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Hello!
We finally worked on the actual tandem turns! Partway through where there are a couple extra treat tosses and a hand touch, someone opened the door and came in the building and I wanted to see if Aelfraed could keep working (normally he gets distracted and wants to see who’s there), so that was good too!
Worked on the decel again, this time rewarding him for committing to the jump.
Hello!
We worked on the tunnel threadle again and I tried to be earlier on the timing.
Apparently I’m having a brain block on the tandem turn game. Thought I was all set to do it today and then totally forgot to follow through on the tandem part of the turns. He did very nice threadle wraps though!
Hello!
Aelfraed and I tried out the smiley face tunnel threadle game.
We also did the lap turns again. Was going to try the tandem turns until I realized I didn’t remember exactly how it was supposed to go so have now reviewed to try next time.
Hello!
Aelfraed and I worked on the out to the jump again, adding in the blind cross.
We also did some more of the decel. This video is actually a combination of 2 different sessions.
We tried the rocking horses with the turnaways.
Another try at the ladder, starting from his sitting mat.
Hello!
This one is actually from yesterday. We worked on the rear crosses again. Some of the lefts went better this time.
Today we tried the out to the jump.
Also the zig zag with bars added.
Aelfraed was very smart at this wrap game and I definitely need more work on my motion and positioning!
Thanks so much!
In the layering game, I was wondering at the time if I should have been saying jump but I wasn’t quite sure as the only cue I could hear on the demo video was go. We tried it again using the jump cue which he seemed to respond nicely to.
I went back and watched the ladder in slow motion and I do see the differences you have pointed out. He certainly did seem excited when he was held at the start. Will try the slower motion next time we try.
Aelfraed says that working on stay is much easier with the help of a station. Even with the slightly squeaky brother behind him. This was an unintentional hard distraction. It didn’t occur to me at the time but I see on the video that Aelfraed checked behind him a couple of times.
Hello!
Aelfraed worked on the rear cross concept transfer game with the addition of extra wings. On the side for the right turns, there wasn’t space for a go wing but had a placed reward for some of the go reps. I think he was partially looking at me more on that side on the go reps last time because he wasn’t super thrilled about running to the wall. He was happy with the placed reward today. On the first right turn he seemed to be expecting to go to the reward again but did follow through on the turn.
We also tried out the layering game.
Some ladder practice.
Thanks so much! Yes, it was very funny! I wasn’t sure if I was on track to the jump and thought I could peek while he was wrapping the wing and even though I saw him exit the wing wrap and thought I was connected, he said that was not ok. He definitely reads eyeballs!
I was also impressed with his backside wrap turns! Will definitely do more throwing reward behind next time.
Today we tried the rear cross concept transfer game.
Hello!
We worked on some more rear crosses and backside circles which seemed to go very well. I only noticed afterwards that the wing was a bit far over on the one side.
Hello,
Aelfraed was excited and happy for his training today.
He had been able to have more outdoor time earlier and it didn’t seem like he needed to run extra before training but we did start with the diamond game so that he could run straight away.
We also tried a couple more rear crosses and backside circles.
Aelfraed is very funny with his treat ball. He can open it himself now. However, the last few times we have trained, he consistently opens it himself if he felt the activity/repetition was easy and consistently looks to me to open it for him if he had to concentrate hard or found the thing he had just done more challenging.
We also tried the serp / tunnel game again. Did not even try the stays today. Decided to take a break on that. I haven’t tried a platform yet, but will. He does enjoy being on a platform but I haven’t really worked at him being on it while I’m a distance away so will need to build that up. He was enjoying the cookie toss start, although it definitely made it more challenging to be in the correct position.
Thanks so much! The poor decision part (mine), I did just mean that I felt I should have let him start with the running games as he was definitely happier with those and he might have been more receptive to the stationary start game later. He definitely would have liked a cookie toss start. In fact, I think he was showing me that a few times as I tossed a cookie just to get him to move close to the starting point and then asked him to come and set up after he found the cookie, but instead, he ignored me and ran straight to the equipment. I currently always use a lure if I’m having him set up in a particular spot. He is definitely not at the point of doing it independently. Yesterday he sometimes ignored the lure, either starting to follow it and then running off (straight to the equipment) or delaying and deciding whether he would follow or not. I guess I wasn’t letting him actively nibble at it while following so maybe he would like that better. Neither his avoidance of luring or sitting are completely new, but he certainly seemed to be having an extreme day yesterday. He won’t lure if he doesn’t think the activity is a good idea. He generally is good with sitting now but it took him a while to get onto the sit and he preferred either stand or down previously. I think I got myself a little stuck as well since he was good with the waiting the previous day. I needed to remind myself what I frequently tell others, every day is different with adolescents.
I think he is definitely feeling frustrated with the reduction in outdoor running time. He loves the snow but the snow is so deep now he can’t get through unbroken snow and relies on following tracks made by people or other dogs and can’t necessarily run as fast as he’d like. Also, even he doesn’t like the extreme cold days (nobody likes that).
Happy to report he seems much more emotionally level today so far even though we are still in extreme cold and he couldn’t stay out long. Perhaps he also didn’t have good sleep the previous night as you suggested.
Will see how he’s feeling next time we train. We’re also going to be getting some warmer temperatures this week so that will be nice.Thanks so much!
It’s funny that for months Aelfraed has said he’s a lefty but just in the last 2 weeks he has suddenly switched and said that right is easier. I haven’t figured out if he prefers one direction over the other in different circumstances or if he has made a total switch.Today Aelfraed was having an overall mad day. He was mad that I didn’t get him out of his crate swiftly enough in the morning, then mad that it was way too cold outside and he couldn’t stay out as long as he would have liked, then really really mad that he got left in the car when we arrived at the training facility while both Sól and Lennan worked before he got his first turn. He continued to be mad later and was more annoyed than he has been recently about waiting subsequent turns. He was also even mad in his car crate when we left the training facility (not normal).
Considering his anger, I made a poor choice of first game as I decided to do the serp proofing game on the opposite side. He was very annoyed about the sitting still part of this game today and although he had good reps here, there was a lot of sassing the mama (removed from video) about coming back to set up again. Some of the reps start from a down and not exactly the positioning I was going for as he absolutely refused to sit and huffed himself down instead. Probably should have just moved on from this one sooner but he wanted to do the equipment so I thought he’d get happier about the game (I was wrong).
Aelfraed was happy to do the jump grid and didn’t mind the holding start today (I was very sure he wasn’t going to do any more stays for me).
Rear crosses went better. He was unsure of the backside circle at first but willing to try. This was the first time he has actually done that on the jump as it has only been the barrel previously.
Aelfraed really liked this one since he could run!
Hello!
Today we tried out the wind in your hair game with rear crosses.
We also worked on the serp proofing game on one side only. We will need to work the other side next time.
Hello!
We tried some more of the send n serp game, trying to send farther to get more ahead.
We also tried the zig zag again. It is definitely faster and trickier with the wings closer together!
Hello,
Thanks so much! I actually think he likes the activity more than the reward at this point. He wants the reward as part of the activity, but not just because.
He really likes the minny pinny for whatever reason. He liked it in the last course and he still likes it now. We were not working on it today but it was still set up and he offered to show me that he knew how to do it as we walked past to our other activity. I’m not certain he will find it motivating to have mixed in reps of just chasing the reward for being held instead of doing the minny pinny but we can give it a try and see what happens. He will be sure to be clear on his opinion either way.Today we tried the find the jump game. He said it was a little hard at first but then he took a break for about 10 minutes (where he was clearly thinking about it) and we tried again and he said he had it all figured out by then.
We also tried the zig zag. This one was trickier for me as I tried to figure out my motion. He seemed to find it quite easy although he was definitely concentrating hard (the silence was intense, lol). We did this one also as 2 short sessions with a break in between. After the second session he said he had figured it out and was enjoying it. He disagreed with my “all done” information and went and lay down beside one of the wings and stared at me.
We gave the send n serp a little try, but not too much today.
