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The summer had me away from home traveling more than usual but I have been working on the challenges slowly. I wanted to tell you how much I appreciated you adding this to CAMP this year.
One of the challenges that is most difficult for me is the one on setting/maintaining boundaries. I have always really struggled with this. I like the reminder that it’s setting a boundary for myself, not for the other person. The visual exercise of assigning things either inside or outside the box has been interesting too. I feel like having progress in even just this one challenge is going to be a big deal for me, so thank you for including it.
I just want to say thanks for all the fun courses and your feedback this summer. The boys and I thoroughly enjoyed CAMP even though we were gone for big chunks of the time. I am really excited that I’m starting to understand when the dogs need their cues better. That is huge for me! I look forward to working through more of the skills and courses that we haven’t had a chance to set up yet. I’ve been just thrilled with how well Dice is doing with what we’ve tried so far. Thanks again!
Well, the time sure is flying by! We did get out and set up the Package 3 RYG first sequence yesterday. I included my walk thru in the video as well as the boys first two tries at the sequence. I am stopping after each run and watching the video before the second attempt and I think that’s helping me.
Zane: I was really happy with myself for remembering to start cueing the turn before he got to the tunnel and I think it worked well with him. We got the front side of jump 6, but I think what happened is that I was angling towards the front of the jump. I tried to be more clear and wait till I saw him commit on our second attempt and I think we did well! I didn’t layer the jump on the last part, because I had traveled too far in by the time he got to the tunnel and I didn’t want to be running in the wrong direction when he came out. I can work on that for the next time though.
Dice: I did get the verbal turn cue out before he got to the tunnel, but it was not as effective as it was with Zane. lol I tried adding his name on the second attempt and we did manage to get the jump after the tunnel on that rep, but I couldn’t get the threadle slice either time. I did continue the run though so I’m counting that as a win. 😊I think focusing on the walk thrus is going to help me a lot. We did the first two sequences from the Live class 3 tonight. If you’d prefer me not to send the video of me walking without the dogs on further sequences, just let me know. It makes for a long video. Unfortunately, in the portion for the dog’s cues on sequence 1 I can’t really even hear what I was saying and it is a bit awkward watching how stumped I was on the first sequence trying to process where the dog needs certain cues and where I need to be watching them. Sorry about that. I did better speaking up so I could hear what I was saying on the second sequence but I’ll wait to see if you want me sending the walk thru videos or not.
All in all, I think I was a little better about getting cues out sooner and it’s starting to make a bit of sense to me.
Sequence 1
Walk Thru:
Zane’s runs:
Dice’s runs:
>>Big WOW on the 2nd video!! He was almost flawless and fast fast FAST! Love it! A little bit of training, a little bit of latent learning… he looked great!>>
He was brilliant wasn’t he?! I was so happy with his confidence on this. He definitely does seem to benefit from sleeping on things overnight.
I have to chuckle a bit that I’ve gone from running straight forward without connection a good portion of the time, to looking like I am cueing a threadle so often now. I can definitely see it with you pointing it out now! I think the positive thing about this is that it shows me that I can change how I’m running. LOL. I’m going to get this balanced out yet.
I am a bit torn on what to work on next. I wanted to try to work through more layering, but I know I have limited time. So, I really think that I’d like to leave the layering just for now and try package 3 so I can focus on my walk thrus and my understanding of where I need connection. Is that ok?
I am really fighting a with myself to not give in to feeling overwhelmed. However, I want to get as much as I can out of this year’s CAMP and this add on with the time remaining. So, here is a brief list of things I am putting on the list for changing my self talk. This is a very difficult exercise for me. Even when I am able to complete the recognize and refute portions, the replacement is really, really tough.
Example #1
Recognize: I always fall behind, get overwhelmed and fail to finish working through the material in the class.Refute: I have not stopped working through exercises, even if it is not as quickly as I hoped. I am curious to see how much I can still accomplish from here forward.
Replace: I am going to learn from each exercise that I am willing to attempt.
Example #2
Recognize: I am not a very good handler and as a result my dogs don’t reach their full potential. The success I had with my first dog was a fluke.Refute: Our training videos do show there are some changes in my handling for the better, even when my inner critic says that I am not good enough. I have had success with dogs after Zoe, even though no others have earned a Championship. I am curious to see the improvement in teamwork that we can achieve by continuing to work on my handling.
Replace: I will continue to see progress in the teamwork with my dogs because I am beginning to see what they need to communicate with them more clearly.
I am finding the smile challenge much easier. It is nice to watch people expressions change when you smile at them. I will post about the next steps and challenges that I am working on soon.
Yes, I can see what you’re saying with Zane. I think I’m getting better about watching the dogs before I start peeling off and stuff but sometimes I still am not quite letting them cue me when I need to keep supporting the line. I’ll keep working on it. 😊.
Sorry for the wrong link for Dice! It was a long day. Lol. This should be the correct link.
I decided to give this a go again this evening with Dice and I moved the jump more gradually and I hope I was more clear on my handling and he was just brilliant. I”m going to include that video here as well. I think you were correct, it just wasn’t a skill he was confident about on the first session.
Thank you for the kind words Tracy. We tried the part 2 of this challenge. Not surprisingly, Zane had a much easier time with this. We were able to work through the progression with a couple attempts at each stage. I was really pleased with him!
Here’s Zane’s video:
I’m having a bit of struggle with my verbals for Dice. With Zane I tend to say “out” when I wanted more lateral distance, but honestly it wasn’t something that we trained well when he was young. It’s more of just me saying it and hoping. With Dice I would like to keep things more consistent with what we learned in Maxpup, but dang I noticed on the video I mixed in “go jump” and “out jump” and I don’t know that either one did much good. LOL. I also think part of our trouble was that I may have moved the jump too far around the back of the tunnel too quickly. Also, I”m wondering if it’s me decelerating that caused part of the issue too? Or maybe my outside arm swinging around too much? Anyway, I tried to keep going when we didn’t get the jump, but I think that may have been more of a mess than fixing anything in this instance.
Here’s Dice’s attempts:We are quite behind after vacation and having unexpected company all last week once we got home, but I really wanted to work on the RYG Challenges on layering. I know it’s not our strongest point and I’d really like to improve in this skill. I did pt. 1 challenges with both boys. I kept the session short it was already getting hot and the wind was picking up. I didn’t repeat the various options unless we had issues on the first rep.
Zane: On the first attempt, as he came out of the tunnel he started immediately back to me, but did go back out to the jump. The other spot that we had some bobbles was on the wrap on jump 4. I think in watching the video I was facing the jump and maybe that’s what made him back jump it? On the switch away from me on jump 4 he really surprised me and did it with no trouble! I think he was pretty successful in general, but it wasn’t always very smooth.
Dice: On the first rep he nearly went on his head because I threw the lotus ball as he was approaching jump 4. Poor timing on my part. Again with Dice, there were issues on the wrap option. I think it means my handling is in need of improvement since both boys were scratching their heads a bit on this one. lol I should have kept moving to help him when he hesitated to go back out to the jump after the wrap. I didn’t try the switch away with Dice because he had been long enough already and I think I’ll need to break it down a bit.
We attempted rd. 2 on this course this morning. I wanted to try the push on the opening and layering the tunnel. The push went ok, but not so much success on the layering. I think I started pulling off before he was fully committed and he pulled off. Then the 10-11 jumps…ugh. I wanted to try to improve having the correct leg, but I think I was unconsciously worrying more about the crossing to head for the tunnel and so it looks very similar to yesterday’s not so great attempt. I want to try to separate this out and work on it. Maybe I need to try it without Zane. I think it’s just years of habit, but I think I can improve it. On a positive note, we got the tunnel after the teeter today on both reps. Yay for us.
Dice and I tried the first pop out exercise instead of the full course. What I realized after watching…this should have been a “kiss, kiss” cue at the tunnel, right? We haven’t done this since maxpup and I was giving the wrong verbal and probably not a very clear physical cue either. So lack of experience and speed coming into it didn’t work in our favor I don’t think. lol But it was fun to try!
Zane and I tried the Standard course #1 today. I am rewarding his teeter, so if it seems like we are getting stuck back there for ages, that’s why. We did three reps, I’ve included all three.
Rep#1. Things went ok until the aframe and then I think I was fighting my first reaction to go back and try it again, and so things went a bit off track from there on. I did stop after the teeter on that one.
Rep#2. This time I think I was pushing harder down the line with the dogwalk and we had a big bail off, but I kept going and I’m not sure what I did that sent him to the backside of jump 8 the wrong side of 12? I think at the jump before the teeter he thought I was sending him to the backside because my arm went out.
Rep#3. I think we did better on this one until I sent him to the jump instead of the tunnel after the teeter. I’m guessing it was my dang arm again. LOL.
I went back and rewatched the video with your feedback and hopefully you’ll see some improvements. One thing I noticed in addition to the things you pointed out was that on the backside #2 of sequence 2, I was trying to handle it more like how I have been trying to do it with Dice. With Zane he is used to a big old arm fling. lol. So, you’ll probably see a bigger arm flinging out on his reps.
With Dice, I did do a rep of the backside dropping the toy like we did in class, but I didn’t include that in the video. It was before the 1st rep when I actually attempted the sequence. Today I also really made an effort to try to keep moving with Dice when things weren’t going smoothly. It goes so contrary to my habits, but I think I did better.
Today, if you only see one attempt with Zane, it is because he got it the first time and I moved on and saved the other reps for Dice to show you.
We gave the first two RYG sequences a try this afternoon. I think Zane did ok with the first sequence, but the second one proved a bit of a challenge. I did two attempts and both times he thought I was sending him to the backside of jump #4. Dice on the other hand…well, he just makes me laugh. I don’t know if it was the lotus ball in my hand on the first sequence that caused us some issue at jumps 5 and 6 or my handling. On sequence two, he seemed to think that the backside on #2 was better run as a huge loop around it. lol
We tried the lead outs and big lines 1 today. I didn’t set him up well for the first rep but he did awesome the rest of the time. These are all the reps. I didn’t stand close enough to the wing for the wrap I noticed when I watched the video. I will work on that next time and my aim with the reward on the last rep hit the wing. lol.
Goodness the time is getting away from me! We did get out and tried some serps last night adding in the tunnel. I think st the end I had tried to straighten the angle of the jumps a little too much for what I was asking and he had too much speed coming in. So we had a couple failures and I decided to stop there for the evening.
