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>>Amateur massages are great! Have you ever done skin-rolling? That is what the real massage people have me do with mine as part of their warm up and cool down.
I have not heard of that so I googled it! Very cool! I tried it and Frankie looooooved it! Thank for the info!!!>>She sounds like a rage-filled cat-dinosaur cross LOL!
Bwahahahahahahahaha!!!!>>That is a great plan! If you don’t need the JWW and STD, you can save her for the other classes. Plus Bazinga will be running those classes pretty soon and that way you can focus all on her 🙂
Oooo…That is genius, I had not thought about that!
Thanks again!!!!>>Hooray for the weaves!!! Are they easy to throw in the car and take different places?
I think I can fit 2 in my car for sure. I’m going to see if I can load all 3!
I’m going to ask my neighbor if I can do a few sessions in her yard too. She hasn’t been there yet so it will be a new location and I can walk the poles over.>>Did you lead out further? Canine arousal also shifts human arousal, so if you were more relaxed it is possible you led out an extra couple of steps.
I think I did, I am trying to teach myself to find the sweet spot of where I need to lead out to so I can be ahead & show her the line. I think this is going to be Bazinga-cruicial! Hahaha
I am super thankful that she is so great at holding her stay. I’m going to remember to keep reinforcing it & keeping it fun!>>I think it is good to rehearse the ‘up and down’ of arousal regulation, and that is why the game is useful. Plus we get feedback from the dog – she really wants to do more tugging! She keeps reaching for the leash even in the in between moments. So you can ask her for calmer behaviors and then let her tug on a tug leash or a toy. She regulates really well when you do that, and it will help direct her teeth to the leash/toy and not your flesh 🙂
Ok, so I need to turn this into a “tug-it” game & play for a bit and then ask her to sit or give me a paw or spin (if she can) and then the “tug-it” game starts again to help her transition between arousal levels? Is it ok to use treats in the beginning when I ask her for the calmer behaviors? She’s my first tug dog so I am a noob and did not train this in an orderly fashion!
>>OMG BT NATIONALS!!!!!! That sounds like so much fun. Where are they holding it?
Owensboro, Kentucky for the conformation & obedience and Evansville, Indiana for agility. I’ll post lots of pics & videos!
Thank you!!!!!!
Hi Tracy!
>>She jumped a little high/early in 2 spots here: at :28 where she hit the bar (you were a bit disconnected and looking forward) and on the last jump. I don’t recall seeing early jumping from her, so it is possible that something is a bit touchy which is why she didn’t want to weave in the other JWW run?Sometimes she does jump early, but she hasn’t really done it in a while. I never connected that it could have something to do with her being ouchy. She did have a spot mid-back (this is one of her spots) that was out of alignment. But it went back in easily. I noticed a lot of knots in her shoulder muscles, so I gave her some amateur massages after the trial.
>>She picked up speed really well – and she forgave you for the RC push into her line at :15 (a little bit of side eye from her LOL!) She said a BC on the line before it would have been better 🙂
Hahaha! That would have been a better decision!!!Here are Frankie’s latest TSA games. We ran past the gate and then back in these. She had some distractions that got her attention here & there but I just waited for her attention to shift back to me and we kept going.
You will hear the monster-noises that is Bazinga not wanting to wait her turn too!
I’m trying to get her to bark after she gets her last treat before we go inside the gate too. I forgot to try it at the start line. I will add that in next time.
TSA 1
TSA 2
I’m trying to decide between doing FEO as our first run of the day or just doing the first run for real since she has been doing really well with the first 2 runs of the day. Maybe just surprising her with FEO when the FAST course is not one of our favorites.
She has 2 more QQs for her MACH4 and then I can drop her to 8 inches. Our only other thing to work towards is her Agility Grand Championship (we need 26 FAST, 22 Premier STD, 22 Premier Jumpers and 9 T2B Qs) but I’m not sure I want to make that a “goal”. I want to keep things fun for her that is really my priority. If I do work towards that, I think I would want to drop regular JWW and STD. I don’t like doing more than 3 runs with her in a day. She seems to have spoken about that.
Thanks for watching and for all the good advice!!!!
Hi Tracy!
I was bummed to miss the zoom chat last night!
Weaves update!
We have worked our way back to 6 weaves with the lotus ball (MM in the background)!!! I moved the poles into the back field (4 poles) and I could tell it was a little harder for her but she got comfortable after a few sessions.We did the TSA game today and I’d love some advice. She gets so amped up during this game that she’s started being bitey. She’s grabbing at my clothes and biting the leash so wildly that she’s a menace! Hahaha
Is it too much for her? Maybe she doesn’t need it whereas Frankie does need the added excitement?
Here are 2 back to back sessions. I left the before & after in. Really the runs were a mess because we were both so discombobulated with all the wildness.I tried running the course with her again later after she calmed down and she took all the obstacles like a pro. (We both did better). Of course, I don’t have video of that.
Here are the videos:
TSA 1
TSA 2
We have a 1 day trial next weekend (that I think I’ll be able to go to) and a 2 day trial the following weekend.
Then the Boston Terrier Nationals!!! That will be fun! There is a tunnelers fun run that she’s going to love!I have an FEO progression question with weaves.
What should my criteria be for attempting the weaves in the novice ring with a toy? Once she is comfortable doing 6 weaves at the field where we take training classes? Should she be doing 6 weaves with an obstacle before and after at home and at the training field? Or should I wait until I have that same criteria but on all 12 weaves?Hi Tracy!
Here is the Frankie avalanche from this weekend!Frankie had a great weekend. We did not get a lot of Qs but I was happy with her engagement & energy. I mixed it up because we were ninja-ing to the trial Saturday morning and it was a 4 hour ride, so no FAST with FEO on Saturday. She only had 2 runs on Saturday. We started with Standard and she was so into it! We got an off course but that was because SHE WAS SO INTO IT! (and also because I was late with my cue) but I celebrated that she was so far ahead & faster than I expected!
Standard – Saturday run 1 of 2
JWW was second. She started off a tiny bit slow and then started to pick up speed, but she popped out of the weaves. Not sure really why. Maybe the judge was too close for comfort & she got distracted? We have a chiro appointment tomorrow. Since we have been doing that monthly, she hasn’t really popped the weaves due to discomfort, but I’m happy she is being seen before we run again. She really did a nice job here.
JWW Saturday run 2 of 2
Sunday she ran FAST, Jumpers and Standard.
We did it in that order, so jumpers wasn’t last and I think she still ran jumpers the slowest and least engaged, although in her defense it was a little bit of a demotivating start.For FAST I tried it for real (no FEO). The video is funny! We spent a lot of time trying to get the send and we got buzzed, so I ran past the weaves. I was planning on skipping them anyway, so I was calling her but the line was perfect and she just went & did the weaves all by herself! I was so far away and stunned! LOL. I think I started moving my feet where I was to encourage her and not make her think it was a mistake, because it was SPECTACULAR! Hahahaha
FAST run 1 of 3 (no toy)
Here is her Jumpers run (run 2 of 3).
Her weaves were so good in FAST, that I got some feedback that maybe I am babying her in them and putting too much pressure on her. So in Standard, I gave her some breathing room but concentrated on staying connected and she did great. It was noon-ish when we ran and it had warmed up quite a bit but she had some speed & had fun here. I was really happy with this run.
Standard Sunday – run 3 of 3 (early in the day noon)
Thanks for looking at alllllllllllllllllllllllllll the videos!!!!
I have terrible timing posting this if you are building courses at the 1TDC Invi!!!!!!
I’ve been watching peeps post their run videos and it is sooooo inspiring!!!!Bazinga got to do 3 runs this past weekend. It was the first time she did 2 runs in a day and she says “no big deal!” 🙂
I was super proud of her run in FEO novice JWW. I felt like we were connected. Such a cool feeling!
You can hear my friends video-ing. They couldn’t see that Bazinga caught my jacket sleeve in her mouth along with the leash and it was a long few seconds for me until she let go! I thought we might be there forever!I left the leash for the leash runner for the first time and she seemed ok with that. I tried to do more obstacles before pulling out the toy but the weaves were at the halfway point, so we played & I took an extra second to reset before we started again. She was a very good girl & refocused.
Bazinga Novice Jumpers – Saturday
We made up a course in Premier JWW. I learned the lesson to not be stingy with my leadout. If I took one more step (or 2) I would have been in a better position to show her the line. She overtook me big time!
I’m pretty sure 😉 she was beelining for the judge, but she listened to my shrill voice and came back to the jumps! We did some moves and I was very proud of her!Bazinga premier JWW – Sat
We ran Novice JWW again on Sunday but we didn’t get any video. She was happy & into it though!
We were supposed to go to a trial this weekend, but my little very old fluffy lady is having some health issues, so I canceled. We will do some teeter stuff and sequences this weekend at home. We have been doing the TSA game at home as well and we’ll keep doing that too.
Also, the transition to the lotus ball in weaves training is going well. Thank you for all the help! The other day I clicked the MM to surprise her and she looked at me like “What the what? Where’s my ball?” Hopefully that is a good sign! We are working on an angled poles 5&6 now.
Thank you! Have fun at the trial!!!!
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!
