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Giving ourselves a break from dog on left…
Straight lines 4 ways. He worked through the dog next door barking. I am limiting sessions to 5 minutes because by then we’re both super hot and brain dead. So we didn’t do the last tunnel plus back side. We’ll start with it in the next session. Am I correct to use the wrap verbal on the rear cross here? I was shocked how fast he remembered the back command for the backside.
Yes he’s jumping up at me but not in frustration. I switched to one of the original lotus balls that is VERY easy to open. It’s his favorite treat toy. I dread the day it finally gives up the ghost since it was Zubie’s and every dog since prefers it to the newer version Clean Run sells now.
Jean-Maria and Venture
Question about the love the slam game. Venture has a trained back up to feet on raised object (like a 2o2o). Is it ok to ask him for that when we play the game?
Question about the motion game. I don’t have a wobble board but I do have a 3′ rubber board that tips. Ven isn’t really phased by motion so do you think it’s ok to just use that rather than a true multi direction wobble board?
Now, for the video. I swear I am trying to get this right. I believe I need to fix me for our future success. So here is the first 3 minutes of our session tonight. I don’t think I’m getting the left arm back far enough but I’m not totally sure that’s why he kept missing the second jump coming out of the tunnel going clockwise. Am I diagnosing it correctly? Should I be rewarding more often, life maybe after 2 obstacles, before we lose the connection?
For rewards, I’m throwing the lotus ball on the line which just isn’t very far away and I’m also staying away until he’s gotten his cookies out of it. Is there a way I could mark and send him away to a manners minder to get his reward? I was hesitant to try that because I can’t really put it on course without it becoming a predictable source/place to get reward. I’m thinking almost like the beginning of working in the ring and then going back to the setup to get the reward.
Thoughts?
Jean-Maria and VentureBeryl was nothing for us except a shower today and humid tonight. We’ll be back in the 90s tomorrow and approaching 100s the rest of the week. Bleah.
So here is my attempt to run Venture without arms… mostly. I see the differences but making my body do the things is a struggle. So we started out sort of lazy game style and then added a little bit of verbals for complexity and to see how it would go. Thoughts?
Jean-Maria and Venture who had a piece of grass stuck in the side of his mouth bugging him
Hi Tracy,
>>Let me know if the connection-not-pointing on the sending makes sense
Got it. I tried to pay attention to clearly showing the send tonight. I need to work on it some more – hard to show it and yet get out of there.For tonight we worked send and go and blind crosses between jump and tunnel. I made a serious effort to never let him know if he missed a jump or did something incorrect.
We may lose a day or so to Hurricane Beryl depending on the track it takes across Texas. We are 355 miles from the current expected landfall point so we’ll be on the far west edge and it moves inland. The rain will be welcome as long as it doesn’t last too long.
Jean-Maria and VentureFluffy blinds with one or two oops FCs. I rotated the course to maximize the space between the top jump and the two before the tunnel ends to give me room to work on crosses and leave room for Venture to wrap the outside wings.
He demanded to work this evening despite 105 heat index. I gave in before the sun was down as far as I usually try to wait. I pulled out a lotus ball and some different treats to see if I could get more enthusiasm. It worked until the heat got to us both.
I’m unclear why we had trouble getting out to the middle jump when going clockwise (jumping to right). I’m sure it was something I was doing but not sure what.
What do you think about replacing the 15′ tunnel with the little baby tunnel to leave more space for the jumps and reduce the distance he’s running a little bit while it’s so stinking hot. I only have 30′ x 30′ to work with.
Jean-Maria and now crashed on the cool floor VentureThe heat wave broke and my dog’s brain fell out on the floor. Front came in this afternoon, temp was only 83 and Venture had zero focus. We tried working several times over the afternoon / evening but only the first session was even remotely successful. So here is our wrap work from that session.
I was trying to work the fluffy blinds and FCs but he made it clear he just couldn’t today so we stopped, hung out, enjoyed an evening chew (he did anyway, lol) and just did dog things. We’ll try fluffy again in the morning. I had trouble with the fluffy blind until my brain finally processed the dog was doing a post turn.
Jean-Maria and distracted unfocused, wish he could talk to me… VentureOMG, the heat made this the hardest practice we’ve had yet. I kept drying my hands off so I could hold on to the treats.
Pre-dinner mountain goat for salmon treats. Boy was he surprised by those. He’s not driving as much tonight and he would prefer to turn around and walk down the plank rather than be lifted off, goofy boy.
We waited until last light to work blind cross to tunnel along with timing and connection loop at the end. Yes, I know I accidentally did an FC in one direction when I back chained the blind crosses (0:27). I chose to go ahead and do the longer sequence instead of re-doing the back chain. There’s a failed lead out at the far jump (1:41). I didn’t try it again because I couldn’t think in the moment of how to better support it so we just went without a sit/stay start
I have the bars set at 6″ and he knocked 2 of them during the session. Is that a concern? Should I drop them to 4″? He’s 15″ at the withers so he’ll be jumping 16″ and he’s 13 mos old.
Jean-Maria and Venture
Two rounds of watering for the yard tonight so I made Venture take tonight off and he was NOT HAPPY! That is until the BOOM cookies starting flying in all directions in my office. Every time fireworks went off, freeze dried chicken breast was tossed in the air. He was so disappointed when the booms ended, LOL. He didn’t seem to care about the noise from 2 local fireworks displays but the cookies raining down kept the old dog from demonstrating how to bark to make the noise go away.
I think we’ll try for a 2o2o for the teeter. Will the steps be covered in MaxPup or am I going to need the self study teeter class? I’ve also started a little bit of mat/box work building towards running aframe and plan 2o2o for the dogwalk for my sake.
I set the 3 jumps up tonight for the concept transfers. I walked off the dogs path and I was able to get about 19′ from one jump bar to the next one. Does that sound far enough apart? I need to leave room for the tunnel and enough space on the side for the teeter so I don’t have to move everything over and over.
Jean-Maria and chicken stuffed Ven 😀What are the pros/cons of 2o2o vs 4o for the teeter? Does the surface matter? We will mostly trial on dirt with rare opportunities to play on turf.
I’m guilty of yes meaning cookie from hand. I know better. He doesn’t seem to like digging in the grass to get his rewards so I’ve been handing it to him. Yard gets mowed in the morning but we can’t take it too short due to the extreme heat and the heat index was 105 last night when we worked. Tonight, 102.
I looked all around the yard by the slow tunnel exit and except for a sprinkler head that wasn’t really on his line, I didn’t see anything. I did shift the tunnel for tonight’s work, stretched it out completely in case he’d bumped a rib with a toe or something.
So here is today’s video for Timing and Connection. That was the one released early and I thought he might enjoy opening up with less thinking. He did. I think we missed a jump going towards the tunnel because I dropped my arm so he then came towards me and lost the line to the jump. He didn’t want to stop when we finished the planned number of sequences plus one extra to fix my mistake.
Hello!
I meant to tell you the reason I didn’t add the spoon to the teeter – he fell off about mid-point yesterday morning so I didn’t think he needed the added motivation / distraction until he had a few more reps going up and some more plank confidence work. He’ll meet the spoon Wed after the yard is mowed and I carry it back off the patio. Thinking I will first add it for plank confidence before he sees it up high.Teeter end behavior – I’ve never had a dog do 2o2o on the teeter, they’ve all been taught 4on. Ven weighs 26.5 pounds.
Today we worked Wingin’ It. Two short sessions and the second ended with a couple loops to see if he could stay out around the wings which he did. Good hot man that he is.
I only see 1 new game for this week. Is that correct?
Jean-Maria and Venture
Another round of mountain goat. We did one this morning on the other side so we are doing both sides. Now my problem is that I’m having trouble keeping him off the teeter, goofy boy. I was working on figuring out where to set the teeter so I can do plank confidence with it flat, it was about half height and yep, you guessed it, he did the teeter and stood there waiting for a cookie. I will say as a baby puppy he did the little Cato plank “teeter”. Yes, we will continue through all the steps even if he does think he knows what he’s doing.
Venture wasn’t feeling great this evening – yakked up his dinner as soon as he ate it. But then after some rest, he demanded some “cookies” and begged to play (work). So since I had set up the plank, we did the plank confidence and mountain climber games tonight.
I don’t think we need to do much plank confidence work. He’s been on narrower planks (4-6″) for conditioning for months. He was more unsure of the height so we’ll continue working that game. I had to barricade the plank to keep him from going up it again.
First Wingin’ It session using cheese. I started to use a toy but was concerned the additional amp up from tugging would make Ven too hot. Heat index was 109 so we were out about 4 minutes total not counting when I was setting up. I’m trying to be careful while letting him begin to acclimate to the heat.
I have several questions.
1. Are the wings too far away from the tunnel? (10-12′)
2. Should I have stopped at 2:30 ish rather than reverse the pattern?
3. We weren’t able to go around the two wings with a front cross. Is it just me being late showing the FC or something else? Is there an exercise we need to go back to on this?No cool down in sight. Extended forecast is nothing but triple digits and humidity with no precip.
Jean-Maria and VentureLooks like he slept on it and figured it out. I added distance and started only rewarding after the 3 jump sequence and he got it every time. Smart boy. I cut the cheese big in hopes it wouldn’t fall through the grass too much and that seemed to help too.
We’ll tackle the next game tomorrow, heat index is still 102 at 8:30pm.
Jean-Maria and VentureThe Lazy Game
Venture said it was very weird. Mom sets up, tells me nothing, has a cold bowl of frozen Fresh Pet nuggets and wanders around throwing them for me to find. My brain hurts from trying to figure out what the heck we were doing. Normally that would have been a fun loop to run, now I’m puzzled.Next steps? Thinking he needs to sleep on this one for a night or two before we try again. At then end, it was like he forgot what he was doing while snuffling out the treat and came around the jump. I just ignored it and didn’t reward.
Jean-Maria and now napping Venture
