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Yeah He is such a baby boy. I’m thrilled he starting to run towards things and take them! He’ll be 11 months old in about a week. And it’s always interesting how different dogs learn and mature at different rates. I was teaching Dreamer 2×2 weaves at 13 months, and I don’t think I’ll be doing that with Kaz. I don’t think he’ll be ready when he’s only 13 months old.
Okay great I’m glad I did the right thing with the teeter. And today… he did great again! So yeah I agree it’s the icky picking up he didn’t like. When I have to pick him up for anything else, I don’t… I kneel down and encourage him to jump on my shoulder. I’ve been doing that in the breed ring too, for when I put him on the table, and he seems a lot more comfortable with that. I have probably said that before. 😀 It seems like he wants to make the choice of being carried. Which is fine, it might turn into a jump into my arms after an agility run too. I love doing that with Dreamer.
Sorry for the bad sunshine on the teeter video, didn’t realize it was that bad until after we worked it and I watched the video. I definitely need to get something to put the treat on on the end of the teeter. So that he knows that is where the cookie is. When I switched sides he jumped off a couple of times again, not sure why. But by the last rep he was running up for the cookie.
(And when I looked out the window later, he was definitely up there on his own checking it out again! Oops!)
The Lazy Game was a lot more fun than I thought it would be! And I think he did really great. I did push him over a jump at one point then thought maybe I should not have, and let him just go around like I did on the first rep of each side. I didn’t move the far jump out at all, but I think he was really starting to understand about going over each jump and getting his cheese.
Okay great it was enough challenge! For me, though, you probably mean. Not so much for him LOL.
I can forget where I’m going even on short little courses like this. This morning I removed the tunnel and put a jump in instead. I think it worked pretty well. Our First rep we got the whole thing, but his turn isn’t very tight from 6-7. I am probably not putting in enough decel, I think. And not cueing it soon enough. Even 3-4 is pretty wide.
In rep 2 I forgot where I was going, so definitely didn’t support the far jump nearly enough. :p Same for rep 3. Ooops.
Rep 4 I got it back together again. :). But he was still wide, and I’m pretty sure he knocked the last bar because of my poorly timed toy throw! 😀
He is a confident guy! Though I messed him up today on the teeter. Though I’m not sure if he was hesitating to go up because he fell off, or because I picked him up. I almost suspect it’s because I picked him up. He really doesn’t like being picked up, that’s why I’m trying to turn him around on the top and have him run down. So the first time today he ran right to the top, then lost his footing and fell off. The second time I picked him up at the top. Then he wasn’t so sure about going up again, so I did lure him a bit with freeze dried liver which is his favorite. I hope I did the right thing.
And I’m not quite doing the lazy game, but I will do that next time. I just tried running him through the tunnel with some jump uprights and then some jumps. He did great! This is really the first time this is coming together. He hasn’t been great at any kind of sequencing, but I’ve been working this tunnel with stanchions a little bit, and I think that’s clicking. So tomorrow I’ll try the lazy game where I stand and send him around, and just use the jumps pinwheel. 🙂
Thanks! I was also thinking I will need to block it so he can’t go party on his own. Lol. Though if I just block the end he still wants to jump on the side! So I may just have to put it away or lower it. I do love his enthusiasm!
Ok I tried the layering a little bit and I put the tunnel out, but I folded the ends down so he couldn’t go in. Which probably makes it not as challenging. :p Should I put a jump out there instead of a tunnel and layer that?
It was still a bit of a challenge and we didn’t get that far jump every time. And I put in a wrap around the first jump a couple of times at the start. 🙂
Ugh tails are so slow to heal. I did try to run him this weekend but he won’t weave, I’m assuming because his tail is hitting the poles as he weaves, so he keeps coming out. So I pulled him from the whole weekend. Four days. Ugh. But I want to give it a good amount of time to heal.
So… that said, I think I can still train as long as we don’t do weaves or tunnels. Nothing that he could hit his tail on. I’m still out of town, but will be looking through the exercises to see what we can do!
Thanks for the feedback! Unfortunately, we’ve had a thing happen and Dreamer now has stitches in his tail so can’t run for a while. *sigh* I hope he heals up quickly but tails are a pain.
>>>I think it is more about being reactive, meaning you are waiting to see what he will do before going to the next thing, rather than being proactive: seeing him lock onto a line then just leaving for the next thing. We will definitely be working on that this summer!<<<
yes, I definitely need help with this!
I’m a bit stressed with the tail stitches so I will read back more in a bit. 🙂
Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate the wisdom on why the bars are coming down. I am training at full height (16″) because my backyard is pretty soft, and I want to see how he handles these things at full height and if bars come down. And I don’t think I’m training him too much. 🙂
I will admit I’m not great at decel. For some reason, my brain has a hard time running fast and then slowing down. It’s like a very difficult try of walking and chewing gum at the same time for me. :p. I should probably go practice it without a dog. And sometimes, like if a tunnel is involved, Dreamer can ignore my decel anyway since he loves to extend!
When I went out and trained this morning (before I dropped him off at the vet to have his tail looked at under sedation), I really tried to think of starting my blind after 3 when he was taking off for 2. I think I did better! The tunnel isn’t in the right position because I had it out to train with Kaz yesterday, and I was too lazy to move it. :p But, since I was so proud of my blind, I wasn’t in the right position and he took the tunnel. LOL. I also put that off course jump out, and he didn’t seem to think about that much at all. But watching today, my timing and positioning still aren’t great. I’m still tending to be late in my cue or in the wrong position, which still causes him to take down bars.
So this is challenging for me, to be in the right positions, get my cues out at the right time, and do the decel. It taxes my brain!
And I don’t really trust him to take things without my supporting them. I think I should really take your counter-motion course and do it on my own. I never really realized how important counter motion is for a fast dog. I didn’t really need it for my slower shorter dogs when I was running them. However, I’m sure it will be a really good skill for Kaz to have too.
BAHAAHHA I didn’t even noticed he missed jump 2 until I watched the video again! Ooops!
When doing exercise 2, I moved the first jump a bit so it would set him up for a backside like you suggested. I did have to0 show him to turn left away from me, which took a bit of work. Then he took the back side, but would swing wide and not take the jump. So that whole session just ended up being… take jump 1, wrap to the left, take the backside then collect and turn over the jump for the toy. 😀
However, reading your feedback again, I still used too much arm on the backside and not much eye contact. He’s such an amazing boy, and he loves playing agility!
Oh my gosh how can it be 6 days since my last post? Gah time goes by too fast. :p
Thanks for the feedback! It all sounds good. I’m still working a lot in Max Pup 1… but he is still a puppy with an attention span of a knat. :p.He actually really really REALLY hates to be grabbed and held, even if I try to do it positively. I have been working on that in non-agility training sessions but it’s slow going.
I will do the little-bit-wet tunnels at home again in the future. And use higher-value rewards. He has a bit of a stubborn streak in him. :p
Today I dropped my mom off at the dentist and the agility barn is just 10 minutes away so I went there. Outside he thought it was hot again, and lots of grass to sniff, so he didn’t really want to come and engage with me. He would sniff and do his own independent thing even if I ran around, so I brought out the big guns… Dreamer! That got Kaz’s attention! I just did a little tunnels outside with them both, then I put Dreamer away and did a couple with Kaz by himself.
Then we moved inside because he really loves it inside and it’s a bit cooler, and there are a lot fewer distractions. We started with the little straight tunnel again with the MM and I think that went well. I can fade the MM but I was thinking just to do a little with food at first.
I put him away between these sessions and worked Dreamer so they would each get a break. I worked the barrel wraps a little and was thrilled he stayed with me and wanted to play. I’m keeping the training sessions super short.
Another short session of barrel wraps came after we just worked some middle to bring his energy level down again with food.
Then when I was going to leave, this is what I get. :p He does not want it to be over. And I am still trying to convince him that coming to me is Super Fun, but he’s not so sure. He doesn’t want to go into the crate and have the fun be over. Usually it’s my Kromis that are more stubborn!
>>Yes! Can you imagine how good our human educational system would be if we rewarded effort – especially when that effort is based on information that the student relies on from US HUMANS in order to be correct? That is why I reward effort in dogs a LOT because a) they are learning and b) they have to sort through my trashy cues LOL!!!!<<
Sooo true! I hope that one day this will happen and it’ll really transform our society. I won’t get into things lol but I’m sure I was pretty messed up as a kid in many ways because I never did things good enough. :p
Yesterday morning I kept things really short and he did great! This was before we went out and did anything else and had a Big Day.
At the barn later on he also did really well. I also kept it really short and mostly he ran around with Dreamer in the building. When I was ready to leave and let them out of the building to go to the car, Kaz just kept running back to the building door, he wanted to go back in!
This morning we also did a little work at home, and I thought hmm this is a lot of video to put into one post. LOL. And… Kaz thought it was too much training! He did great at first when I did some barrel wrap. I tried to get some turn n burn and blind crosses in but I think I need better coordination myself! I need to go back and watch the videos.
Then I tried the tunnel and wraps again and he did not want to go into the tunnel. There was a little water in the bottom and he doesn’t like stepping in water. Which doesn’t bode well for dock diving LOL. I do have a kiddy pool set up outside now and my other dogs love the water, so hopefully he’ll learn it’s fun. So we gave up on this exercise LOL I did straighten the tunnel more after I stopped the video and threw in a bunch of kibble which he went in and ate, but I figured we just needed to give up on that today. 😀
We did some super easy through the tunnel for the Manners Minder and he was okay with that, but also stopped pretty early. I have an agility trial this weekend so he’ll get a big break from training. I will bring the lotus ball and get him used to that, and walk around and probably do some resilience games again. 🙂
I went out with him again after it cooled down and we both did better! I need to get out the short tunnel and work the tunnel games from MP1.
Yeah he’s a good boy at 9 months old. And I think he has the potential to be speedy and quick! I have lotus balls I used for my older Farmdogs so I will get some out for him. Sounds good. Connor and Jet love those!
I he really is starting to mature so we can do more things now. Which is always fun.
I set up the smiley face game and it gave me a ton of information! 😂🤣❤️. Most useful really I think was that I can’t work too long. Especially when it’s hot. They are saying is in the mid eighties today. And last weekend at dock diving I swear Kaz was saying… It’s never been this hot in my whole life! Which really it hasn’t been. Since I got him last October the world has been pretty much frozen. And when we tend to go right from cold to hot all the dogs have a hard time adjusting.
So this also tells me he doesn’t understand sending to a tunnel yet. Nor wrapping a jump stantion. Which just made me laugh. Lol. When I was setting up the tunnel and the bags he was zooming through really fast on his own!
One thing you said in a live a while back when you were helping a young girl really sticks with me. You asked her how cool it would be if in school she gave something a good try and the teacher always gave her an A+. And what what we want for our dogs. They always get a A+ no matter what! I just loved that. ❤️❤️
Oh that’s good I’m not the only one who took a break from training. 😊. I can’t believe they are already 9 months old! Kaz definitely needs a lot of maturing lol. He still can’t play with toys outside of home. But treats work well for short training sessions.
I looked at the smile game and that looks fun! I will set that up in the next few days. I only had a little time this morning so I threw out the barrel in the back yard and he had a blast! I should probably move further away. 😊
Gaaah. Between overbooking April, and feeling horrible for the last 3 weeks, I haven’t trained at all. So I feel behind (again) and need to pick a new starting point. I’m looking over some of the lessons to see what we can do. I should be able to get something going today and in the next week or so.
Thanks for your feedback! I can get a pool noodle but he tends to think they are great toys and will run off with them. 🤣 So I may need something he can’t carry. I can recruit the husband for the same jump game again… I am so hoping the snow is done for the year! But we just never know. It can blizzard in May too.
Anyway, I’m still around, and reading up. 🙂
Good to know I was doing things right in the trailer. 🙂 I was parked away from others, and I had the blinds closed so he wouldn’t see many people or dogs going by. I also usually have white noise (well I’ve been using brown noise) at night, but he was actually quiet at night when we were sleeping, it was when we were awake and active he would bark. And it wasn’t full-blown barking like a mad puppy, just some woofs. He’s super quiet in his crate at trials, which is fantastic. Well, except now when I get Dreamer out and Cas knows he’s missing some fun, he’ll bark and yap. 😀 I don’t leave him in the trailer unsupervised yet. He’s too destructo. :). He loved the chews I gave him, which kept him occupied in the trailer.
I also did some nosework training at the trial and he did great! It’s so cool to see that he can work at trials. He’s still not able to play with toys, so I’m waiting for that to come back at his own speed.
Yeah, he doesn’t like being picked up at all. A friend recommended that maybe I have him jump on me from a chair, or even from the ground. When I get him out of his crate in the truck he jumps on me. He’s pretty high up but he’s gotten really good at jumping on my shoulder. Dreamer does that too, which I started as a puppy, to help him feel safe. Dreamer still jumps on my shoulder, which he really doesn’t need to do anymore, lol, but it’s fine. He’s not too heavy. So I definitely like recommendations about how to make picking him up more comfortable. If I just pick him up from the ground, his legs flail all over like he’s really insecure, so I’ve been trying not to do that anymore.
On to training! I thought I’d see what he’d do over a couple of jumps like in the live, and he is just silly! I don’t have jump bumps so I just used bars on the ground. He’s almost 8 months and still has no idea what to do with his feet. I’m thinking maybe I shouldn’t do this with him for a while until he gets more coordinated. I was trying to ask him to sit, but apparently, he doesn’t know what sit means in the backyard. Oops. So I had my husband hold onto him and release him to the Manners Minder. He looks pretty awkward to me!
I also tried some basic barrel wraps in the backyard because I haven’t ever done them in the backyard! We’ve had too much snow. We had rain today but it cleared up a little. I’m just excited to train in my yard!
