[Caron]

Hi Tracy,

Yesterday evening and this morning we continued to try and work on sends to the middle jump of the pinwheel and trying to get in some blinds. I ended up working mostly on the middle jump. I’m not able to get her to consistently take the middle jump yet. I’m guessing it’s a similar problem to when she misses the others, me turning and losing connection. In our practice I’m not doing all the steps like having her sit or sending her to wrap before going to the tunnel like you show in the videos just because I’m worried that she’ll lose motivation and energy if I do too much. I’m also trying to get her warmed up by doing the easy jump, tunnel, jump and chase the toy. She didn’t do her super sized victory laps this time though.

This video is from yesterday evening.

This is from this morning.

Thanks,
Caron

[Caron]

Thanks! Yes, I was trying to work on the independent commitment and bring out some of the joy for her. I was worried that stress might be a little of the reason she wasn’t wanting to take the tunnel, etc., so I thought letting her fly through it all would help her and build some love of the tunnel and jumps. And I was thinking that me not running with her would take some pressure off her and help her build confidence?

The zoomies that happen are definitely her victory laps with her toy, she just gets so excited she takes a few very fast laps before coming back. I don’t mind that since she does come back and also doesn’t play keep-away with her toy. This morning when we did this a couple times my throw of the toy wasn’t directly in line with the jump, so it landed off to the side some, and she was still taking the jump before going to the toy. I was very happy with that. I’ll try to get video.

I see what you mean about me looking forward and losing connection for her to take the jump. I’ll keep going to the next jump like you suggested and reward with the toy to keep building her jump desire too.

Caron

[Caron]

Hi,

I’ve been working on blind crosses. We started having some trouble with taking the jump after the tunnel and coming in to me instead. Also was still having a little trouble with going into the tunnel. So I’ve been working on those by going back to having her extremely amped up taking a jump to the tunnel and throwing the toy after the jump after the tunnel. I do this with me running with her hardly at all. I thought that would help with both issues at once. This leads to grand zoomies in between reps so I only do a few and haven’t videoed it.

Here’s a clip of just practicing the blind after the tunnel, not the whole sequence. I still need to work on sending to the middle jump and leaving.

Thanks,
Caron

[Caron]

Hi!

This evening we tried some fluffy blind crosses. I cleared everything from behind the tunnel and checked her over and her back didn’t seem twitchy so we gave the tunnel a try. I think she did better. I didn’t want to overdo it so I left out the tunnel on some of the ends. I think my timing was a little off and I kept wanting to do a front that put me on the wrong side after the wrap. But I thought Carmen did well.

Thanks!

[Caron]

Thanks!

I checked her over and did find a twitchy area in her upper to middle back and it seemed to be more on the left side. So I did some massage through her back. The twitching calmed down but I do think it was tender area because after I massaged the other side and came back to the left she responded some again so I’ll keep working it. I have a small laser and a pemf bed that I’ll use with her too. Thankfully her feet and toes seem fine. I’ll also move the weaves and there’s a shade cloth on the ground behind the tunnel I’ll move, and make sure the dirt is out of the tunnel. Thanks for reminding me to check for soreness. I’ve been thinking I should watch the videos on pain you and the others did recently.

It was windy and rainy today so no outside work. I worked on some of the motion override things and took her to some stores in town.

Thanks!
Caron

Caron

[Caron]

Hi Tracy,

I sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I was out of town for a trial last weekend and during the week I’ve been tired, etc. We’re also in our wicked wind season which never helps anything. I’ve worked some indoors with moving sits and some other things.

I did practice with Carmen on week two things. We’ve also been having a hard time with some things. You’ll see some of it in these videos. For some reason she’s not going in the tunnel a lot of times. I’m not sure if it’s me doing something or if she’s distracted, etc. And then sometimes she seems to be distracted or unmotivated. I’m wondering if she’s feeling some stress about training. Or, maybe I’m expecting to much from her since I’m used to working with my older trained hounds. Sometimes when I’ve gone out she’s not like this though and is totally into it. I’ve been trying to work on easier exercises and just playing with her more in general, rather than doing hard training. I’m feeling a bit stuck.

These videos are from this morning. We tried the first session and then I left the house for about an hour to do errands and then we did the second section. She has some great reps in each session, but then she seems to lose interest, get distracted, or stressed? I’m just not sure.

First session – I did some warm up things with her at the beginning and just left them in the video.

Second session

Thanks for any ideas.
Caron

• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 3 days ago by Caron.
• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 3 days ago by Caron.

[Caron]

Hi Tracy,

In that previous video I cut out the unfocused things so it was before and after that session. Honestly, I think sometimes it’s my state of mind and focus too that affects things.

We weren’t able to do a lot during this past week. This weekend has been really windy but today I wanted to give it a try. This is her Timing and Connection circle game. I thought it went well once we got into it. I had done this with her over break but I didn’t have things as spread out as today. At the start she was missing the jump so I slowed down and really tried to not use a lot of arms and hands and stay turned toward her. I think that helped. We took a break and then tried to do wing wraps, but it was so windy and I also think she was ready for breakfast so she wasn’t supper into it and we stoped quickly because I’m really trying not to push things.

Thanks,
Caron

[Caron]

Hi!

We tried the Wing game again Saturday evening and struggled a bit. I had moved the wings out farther and had a hard time sending her to it. She was also a little unfocused. We had been at a trial earlier in the day so she had spent some time in the crate and then socializing at the trial so maybe that affected us. I gave her a break and tried again with the wings closer but still struggled and she seemed to get more tired and unfocused so I stopped. Later I put her on the low dogwalk and had her turn around on it and that went well. Sunday after the trial we just rested.

I thought I’d go ahead and submit this to see if you think it’s me not getting in the right position to connect etc. I’ll try again today starting with the wings closer and gradually moving them out.

Thanks,
Caron

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

[Caron]

Hi Tracy,

We got started with things today. Some of these weren’t brand new to Carmen because during break I did some similar things with her. I was wanting to work on jump commitment so I had practiced a three jump pinwheel and actually did it with out my hands too because I wanted to work on looking toward her and her, letting her find the jumps, and not having her be distracted by my wonky hands and arms. I also did it with a tunnel as the 4th obstacle, and practiced doing some wraps without my arms. So in the video I wasn’t very good with throwing the treats because she was moving along. I only worked on Part 1 today so you could see that.

I’ve also been having her go across my teeter board on the ground. I had been letting it wobble but today I put a sandbag to keep it still. I’ve also had her get comfortable going across the low dogwalk. Haven’t done anything with the aframe yet.

I’ve also had her run through completely open channel weaves (just mentioning it because you’ll see them in one video). I want to practice entries and get her used to running through with and without guides.

Lazy Game Part 1

Wingin’ It

Plank Confidence

She’s played the teeter slam game before and been on wobble boards. I need to put the teeter back together and will do more of the slamming and get video.

Side note because it’s embarrassing, the reason I have a ton of ugly sandbags in my yard is that we had flooding from rains that happened after a wildfire in the mountains a couple years ago. Only my front yard ended up getting flooding and I’ve gotten rid of those bags, but haven’t gotten rid of the ones in the back yard yet. 🙂

Thanks,
Caron

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

[Caron]

Hi,

Before I get started I wanted to ask about whether we should practice the games some before videoing. I was wondering about this in MaxPup2 and then was reading through the guidelines for MaxPup3 and saw that you want us to submit our first rep, etc, and then we can submit another video later. I just want to make sure it’s the first rep of the first try of the game.

Thanks,
Caron

[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 1 month, 3 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 months 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 2 months ago by Caron.

[Author]

Posts