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Plankrobatics – 2/1/21
My chute barrel is outside with jump bumps in it so I had to get creative with propping up my teeter. He definitely gained confidence as he realized he could turn around so I added about an inch more tip. After I turned the video off I looked up as he was jumping back up on the plank again!Tunnel – Mat Discrimination- 1/31/21
Decided to take advantage of the larger space and tried this using a mat in place of the tunnel. Mat doesn’t have as much value as the crate so I was a bit surprised when he picked it over the tunnel. I think I need a side on camera angle next time but I was trying to release him a bit earlier and before he was looking.Elevated Target with Toy – 1/31/21
Thanks! I think he’s pretty darn cute, but I’m biased! It’s been a long time since I’ve had a goofy boy in the house so it’s been a lot of fun working with him.I thought I had found the perfect box, but the towel I wrapped around it didn’t stay put when I tested it with Min (my 10lb Sheltie) so I went straight to the Cato board with Kaladin. Good news – he’s sending up to 10ft with less of my motion helping him. He does seem to be keeping his hind feet together on several reps, but that could be a function of him turning back to me. I’ve got plenty of yoga mat sizes, but I’m going to have to hunt around for the next size down in an elevated target.
I am working on getting him in slightly smaller boxes than his body length, but so far nothing to interesting there. We haven’t done as much of this as I usually do with my young dogs becuase he had a minor hip strain last April. Thanks to our rehab vet, his hind end is now evened out, but he’s a bit behind on core and balance work because we didn’t want him trying those things when 1 side was weaker and he would have had a hard time maintaining good form.
Contacts- Banana Line – 1/31/21
Chalk one up for getting me in the frame more this time.
Jordan wanted him to do more work with an elevated target and a larger one since when we swithced to using Spiderball to amp him up more and get him out of a trot, he started focusing on me too much and not sending out to the target. So here’s his banana line with the Cato board. So he’s experimenting with just launching right over the entire thing even when I dialed back my excitement and motion. Should I be going back the other way if that happens or circling around for another rep in the same direction? Or does that matter?And my 2 courses are colliding a bit with similar exercises so if you want to see him moving more in the “back & forth” session I did for Jordan, that’s getting posted right after this one.
Tunnel Threadles & 360s -1/30/21
I cut out the boring Fig 8 stuff and just started him from a sit stay in front of the tunnel and the little stinker actually ran to the tunnel. I’m adding an “in in” for the threadle wrap. I found it interesting that he came out of the tunnel from the tunnel threadles in a whole new gear. I think it’s because I often toss a toy right after a tunnel threadle which probably means I need to mix up where I reward more and toss the toy after a fast start or something.
Should I be closer to the wing on the threadle 360s?And AU thinks I’m on east coast time. It’s really only 11:40PM here! So clearly I’m not a totally crazy Sheltie lady to be posting videos at this hour!
Mini Seminar – Forced Fronts-RCs-Leadouts – 1/30/21
Set this up going the other direction. He was turning off the RC wrap jump early and it looks like he wasn’t fully turned and committed to that jump before I was trying to push on his line for the RC. The funky forced fronts and other variant lead outs went pretty well (better than they did last weekend when the 2nd jump had the bucket with the dripping water right by it!). I seem to have lost a bit of my smoking Go that he had in the seminar. I can see in the video that I’m not connected with him heading to the last jump, but I’m not sure why he decided to go the outside on one of them.Elevated Target with Toy – 1/30/21
I tried the mat with a toy on our driveway yesterday (since it was dry and clear) and got him running more but he started getting fixated on the toy and I and wasn’t offering to send out to the mat as well. Then I got your note so here’s an elevated target (a handy Dogopoly box) with one of his favorite slightly deflated balls (after I decided the tug toy wasn’t doing it for him even though I couldn’t get him off of that tug right before this in a handling game). I went back to a slightly larger target. Got him running more but I think he’s still too dependent on my motion. I also think I suck at watching the target when things start going faster. I was sure he hit all 4 at the 2nd try at 1:35 but looking in slow mo I think his inside hind foot was on the ground right next to the target. I think I will try starting closer next time, but still with the ball since he prefers to trot when I’m using treats.Tunnel Threadles & Tandems – 1/24/21
Aha – I realized I am switching the toy to the other hand unconsciously so that I can the hand without the toy to cue something. Will have to think about that more. I did try to make sure my feet didn’t turn towards the tunnel on the threadles until he was looking at the correct entrance.This one the audio didn’t go wonky, but somehow a different video aspect ratio got selected. Clearly the work of gremlins or sunspots.
I love being able to rent this space. The only bummer is that it’s only available on weekends so his handling training ends up on consecutive days. Although my driveway is clear right now so I might be able to do some of his RDW target training there during the week instead….or at least until it snows again on Saturday.
Serps & Stuff – 1/24/21
Did a short serp session last Sunday. Not sure why, be he actually crashed in to the standard on the 2nd serp jump on 1 rep. I don’t think I was pushing him back out or stepping in to him. Maybe he was daydreaming or something but Anyway, I put the bar on that one down to 6in and opened the angle up more and then just did the serp for a reward and we ended there.Oh -and the bucket is in the middle of the ring because the roof was leaking a bit. Luckily the owner’s partner was in the building doing some maintenance work so I was able to let him know and by then the leak had stopped – some kind of condensation problem with the blower unit and the flat roof with snow on it right above.
Back & Forth – 1/28/21
I tried this yesterday in the living room with tossing treats and he stayed in a trot to the mat but would accelerate out of it. Had a few errors which he then corrected on the next try.
Had the opportunity to do this in a bigger space with better footing tonight so used one of his favorite balls. He’s still thinking pretty hard on the approach.We have used a Pet Tutor in Tracy’s MaxPup class where he travels away from me across the target to the PT. Were you thinking of that for this game or would it be a MM on the same side of the target from where I send him from so that he heads out, hits the target and comes back for his food reward?
Zig Zag Grid – 1/24/21
Jumps at 6in. He went around the 2nd jump the first time so I closed the angle up more. I think I could have flattened the angle out more than I did later. He looked pretty confident bouncing.
Would a next step be flattening the angle more and then going to 8in? Or is this one that stays lower?
Contacts – Banana Line – 1/24/21
Tried this with the tug toy first and got some excitement but he had decided he had done enough for the tug already so after 1 rep we ran over to get Spider-ball instead. And it looks like I managed to chop myself out of the frame so we can’t see if I was actually moving in a straight line or not. whoops!Elevated Target – 1/25/21
Yes – I can see that the elevated target is clearer. I started with the larger target on my Cato board a few days earlier and then sized down a bit with my handy dandy soybean drink box. It’s maybe a bit higher than it needs to be but it was a good size to tuck the longer mat around so it didn’t shift.
Also started closer and added distance slower so I didn’t get the stall-outs. This also worked in a lovely session at the training space I can rent with just the mat and no elevated target, but unfortunately I accidentally deleted that video before I got it posted)He missed with his inside hind foot twice going to the right, but I like how he headed back to try again and very deliberately got all 4 feet on. At 1:45 the inside hind foot slipped off when he turned to head back. I didn’t reward that one and that really made him think a bit.
Serps & Stuff – 1/23/21
He’s been jumping 6in if it is in a sequence but he’s been doing 12 and 14 in set points. He’s also done some 12 in jumps in the adjustable grid. I left the serp jumps at 6in but I put the 3rd jump at 10in for the reps where we took it and turned (not the backside slices). He seemed a little surprised the first time.I was late on a left cue for the 180 turn so he quite happily powered down the serp line instead.
Got a frontside instead of a backslide slice after I changed directions, but I can see that he took what my shoulders were pointing to. Whoops! He got the backside the next time when the shoulders were oriented to the outside but then he questioned the 3rd time like – hey lady – are you sure you know what you’re doing?
I plan to do the zig zag exercise tomorrow. I felt like he’d done enough jumping today.
