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Yes-No-Go Tunnel – 9/7/24
Got unpacked from the Canadian roadtrip (mostly) and the Midwest Festival prep under control (mostly) so finally had time to train my own dogs. I’ve lost track where I am in the games, but this one looked like fun and didn’t seem to have any pre-requisites that we skipped (side note -Dean thinks that Yes Tunnel – No Tunnel – Go Tunnel! would make a great children’s book title)
Pretty sure this is the first time I asked Lift for a backside tunnel entry so pretty happy she got it on the 2nd try (and was very proud of herself running around it the first time). Also really proud of us for not having a single pop-rock moment with all this wing wrapping.
Also did an adjustable grid yesterday (9/6) with the creamcheese toppl. I like how she is adjusting her stride up and down, but she seems to be jumping with her head up more than I’d like – unless that is because she’s busy tracking the moving toppl?
Lift had some great experiences at the Canadian Open and got reunited with her brother, Zeplin. She played with toys with me outside the arena buildings, got fairly good at walking through the buildings and past the rings while being a good canine citizen, did some recalls and simple tricks in the warm up area (leash dragging since gamblers was running on the other side of the building) did not get kicked out of the crating area for being too noisy (actually she was pretty good thanks to Dean hanging out by her a lot of the time when I was gone), and survived the 26hr drive out and back without getting sick (thanks to some Cerenia that I got the day before since she decided the week before that she hadn’t really outgrown her puppy car-sickness)
I just signed her up for the Shape Up RDW Foundations course. It conveniently starts on 9/19 right after the Festival and hopefully we’ll have mild weather for a while so that I can keep working outside until the Open.
Videos from Thursday, but was a bit too busy to post them sooner. (nothing like picking up a Yakima car carrier the night before you leave down in Northfield from Kathryn Ananda-Owens and then finding out it’s too narrow to fit Kaladin’s bigger wire crate the next morning. Luckily a friend who lives in BC has room in her car to fit one so Kaladin will get to stretch out at the Open and have better airflow incase it’s a bit warm in the dirt arena, but hoping it’s nice and cool in there)
AU Camp Live – Tunnel Exits – 8/22/24
Latent learning at work. Tried it again the next morning. Moved the jump before the tunnel a bit over to give me more space to start and then decel. Didn’t add her name but she nailed it. Also did some refamiliarization of “dish” (food in bowl). Realized the maroon one straight ahead might look similar to the green grass.Teeter Bang Game – 8/22/24
Little more drop & bang and used the cookie target to get her into position. I’m going to bring her little scratch pad with us to Canada so that we can do more work just targeting and scratching the pad when it is flat on a surface.
I was so proud of Lift and how well she did at a new place and on dirt for the first time. She was very thoughtful at first but then got comfortable and kicked it into another gear. Loretta had a straight serpentine set up so I asked her to soften the angles a little bit and Lift nailed it. I rewarded her with cheese from my hand for the seminar, but Loretta had me sprint away after the last tunnel in the sequence so that she had to chase me across the ring to get her treat. We also discovered that she wants me to switch up the treats at a seminar. (Shelly Wegman’s Happy Howie’s lamb to the rescue for the 3rd session).
Teeter Bang Game – 8/21/24
Circled back to the bang game earlier this afternoon with a bit more bang and starting more at the edge. I did add about an inch more bang in the middle. She’s more concerned about me taking her collar than the bang or movement at this point. Having her push into my hand with her collar cue and then not using any pressure to move her around my leg seemed to work the best. Forgot my tape for the target but I put the grip tape on both sides so it does sort of hold position on the rubberized texture.
AU Camp Live – 8/21/24Decided to try Lift on some of the easier parts of the Live sequences since I had it set up already. Great on the Go…so great that she got some amazing unplanned layering when she kept going as I was trying to turn her left. LOL. Apparently she needs a more dramatic move on my part to cue the turn. And here I was worried I’d pull her off the tunnel!
In other news. Lift actually tugged a fur tug in the backyard with equipment out earlier this afternoon. She was pretty energetic so I asked her to do the straight tunnl & tossed the tug. When I asked for a go from the utunnel to the jump she chased and grabbed the toy and then ran off to try to ingest her prize. So clearly the fur tug has to stay on a leash. I also am not getting any better at aniticpating when she is in the mood for toys.
Serpentine Sequences – 8/20/24
This went pretty well aside for working through some “not sure I can line up” moments. I thought she was over jumping some on the 2nd jump (set at 6in) but maybe she is just sorting out the angled jumpsCream cheese toppl on a leash for the win.
We have a Friday afternoon seminar with Loretta Mueller and I’m wondering how messy it will get if I try that for my toss able reward when we’ll be in a barn. I should probably bring the Pet Tutor too incase Lift decides she doesn’t like cream cheese with dirt sprinkles.
Pkg 5 Jumping Popouts 1 & 2 – 8/14/24
This was from Wednesday and split over 2 sessions. I thought staying out on the layer for the backside slice would be harder for him but he got the first time when I stepped in a bit past the tunnel to help. Then he was confused when I tried it as a threadle wrap since my cue was so late. Experimented with different starts and which way I went around jump 6 in the 2nd popout
Serpentines – 8/15/24
This was from Thursday. I used 5ft bars for variety but kept the bars at 4in since I closed the angles more. I have a leash with a small clasp so was able to thread it through my creamcheese toppl to drag it. Instead of starting her in a sit-stay, I tossed cheese so that I could get up the line. I was thinking I would try the serp sequences with the tunnel and the jumps at more of a cloesd angle when I get back home.
Will also circle back to the bang game. I let her get on higher up the first time because I wanted to make sure she didnt’ have big feelings about me lining her up in a more precise location. I did bring her little home-made scratchy cardboard target so we could practice that on the road.
Teeter Bang Game – 8/14/24
Did the first session of this tonight with the board about 2in off the ground. She’s being thoughtful but doesn’t seem worried about the slight movement and bit of sound.
Mountain Climber with small tip – 8/14/24
Added an inch or two of tip. I’ve left the dish cloth on the teeter tip assist bar so that it’s not too loud with metal landing on pvc. Stuck with her at first but she was pretty happy with this.Today Ms Lift was not in a play with toys outside mood whether she was near equipment or not. She also started to say no thanks when I offered her a toy inside on my lunch break, but then changed her mind when I turned away from her and dragged it past her nose.
We’re supposed to get poured on tonight and Thursday and then I’m heading to Canine Sports Zone for ISC as a Canadian Open warmup so I likely won’t be training in the yard again for a few days.
Pkg 5 Drills – 8/11 & 8/12/24
Decided to jump into pkg 5 to work on his threadle wraps near a tunnel. I tweaked the angle on jump 3 for the first few reps. He had a hard time with jump 5 in the layer.
Monday session -8/12/24
I adjusted the angle on jump 5 to help him get the layer and also tried out a backside wrap instead of the threadle wrap.
Serpentines – 8/11/24
Did a refresher on the serps with 1 jump yesterday. She came into my left side nicely, but got sticky on the release coming into my right side so we took a break and came out later in the day and I tossed her treat back to start. After that she released into my right side. Video is a mashup of that 2nd 1 jump serp and then 2 short sessions working on 2 jumps. Angled the 2nd jump after she back jumped it the first time. The 2 jumps with the send and then coming in over the 2nd jump was from this morning
Set Point – 8/12/24
Sometimes the pop rocks explode if I just drag a toy around outside, but this morning Lift decide she wanted to tug on a real fur tug badly enough that she even happily worked for it as the moving target on her set point. I still think she’s pulling off the front a bit, but she does have more momentum going through the grid with the toy.
Mountain Climber- 8/12/24
Cream cheese worked nicely to get her to hang out at the top for a bit. She even turned around to the right (and away from me) on one of the descents. I still need to locate friends with Galican & Max 200 teeters. OK to do some angled entries before I get her on other teeters?Winging It – Blinds and racetrack- 8/9/24
Got cream cheese! She’s a fan. Finally got turns to the right even though it feels like my left arm is so far back. She definitely gives me more grace going to the left as I can point my arm forward to the wing without her pop rocks going off.0:58 – is this what you meant by saying to keep going on?
Set Point
Haven’t done too much in the way of grids with her yet. This was the first time she saw my cobbler together spider thingee and the first time she did an 8in jump. I think I should compress her distance a bit more so she doesn’t look like she is reaching so much with her front end to edit the bounce.I need to re focus on working on her tugging more. I didn’t push it when she was very adolescent and then just as she was showing signs of growing up a bit she went into season. This morning I offered her a tug toy after the set point and she started tugging like a fiend. Even did 2 reps of a tunnel for the tug. This evening’s success was tugging inside upstairs after I had put my shoes on and then again after I put the cream cheese in her toppl and set it near the deck door in a clear indication that we were heading out to train. She had to think about whether she wanted to tug but then she did.
And I’m feeling like I should be doing more to train a RDW. Any suggestions on methods or classes? At this rate I’m going to run out of non frozen ground and daylight before I get very far but she’s not going to be ready to NFC speedstakes for a while so no rush.
Big Lines from Camp Pkg 3 – 8/9/24
Tried an experiment this morning where I left the dogs in the car when I got home from their walk (Friday is trash day and the city has a list of companies you can use so there are multiple garbage/recycling/organice recyling trucks going by all morning. So I often drive the 1/3 mile to the trail head instead of walking down the street). I set up the tripod and left the video running and then brought Lift out to the yard from the garage (not our usual route when we train). She seemed interested in the frisbie at first so I tossed it for the first rep and you can hear her noisy protests about that. So will need to figure something else out for using toys outside. Ran around the tunnel when her line carried her a bit that way and I wasn’t using a good exit line connection but she was happy to drive ahead of me when I switched to the toppl (and I do need to buy some creamcheese since I don’t keep it around)
It was in the low 70s today so I did a 2nd session in the afternoon and tried a loop before sending her straight from the tunnel. Going to the left was easier but I did manage to keep my arm back enough that we got a loop to the right without any jumping/crossing/outbursts. It feels really awkward to keep the hand back and pointed at her when I’m practically on top of the wing.
Pkg 3 Drills & Sequences- 8/9/24
Swapped out to the chuck it soft frisbie which has a rim and does roll…right into the jump or the wrong direction the way I throw rollers! I trimmed out the parts where I was walking with the tripod incase you are susceptible to motion sickness.
I moved the jump after the tunnel out to about 21ft. The threadle wraps felt smoother here.
Pkg 3 Drills – Big Lines & Backside Wraps – 8/8/24
Vet said to keep an eye on the nail to make sure it didnt’ start to split, but thought he would be fine training. Driving ahead at the end of a big course is an area of opportunity for us (how’s that for a euphemism for “we almost missed winning the Open & Invitationals Finals because he barely kept going ahead of me without turning back”). I managed to fit the drill setup in on the diagonal but ran out of lateral space in the back corner to angle the last jump so that a RC would be helpful. I switched to a different soft frisbie that throws better than the fabric frizzers and still had some real doozies of throws, but he was focused forward nicely. I trimmed out my leisurely walks back to the start while tossing his frizzer. I think I should try this with me being further behind after the tunnel to see if he can keep driving ahead.
Winging it – Tight Blinds -8/8/24
After some torrential downpours earlier in the week, the weather has been lovely (60s/70s). I used PB in a topple here which does involve waiting for her to finish licking her chops between reps. She went to the left well (and I even remembered her cue!) and cracked me up on the last rep when she pulled off on the spin and then went back and went aroung the wing after her brain caught up. Had issues going to the right again. I was looking back at her (since I saw her beady eyes as she darted behind me and jumped up), but is my arm just not back far enough when she’s on my left and approaching the wing. I just switched to sending her ahead to get the thrown toppl out of the tunnel and then went back to turning left.
I did the big lines drills from pkg 3 with Kaladin this evening and am planning on letting Lift open up on them (without the circle wraps) tomorrow morning.
She hasn’t been into toys outside much either. Her best tugging lately has been inside and out of the context of training. She did great inside tonight doing easy tricks for the tug.
I just ordered her a martingale slip lead with a clip release from Rush to Tug so of course she has started to consider wearing her harness again! But it will be good to have options since her big feelings tend to shift around to different things.
Zig Zag – 2 jumps – 8/7/24
Took a break from turning this week and worked on foot targeting and some straight line jumping stuff.
Used the 3ft weave poles set at 4in and have it resting in the jump standard because when I put 2 standards in the middle the feet turn into a bigger obstacle for her. She’s stationed on her cot when I am adjusting the jumps.
Also did an adjustable grid with a 6in bar (4in for the bounce jumps) yesterday. Didn’t adjust much because I was more interested in how she handled the idea of it than actually asking her to really adjust her stride. So enough jumping work with that and going to try more of a handling game tomorrow.
Lazy Contacts – 8/7/24
Did some refresher sessions on a foot target over the past few days. She will scratch her front feet across a held up block of wood with the textured grip tape on it (my homemade scratch pad for her nails) but I hadn’t done much with the target flat on the ground. Made a target with cardboard and the gritty grip tape on both sides. Doesn’t always grip the contact plank grit too well.
So she’s getting on the end of the plank, but she’s so close to the end that I can’t always get the target down on the edge.
In other news, I may have discovered something about her tugging. She hasn’t been interested in tugging before a training session even if I try it in another room. Yesterday I got set up to work on the foot target in our bedroom with the treat container and the tripod. I offered her the toy out in the hallway but she wasn’t interested and started circling around and barking. I decided to take a break instead of moving into training after she had been barking at me and walked downstairs. 5 min later I picked up a toy and she looked interested so we tugged a bit downstairs. Then I tugged her up the stairs back into the bedroom and she kept going until I dropped the toy and asked her for a flip (left circle). Then she did some foot targeting for cheese, moved with me down the hallway into my office and tugged, came back to work the foot target for cheese again and the tugged again after we were done. So I need to try it again and see if it was a fluke or if she can’t focus on playing when she sees that the training session is set up and she thinks she needs to train instead. My hope is that it’s not a fluke and I can ease her into the idea that she can tug when she doesn’t think the training thing is all set up and then she gets to train after tugging so it then reinforces the tugging. Hopefully that makes sense.
