a slatted vs slatless board? My up plank right now is slatless so I can work on both. I do run mainly USDAA and UKI though so my dogs usually only encounter a slatless board occasionally in training.

[Julie Heller]

Hi Jordan,

I was able to borrow an adjustable DW from a friend to tide me over until mine shows up sometime in August. So far I’ve had it set up with just 1 down plank so that I can tuck it in the corner of the yard and not take up the whole back yard with it.

After a bunch of experimenting, it seems like I get the best success using a Pet Tutor to focus him forward and his raw food after the PT to keep him interested in running more than 3 or 4x. I’ve had some mixed success sending him around a wing. Without a PT or a wing ahead he tends to look at me as he’s going down the plank and I don’t want to practice that!

6/2/21 – This used a wing and then his raw food in a toppl. I have better success if I lead out some. If I hang back or stay completely stationary he tends to trot and not drive out to the wing. I get some great separation running through the target and some where his hind feet are bunched together so he can spring off the target or where he breaks stride to trot and then canters through the target. I don’t feel like I have enough really good reps to not reward the so so ones where he still hits the target.

6/9/21 – Memorial Day weekend had lovely late spring weather in the 60s/70s and then this awful heat wave came in last week and is forecasted to stay in the 90s another week at leat. It was still in the low 90s at 7pm so I was pretty happy with this one. I put the PT out to focus him forward but used his raw food in a toppl as a second reward after he got his treat out of the PT.

I feel like we’re stalling out so I am thinking of shifting the DW so that I can add the up plank and have him run over the whole low DW, With that length I think I am going to have to lead out and then move slowly or pick up my pace and move with him. I guess it will be a balancing act between moving just enough that he keeps running (ideally ahead of me) but not so much that he starts launching more.

Question on the target – does the color matter? When I was using my blue plank, the yellow yoga mat contrasted. Now I’ve got the yellow contact zone so I’m wondering if he needs a different color mat or if that just makes it harder to fade? Is the dog looking for the target based on it contrasting with the contact zone color?

[Julie Heller]

Tracy,

Aha- I can see the frizzer toss to 5 o clock in the 6 &4 with Elektra.
OK so is this my progession?
1) few more sessions on 6 with the 3&4 slightly offset. Start adding in more of my motion
2) Straight 6. Then add in harder angles and my motion later
3) 6&4 – The 4 is slightly offset
4) Box cars

Find Em sometime after step 2 (straight 6) is easy.

I only have 3 sets of 2x2s so will need to get him used to my PVC (or stick in the ground) set of 6 as step 2A before the 6&4.

This has been such a great course. Thanks!

Julie

[Julie Heller]

6 Nearly Straight – 5/30/21
No wind and only 58 this morning so that helped. Started with 3&4 offset just enough that the edges touched the opposite edges of the other sets. Accidentally threw too soon the first time. Whoops. I also didn’t get crazy with my motion since the last session was a bit of a debacle. I liked how he was running into them and the striding seemed pretty good.
Then moved them a smidge closer so that the middle of 3&4 lined up to the edges of the others. Used less motion. He was successful but I think he’s a bit more confused on the striding and isn’t quite bouncing.
So now I feel like we are back to where we were about 2 weeks ago but he looks happy and this time I quit while we were ahead.

[Julie Heller]

Find Em – 5/25/21 and 2x2s on 5/27
Took Monday off after the UKI trial. Then tried a Find Em in the front yard on Tues. It was still rather warm.

Then did the nearly straight 2x2s today. It was about 45 as opposed to 80 two days earlier!
Started with the middle set offset a bit more than the last time we did these. Then closer them a smidge and he started having trouble entering or staying in until I dialed my motion way back.

[Julie Heller]

Oh good reminder! I think I was focused on sticking closer for the full teeter so then turned in as he was riding it down. Teeter was also right by the ring barrier with people on the other side so super happy about him ignoring that! And LOL! we’ll just make up sequences in class when it’s teeter time since he’s way further along than the rest of the class for it.

So – I entered him in 4 classes this weekend (2 each day). #4 is Agility because it’s the last one of the day on Sunday. If everything goes really well for the other 3 and if the teeter is not too far from the reward box, what do you thing about me trying some elevator games with his target and then running to get meatballs? I have about 1 trial a month in a fenced outdoor location this summer lined up for him, but the next few are USDAA where I dont’ think I can bring in the target. The next UKI isn’t until the end of August.

Julie

[Julie Heller]

Full Teeter at class – 5/20/21
Short rep in class with a jump leading into the teeter. Previously he had done really well taking a jump to tunnel with Annelise standing behind the tunnel and facing him and ending on a jump that was headed to her (and turning away from her with me to go to his harness) so we kept this one short since he had used up a lot of brain power on the short sequences. And my gorillapod slipped a bit in the middle so enjoy the slanted view partway through.
I think my teeter is going to move to the backyard next week so that will be new for him.

[Julie Heller]

Tracy,

I think you’re right. He probably was still a bit wiped out from all the excitement over the weekend. He was a rockstar at the mini jumping seminar at OTR. Then just being in and around the barn in Duluth was really hard for him. We did some great hikes for decompression each day but that was a lot of new places and people for his furry little puppy brain to process.

For the Find Em – keep the same weave alignment (all a smidge open) to add more motion and then circle back later closing some of them? We’re getting lots of heat, humidity and storms here so no idea if we’ll be doing any training at home until next week or not.

I checked with Lori about the leash during NFC and she was totally cool with it. She’s also on board with us doing casual walk bys of her and meeting her with lots of treats before she offically measures him later in the day. (Yay for entering the penultimate and last set of classes in the day!)

[Julie Heller]

Find Em – 2×2 with Tunnel & Wings – 5/19/21
We had a meh session with nearly straight 6 poles on Monday where he started popping out when I tried moving more. I decided to switch to the Find Em today to try something different and he did amazingly well considering it suddently got hot and humid today. Each set of 2 was very slightly apart since I added in the tunnel & wings. Had a brainfart in the middle where I was thinking tunnel and had my shoulders open and kept moving forward for the tunnel but said poles. Whoops! I rewarded it when he ended up in the tunnel.

Yesterday we did a mini jumping seminar back at that Barn in southern MN. In general he did really well playing with both his Frizzer and his Nemo and doing the short sequences at 12in (after the first on at 8in). Discovered that having the seminar presenter stand about 15ft away and off his line but partly facing him was way too much pressure for him to do a jump to a tunnel that would go by her about 6ft away. When she moved, he was able to start the sequence but shortly after his brains fell out and he left work to run over and jump on her and tried it again even when she moved further away and stood behind the ring barrier. Took a short decompression walk after that and he came back for a really good short rep. Then his focus tank went to empty for the last rep and he started leaving work to run over to the ring barrier and bark at people. I got him playing again in the back corner of the ring, did a tunnel to a jump to catch Nemo and called it quits. On the plus side, in all reps, he volunteered to stick his head through his harness at the end when I offered it and then got to catch Nemo again after being harnessed. I was also able to work with him around other attendees while we were waiting. He went from needing a fair amount of distance and treat scatters to getting much closer and being comforatble looking at them and then me for treats and generally acknowledging them without accosting them and re-focusing on me. We’re trying some NFC runs this weekend at Animal Inn (outdoors, fenced, lots of room to distance). I’m a bit concerned that he might fixate on someone (Lori Michaels who is judging or a ring steward) and completely lose it because it seems like it’s hard for him to break out of that when he falls into that rut. However there are a limited number of UKI & USDAA trials in fenced outdoor locations this summer so I wasnt’ about to pass up this one even if all we do is practice going in, doing tricks on and off leash, and then leashing up again to leave.

[Julie Heller]

6 Nearly Straight – 5/13/21
Decided to go in the other direction so I didn’t try to chuck the frizzer into the neighbor’s yard again. Poles 3&4 are slightly offset. I had originally intended to straighten those out partway through the session, but we had a pop out when I added more motion on a harder entry and missed an entry on my right. I also accidentally rewarded a pop out around 1:15 (whoops). He’s thinking pretty hard on these so I decided to keep the middle set slightly offset.
Whad do you think of the idea of giving him a break on thinking about striding and circling back to the Find Em games with the offset poles that I skipped over to focus on striding? Or should I get to 6 straight poles first?

In other news, he rocked his mini “speedy jumpers” seminar this afternoon at On the Run! (he’s been there a few times in the last 18 months but never had to do “real agility” there before. He gets to play on a practice jump and hang out in his 2nd barn this weekend while Min runs USDAA.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Julie Heller.

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