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Hi Tracy!
Yay – thank you for the good feedback! I’ll build some bigger course to practice handling & use them for TSA too – with a chair for the leash. That is a great idea. I have ben carrying Frankie’s leash for so long, I forgot about the leash chair.From Frankie’s feedback – Yes! That noise you heard was Bazinga making monster noises waiting for her turn in the crate! Hahahah
I hope you don’t mind if I ask some questions about the weaves? I’m really floundering – with human highs & lows on this transition. I spun the 4 poles in a different direction in the yard and had the MM further away and she struggled finding the weaves. As I type that I am realizing maybe changing 2 variables is a problem, too, but I really didn’t have the MM that much further away.
>>And then you can put it behind a tunnel! >>
Really!? I’m trying to picture that, like behind the tunnel & then do I send her to the tunnel?>>Yes, I would go all the way up to 12 poles with the MM being worked away into different spots and faded out entirely.>>
Ok, this is a big relief! I thought I would need to fade it while she was on 4 or 6 poles. So I can keep it as a visual, but not reward from it. And I should move it around (further away, hidden behind a wing) so the picture is a little different very time? And I can just keep going with the progressions up to 12 poles and keep progressing the fade as we go but gradually.
I want to work up to bringing them out to our slightly bigger field to make it feel like they are in a different location before I introduce them to her at another away from home location.
I was also worried about not having it as a visual if I bring her to where we are taking class to use the 2x2s there.
Thanks so much for the advice!!! This is our last step to be ready for Novice Jumpers for real!!!
Hi Tracy!
We had our first class on Wednesday. I didn’t get any video but it was fun. We worked on the TSA game outside the ring and did a few In & Outs. She started breaking her start line when we tried for sequences of 4 obstacles. I spent some time just refreshing “catch” at various jumps to get some value back. She was really raring to go and that was fun, but I want to keep her start line good, so I’ll keep working on it. It has been a while since I reinforced it, so that is on me.
We have a trial next weekend! It is an outdoor on grass 2 ring trial. She’s been at the location often when she was little but it will be her first time in the ring there. She’s entered in 1 run (novice JWW) Saturday & 1 on Sunday.
Since it has been a while since we have been at a trial, I think I’ll hide a toy & do empty hands. I’ll keep Saturday easy to get a feel for how she is feeling and then if she is all good, I’ll do more obstacles on Sunday. If you have any suggestions, I’m open! ☺
We are progressing at fading the MM with weaves. She’s looking for the lotus ball and ignoring the MM. I have it moved pretty far away. Our last session, she was very happy abut the lotus ball. I’m excited.
We’ll keep going with the progression & move the MM behind a wing and then I think I can just not put it out at all. We are still on 4 weaves to keep it easy during the transition. Do you think I should get back to 6 poles while the MM is still out there in the distance?I’ve been working on the TSA game with Bazinga too. I asked her to go back & fix some stuff when she ran past some jumps. I think that was a mistake, but I wanted to check in & see what your thoughts are. I guess I wasn’t prepared for run-bys and I didn’t have a plan. If she runs to the gate what should I do? Bring her out to reward her & try again?
Thanks for the advice!!!
Hi Tracy!
Thank you for all the feedback & ideas for why her 3rd run of the day is slow and strategies!
She gets A LOT of treats at trials – like an obscene amount – so I don’t think she needs a meal. I don’t think she’s had too much…but I will pay attention to that part too. She is pretty good about drinking but more water could be a help. Maybe a high-energy treat like a little honey could help. I love the idea to switch to a really high value treat for the last run. She’s been on a low fat diet, but I will see if I can bake her some treats that are low fat & different to get her attention.I could increase her cardio too. I’ve been kind of “saving” her and just doing small sequences so I don’t over work her, but maybe she needs more activity to keep her endurance up.
I’ll add some massage time after her runs too and make sure she gets some walking as part of her cool down.
We tried out the Back on Track blanket last trial and she snuggled under it. I’ve been putting it against the back of my work chair for my back & Bazinga has started cramming herself between me & the blanket to lay on it. Very interesting! I do feel like it helps take the edge off my stiffness.
We are off this weekend and then we have a trial for the next 2 weekends.
The next one is at a location that Frankie doesn’t really love. We haven’t gone for a year, so I’m curious to see how she does with all we have been working on.I think I’m going to stay with carrying her in right now. It seems like if I have my hands on her right up until I release her, she stays amped. I’m flexible about it if things change though.
We are working on the TSA game at home. I’m trying to get to where it is really easy for her to go through that gate. I noticed that both Frankie & Bazinga blew past the last jump to get to the gate to get their reinforcement!!! I think that is a good thing on one hand because it means that they know where the treats are! On the other hand, I’d like them to stay engaged until we finish the course! I’ll st up a better course so that they have to run past the gate and back into the course before we end, so they get some practice at self control. Haha.
If they do miss a jump while we are playing this game, I should keep going, right? Leash them up & take them out for their reinforcement sand just keep working on it?Here are our TSA sessions from today!
Thank you!
Hi Tracy!
Just a little Bazinga update 🙂
I mentioned in Frankie’s thread that she had some stitches from a biopsy & missed the last trial so she’s been on rest. Thankfully we got good news on the biopsy and it is just a crystalized spot. They think maybe from being on prednisone or maybe from an injection. She is all healed up & off restriction!We are working the Scary Three: Running DW, Teeter & Weaves!
I’m still working on transitioning from the MM to a thrown lotus ball for the weaves. I’m kicking myself because she was a rockstar in the weaves with the MM and they fell apart when I tried the transition.
We started back yesterday and ended the session pretty quickly. It was one of those sessions where nothing was working. She was so motivated to do them when we were using the MM & so accurate and once I introduced the ball, she lost confidence & lost her rhythm. I was pretty deflated, but we slept on it. (thank you for teaching us that)
I made things a lot easier this morning by just doing 4 poles. I also think that my timing with the ball is terrible and that makes it confusing for her. Because I wasn’t confident she was going to get all the weaves, I was waiting too long to throw it.
We did a few reps with the MM being the reward to get her happy & motivated & then once I could send her & stay about midway of the 4 poles to throw the ball with good timing, I switched to the lotus ball. I put some surpise treats in there to make it extra good to compete with the MM (lettuce & kibble. Yes, I’m serious). That timing seemed to work better. We had a really good session and she was getting the 4 weaves. She was happy too. That makes all the difference for me!
I’m going to do a repeat of the same session Thursday to see how she does.
Any advice is appreciated!We are working on Track 1 of the teeter. We were able to practice a lot of the end position targeting on a plank while she was resting. I’m going to try to not be sooooo cautious with the rest of track 1 so we can make some progress. She is really comfortable with everything we have done so far with the uphill & downhill.
She LOVES the DW. We are working on finding the sweet spot for her to wrap a wing & consistently hit her squeaky mat. She’s really good on straight exits. Still lots to work on but I’m glad she loves it.
Next steps: I need to sign her up for some classes for more ring experience & sequences. I’d love to get her ready for Agility League in April. We will probably only have a Senior level team, so she won’t be ready for that. I am hoping we have a “fun only” team and I can just FEO her there for experience.
Thank you!! Shit is getting real! Hahahahaha!!!
Hi Tracy!
Sorry fo the big delay in posting! We had a local trial 2 weeks ago. Frankie got to play & Bazinga came to cheerlead. She had to sit this one out because she had a biopsy done & had stitches (biopsy came back with good news! She has a calcified spot on her leg, not a worry. I’m so relieved!). Her stitches are out & she is ready to play!
Here are Frankie’s runs from the weekend. She had a great weekend! I do see though that she did awesome & had the best time herself for runs 1 & 2 and then was less engaged for run 3 on both days.
Here are videos. We played the bowl game and the Remote Reinforcement game before each run. She was barking outside the ring and really had great energy. I threw her frisbee for her after her uns as part of her reward (and sometimes before each run to amp her up too).
Run 1
FAST – I decided to try running FAST for real and not FEO. She was amped! She even played a little with me at the start line!
Run 2 – Standard
She was engaged & fast! It was so fun!
Run 3 – JWW
We had a rough start but she picked up energy halfway. She was not engaged at the start, sniffed the ground and walked out of the weaves. I feel bad that I let her know I was disappoined about the weaves. Should I have just kept going? She got into it after the weaves were done & she was awesome.
Sunday we had 3 runs.
Run 1 – Time to Beat
She was super engaged in Time to Beat – we ran FEO. She knew I had the toy when we went in the ring. I pulled out the toy while she was in the weaves to practice a BC at the end of the weaves. I should have had it out earlier because I distracted her. She had fun though! A little too much fun on the A Frame! Eek.
Run 2 – Standard
I improvised a move after the #3 tunnel (my body took over my brain) and I messed her up. I thought we NQ’d so we ran the rest like we stole it! SHE WAS SO ENGAGED!!! It was a magical run! We actually did Q and got high in class for that run! WOW Frankie! You can hear my friends on the video – LOL
Run 3 – Jumpers
This had a similar start as T2B so I thought it would be more motivating, but I lost her. She was not engaged, so I worked really hard to keep her going. She did it, but it felt very different than the other runs.
I’m still obessing on if it is phyical fatigue, mental fatigue, both, or if everything depends on exactly how well I can get her engaged & in the zone right outside the ring & as we go in to the ring. That said, I really do feel like the Remote Reinforcement plays a big part and by the end of the day it is just really hard to leave the rewards to go in the ring. We are still working on the RR games at home.
Thanks for all your help & feedback!
I’m glad Voodoo is ok! <3H Tracy!
Thank you!!!!!
>>
Thank you so much for coming, I loved meeting you and Basing in person! You are a fabulous team and looked great on the sequences. Hopefully you could hear everyone cheering for you two
People were talking about Bazinga all weekend >>It was such a fun group! I loved watching the videos later <3
Thanks for the feedback on our last trial! I think she did really great & I’m glad the runaround-the-jumps were explainable.
>>
For the next trial, you can try the next step of doing a loop on course without the toy with you
I bet she does GREAT. She is pretty much ready for ‘real’ runs as soon as the weaves are ready (the weaves should be rewarded in NFC the first few times she sees them). If there are any USDAA or UKI trials within reach, she can run for real in USDAA jumpers or UKI speedstakes: no weaves! That can provide a great opportunity to run for real while the weaves are getting ready.>>Our next trial is next weekend. I just found out they moved the agility field to a possibly nicer spot (less bumpy) so we may be able to do longer runs than I planned. I was going to do In & Outs since the ground is yucky, but now maybe I can do a run with no toy & see how she does.
We took a break from weaves because l lumped a little with 6 + 4 and phasing out the Manners Minder, so we took a little break. We tried again this morning with 6 poles & the MM behind a wing. 6 poles was too hard, so I went to 4 and she was more successful. I feel like the MM being far away is making her rush and she was skipping the last set of poles. Here is what the set up looked like – the MM was beyond the wing.
Thanks for the help!!!!
>>
So looking ahead for Westminster – the hard part there will be not be the courses, you and Frankie clearly can run those courses >>
<3 Thank you for the encouragement!!!! I took that with us to Westminster <3We had so much fun!!!!! She was amazing! She was engaged and comfortable there. We did the up & down game and tricks on the sidelines and also our remote reinforcement game. She was barking on command. I let her walk into the ring and she didn’t hesitate or freeze and she was ready to go both runs! No FEO needed to pump her up.
We were clean in Standard which was our first run! We came SO CLOSE in JWW. Even though we didn’t Q – it was such a win for us! She ran faster than I expected & I wasn’t where I needed to be at jump 15 to get a FC. I panicked & did a sloppy BC to try & save it but my bad arms confused her and she came to the wrong side. It was so cool to see her run faster than I expected! She was so happy & I was so happy!
Here are our runs:
Side note: She has 2 barks now. A soft, almost a lip-synch bark but with full facial expression – is this her trial-polite bark? Haha. She is also giving me a louder more insistent bark, if the treats are slow in coming.
>>and other stuff like a Back On Track coat can be AMAZING for keeping her feeling good. I am not sure if you have tried those but they are great for maintaining blood flow and getting rid of inflammation. I ‘borrow’ from my dogs and use it when I am in pain LOL>>
Frankie is anti-clothing but I found a Back on Track blanket and got it for her crate at trials! She loves blankets! It’s pretty cool – like a comforter but small-dog crate sized. It was a pretty good price on Amazon. I can’t get the link to work but search for “Back on Track Therapeutic Mini Blanket”
>>We might never know the full reason, but we can help her out. You can do fewer runs per day – these courses are BIG yardage courses that covered the full ring. And that is exhausting especially for the small dogs who have to take a lot of strides. So maybe on day 1, you can do 2 classes and on day 2, only 2 classes as well. Or day 1 can be 3 classes and day 2 is one class >>
Do you think I should drop some of the FEO runs hat I have been doing and do 2 real runs so she has less runs per day? I’m conflicted because I want to keep it fun for her but maybe as the remote reinforcement games make it easier for her to leave her treats & have fun in the ring, I’ll need them less?
Our next trial is a local trial, outdoors on grass. I was not going to enter because I don’t like the surface, one of the rings has uneven areas. But I thought I could use it as an opportunity to do “In & Out” runs or ask for a start line stay and release them to a toy quickly. Do you think that is a good idea for both pups?
Can’t wait for your feedback, I am still floating!
I’m bummed that I had to miss the chat. Is there a link to watch the recording? I looked around but couldn’t find one.
Thank you!Hi Tracy!
I can’t believe Westminster is almost here!! I’m feeling pretty positive about Frankie’s state of mind at trials. We did Saturday & Sunday this weekend at a more distracting location, but one she has always done well at. I’m looking forward to your feedback. I included lots of video here but please, please fast forward to see what you want to look at.
She did still slow down as each day progressed. She sniffed the ground in one run. Even though she was bouncy & happy at the gate, as soon as I picked her up, I felt her shift and her excitement level went way down. I wish I had tried walking her in, instead of picking her up for one run, but I didn’t think of it at the time. Not sure what I should do for Westminster.
New things: We have barking on cute command “Who’s gonna play?”!!!! It is a cute bark too, but I may be biased 🙂 She was doing it at the gate & everything! YAY!
We did our bowls, up and down game, and practiced moving away from reinforcement, engaging & going back to the reinforcement ringside. We also barked for treats. She was very engaged and excited about it all. I threw her frisbee for her before and between runs as her jackpot. She even did some hand playing with the frisbee with me ringside. Sometimes toys are not her thing when we get ring side so I was happy to see that. She was really relaxed & happy ringside for every run.
She was super happy for the FEO runs for the first runs of each day. Saturday we ran Premier almost back to back with our FEO run and she was still pretty amped. She did well in all her runs, but I can see the difference in her speed and on Sunday her motivation in the later runs.
We had a checkup and her bloodwork looks good. We’re getting her b12 tested next Wednesday too just to see, it can’t hurt. She has an appointment to see the chiropractor tomorrow so she’ll be in alignment for Saturday!
Here is the avalanche of videos – thank you for watching & for all your help!
Saturday – FEO T2B
Saturday – Premier Syandard. Run 2 of 4.
Saturday – Standard run 3 of 4. With warmup. NQ – I broke connection & looked ahead. GAH!
Saturday JWW – run 4 of 4. She sniffs & starts slow
Sunday FEO T2B run 1 of 4
Sunday Premier STD Q run 2 of 4 – warmup
Sunday STD Q – with Barking! Run 3 of 4
Sunday JWW run 4 of 4. Slow start
I can’t thank you enough for the help. I feel like we are making progress!
Have a great day!
KathyBazinga
Hi Tracy!
The seminar was SO MUCH FUN! Bazinga had a blast. She slept the whole ride home!
It really upped my confidence about my connection with Bazinga in longer sequences. I was so happy that blind crosses and exit line connection happened! Thanks so much for a great experience!We trialed Saturday & Sunday and she did FEO in novice jumpers each day. We did a lot of games outside the ring and in our crating area. We took long walks around the grounds too. I tried a lead out on Saturday and a very short lead out on Sunday.
Warmup before FEO Novice JWW – Saturday
Here is a clip of some of our warmup ahead of the run. She seemed pretty comfortable before we went in the ring.
FEO Novice JWW – Saturday
I see her glance at the judge when the judge moved before we started, but I don’t think it concerned her. She ran around 2 jumps in this run and also I think 1 jump in the run on Sunday! She was going really fast. This is a first, if she runs past a jump, she usually does it on the side close to me. What do you think?
FEO Novice JWW – Sunday
I couldn’t get video of our outside the ring tricks for this one but we did them 🙂
I forgot her fuzzy leash too. In this run (day 2) she seemed interested in tugging on the leash in the ring like last trial. Next trial, I will remember her fun leash!
Thanks for watching!
Hi Tracy!
Frankie had such a great weekend! We had 3 runs today.
Jumpers was first & we ran it for real and she was clean!
Time to Beat was second and we ran it FEO. She was on fire!
Standard was last and we ran it for real and were clean!I warmed up with the bowls and up & down. We did tricks & ran to the remote reinforcement in a few spots in the building.
She BARKED! She did it and I marked it and gave her a treat and she had a light bulb moment!She was sleeping pretty deeply when I woke her up to run the third run of the day. So maybe there is some fatigue there.
She started a little slow and kicked in to gear.Our body warmup before a run is:
Down to stands, sit to stands, sit to stretch up on my legs, paw gives, side steps, backwards steps and the nose stretch yo hip, middle & shoulder and neck up & down. I do 4-5 reps of each.Here are our videos. I wish I got the barking on video. It was so cute.
Jumpers run 1 of 3 first run of the day
Time to Beat FEO 2 of 3
Standard 3 of 3
Thanks for watching and all the feedback!
We are driving home!Eeeeeeeeee! Look at Bazinga!
She tugged with enthusiasm & let go!
She did an easy start line stay & we ran lots of obstacles and I pulled the toy out at the end!Warm up tug fest!
FEO
So. Much. Fun.
Eeeeeee! Frankie had a blast today!
We ran FAST first as FEO. Then Standard for real and she was into it so I ran JWW for real too. I carried her in & we dropped & ran!
Here are clips with our warm-ups outside the ring.
We played a lot of the bowls game and remote reinforcement outside the room with the ring.Warmup before Fast
FEO Fast
JWW with warmup
Standard. We didn’t get video of the warmup.
Can’t wait to hear what you think!
