[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
A break in the rain this morning so we played with the Zig Zag Jumping Foundation. I started off with some tugging. We were then able to get 1 sequence done with toy reward, then it was back to the stuck release. Not sure what is up with that other than she knows that I have the food reward on me (rewarded with food when she brought the toy). Since she wouldn’t release with the toy I tossed a treat and then worked with food after that.

Her line ups are coming along – I didn’t have to lure her into position. I did alternate rewarding her for the line up as it seems that sometimes she is stuck waiting for the reward. Not sure what to do about this.

It looks and feels like I am over handling these. Rather than just turning my chest I’m taking a step toward the “jump”. Should I position myself further up the line so that I’m handling from the end? Or should I be moving up the line, connecting and showing the line without so much zig zag on my part and also so much arm? (Hard to do in the short space with a fast little girl)

Finished with the reward to the flying squirrel without a stuck release! I did notice the bunny hop when we were playing after. Really hoping to get more insight with the x-rays next week.

If the weather holds I want to try more of this weeks games so we don’t get too far behind. Thanks again! K8

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Thanks for the detailed feedback. I appreciate your eye. I looked into the workshop with Dr. Canapp. All the slots for eval time with him have been filled. Not sure I could get away for that weekend anyway.

Rainy, windy and cold (relative term for here) so pretty much an indoor day. We revisited lining up between my legs. You’ll see she is pretty smooth coming around my left side, but got a bit sticky with coming around my right. Soreness has been on her right side (hip socket area); wondering if that could be a reason for her “stickiness”. Would it be hard to bend for that direction? Other way was much better. Also was able to hold her position when I used the “wait” command before I moved. Still jumpy with touching the collar although she has gotten pretty good at getting leashed up (kept this on the end of the video). We ended with the two toy game – she was happy to tug/play and was much better at switching from the dead to live toy. Edited this out to keep video shorter.

I will video the spine “massage” next time I have her on the grooming table – that will be easier for me than doing it on the floor.

Thanks again! Kate

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
I think I’ve ruined the awesome little poodle that I had. I’ve created a confused pup. Hard to know if she’s in discomfort, or my confusing handling is causing the shutdown problems. I am concerned that if she is in pain or has discomfort that could explain the change in her response to these agility games. I have tapped down her back and she does react (her bitey behavior) when I get close to her rear – hard to tell if that is due to discomfort or just her bitey self as she can get bitey when I scratch her head, or rub her neck – sometimes and sometimes not. Nothing stuck in her mouth, I did have to pull/pry the upper baby canine tooth on Weds and plan on having the vet check that when we go in for the spine x-ray to make sure it didn’t break off when I removed it.

We played with the “Diamond” exercise, with just food. I realized after viewing this that I wasn’t starting her from a sit like you suggested… instead I’d start when she was “kind of” lined up. Couple of things I can improve on: reward more frequently, mix up the number of obstacles we do before reward (thinking a max of three for now); reward on her line instead of out of my hand (She seems to be looking for the reward too much). Also using the correct wrap verbals might clear up some of her confusion.

There were some moments when we did seem to know what we were doing. Still, lots of room for improvement.

I’m headed to SF for a UKI trial (Monday). The courses for that day are designed by Tamas Traj, one of the judges for next months UKI Invitationals. It will be helpful to see what we’re in for there. Also, rain is expected through the week. Given the weather, and concern that Jazz may have pain/discomfort, what sort of things can we be working on in the house this week?

Enjoy the holiday!
Kate

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
It would help if she spoke English… cuz right now I’m not understanding what she is trying to tell me with the release stall outs.

Returned to the ladder grid this morning, using a toy for the reward. We do start out all our sessions with tugging, I edit them out to keep our videos shorter. She did really well with holding her start even with the moving toy, and even released after the first “stay reminder” cookie. I think her jumping looks pretty good and the off set jumps didn’t seem to bother her. She was tugging with the toy back to the start set up on all of these (edited out to keep it short).

We ran into the problem on the second toss back cookie – after that I could not get her to release to the toy and went back to release her, and tossed treats when she wouldn’t release to the toy. Interestingly, I could not get her to tug on that toy after that, but she was happy to chase her “flying squirrel”. Not sure what to make of all of this. Her jumping looks good, when she releases to the moving toy, and the off set jumps didn’t seem to cause a problem for her. she was happy to do some wraps and tunnels later that morning when she went with me for training with Jack.

She’s scheduled for x-rays on 2/23 so hopefully we’ll get a clearer idea of what’s going on in that poodle brain of hers.

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Here is our afternoon session playing with the RC again. Couple of thoughts regarding the sticky start. I was hoping to use the tug as the reward, but I think she caught scent of the pork I use for rewards (frozen it holds up better than chicken and is visible on the grass) so wasn’t interested in tugging. It seems that when she knows pork is in the picture she gets “sticky”. Reluctance to tug Could also be that she finally lost her last baby tooth (upper canine) last night and was a bit sore.

Once I switched completely to pork things went smoother. I did bring the jumps in closer for the “Go” but I’m not as timely tossing food vs toys so she was turning back to me after the jump looking for the reward.

Moved the jump back out for the RC – it went better this time. I did add the dish for the turns to the left and that helped. I’ll continue to do this until we get a bit stronger on that side.

Here’s our video:

Afterwards we took a “free-walk” around the park letting her sniff and just be a pup.

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Yes, I think the moving target for the ladder grid will help smooth out the grid work. I’ll increase the distance between jumps for our next session and work with the moving target. I’d also like to see how she does with the offset jumps.

This morning we played with the Serps and Threadle Proofing. Apologies for the poor camera angle as not all of the lineups are totally in view.

We’re seeing the stall out on the start again. Tossed a cookie to get her to release the first time, and then rewarded with a cookie for the one after that. She seemed to get it after that. She read the Serps pretty well. I noticed that for the threadles I was having to step in to get her to take the jump and the tunnel. What do I need to do so that I”m not having to redirect her like that? Also, not sure how best to indicate the tunnel when bypassing the jump – throwing my arm up in the air doesn’t seem like the best approach. 🙂

I left in a longer section when she got “stuck” on the line up again. Not sure what the best way is to deal with these freeze ups. (Should have let her continue and rewarded the threadle there as I probably cued that even though I wanted to cue the serp.) I think the freeze ups may be due to her waiting for the stay toss back reward so having some confusion about what is expected. She saw the chiro on Tuesday, still some soreness in the right hip joint, but not as acute as a couple months ago. I am going to have her X-rays done to make sure there isn’t any structural abnormality that could be causing the soreness.

Sorry for the lengthiness of this post and video as I wanted to include areas where we seem to get stuck. Thanks for your help!

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Your feedback is always so helpful. I’ve been working on tugging for 30 seconds after the recalls so either I edited that part out in the previous video, or I spaced out that part of our recall work. I had the distance set at about 20 feet for the RC work, which is longer than when we worked on the forward focus “Go”. I’ll decrease the distance, for now, on the Go work, but keep the distance when doing the RC. Hopefully that will help her drive forward.

This morning we worked on the ladder grid. I think she does great on the grid – we do need to keep refreshing and rewarding the stay. The distance and the dish were too inviting. I think I may have had the dish a bit too close the the 3rd jump as it looks like she is having to pull up before she takes that “jump”. What do you think?

Here’s the video:

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
We’re back!! Had a great session with Loretta last week. Like you, she has a great eye and way of communicating details specific to each team. Jazz also did well at Jack’s UKI Festival over the weekend. Tunnels, wraps and tugging in the practice ring; sitting ringside, and playing appropriately with other pups.

In between rain showers we braved the wind today and played with the Rear Cross Wind in My Hair exercise. When we were doing it I thought “Man, she really isn’t remembering all the stuff we’ve worked on”. Oops… when I reviewed the video I realized that it’s ME that doesn’t remember all we’ve been working on. Connect with your dog! I think that’s why she was cutting behind me rather than driving forward on the first couple of sends – lack of connection so my shoulders were turned. Glad I still rewarded these as it clearly was handler error!

Still working on the retrieve. Feedback from Loretta is that I put too much pressure on her when I face her and walk/jog toward her. Loretta suggested that when she grabs the toy I turn and go in the opposite direction (similar to reverse retrieve) and then drop to the ground when she catches up with me. I left one of these in the video for you to observe.

She was OK with me holding the harness for a couple of reps, and then rebellion hit. Between the week off, the wind knocking over jumps, lack of connection and bad tosses by me, the trash and green waste trucks coming by for pickup as well as the kids out for lunch recess in the school across the street, all in all she did pretty good.

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Worked on lining up between my feet with collar touches. Took her a bit to feel comfortable with this. I don’t think it helped that I had treats in both hands. Once I put the initial hand up on my back she seemed to be able to follow the other hand. Am I rushing things too much? I followed the video you sent after our lesson that incorporated lineup and collar touch. Here’s the video:

We will be doing a puppy workshop with Loretta Muller tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how she does working around other pups. Any input as to how best to manage? Also, JFYI I’m entered in a UKI Festival Friday through Sunday so videos may be limited. Thank you!

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
We revisited the “Send and SERP” exercise this morning. We did much better when I was able to send her from a bit of a distance. Took her a bit to clue into the wrap rather than the SERP. Turning to the right is definitely her stronger side. Had a couple of MM bloopers, and a few where I was giving her the wrap verbal rather than the directional. Had the single wing about 7 feet away to start – tried moving it out more, I couldn’t send from the same distance so I had to come in a bit. Also tried the more advanced – had to angle the jump for her to be successful. Started with harness hold for release, she got a bit bitey after about 4 of these so I decided not to fit her and just send from where we were. Here is the video:

Afterwards we played tunnel send – not on video. No hesitation – even sending her past a wing to the tunnel — no hesitation. Reward was her flying squirrel, and then flying squirrel after the tunnel with reverse recalls. She loved it! Don’t know what was going on the other day but no problem today.

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
I apologize in advance for the length of this video, but there seem to be some things that she is trying to tell me that I need help sorting out.

On the initial line up, I didn’t reward her for the line up. To me it seemed like she interpreted this as a “stay till rewarded” exercise. Not sure how to handle this in the future as I don’t want to always have to reward her for lining up.

She seemed to do fine on the warm up in front of the jump, and then stalled out on the warm up in front of the tunnel. When this continued I looked in and noticed she would be running into a dark space so I opened up the tunnel a bit so that there was some light coming through. That worked for a few reps and then she stalled out again. I opened it up a bit more, and after sending her through the opposite end she seemed to be OK with it. I think the next time we work on this I’ll use my shorter tunnel and see if that makes a difference. Look forward to hearing what you see here.

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
We revisited the L&R Proofing setup this morning (Mini Pini). Your feedback definitely helped. She needed the tossed toy as motivation for each direction. Turning to the right definitely made sense to her; left turn is still a bit more challenging.

Holding her till she was focused on the direction really helped as well. I was pleased with her progress and We’ll continue to work on this every few days moving our starting point back. I ended with some reverse recalls with the toy – she loves that game.

Here’s the video:

[k8marie]

Tracy,
Glad you were able to review the video. I agree she did much better when I was holding her in the line up and then releasing with the verbal. I should have done that with the SERP exercise we did this morning. I’ll also use the food dish to give her additional info.

We worked on the Send and SERP exercise this morning. I was pleased to see that she really did seem to understand the verbal directionals. I was also pleased to see that she was able to ignore the MM and complete the serp when turning to the right, even though I was out of position. I’m going to need to send her to the wing from a further distance in order to be in position and in front of her for the slice.

SERP to the left was much more challenging for her. It didn’t help that I had a couple of MM bloopers so she got rewarded for running by the jump. Off setting the jump a bit helped her understand, and I also did a bit better with my position when she was turning to the left although I noticed I wasn’t running a straight line but kind of bowing in and out. Fun exercise!

[k8marie]

Sorry about that! Here’s the link for the public video:

I’ll work with it some more with these suggestions. Let me know if you see anything else going on.

Thanks. K8

[k8marie]

Hi Tracy,
Here is our work this afternoon on the Mini Pini Left/Right verbals. She’s OK on my outside leg, and she hasn’t really connected the verbal directional when turning away from me.

I’m not sure how to help her with this. She seemed to stall out if I had her sit/stay. I think she may stall out when she doesn’t quite understand what the game is. I then tried holding her harness or at the shoulders toward the end of the session. It seemed to become clearer to her then, and she also didn’t have as much resistance to being held as she has in the past.

Not sure where to go from here to help clarify this for her. Appreciate your feedback (as always!) thank you!

https://youtu.be/E1o0tAN8FpU

Kate

[Author]

Posts