[Kristin Omdahl]

Hi so, it was an interesting night last night and training day!

<<Roadkill! No, just kidding hahaha >>
You might have been joking but I’m not kidding that probably about the exact time you were typing that the BELOW happened. I just LOVE looking for fleas and giving dogs a bath at 10PM to get blood out of their beard. 🙄 😆

In any case, I ordered some furry toys today to see how he might like them. Good Lord those rabbit fur ones are expensive!!

I did just 1 more rep today with the Sequence 1 – decelling better on the jump with the front cross and that worked much better. Then we tried Sequence 2. For both I took your advice and attached a rope to the flying squirrel toy to see how he’d like that. I’d say he REALLY like that play a lot more! Took me a minute to get sorted out at first but I think it made for a better play experience. Thanks for the advice there.

Sorry for getting the start line set up out of frame on Seq 2. Doh! He did break his stay but I don’t care right now, he was motivated! For rep 2 of Seq 2 I wish I’d put the toy in my other hand. My handling wasn’t great, but also I truly think having the toy in the left was pretty distracting and contributed to missing jump #3 (plus he really did also think he thought he saw something in the field one time, but I’m sure my lateness contributed to that). His speed off the line both times took my by surprise – but that’s awesome!

I’ll for sure put any toys on a longer rope in class on Monday as well. He seems to like it! Let me know what you think.

Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Hello!

>>clarity also really helps confidence blossom, meaning he knows what to do and is almost always correct. So the 2 failure rule might end up being the 1 failure rule in the class setting, along with a TON of effort rewards and reset cookies. And avoiding complex sequences and sticking to “go fast have fun” will help too.>>

YES, exactly. I just got back from Fenzi Camp and one instructor said the same thing about for now going back to super simple courses that are fast and fun. I agree completely because I’m definitely not worried about the skills. Thanks to past MaxPups 🙂 he has LOTs of skills for his age, but what I really want is a fast, happy dog firstly! And from a very young age this time around I’ve worked very hard to keep the 2-failure rule in mind and reward all the efforts, staying super positive throughuot. He shouldn’t be getting many “your wrong” vibes from me, and also agree that your 1-failure rule is brilliant in this case, at this point. I will put that into practice immediately.

Oh, speaking of FDSA Camp, I have to give Reacher credit for hanging in there like such a champ all three days in that crazy environment. We did a variety of working sessions, not just agility, but for the agility sessions he did get faster and happier the more we did there. So it seems like the more exposure he has the more comfy he gets in a space he does perform more joyously, rather than shutting down from over-exposure. Side note, he was a dream in the hotel situation and is probably the most well-adjusted dog I’ve had since 2010!! Just need to loosen him up a bit.😂

<<Will he chase and enjoy a tennis ball? Or empty lotus ball?>>
He’s not a huge ball fan and he will certainly chase an empty lotus ball but would be super disappointed to then find it empty. I do have a furry lotus ball that I tried but it’s super hard to get open to quit. I could maybe bring it out to try empty to see what would happen. Where do you get your furriest exciting toys that the whippets like? I think Reacher does have a penchant for fur so perhaps I should invest in some better ones.

Good news – the UKI trial I entered him in WILL have the food box available. So we can make a plan for that. Julie H. was kind enough to remind me of that!

Here is a video from our regular class on Monday that is probably a mix of Volume Dial game and Tricks testing. I’m trying out my husband’s new 360-degree view camera to keep the flow consistent moving from outside the ring to inside. Jury is still out (it’s really best for closer up action and gets fuzzy with too much distance – he uses it on his drifting car normally to video runs) so forgive any weird looking editing. Reacher wasn’t as jazzed about the toy like he is at home and even at the end of the run he left it to chase me instead. But let me know what you think of the porridge-heating.

This second run, same session, I switched to the Lotus ball with treats.

Here is our first try at Sequence 1. I was using the Flying Squirrel as our toy reward (no food this time, to see what would happen). I rewarded the error as that was definitely not great handling on my part. He was slower than I expected. Part of it might also be the footing. Although it looks like nice grass, it’s actually kind of lumpy right now and super hard. It’s been so dry here (most of MN under fire warning) that we’ve not been able to really keep that ground smoothed out and the worms really make it uneven. But also, he’s just not as fast in the backyard as he’d be inside in the basement.

Let me know what you think!
Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

>>And when we have the optimized arousal and fantastic experiences in place? The confidence blossoms>>

Okay, I see your point about thinking of it differently. I definitely need lots of help with figuring out how to get that optimal arousal and help to learn what will make it a fantastic experience for him specifically. I can’t crack the code for that in 90% of our agility situations.

>>Will he play with toys or frisbees or balls? If so, then signing up was fine and we can make a plan to create the fabulous experiences>>

He loves toys, frisbees, tugs, etc. AT HOME. But not so much in class. Food is ultimately the top reward for him at all times, but at home he can get extremely jazzed about the toys. And he gets extremely excited about chasing and biting my sleeves (ouch! I need a bite suit!) It just doesn’t transfer to the rest of life.

Reacher is so serious and polite and a thinker I just wish I could give him a few strong drinks to loosen the boy up in public!😂

FYI – I have agility class Monday nights during the live chat so sadly we’ll like miss all of those. I’ll watch the recordings though! I did video at class tonight so have some material to share soon!

~Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Oh man I’m so behind! What is the last day to submit homework? (I scanned the course overview page but couldn’t confirm the exact end date.)

We worked a few combo exercises. Not bad but a few mistakes on my part. Especially the last rep; I thought I wasn’t connected properly so I paid him anyway. The video certainly proved it! 🙂

I’ll try to get a few more practices in. It’s been crazy busy ’round here!

Let me know what you think on this one. Thanks!
Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Hello! Worked on a bit of week 3 homework in the last 2 days.

For the tandem turns we hadn’t done those in quite a lot of time so did a quick warmup then gave it a shot. Camera angle on the first round of rear crosses wasn’t that great but hopefully you can see enough. I tried hard to work on shifting the connection to my hands but it was hard to be very smooth!

For the sends there is a LOT going on here! For the wraps I can see it’s very hard for me to avoid bending over. The video sure doesn’t lie. 🙂 Balancing out the sends seemed to be a struggle so this was great practice for what it’s revealing we need to work on.

Let me know what you think.
Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Your two ideas worked great to get the serpentine with dog on left. I also tried a bit stronger shifting connection to landing side to see if that helped. I think maybe so? But still, I think I’m gonna shelve this one for now, ’cause dog on left still no worky. Poor baby certainly is stuck in a rut on this one. 😂 Helloooooo adolescence, welcome to the party!

He’ll be okay (at least my threadles will probably be wonderful). Ha ha! But will let this one rest for a few sessions at least – maybe try again next week or something.

Take a look and let me know though if any additional thoughts come to mind.

Thanks!
Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Great, Tracy, thanks for the insights!

So I tried out the Serpentine connection and it did not go well. 😉

First rep on the send to the wing I had poor connection and can definitely see what happened when watching the video. Next rep was better so I stopped to reward.

Things went downhill from there – ha!! It has been a bit since we worked serps vs. threadles and for some reason he was absolutely stuck in his thinking we were doing threadles. Note that my serp cue is dog-side arm back. Threadle cue is the “Close” verbal plus off-arm back as well.

After two mistakes I made it easier. When that didn’t help I took a break and came back to it later. When we still had problems in the next round, I made it easier in a different way. When that didn’t work I just stopped to seek your advice before doing more. HELP! 😀

~Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Hi Tracy, we’ve been busy so are behind but hopefully can catch up a bit with the skip week this past week.

Thanks for the great feedback last time. I tried to remember it on these next sessions, but seems I did forget to open up my arm a few times that would really have helped.

Sends – in reviewing the video I feel like I didn’t really send. I felt like I had to move somewhere/more and with it being so tight kind of messed with my head. But still was good practice. Let me know what you think.

Shifting Connection – I kind of enjoyed these exercises more.😀 I thought Reacher did great and I did okay on most, but did have a few mistakes. I also noticed that I was often taking an extra step back towards the landing side on the wraps that should not be needed. I recall I had this same habit in MaxPup so is a good reminder to knock it off! Ha!

~Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Ugh, in some ways this next video seems to indicate that I had trouble incorporating your awesome feedback from last time, but I’ll keep working on it. I swear I read it and it all made sense on “paper”! 🙂

I admit a few things messed with my head that didn’t help like trying to remember which hand to keep the toy in, and the lack of space. I kept wondering if maybe doing this class in my basement with full size jumps with wings not my best idea. Ha!!🤣

However, I will tell you a happy story. Last week I had Reacher’s very first Novice-level class, at On the Run, after not even being in a training center since we finished puppy agility back in August or so. I wasn’t sure how it was gonna go… but he did awesome. But my connection story is the good part! We had one sequence that ended with a right turn followed by a long line of 3-4 jumps. The first time I tried it I didn’t make good exit line connection (because I was thinking “holy crap I have to RUN!”) and Reacher started to cut behind me to take the off course a-frame. I caught it and we continued but he was slowish. Next time I tried it I remembered my strong exit connection and he had NO question. I was a little ahead at that point, as is what I’m used to, but then he was like “I GOT IT!” and I kept my attention on his face which went from behind me, to next me, and next thing I knew he was confidently taking that line of jumps with me staring at his cute little butt! He was literally waiting for me at the end. I am pretty sure my face looked like those cartoons do when the character’s eyes bug out. I am sure the connection and a well-placed GO! was the key to that confidence. I was so proud!!

I had to keep that in mind as I watched my Combo video below to not get quite so bummed with my performance here. One interesting thing is that I thought he was much more happy and confident on the last 3-4 reps, but I did switch from toy to food and I think he was much more excited about a food reward.

Looking forward to your commentary!
Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Thanks for the feedback. Sadly, we did get a little snow overnight, so I’m going to try this in the basement. Not sure if doing this class will work well with only that much space, but will see!

I tried the Regular Connection again trying to get him a bit more ahead of me, but it tough to get him going fast enough. Perhaps a placed reward would work better for him to get farther ahead??

We also worked some Exit Line Connection in a separate session.There were a few reps that I have no idea why I was doing such a big lead out and it created problems. Or rather, that lack of commitment created the problem but I didn’t need to lead out like that. Anyway, I think I could be a lot smoother on many of these, but let me know your thoughts!

~Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Hi! Thanks for the great tips. I totally agree about needing to avoid the banana line and have even stronger connection. It’s amazing how much of a difference makes, and yet is still hard for me to do and still run the right line. Must practice more!😀

And there is something I was thinking about that I’d like your opinion on. In fact the behavior was illustrated a bit by a question you asked me recently that I forgot to answer. So first, you asked:
>>The Starfish is going really well, this is the hardest handling game and you had a TON of success!! Where was he heading on the first reps? Clearly something caught his attention>>
What he was distracted by was the dogwalk with my touchboard that I hadn’t picked up. I’m running contact training and it’s going really well… we’ve done a ton of groundwork and he finds it VERY rewarding. I thought that stuff was far enough away, but I guess not!

But this reminds me of my question, often times when I get Reacher out into the field and take the leash off he immediately takes off and tries to “do things” without me! I love his enthusiasm and don’t want to discourage him, but it doesn’t seem like this is a good idea and certainly will be detrimental at a trial. I’m going to teach a set up routine and that should help with this, but in the meantime is there anything I should be doing to prevent him from just running around the second the leash comes off to run around wings, jumps or or take the tunnel? Or is it just a fun release?

Today we worked on lateral lead out. I’m so sorry for how windy it was and thus loud and even shaking the camera. I had too stake down the jump wing! I turned the volume down when cutting the video together but might still be a bit loud.

Anyway, for the first rep I forgot to walk laterally at first, then up to the wing, but fixed on the others. I thought he did well despite my handling mistakes here and there. Let me know what you think!

~Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Thank you, Tracy! Great feedback on both, as always, and it makes so much sense.

So I tried Backside Proofing again today in two sessions, attempting much stronger connection. It definitely helped! On the countermotion exit, was I doing a better job looking at the landing side this time? Even in reviewing the video I’m not sure it was enough. ??

On switching the exercise to work the other side, we had some struggles all over again. I think my connection was not as strong as I thought it was in the moment on all the reps. When I did make it easier AND had the stronger connection it did make a difference, so as usual, it’s all on me to make it clear for him.

Let me know if you have any final notes on this one for me. Thank you!

Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

Finally back for our final week of MaxPup (so sad!) but have been focusing on working my contacts before putting everything away this weekend. Side note – thanks for the excellent Teeter training class! I purchased last year as self-study and it’s worked great for both Ronin and Reacher.

We worked on a bit of Starfish yesterday. I forgot the longer courses despite walking so kind of just made a few things up. 🙂 I think I have a good idea what I messed up to cause the mistakes that did happen but let me know what you think!

We also did two sessions of the backside proofing TODAY. The first session was tough and despite making it easier by moving the wing out we struggled on this one at first. Came back later in the day too try again and definitely went better. Looks like we have more work to do on this one.😁. Suggestions?

~Kristin

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Kristin Omdahl. Reason: Added backside proof video

[Kristin Omdahl]

Thanks for the awesome feedback. I am going to go back and practice these some more, but for now, I have worked on the Tunnel Threadle. Results were not as successful as hoped, but not exactly a surprise either. How can I help him understand this better?

Thanks!
Kristin

[Kristin Omdahl]

First, CONGRATULATIONS!! What an amazing experience and win for your flyball team! I am SO mad at AKC.tv for crapping out on all my devices just when your team was getting ready to run. 🙁 Need video!

Back to agility… Feel free to groan as you see how many videos I have from the last few days. I know, lots to review.

>>Is the verbal you were using for all backsides, or just the backside wrap? I vote for separate verbals for backside slice and backside wrap>>
Hmm, I agree I meant to start a new verbal for the backside wrap vs. slide and forgot. Backside slice should be “Push” and wrap should be “Dig”. Thanks for asking, as I had thought about it before but then didn’t execute the plan. Ha!

So I tried to use the new command and not block any wings in my final Wind in Your Hair submission. Any final tweaks on this for now?

Per your suggestion we also moved to Mission Transition. I think I was admiring how handsome he was no a few reps and forgot to do more of a takeoff back towards the start 😀 but no harm done I suppose. What is concerning to me is WHY THE HECK was I using right and left commands for wraps?!?! What a dork! I’m in a ‘hate my verbals’ phase right now.

Layering. At first I could not decide which arm I wanted to use for this skill, so tried the dog-side arm for initial reps then tried the outside arm. It does’t feel as natural to me to use the outside arm, but I can see how it would make the line clearer to the dog, so will keep practicing that. I imagine there are a lot of tweaks I should make here!

Added some bars to the Zig Zag Slice jump grid. They were at 4″ with on side on the ground.

And then, I know we need this (even saw a perfect spot for it in one of the standard courses at Cynosports I watched this weekend), but a big thumbs-down on the lap turns! 😂

And finally, the Get Out game. I think that went pretty well (but I’m sure some tweaks needed). Better than how the Layering went though!

Safe travels back home after CanAm!
Kristin

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Kristin Omdahl. Reason: Added Get Out video

[Author]

Posts