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The stars aligned to get some good training in this weekend. Driving ahead was a timely lesson as Brodie can easily pass me long lines to the finish and likes to look back and see where I’m at…. I know we did more than these few reps but the handler likes to forget to push record. 🤣 We worked the sequences to a Manners Minder. He’s not afraid to drive ahead to a target!
Hi there! Finally posting (mostly) FEO videos from last weekend. I’m doing my best to remember to do our pattern games before and not drift back to our comfort zone of the podium. 👀 This was our first weekend back in the ring after several weekends off. I like to think that my overall stress level was much reduced as my girl Darby finally finished her AGCH. I felt like this took some stress off of Brodie too. He was pretty brave in T2B doing his weaves on the first pass (FEO with toy still in hand).
I was pretty proud of him in PJWW too even though my handling was a little rough in spots. I loved his line to the first tunnel but changed my handling plan and did a pretty poor job of timing my landing side blind. We definitely need to work our “go” on long lines because I can’t outrun him.
…. And then I caved to peer pressure and decided to try JWW for “real”. Sloppy handling across the back of the course did not set a good line to the weaves and Brodie bounced in frustration. It was a good reminder to try and stay the course of progression from FEO to the real thing.
Finally, the last run I filmed that weekend…. Poor choice of handling on the serp (it worked for my first 4 dogs LOL) but he was a good boy and muscled through.
…. And here is our attempt at Tunnels Discrimination Sequences 1 and 2
Then some work on sequences 2-4. I had some trouble remembering to do these loop three times in sequence 4 but sharing anyway because we’re traveling for the holiday week and this is all we might get in this one. 😉
We’ve gotten a bit behind but have managed to squeeze in a couple of the games package two sequences. Trying our best to fit things into the space we have!
Here’s sequence two from mid course challenges which should also be titled “I can’t read directions”. Yes, in my haste I missed to do these without a stay and also the direction of #1. I’m sharing anyway because it was fun to try many handling options for 4-5.
This game was actually pretty fun and I loved the light bulb moment when I turned my back on him and he figured it out. 😊 He caught on really quick and I think this is reflective of his efforts to stay connected with me on course! Now I see why there is frustration when I disconnect and I think this game is definitely going to help us through those moments in the ring.
It is sooooo helpful to have someone with such a well trained eye to sort through all of the things that happen in the ring! I am going to make cliff notes of key points to review before our next trial. I am lucky to remember and implement a few each time we run. There is so much to think about out there…. So thank you sooo much!!! 😊
We took some time off over the weekend to try the less brain intensive of FAST CAT. It was a nice opportunity to be out in a different setting with people and dogs and actually provided an opportunity to take some of our games on the road. We also took a fabulous long decompression hike.
Yesterday I took a quick break from work to play Find My Face. Here’s the video;
Too much emphasis on weaves??? Me??? NEVER!!! 🤣🤣🤣 Yes I am obsessed with them. On a better note glad to hear that the only thing tougher is the startline. At least that one is going well for now. I will try to pay more attention to his behavior there too though.
Thanks for the referral to Pawsitive Steps. It’s still a long way but probably better than the drive to Annapolis.
So here are the two runs we did last Saturday. Our first run was FAST. I thought we’d do it “for real” since I could make the course up anyway….. there was a lot of bouncing but at least you can see our warmup. Not a ton of focus in the ring but it was our first run.
JWW FEO was much better…. Maybe almost even pretty. 🤩
This week we’ve been catching up on Tricks and the Volume Dial. I did some Volume Dial video. I do see varying degrees of excitement in the tricks we do. I did these with food. Toys will definitely turn the volume to up to 11. I know we’re going to want that but to get there I’ve got to figure out how to teach a toy release. 😔
We have some serious work on Remote Reinforcement ahead too. I’ll be watching that video tonight!
Hi there! So much great (and fast!) feedback here. Thank you so much!!! I got to through your comments right before starting out trial this weekend.
Observations on our “warmup” activities were really helpful. I was purposefully putting on the podium to warm up to keep him out of so the distraction not knowing the point was to have him practice working with distractions! I was able to implement this change in our very first run on the weekend. This makes so much sense and he did really well.
I skipped the practice ring as you suggested and did some tricks at the gate instead.
I also really got lost somewhere along the way with FEO and hire to use it. I’ve gone through varying stages of FEO. First it was just weaves-reward-leave then jump-weaves-reward then jump-weaves-jump reward. I guess it was at that point that I started working up to the weaves rewarding and leaving. So again, great observation that I basically started rewarding only at the end of the course.
I tried to be more strategic this weekend and reward mid-course. After that I took the time to reset and reengage and it made quite a difference.
As far a vet checks…. He’s been to three different vets (two are also chiro) for physical exams and no one has seen anything of concern. That said it would be my preference to get him to a sports ortho but there are none locally and appointments have a long wait time. I’ll start with seeing if I can get a local ortho surgeon to do the X-rays and go from there. 😊
I saw some improvement in FEO this weekend need to edit these so I can post! Thanks again!
Day 2 of FEO at last weekend’s trial….
Here’s FAST, I thought he had settled a bit here he’s actually still jumping on me. Tried weaves towards the end but ran out of time.
We got the weaves first try in JWW!!! After that there was a lot of handler focus again. We did not do the full course as I had a predetermined exit plan for the line out. I have trouble rewarding mid-course…. It seems once something interrupts our runs (reward or mistake) it’s hard to get back on track.
I don’t know how to fill in the holes here…. I’ve done more foundation with Brodie than any other dog and he’s the one who’s struggled most with the trial environment. I know every dog is unique but my experience with this type of issue is limited to him. I know we lots to work on and will be working the other exercises in games package 1 this weekend. In the meantime I’ll be looking forward to hearing your thoughts. 😊
Run two. Some backstory on our NFC runs…. I started these by just doing weaves, rewarding and then leaving. Then I added an obstacle before and after. That seemed to go well so I started letting him do the course up to the weaves, rewarding, and then leaving. Coursework is usually really nice. This one not so much. He was super handler focused on the run (he tends to be like this anyway) and I think this was the cause of most of the “mistakes”.
So this is where we are with FEO “just like home”. Toy is highly visible in hand. This is our first FEO run from last weekend…. Some pattern games (back and forth and up and down) A good startline but some pogo-ing and bouncing off the mama. I tried to keep the first one low pressure but intentionally omitting the object of stress, the weave poles.
