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Hi Tracy,
>> Whoa, that’s crazy! Why are they closing?
Patti Drom retired. What a Great Dog Richardson is closing due to the landlord increasing the rent by 60% at the end of the year and What a Great Dog Frisco is dropping agility because it takes more space than other classes so the revenue per sq ft isn’t good enough. I think they’ll be moving the Richardson Barn Hunt and scent classes to Frisco.>> Those types of events are really hard for young dogs – a ton of travel, a lot of people/dogs, weird locations, lots of pressure, multiple rings, not a lot of decompression, etc. And adolescent dogs don’t always adjust quickly to it. What type of treats was he able to eat, and what type of treats did he not eat?
When Venture won’t eat treats, it doesn’t seem to matter what I offer. Salmon chunks, chicken breast, cheese… he spits it all out. I worry about trying to use too high of a value of food treat and overwhelming an environment that he needs to process. I did learn that a firm slow stroking massage can help him come down just a bit to the point he can take a treat, look around, visibly relax a little.Fall tracking class has started and he LOVES it.
Here are two videos from this afternoon’s work. First day under 90 degrees and his first time jumping 12″ on grass. I left the pattern games at the beginning of both videos. Just short “are you focused” before starting.
Sequence 1:
Sequence 2:
I’m checking for a ring rental for Sunday in hopes I can set up some of the sequences with a bit more space. And we will see you in GA for Brain Camp. I ended up choosing the agility track even though scent was tempting.
Jean-Maria and VentureHi Tracy,
Venture finally got to return to agility class today. He was soooo happy to be running and I was so happy to not hear any coughing.
We played the up/down treat game on my shoes before each turn and I saw improvement in his focus despite having several new people and dogs in class today. (2 indoor agility training locations closing – that’s 3 total training locations we’ve lost this year)
Looking at the week one sequences for openings, how would you suggest I alter the layout for my backyard? I’ve got 30′ x 30′. I can use the short 3′ tunnel although that does make it harder for me to get ahead. I can save a little space on the outside edge by leaving off the wing on those sides. How should I adjust the spacing? Try taking 3-4′ off each distance maybe?
Jean-Maria and VentureHi Tracy,
Weave pole question – what age do you generally start weave pole training?I heard there was a newish 2×2 approach that shapes the dog finding the entrance from the end of the poles instead of the start of the poles. Do you know anything about that concept?
Thanks,
Jean-MariaHi Tracy,
We’ve created a teeter monster. I went to lunch Saturday and brought back a chunk of cheeseburger. Put it on the teeter and then let Venture out and asked him for one teeter. His brain fell out of his head when he found the burger meat up there. He is now taking down the wings blocking the teeter so he can go check for more hamburger meat. I have to either lower the teeter or put it up after every session now. He also did plankarobics on the teeter today but I didn’t video. He has no hesitation getting on/off turning around, racing to the end, going up the mountain without me. Time to refocus on end behavior games.and tonight’s video is messed up so I can’t post it. The sound is at normal speed and the video runs at triple speed so nothing matches. I’ll just tell you he did a speed loop of 3 jumps, tiny tunnel and right up the teeter for cod treats tonight.
Jean-Maria and Venture.
Hi Tracy,
Teeter – angled entriesWhen I watched the video, I realized the teeter was too wobbly on the grass. I added tunnel bags to the bottom for our second session this evening but forgot to click the record button so no video for that one.
Jean-Maria and Venture
Hi Tracy
2 days of glorious ran = very wet yard along with hot muggy temps. So going back to work some of the teeter games we skipped.Love the bang and hind end – does the teeter need to be at max height and then propped up for a short bang or can I just lower it and then brace the lowered teeter?
Jean-Maria and Venture
Hi Tracy,
I stuck to my plan, mostly. Stopped a couple times when he skipped multiple jumps. I didn’t mean to but when my brain gets busy trying to figure out what’s going on, I forget. Anyway, I’m going to give you all 4 parts of the videos because I do see progress across the sessions. I modified the course a bit and prioritized getting more drive into the tunnel and down the line of jumps. He’s much better coming out of the tunnel than starting from a sit stay or even wrapping.Pt 1 – I did fix the camera angle after this one. There was a 2 day scent seminar in the room this weekend and Ven was clearly distracted by all the scent in the room.
Pt 2 – I learned leading out to landing of 1st jump was more successful that starting with him or leading out to take off side.
Pt 3 – started varying the starts and saw some improvement in drive and focus.
Pt 4 – I used a cookie on the nose to keep him with me while I reset bars this turn to stop him from sniffing and trying to mark. He wore a belly band today so no “accidents on purpose” but there would have been 3 or 4 otherwise. I did notice that he was starting to come to me after he ate his cookie so maybe magnet cookie can help build him focusing and not sniffing the equipment to decide if it needs to be peed on.
I’m thinking I’ll leave this alone tomorrow and then setup in the backyard on the other side for another session without the layer. Thoughts on how this went and any changes I should make?
Jean-Maria and Venture
Hi Tracy,
Patella are fine. He back wasn’t tight. Not really sure what he might be doing. We’re going to begin more conditioning as the temps drop – mostly walks at first along with some basic sit-stand, down-stand, and posture work.First session Layering. Didn’t go well. I didn’t handle errors well and Ven was trotting and not staying out on his line. It was muggy but we’ve worked in far hotter temps. After this session, we came in to cool off and when we went back outside, there was a foreign substance falling from the sky. So we both got soaked while I quickly cleared the yard.
Do I back chain, take out the layer jump entirely first, or some other approach? I’ve got an hour ring rental tomorrow afternoon so I’ll setup the other side. No I won’t overwork him. I have to mark where everything is, setup our course, work, and then put everything back so I can’t really get it all done in 30 minutes. I’ll edit videos after each turn while he “chills”.
Jean-Maria and Venture
Hi Tracy,
>> set him up on a slice facing the backside line
I don’t know how I came up with setting him up to the far side rather than on a slice. When I re-watched the videos this morning, you were clear.Took both pups for a massage yesterday afternoon, Ven had a tight tendon in his back right leg. Not sure what he’s doing to cause that but it’s the second time she’s found that leg tight. I’ll be keeping an eye on it and checking it regularly.
So here is another round of the forced front and forced threadle. I realized about the time this video ends that I hadn’t done any rewarding the start line stay so I actually did about 3 rewards after I stopped the video.
Goodness that boy knocks bars everywhere; even when he’s just coming back to setup he manages to knock them. I counted 5 times he knocked the bar the other day just in one turn. Does he not see it or is his brain just not processing that it’s there? I’m starting to worry when he just walks over the bar taking it out with his chest or a back leg.
Jean-Maria and Venture
Hi Tracy
Only 97 for tonight’s heat index so I tried to “race him back to set-up” a few times to bring up the energy. I messed up and failed to click the start on my phone so this is the video from our second session.I need to get me figured out. I struggled with which foot and hand went where so before we do this again I’ll be in the back yard watching and talking to my phone while I try to fix me.
Jean-Maria and Venture
Hi Tracy,
>> For his size, I think 5 feet center-to-center on the bars might produce the best distance (he will let us know based on his striding). He bounced here, no problem, but it was a little collected which might mean the distance was shorter than needed.
I thought Ven might be collected because he didn’t have enough room to run. So for tonight on the other side, I set-up using more yard and put a dish well past the second jump. I think he stretched out a little more tonight.
Jean-Maria and Venture
Hi Tracy,
Thank you for all the good feedback. I know it took you a while to go through the videos. I realized at the end we’d done too much. My fault, it was so nice to work in the a/c I got carried away. I like the idea of reviewing/editing the video after each short turn. That will force me to stop and give Ven a break which he protests… loudly.I can’t let him run around the room, he pees on equipment if I don’t stay right with him. Every “accident” is a $5 fine. I took him to the vet today to rule out UTI. Nope, he’s “just” an adolescent knothead.
So tonight’s work is a short 4 jump zigzag. Ven said 4 was all he had in him so we stopped when he didn’t want to setup for the last jump (I limit him to 5 on any given day).
My questions:
1. Is the angle of the jumps correct? I walked off a 6′ arc matching the distance he was working in the straight grid.
2. I set the bars at 6″. He’s been mostly jumping 8″ with recently starting to see 10″. He’ll jump 16″ AKC/ASCA and hopefully 12″ UKI/USDAA. He is 15 mos old.
3. Is this camera angle ok or is there a better one? Should I remove the inner wings to make it easier to see him?
4. Next time we do this exercise, reverse the angle so he’s jumping to his left instead of right?
Jean-Maria and VentureHi Tracy,
I was able to get an hour ring rental this morning so we worked all 3 “Lead Outs and Big Lines”. I’m not sure the best way to post all our work for feedback since there’s no way to apply feedback from one part to the other parts. I thought maybe I’d give you the video link and my specific questions so you could just look at the piece I’m asking about. Let me know if this doesn’t work and I can split them up further.Lead Outs and Big Lines 1
Beginning of work – no questions, only included because you ask to see beginning of session
Next section, starting at 2:40 – back chaining the K turn lead out. We really struggled with this lead out so I need help figuring out how to help him. Yes, he opined by peeing on the jump so I stopped the video for clean up on aisle 9.
Continuing K turn work, even with back chaining we were only successful once.
(Yes, I kept forgetting to line him up on the right and then had to re-line him up)
Changed sides, no questions on this one, just leaving it in sequence.
Back chained the K turn lead out and again, only successful once and then back to a fail so I stopped.
Lead Outs and Big Lines 2
No questions on this one, you can skip it if you want to
Leads Outs and Big Lines 3
0:38 – why did he knock the bar wrapping towards me?
Leads Outs and Big Lines 3, part 2
No questions – you can skip
Big Lines 3, changed sides.
I’m just amazed at how much dog I still had left at the end of an hour. This is the end of the session. I’m proud that not once did I see his tail droop. We did have some struggles with the rear cross left wrap direction, probably my handling.
The big question is how to work through the K turn lead out. You will notice I began lowering the bars as the session continued just to keep him from getting too tired.
Jean-Maria and VentureHi Tracy,
>>Time to starting thinking about what you want your threadle wrap verbal to be!
I think I’ve used “in in” for this in the past. Vs using Come for regular threadle for jumps and here-here for threadle end of a tunnel.Lap turns / Tandem turns – maybe I misunderstood the exercise. I was intentionally doing some of each kind of turn because the name of the exercise “Turn Aways (Lap Turns and Tandem Turns)” said both.
Heat index just before sundown the last 2 days has been 107-109. I just couldn’t face it so we’ve taken a couple days off. Hoping tomorrow we can get back out there. When is the last day to post for this session?
Jean-Maria and bored Venture
Hi Tracy,
Safe travels home. I hope Crusher is on the road to recovery very soon.>> Try to line him on up the side you are leading out on
I’m working on either teaching him to line up between my legs (he said WTH do you want) or Come side for right hand. We aren’t there so I used whatever worked for this morning.>> And yes, more connection is needed
At least I’m starting to realize it even when he’s doing the thing but I don’t feel the connectWe worked this morning on lead outs 2 and 3. One video for each side. Lower temp if you call 94 low but higher humitidy.
For the ketchsker, I used my wrap verbal. Is that correct? He really struggled with wrapping behind me going right (second video) so please let me know what I’m not doing to support him. Ven, like Bandit, struggled at first with the 1st and 2nd jump for the throw back. I back chained it the evening before and he got the second side without back chaining.
Side 1
Side 2
BTW – Venture passed his CGC, CGCA, and CGCU tests Saturday morning, outside, at a middle school with lots of kids sports going on all around him. I was so shocked he held all his stays. I credit the catch work we’ve done for MaxPup.
One more video – tonight’s work. Ven has class tomorrow so I doubt we’ll have anything new until Tues.
Turn aways:
Jean-Maria and Venture
