[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 2 months, 1 week 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 2 months, 3 weeks ago by Caron.
• This reply was modified 2 months, 3 weeks 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

[Caron]

Hello!

Thanks for all the help! Here’s some sends and serps work that we’ve done. I angled the jump a little bit and that does seem to help her, but occasionally she still goes straight today and I think I might try using the colored hand target to see if that helps a little more too.

We’ve started some of the other games, but I’m having issues with my Internet being slow or not even connecting so I’m not sure I’ll be able to get more video up today.

Thanks, Caron

[Caron]

Good Evening!

Thanks so much! That was a really fun session. She was full of energy after I got home from work. She does seem to really like it and to be understanding more that it’s something we do together.

I think I’ll sign up for the opposite arm class, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do better. Do you think I should do it with one of my adults though since Carmen’s still learning things? My boy is awesome but we struggle some with turns and deceleration at trials. In fact, after what you said about having them jump preferred in AKC to help with striding I think I’m going to try that with him to see if it helps.

This evening Carmen and I worked on the Sends and Serps from last week because I hadn’t done that yet. It went well but there were some times of her going straight to the treat and train so I did some having her come through the jump to my hand with a treat. We did 3 short sessions. I rotate through turns with my other two between her sessions.

After watching the videos I saw that for the entire first two sessions I was telling her to go left when she was going right and right when she was going left!! I must have somehow gotten it figured out when working with the other two before Carmen’s 3rd session. I was completely clueless about it all. I remember going over left and right in my head before we started but obviously it didn’t work. I feel bad because who knows how many other times of done this and I’m sure it’s confusing for her. So, I didn’t bother uploading the video and I’ll redo that and start on this weeks games.

Caron

[Caron]

Hi!

We did some more Find the Jump this evening. I tried to keep my arm back, make eye contact, and stay turned to help with connection. One time I didn’t as she came out of the tunnel and then she missed the jump. I was also trying to stay further away from the jump and run parallel to it rather than angling in. I still think maybe I threw the toy too late and then didn’t keep running after I threw it. I did short session before this one and at first she was running a lot with the toy so I ran away and when she came I gave her treats. So in this session she did better.

I have trouble cueing deceleration which is not good given the size of my dogs. I was thinking about doing your opposite arm course. Do you think it would help with deceleration cues? There’s other things I’d be interested in from the course too.

I see what you mean about maybe jumping 20 inches for AKC. I’m a little frustrated right now with a lot of the courses I’ve run in AKC. But UKI courses are pretty hard for me too.

Thanks!

[Caron]

Thanks so much! I really appreciate the info about how to stay connected and the times in the video to look at. I think I have trouble with that even with my older ones. I need to work on keep my hand back and shoulders pointed where she should go. I could really see how I turned and pulled her off the tunnel. I think I get too rushed and don’t stay connected.

Carmen had her 10 month birthday today. She’ll jump 24″, she’s about 26″ at her shoulders now. I’m not in a rush to have her jumping 24 and I’m totally fine with no jumps when she’s learning things. I’ve had her jump 12″ a couple times and that seemed fine. I just wasn’t sure how quickly to move them up for the set point, etc. Sometimes I think having a little jump gets them more excited.

Today we started Find the Jump. She loves chasing the toy I throw as she comes out of the tunnel. She wasn’t as zippy doing the wrap to the tunnel. The video is of her first round with the jump about 10′ out. Later we did a session were I moved the jump out 12 or 13′ and put the bar at 8 or 10″ and that went well too, but I didn’t get video of that. After watching the video I think maybe I was talking to much rather than just letting her find the jump.

During our training she does get distracted sometimes and wanders off towards my noisy others ones. Today my friend came over to train with her dogs too so that added a little more challenge. I kept things short and made things easier. I’m happy that she will work with others around and comes back to me. It’s harder when we’re training with her puppy friends around though.

[Caron]

We started the minny pinny left/right proofing today. I was happy she got some of the ones where she was starting from my inside. They were tough though, so that will be where we pick up from next time. I’m trying to do better and keeping the sessions short and not when I know she’ll be tired.

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