[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

Hope your drive out to MN was uneventful. Looks like the weekend is going to be pretty nice.

We did the accordion this afternoon. My spacing is 6′ when the jumps are equidistant. He had trouble with the first 3 foot increment (9 foot gap) and did better at 12 feet. This is the first time he has seen this. Bars were at 6″ and I was dragging the toy slowly since we determined that seems to keep his head down.

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

Ashley Deacon had such fun courses. I was worried that they’d be too hard for Dellin, but she rocked it. No Es, some dumb handling errors by me that caused refusals. You probably saw maps – in Biathlon Agility on Sunday (with the tunnels under the DW), her only fault was a missed DW contact – she’s not used to loading at lower speed (from a threadle wrap) and her striding got messed up. I may still be high from that run.

The way you explained the exercise with Judge – too open = threadle was very helpful for me! Isn’t he smart 🙂

We did the other side today and I kept that in mind. I was able to move off that wing after a couple of reps and get to the center of the bar. The exit part in isolation is ok. As countermotion – hard.

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

Got back to the baby level backside slice. Started with the exit. Tried to get further across the bar than yesterday which was hard for him. Ended up practically at the wing to help him, then gradually moved back closer to the middle and tried a little bit of moving toward the exit. There are some epically bad toy throws in this one 🙂

The UKI thing had fun courses – Dellin did really well, which was exciting- aside from one USDAA Regional last year, she has not really done any bigger events. We’re excited to see you in a couple of weeks at OTR!

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

We were at a 3 day UKI thing over the weekend, so just now getting back to Judge’s homework. We started the baby level of the backside challenges game and then it started raining, so my session was quite short (all reps on the video). Will try again tomorrow! I angled the jump to give him more help since he has not done any backside stuff in a while and does not know the cues.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

I may use “focus”, but I don’t use a word for Dellin and that seems to work too, so I may paly around with that. I did a few reps in the basement this morning with me holding the toy, waiting for him to focus and then throwing it (no video) – it went ok, except he was a bit sticky (probably because I was holding the toy) – he did not always break immediately upon being cued and having the toy thrown. I’ll get some video.

After 4″ of rain over the last few days (no joke), the sun is finally out, so if I can find a dry spot and the grass isn’t a foot tall, we get outside today!!

When does this class officially end? I was having trouble finding that date when I need to stop posting 🙂

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

It poured rain all day yesterday, so we tried the focus forward in the basement. He did well with the toy. When I tried to throw food, it was awkward. I also realize that I need a different word – “look look” is my threadle wrap cue. Argh! It was ok since he does not know the word in either context.

It looks like I’ll be inside again today, so I could work on this again.

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

Gone all weekend at a trial, so just responding to your question about forward focus. We’ve done some baby steps of it with food or toy on the ground, but I have not really done it with a jump or equipment.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

Took your advice to heart – I have to start cuing the threadle way before he completes the wrap. We re-did the tunnel threadle baby steps and it went better. We did the baby step of the lateral lead out on one side. As you can see (and hear) – we went from Summer back to Fall overnight.

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

OMG – funny – no wonder it was so easy!!

Tried it again this morning and it was a disaster when doing it the way it was intended. Can I move the wings away from the tunnel more? I don’t think he’s ready for this.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

I’m trying to do his exercises in the morning -we’re having abnormally warm weather for May (upper 80s). Today is the last warn day before rain and going back to 60ish. We did baby level tunnel threadle. He did pretty well with it. My word is “here” but drawn out “heeeeeere”. I also use the opposite arm.

I’d say Dellin’s tunnel threadle is still a bit of a work in progress when going full speed on a course and I’ve been using the sprinkler and then “here” for her. I’ve been thinking about using left/right for her and then here, but it does not usually fit my left/right situation and the sprinkler gives me the head turn. This set up was definitely the wrap cue though. Things to ponder…

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

Re-did the zig zag on that hard side using a tug toy instead of a throwing toy. Had a couple of misses, but overall much more success.

Hoping to work on the tunnel threadle later today.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

We tried the next step of the zig zag, then I returned to the get out.

Zig Zag – totally nailed the first side. Then he could not figure out how to do even the first jump on the other side. I even went back to the first side to show him and that did nothing to help him when we switched sides.

The get out went better. I tried to keep moving forward instead of stopping at the spot where I was sending him out.

Thanks,
Joan

PS – tried again this morning with his disc as a reward and we had some success on that harder side.

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 4 days ago by agilitywawa.

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

We did the first step of mission transition – the decel to front cross. Sorry about the camera angle – I moved the wing out and then forgot to check if it was still in the frame.

He did better turning left. He was wider going to the right – it was likely me, but he was a bit distracted – adolescent boy…the struggle is real.

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

We did the Baby Steps of the Get out. I feel like if I want to add some more handler motion, I will need to spread things out more due to his size – what do you think?

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

We did the RC concept transfer again with the wings moved in to help on the RC. I overestimated on that first RC rep and had to move them in even more. Then he got it. For such a big dog, he’s giving me a pretty tight RC!

Thanks,
Joan

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