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Had another crime of passion this morning in downhill to end position (well his raw food was out there as a distraction! Video to come). Will move the plank to the back yard and around. Was going to move the teeter out but we’re in the 40s now with frost overnight. My 2x2s stuck to the grass Sunday morning.
The jumping up was more of a herding dog, circle behind and also bark. He has a different happy wriggle when he stays in front of the person. Once he starts the circling behind, I have to interrupt it. The accosted person ignoring him doesn’t do the trick. But I am going to play around with seeing if lack of eye contact makes it less likely to start.
And with treats – I was using halved charlie bears so that he could find them in the grass. If I use something smaller then he spends time hunting them!
Fading Target on Plank – 4/18/21
Did some sessions with the smaller lid target on my Plank and 2 other teeters and then Fading it take 2 went much better this morning. I added in the Flying Squirrel for excitement and even got him to commit a crime of passion. (It’s just one exciting after another in the Heller front yard). He is lifting his head to look at me but it’s after he stops. He seems to be focusing down at the target/ground as he’s approaching the end and getting in to position.I was reviewing all the games and realized I missed one – the wobble board to target end position. Should I go back for that one or is the fact that he’s doing well with the bang game mean it’s a moot point?
And last night Kaladin got to attend his first live mini seminar. There was only 1 other team participating but it was a very vocal Sheltie (working and waiting) so just about the right level of distraction for him to work through. I had time to walk him around the ring for about 15min before it started which helped him alot. Then we did some tricks in the ring before our turn and he rocked it! (Video clip on my FB wall of the one long sequence we did. He ran 8 since we were lazy about changing bars and I wanted it to be really easy for him to stretch out and run) Other than deciding he needed to jump up on presenter between runs that is. I think it might be eye contact that triggers it. He does that to some people where he will circle around behind them and jump up. We had time to work on it with Brooke and when she avoided eye contact he stayed on the ground and I could reward him for looking at her and away or going by her without engaging.
LOL! I’m going to assume you had a typo in your first sentence and meant to say it was a good session.
Thanks for the suggestion and reminder on getting him to move forward independently of my motion. I think I will try having a helper toss the ball from the end while I stay stationary (maybe with the hoop on the end at first just to ensure he hits the target). I think this would be better than me trying to throw the ball while I”m that far back. It may also work to set a tunnel after the DW to add excitement.As an intermediate step I may also try leading out partway and then standing still and releasing him to drive past me. Going past me when I’m still will be harder for him but he also doesn’t have to go so far ahead of me at first.
Low DW – 4/16/21
Sneaking one more video in. We had access to a low DW last night so I thought I would see what he did with it. The first few reps he is sending to wrap a wing and then I switched to a low jump. I added more motion from me to see if that helped him run more (and because I didn’t have my Pet Tutor with me) He had a few trotting reps in the middle I cropped out and then I ended on the last one since he was cantering and strode through the target nicely. Unfortunately I didn’t notice there was a hoop right next to the DW until I was done so I didn’t try that.
And I just noticed there is an extra clip of him coming down the DW on the last rep before the slow-mo clip. I think I must have accidentally duplicated it twice.Bang it & Elevator Game on Clunky Teeter – 4/16/21
We rented some open ring time tonight at our training school and got some great practice in on a very loud and clunky teeter. (it’s a back-up teeter because the nice one broke). I reduced the tip a bit but he did great for the bang it game, a short break and then then the elevator game. I also swapped out my larger target for a much smaller lid and still got a foot target and then the scratching.
Channels with Real Cue – 4/16/21
Moved the weaves to the back yard (We did them twice opened up more at lunch and then this video was after work). Added my “poles” cue, but he
seems a bit confused on his striding. I had to slow it down to try to figure out what he was doing. I am pretty sure he should bounce but it looks like he’s trying to swim a bit here and there too. He’s 23in from his chest to his tail so just slightly less than the distance between the poles.My plan with the 2x2s is to inch them down while straight (I’ll stick to the easier entries for a bit to let him sort out striding). When they get close to the real distance, I will open up the 2nd set a bit if needed.
2×2 – 2 sets straight – 4/14/21
This was from yesterday. We inched them down until the edges of the 2×2 bases were 3ft apart (so I guess that makes the poles 5ft apart).
Last Sunday we did 2x2s at the airbnb in Toledo with my sister’s family as spectators. Not surprisingly, I had to open up the 2nd set a bit and push them further apart for him to be successful. We got them back down to both straight and about 4.5ft apart there. Weave poles are moving to the back yard for the next session. Should I focus on getting the 2x2s closer together, the slightly tighter channels where I can add the real cue or is it fine to alternate back and forth on the days he gets to do “real weaving”?Fading Target on Plank – 4/15/21
We transitioned to a smaller and less obvious target before this session. I’m not sure he’s ready to fade the target. He stopped each time but he’s curling in to me a lot more if I hang back and it doesn’t look like the scratching was strong enough with the target to persist without it.Plank to Jump & Wing – 4/5 & 4/6/21
Hi Jordan – We took a bit of a break due to several days of rain, me needing to get a new phone, a road trip to Toledo to pass a Sheltie to my sister to take to my parents in NY and then some snow this week. So these two were from more than a week ago.4/5/21 –
I experimented with a low jump to keep him focused forward since sometimes he would pull off a wing. We started right next to the plank since he had been doing a launch for the first time in a few sessions if we started furtherr back and were using raw food as the reward. I liked the results with the jump. I kept it low and close to make it less likely he would launch over the target. I think I’ll try pushing it further back to see if I can get him running in a bit more extension through the target.4/6/21 –
Not sure if it was the jump the previous day, but this has been his best session so far with a wing after the plank in terms of him focusing forward to the wing. He did launch over the target on the first rep even though I started him close to the plank. Since the raw food had gotten him pretty excited, I went with no reward or screw up cookie with a trick for a launch but had him do a trick for a cookie if he trotted. I think this session went a bit long for him as he started throwing in some trotting later. (either that or the lack of reward after the launch kicked in)
Some other questions since this class is wrapping up
Is it an issue that the plank I have on the ground in my yard isn’t the same length as a DW plank? It’s about 10ft.For now I’m concentrating on getting him to at least canter instead of trot. He is not running in full extension down the plank so I expect I’ll have to circle back to the foundation exercises when the lightbulk clicks and he picks up speed and extending his stride. Any tips on what to do when this happens?
How far should we be on the DW training before I try an a-frame? Doing a full height DW consistently? Some other point?
Elevator Game 4/13/21 and Bang Game 4/14/21
Hadn’t read through the new games yet or I would have progressed the Elevator game to lifting the board up a bit with him on it. I was rather disorganized in this session but I like how he seems pretty happy to jump on the board.I don’t have the teeter outside yet so it’s hard to add in Nemo in the basement, but I can use his raw breakfast as a distraction to increase arousal!
Elevator Game & Bang Game – 4/7/21
Catching up on some videos from last week when I was busy getting my new phone set up and then driving to Toledo and back. (and as for the target fading – uh I think I missed that game…will need to go look)Took the Elevator game on the road. I think that “smaller dog-more concentrated weight on the end of the board” theory is it.
Then did some weaves and circled back for the Bang Game.
Channels – Tightening 6 poles – 4/12/21
Tightened up the channels a little bit. The RCs are coming along nicely, but I pushed it a bit too hard on the counter motion near the end and ended up tossing the toy as he was popping out. Whoops
But he’s at home and it was 50 so he was very happy.Thanks, Tracy.
I think Kaladin was lucky that he was 5 monhts when the lockdown started, so past that super important early socialization period, but clearly the year of more limited outings after that has had an impact. Good thing he’s a fairly outgoing Sheltie naturally (for a Sheltie that is!) He’s been to a few trials (outdoors and indoors) in the last year but no where near what Min and Tari had done by this age.I was describing his behavior to Christina & Dawn and it made me realize that while he’s been going to class there for a few months (previously he was in another room for his foundation class), it’s still not familiar enough for him to be comfortable, especially when you add in the new barking dog and that fact that I was in a rush to get him in the ring. Instead of telling the class that they should reset the bars to another height because I had gotten there a bit late and didn’t have him warmed up yet, I rushed him in the ring. He was OK enough to do a prompt line up and sit but not OK enough to run the sequence.
I’ve got some open ring times and handling mini seminars lined up for him so that we can practice doing things in other places and with people watching. And we also have some outdoor trials starting up in late May.
Downhill – 4/9/21
More slope and practically to the ground.The Downhill session in the morning went so well, we decided to jump to end position in the evening.
2×2 – straight but further apart – 4/9/21
Kaladin says yes to the sets being further apart. Started at 8ft apart and very slightly open and quickly went to both straight. He was doing so well looking for the 2nd set I started moving them closer and ended at 5ft apart.
As an added benefit, today’s rain break was over lunch and I got to use my new Samsung S21 to video without testing the effectiveness of the water resistance before I even find a case cover for it.Question on how he is exiting the 2nd set. I used Nemo so he would be more excited and run more, but I am noticing him exiting towards me a bit as opposed to staying straight on the reward line. Is that an issue if he’s not looking at me when weaving? Because if the course went to the left next, I’d want him exiting that way.
2nd question applies to weaves but is a bit more general. It has to do with his relaxed outlook on agility 95% of the time. He’s definitely a thinker and gains speed when he understands what he’s doing and he’s still young (almost 18 months), but I am starting to feel like he should be picking up more speed than he usually shows. I think part could be conditioning (turns out his core strength is pretty good for a young dog, but we’re improving that with Darcy, I also think he needs more aerobic conditioning so we’ll be working on that too). He loves his Nemo ball and chasing me. He slows down if the space is smaller/more restrictive or he isn’t sure about the footing because it is new. He is also pretty sensitive to the environment (other dogs/people moving around). So maybe I am seeing a stress reaction to environment but last night in class he would barely get out of a trot for an easy jumps/tunnel handling sequence. There was a new dog in class and that dog had been vocalizing a bit in the other room where they are crated. His class is also in a smaller area and it’s often hard for me to really run in the sequences. That was an extreme example, but we’ve also been struggling with how to get him really running his plank instead of trotting. (using his raw food at breakfast is our most promising ploy so far). This video clip is similar to many of our weave sessions where he picks up speed in the poles, but I’m still trying to figure out how to get him to pick up speed heading to the poles. (I have another clip from Wed with channels and using the wings, but he also tends to think wing wrapping can be boring…) Feel free to tell me I am being a Nervous Nellie stressing over nothing and he’s still a baby.
