[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much!

Today we did a little bit of lazy game and tried the blind cross to tunnel again. Also tried practicing driving to the tunnel with the reward pre-placed, except I forgot I was supposed to move the jump closer so will have to try that again. I did beat him to his reward one time and he was very unhappy about it and then decided he wasn’t going to do the tunnel so I didn’t try that again.

We also made some progress of backing onto the teeter. He said that it was worth it for pie crust.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much!
Today we tried the blind cross to the tunnel which went pretty well, but I can see how I should be more lateral for the sending to go better.

I did notice he was starting to look at me more going straight to the tunnel. Will definitely work on that. Aelfraed says I better be in the mood to run, lol.

Our weather is perfectly terrible right now. We had a nice day yesterday. Today cold and raining. We’re supposed to have rain for pretty much a solid week. I don’t foresee any outdoor jump grids in the immediate future. The “grass” is also very squishy and not growing yet (we had a snowstorm a week ago). Next month we’ll be outside.

[Kyla McNeill]

Hello!
Today we had a fun match at our usual training facility. I tried some of his sequences during the fun match and he didn’t seem bothered about the extra activity. Still working on the timing though.
The first part of this, up to 1:04, was before anyone else was there and then the other parts were during the fun match.

We also tried calling him across the teeter plank and he thought that was a pretty fun game since we had delicious bread and butter.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thank-you!
Aelfraed actually has worked on 3 legged standing. He doesn’t mind me lifting his paws but he can also lift front paws himself.

Today we tried the sequence with wraps.

Also tried the blind cross but didn’t quite get the timing.

[Kyla McNeill]

Hello!
Today we worked on some backing up. Aelfraed has backed up the tippy board before but with it propped up and not moving. He seemed happy to push it down.
Backing up onto the plank he is better at finding it with his rear paws but is not yet sure about backing all the way onto the plank.

[Kyla McNeill]

Hello!
We tried some lazy game again and Aelfraed liked the farther cookie tosses, although occasionally couldn’t find them.

We also worked on the timing and connection game.

[Kyla McNeill]

Tryouts went ok. Some of the runs were disappointing, but there were good parts in every run. We unfortunately E’d 4 out of 6 runs and had refusals in both runs we didn’t E. There were some surprises, some good ones where he did some things awesome that I thought would be difficult, but also some less happy surprises. 2 of the runs, he decided I has wrong right near the end of the course and went straight instead of doing the thing I was asking him to do. We struggled hard with threadle wraps. We apparently do not have that skill in the way it was presented this past weekend. All of the threadle wraps were off the line in the opposite direction to where we were heading next and each time I thought he was committed but then he pulled off. I’m guessing he sees me leaving and chases me. Most of the rest of the time he doesn’t look for me unless I ask him to, which is sometimes helpful and sometimes more difficult. He does not like when he has to jump towards me, but will happily go all the way across the ring away from me. I can’t quite figure out how to cue him properly on ambiguous jumps where it’s sort of a backside, but not really, and also he has to turn away. We had 1 amazing run where we had a refusal that was 100% my fault because I was worried about a section leading up to the weaves and he did it so perfectly I didn’t cue the weaves in time. All the rest of it I got him his cues in time and he responded exactly as I would have expected and it really was awesome. Overall though, he did feel more consistent throughout compared to other times, so hopefully we are getting there.

It made me happy to see all the shelties doing awesome things at tryouts!

For the teeter for Aelfraed, I was planning to do 4 on. He weighs just under 20 lbs but is definitely more front end heavy, although his back end is improving as he grows up.
I’m not too sure about teeter ice cream for him yet, lol. He definitely enjoys ice cream as long as you have the correct flavour (he’s a bit more discerning than Lennan) of strawberry being the best but vanilla also being acceptable. He really is crazy for bread though, especially with butter, but will also accept plain bread. It’s a heck of a lot more transportable than ice cream so if he keeps loving it then we might just have a bread and butter teeter!

We can try the calling across the plank. So far he has been very clear that he will not accept help when on equipment. He says he will do it himself. He wants us to be close but not help. If either of us has stood at the end previously, he will turn around prematurely and not go all the way to the end. However, we didn’t have bread at those times and since he enjoys running across the plank now, he may be more receptive.
A few weeks ago, I got him a jump box. We haven’t used it for any jumping exercises so far but he’s been getting used to it. The person I got it from wanted to see him turn on the box to check the size and he absolutely refused to let me show him to turn even though he can turn on other props, but something new he will not accept any help. He has since figured out how to turn on the box, at home, doing it for himself.

Lol, yes, he can definitely be judgey! Will try the lazy game with further treat tosses. He was also a bit judgey about his food in the sand but not too much.
I’m sure he will enjoy more distance!

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much! Yes, that makes sense. I had noticed the upward push on the first rep. He definitely still struggles if I move the toy too much before releasing him so will keep working on that and working towards increased distance.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much!
I wasn’t too sure at first if he would know what to do if the reward was to the side right away which is why I had it straight to start. That makes sense though of why he found it confusing at first. He is very good at communicating.

Today, we tried the accordion grid again with the bars on the lowest cups (they were on second lowest last time). He got to do tunnel running beforehand. Today’s version of tunnel running I thought might be a little bit too hard but he said it was perfectly fine.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much!
Today I wanted him to work on the forward focus. He is much more willing to work on slower pace exercises if he gets to run first though. So, he got to do big tunnel running and then the forward focus went very well.

[Kyla McNeill]

Hello!
Aelfraed and I tried some starfish games with a lot more space. Aelfraed loved it! All that running was tiring for me! Lol!

[Kyla McNeill]

Hello!
This is Aelfraed’s first try at the accordion grid.

We also tried the lateral lead out.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much!
We worked on the backside again on the side that was difficult. Changed to a different spot and slightly angled the jump. It went way better!

[Kyla McNeill]

Hello!
Aelfraed and I worked on the starfish game.

We also tried the backside challenge game. The first side went great. The second side was a separate session after a break. We had a lot more difficulty on that side.

[Kyla McNeill]

Thanks so much!
On the “wrong way” turn, I was surprised initially and then looked at my feet and saw they were pointing to the rear cross line. I thought he was very clever!

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