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I can get her to trial mode by leaving Reba and Ti loose while I’m training. They run behind the gates and bark like mad, she gets higher than a kite.
If I’m in a class/seminar setting then tugging brings her arousal up much more than if I was using food and a lotus ball. When I’ve done FEO with a toy, it’s hard to get her back working and off me if I’ve stopped and played. She wants to just keep barking at me. Some of that is the time limit too. I can get her back working and focused if we have the time.
Whenever we have to repeat something, I really get barking at me. I can’t even walk forward without stepping on her cuz she’s right in my face telling me I messed and I’m the reason we are going back.
I tend to not repeat things in trials, even the weaves. I just feel at this point if she skips a pole going back is only going to mess up the rest of her run. She knows her poles and unless something becomes a trial behavior I let it go.
At home when I need to repeat, I toss cookies on the floor as we walk back to where were starting. That has made the biggest difference in training. By the time we get back she is calmer and ready to listen again.
She loves doing tricks. Some of them will help keep her calm like chin rest, paws up, head down.
Others like back, get her all excited. Heck I can get her all wound up just by calling out her agility verbals, LOL!!!Sorry this ended up being jarbled but it does give a good picture of what brings her up and what can bring her down.
Ranking her rewards was a bit difficult, she’s an easy date.
Food:
PB
cheese
meat
soft treats like Zukes
KibbleToys:
anything Reba or Ti has in their mouths
soft frisbee
udder
ball on rope
anything Reba or Ti has in their mouthsFavorite activities:
Chase something like a toy or Ti
visiting her human friends
playing with dog friends
swimmingMy wish list:
Transition contract criteria to the show ring.
Be able to enter the show ring on 4 feet instead of 2. At home we have a consistent routine of go through the gate (any opening) and she faces me and sits. I’m able to keep her on me with food before we go in the ring at a trial. It’s when the food goes away that we struggle. She loses her marbles watching the dog before us run so we stay back until it’s time to enter the ring.
I think her 2nd time in the ring she learned, leave the ring, food jackpot and now she is one of those dogs that would love nothing more than to plow through anything and everything to get to the “cheese”!!! She is not trying to leave the ring on her own and is staying very engaged with me until I open the gate and we leave. If there are friends outside the ring, she is more than happy joining them for attention and then moving to the jackpot.
My biggest takeaway from this game is her willingness to come back to my hand time and time again and yes she did get multiple cookies just for that. I feel like I’m constantly trying to walk that fine line of waiting till she can think vs waiting and just pissing her off even more. What I did notice was the few times I waited her out until she stopped barking AT me, she focused forward and was able to do it.
I really want to get through all the steps in this class even though I’ll run out of time for feedback. This is the stuff that’s going to make or break us when I try and do those hard ASCA elite gambles on top of just getting her more independent and off me so she doesn’t get frustrated with my turtle pace running around the course, LOL!!Here is some of my distance skills. Seems going straight out towards a wing is fairly easy, getting her to “dig” round the wing is challenging as is driving straight out for a jump. Should I put a treat train out there so she has something to go for or keep working the sends and throws? I’m going to keep working these.
I loved the response on her turns.I’m so sad camp is over and so is summer though I’m ok with it cooling off some. I was able to get in a few of the jww courses from package 4 this morning. They both ran really well. The backside was hard next to the DW. Poor design on my part. I didn’t run as aggressively after she got on it.
Going to jump 13 I think where they take the front side and come back? That is a hard part for us. Funny how she just drifted towards me and took the backside. I wanted it that smooth in the previous course😊I was able to do a few of the week 5 std courses today. It’s hard to do them if you don’t have someone around to run the camera for you. I loved them, hard but fun too.
You’ll see where my struggles were.
The line from teeter to AF is one. It was hard pushing enough to get the jumps on the line, but not pushing so much that you sent to the tunnel.
Then the weave entrance in the other. It’s obviously something I’ll need to train so I’ll go back to like 4 poles? and just work on variations of that entrance.As I was setting up my phone in the window sill, she was playing teeter games😂
We reviewed those few sections from Sat. Thanks for the quick feedback. I wish my mememe was perfected, so used a tandom turn and was able to get ahead enough to the tunnel to cue her turn coming out. Then I tried running the other side and doing BC 11-12 and it was way too scary for me.
Next sequence, we struggled second time in the poles so stopped after that. She was getting heated. I left in the part with us retrying weaves and taking a time out. I could tell when she shifted on to a hip at the down, that she was settling. She’s behind the wing so it was hard to see. I like that after we rested for a minute, she was able to weave successfully again. I’m not sure what else to do at that point. I wasn’t mad or yelling at her, I just want her to think again.
Help, what’s the best way to handle weaves? She actually did well with me blinding and drove to the end away from me, but wanted to turn back thru the pokes when she was done instead of coming out and around. Next sticky spot was first tunnel and getting up there so she knows which way to turn.
Dang it, thanks for reminding me about the tunnel entrances. I try to be aware of what my body is showing her as she goes in and totally missed these.
These were fun even if I did ad lib some and yea, Ti was totally into it.Ti made a guest appearance and clearly helped me figure out my handling😁
It’s been a while since I’ve run a quiet dog.Since there is no way I can get through everything before we end, I scanned through the topics to see what might benefit me most. I zero’d in on the drill that may slow them down to think. It didn’t work – LOL!!! It was great though and she totally knows her job especially when I’m not running in her path pushing her into the off course tunnel (and when I remember to use her words). I think our biggest struggle was getting around the end of the tunnel and driving to the jump.
This was a 10 minute session. That included getting a drink a few times, down time while I reviewed my notes. She probably had 3 minutes of “running” in those 10 minutes. It definitely takes her awhile to come back down the longer we are in the ring, even if we’re not actively working.
I also need to get more comfy with her stay at trials. I don’t trust her and that’s an awful place to be. She’s a pushy one for sure.
I should have edited more out of the beginning. Lot of reps of the same thing, she seems pretty happy to do the threadly backside – with me standing still that is.
I’m finding it harder to do shorter sequences with her and have her not get so sassy about doing things over even it it’s to try it a different way. She gets rewarded for all her efforts and we had several breaks where she ran around with her toy. She will re do anything and will just keep going till she drops which makes it hard for me to just stop after a set period of time. We both want to keep going, but she spirals and when it’s hot especially I worry cuz I can’t get her to settle back down and regroup.
i feel like a lot of this is rushed just to get it done when I’d rather be taking my time to work it through. So maybe next time I’ll just focus on 1 sequence or 1 course.I went back and tried to tighten up some lines. I thought the BC created a nice line at the end of seq #2 instead of the “close/threadle” to get the correct end of the tunnel even though the bar was down. I felt like she read the turn well.
Sequence #3 was going well until I forgot I needed to do a cross when she came out of the tunnel the 2nd time. I am using my verbal turn cue before she goes in. I could try a physical cue as well since she still seems to be blasting out.
