[Caron]

Hi!
Thanks for all the suggestions. I tried using a lot of them this evening. I still made my mistakes, but I thought Carmen was more focused and engaged. I kept all the dogs inside while I set things up and then took turns with them. Tried to keep Carmen’s turns short and to be more energetic and focused for her. I do think me being home and her having a different schedule through things off last week, along with the other pup going after her.

Since this was our final MaxPup 2 videos I just repeated some of the things we have been working on. But we’ll work on the week 8 games and practice previous games the next few weeks, and then see you in MaxPup 3!

We did two sessions of the deceleration turns, the video is the 2nd one. I was trying not to turn until she was close to the jump, etc.

We did one session of the turn aways. I tried to keep my feet together and not turn toward the jump and had varying success on my part. I think I get rushed and then mess things up. But I did think she was doing better and trying really hard to understand what I wanted.

At the end of this video she sees a person walking a dog on the road. She will often run over to the fence. I stoped trying to do the turns and held her collar for a few seconds but then pulled out lots of treats and started to do basics with her. She offered a sit and then I did nose touches with her. Then I actually had her do some spins and figure eights with me around the two far wings. She stayed with me and after the dog had passed we did another turn away and I then threw the toy. The whole video of the turn away practice and the dog going by was 6 minutes, so I clipped this part out. But I was really happy that she happily worked with me as the dog walked by and that in total she actually was focused and working for 6 minutes. Not that I’m going to start doing longer sessions, and we only did the three sessions this evening.

I don’t think I ever got back to you about the running contacts training. I did check out Kristen O’neill’s course and it looks like it would be good. She actually has some pictures of sighthounds on her website, I think Whippets. But it doesn’t look like she’s starting a new class for awhile and the website says the class lasts 30 weeks, which is really long. I sent her a message but haven’t heard back. So for now I think I’ll just start working on it myself.

Thanks!
Caron

• This reply was modified 2 weeks ago by Caron.

[Caron]

Thanks! I rewatched the deceleration video and saw what you mentioned about why she didn’t take the jump. In the smiley face I was definitely not clear for her about when to take the toy or tunnel. I’ve been feeling like my hands and arms can be a distraction for her sometimes. She like to try and grab them like toys and I also don’t think she totally understands what they mean in handling yet. I’ve done the handling without arms before with my others and like it. I tried doing it a little with Carmen today and it did help sometimes. I’ll keep doing that.

We worked on a few things today. She was still distracted and slower sometimes, but other times were great. I practiced more of the rocking horse turn aways because I thought that would also help with the smiley face. I have two video clips, one in late morning and one in the evening. There seemed to be a lot going on in the neighborhood today and she was definitely interested in it all. This evening she also “saw” who knows what in the yard and shot off a couple times. I try to keep the sessions short but before I know it 3 -5 minutes have gone by and I know that’s too long for her. I’m going to try and be more organized and ready to work with her, and set a timer.

Thanks,
Caron

[Caron]

Thanks so much! I’m glad to know I’m thinking along the right lines with all of this. Your point about it taking several days for a teenager to recover is good to know and remember. I was upset about it all too and I’m sure she picks up on that.

I looked back through video of this week and found some decent clips. The first is some deceleration practice. We’ve done this a few times. One of the hardest parts is getting her to go ahead to take the jump and also not turning in to me between jumps for the toy. I went back to practicing the parallel path having her look for the jumps. I also had her run straight through the jumps with me and throwing the toy ahead. As far as the deceleration, it’s always tough for me to judge and get the timing right.ent

This is some smiley face threadle work from yesterday which was tough for both of us. I was getting confused with which direction I should be facing, etc. I tried to break it down for us. Getting into the tunnel was also tough. The first video she seemed distracted in part by the others being in the house. So, I brought them out and took turns with all of them which seemed to help. I think I need to make her turns shorter, like you said.

To end the evening I practiced some stays and releases, did some of the chase games, throwing a cookie and then running with the toy. Also some throwing a ball, letting her run a little, and calling her back. She liked all of that.

Thanks!
Carom

• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 4 days ago by Caron.

[Caron]

Hi Tracy,

Well, working with Carmen has been a little rough this week. She’s had a hard time focusing and has eve seemed a little lower energy. I’m not sure if it’s adolescence, warmer weather, me being home all day doing stuff, or maybe all of it. She’s been much more interested in things going on outside the yard. I’m feeling like I need to reinforce our recalls and distraction and focus skills.

To make it worse, on Monday I went to my friends house to do a little practice and her puppy, same age as Carmen, went after Carmen and bit her. No blood, but pulled fur out and of course she was scared. It was totally unprovoked, my friend said so too, and he did this to her one other time on a hike. So, I don’t feel comfortable training with the pup unless he’s going to be crated. Carmen has played with him since 3 months old so thinks he’s her friend. I want her to learn to work around other dogs, but his behavior issue seems random so I’m really not sure I should have her off leash around him. Carmen is well adjusted, but she can get a little timid and very distracted in new situations, and just I don’t want to create any fears.

When I’ve practiced with her this week she’ll have a few good reps but then has seemed to get distracted and lose interest. I’m able to get her back but not for long, and then I’ll start to get frustrated so I stop. The videos have had a lot down time so I haven’t posted them. Having greyhounds, focus is almost always an issue at some point, and I do usually notice it get worse in adolescence, but it’s still hard to deal with.

Sorry, this is a bit of a rant, but if you have any thoughts on these things I’d love to hear them.

Thanks,
Caron

[Caron]

Hi Tracy,

Here’s a little work we’ve done with Get Out with her on my left. I started with the wing closer to the jump in another session and she did really well so I moved it further away and out. She did well but missed more often. When I tried with her on my right I kept messing up and using my inside arm, so will need to practice that side more.

This evening I worked on the Zig Zag. We’ve actually done this a few times. I’m definitely having a hard time getting her to be consistent with this one. Maybe I need to break it into smaller chunks and slow down? In watching the video it seemed like I was also off with staying connected and the direction of my shoulders sometimes?

Thanks,
Caron

• This reply was modified 3 weeks ago by Caron.

[Caron]

Thanks for all the info! We were at a trial last weekend, our first since Thanksgiving. He had a small injury in December so I took some time off.

Gromit is funny, at trials he’s very amped and spicy but in training he’s only like that maybe half the time. Keeping his turns short does help and often watching one of the others practice increases his motivation. At trials he often gets so amped that he shoots out ahead and then can’t turn.

At the trial I tried to use the break arm a few times but I think I need more practice with it because he pretty much ignored me. I did try to stay turned more toward him with my arm behind and the opposite across my body.

One time this week I practiced the break arm with Carmen and she did really well with it and made nice tight fast turns. I’ll get back to video this weekend.

Oh, and I’ve entered Gromit in a UKI trial beginning of April. I’ve run UKI a few times with my girl Ginger, but not Gromit. He’ll be in beginner since when I first signed him up a few years ago that’s what he was in. I’m hoping he’ll like it.

Thanks,
Caron

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

[Caron]

Hi!

Sorry I haven’t been good with video this week. I went to a trial last weekend and then the week was a mix of me being tired and just taking the dogs for hikes after work. We did do a couple of short practice sessions though, just didn’t get video. I’m off work the 9 days for spring break and looking forward to working with Carmen. When I did short sessions this week I mostly practiced things we were already working on. She did really well and seems to be getting more confident.

Caron

[Caron]

Thanks! Carmen saw a bug, that I could barely see, and chased it! She was so cute and I loved her jump to try and catch it.

I have used the word switch for rears with all my other dogs. Sometimes I have combined it with left/right, but not often because I screw it up, and thankfully they’ve learned switch is only for rears and sometimes changing lead leg. I see what you mean about using Go. I don’t think I’m that great with verbals in general. What word do you use to indicate take a Jump? I’ve used Jump and Go. Do you think it’s necessary to use a cue word for regular jumping? I’m actually thinking of changing my release word from OK to maybe Break. I say Ok all the time in regular life and have realized that might be confusing for the dogs. Once I think I said it as I was getting Gromit’s leash at the end of a run and he was right in front of the gate and thought I was telling him to jump. So he jumped it, and then jumped right back into the ring. Luckily we hadn’t Qd.

Caron

[Caron]

Hi!

Here’s some Break Arm practice with Gromit. He turned 8 at the end of December and runs masters level in AKC, but he hasn’t been in masters level for both jumpers and standard very long and we don’t have any QQs. One reason is he/I has a hard time collecting. So, you’d think I’d have tried to figure out the break arm earlier. I have tried to use it some but have always felt awkward and clumsy with it. Sometimes to collect my dogs I use a small reverse flow pivot, which seems like a similar idea. I don’t know the real name of it, but I’ve also used the move where you turn your butt toward the jump and send them over and they wrap back, if that makes sense. But I’ve never gotten good at the break arm.

Gromit can get very excited at trials and run fast, but sometimes when we’re practicing he can be slow so it makes it hard to train. He also sometimes does this goofy thing in training where he won’t release, you’ll see it. I actually think it’s a little stress or uncertainty.

These videos are actually from Tuesday. We practiced some yesterday, but he wasn’t super into it and was slow, so I decided to use these videos. He’s definitely not sure what the break arm means with a wrap yet and often stops before the jump, even yesterday. I’d like to be able to use this to help him collect for contacts and weave entries, etc. I think figuring out the timing for using it with enough time to get his attention and get him to collect will be important but hard.

Thanks,
Caron

[Caron]

Hi Tracy,

Our snow is gone and I got some video of more rear cross practice and starting the layering this evening. We had done some warm before each video. I think her rear crosses are getting better. I’ve practiced having her go straight and ahead of me to a toy and I think that’s helped her feel smore willing to drive to the jump and makes the rears easier.

The layering was a little clumsy because my throw of the toy was off. After she missed the jump a couple times I moved it in a bit and that seemed to help. I have a hard time remember all the set up and practice directions when I get out there so things seem rough. I’m sure it doesn’t help that it’s after work and my brain is tired. But the days are getting longer and it’s warmer so that helps.

Rear crosses

Layering

Thanks,
Caron

[Caron]

Hi!
Thanks for your ideas of methods and people who could help on this. I’m somewhat familiar with some of the methods and have a 4ft and 6ft plank and stride regulators, can get other things, but have only ever followed a real sequence for training stopped contacts.

When I think of running contacts for my hounds I guess I think of it more like they would slow and collect to hit the contact and then continue moving through. So not necessarily running full speed through them, if that makes sense. I agree that the criteria has to be modified and also like using front feet. And definitely agree that lots of repetition doesn’t work well with sighthounds. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in classes or training with others and my dogs are like “we’re done” on their third turn, and the others are still flying around on their 10th rep. It’s fine, but frustrating when others don’t understand and think there’s something wrong with my dogs.

I’d say at least half the snow blew away yesterday, lol. We’re supposed to get a little more then it’s supposed to warm back up.

Thanks!

[Caron]

Thank you! We’re getting some snow now so I’ll try to do some indoor training the next couple days. I’m a teacher so we have a snow day today which is nice.

I’ve been thinking about getting her started with some contact training. I’ve trained my other dogs with stopped contacts but it always morphs into something more like a “moving contact”. I would love to train Carmen from the start with a running/moving contact. Do you think that’s reasonable given her size and stride? Are there any methods you recommend for that?

Thanks,
Caron

[Caron]

Thanks so much! We went out this morning and I put in more of the straight line reps. I think it helped but still felt a little cramped so I’ll need to keep working on that. I think I need to stay more to the side of the line to the jump? She started to get the hang of the left turns. And she was full of energy so that was fun. I’m really loving seeing her put more power and enthusiasm into things. It was really windy today so I’m sure that added to her spunk.

We also did some serp practice. It felt a little smoother and I loved seeing her more excited about it. I realized after watching that I was rewarding her with the tug at my hand rather than having her go out to the tug, oops.

We did some Diamond game too but I had to move the camera to a different spot and it was so windy it kept blowing over there, and some wings too, LOL.

• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by Caron.
• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by Caron.

[Caron]

Hi!

Well, I’m officially behind on lessons and video. Just busy after work and then a little snow yesterday afternoon. I did check out the times you mentioned she had the best form on the jumping foundations and I think those were one’s I also thought felt better.

Today we did the feel the wind with rear crosses for the first time. She was super amped up and a little wild, which was fun but I ended up spending a lot of time getting the toy from her because I didn’t bring treats out. With the rears she didn’t quite understand to go ahead of me so I was crossing close to the jump. But she did seem to pick up on the turn a few times. I worked both sides. Turning to the right went better so this is that video.

Thanks,
Caron

[Caron]

Hi,

Here’s a couple videos of the jumping foundations with 3 jumps. First, I apologize for the obnoxious hound in the background of the first video. His FOMO was maxed out because my other girl is in standing heat. In the second video I put him in the house crate so you can’t hear him as much. Having them outside or inside are a distraction for Carmen and me. When I first started leaving the others in the house Carmen was actually more distracted and concerned because she’s so used to being near them. She would go to the back door and stand, so I went back to bringing them all out. But this evening was too much for me with his barking. She did better though and didn’t run off to the door.

We practiced this Sunday with a treat and train and she just didn’t have the drive so today I went back to the toy and moving it. I thought she did well with these but I need to work on stays and releases.

Thanks

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