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Hi, Tracy,
Hope the rain stopped, and that your youngsters had some good answers for you regarding collection. I agree that it’s an area Keiko and I need work on, so bring on the exercises! 🙂It’s slightly warmer (low 30s) today, so we did a few of the little quick exercises. Here’s our work on the seesaw following your suggestions: jump on and off from the sides rather than the table, spend more time, where it’s bouncy, and do more turns in the middle. I think she did really well. She muffled a back leg on a couple of turns, but quickly pulled it and and kept her balance. She didn’t seem flustered by anything I asked her to do on this. 🙂 We’re going to raising the real seesaw up another chain link. Getting pretty close to comp height. Here’s the video:
Thanks, Tracy. We’re going down to the teens today. Not sure if we’ll venture out for very long, so there may not be video until tomorrow….Thanks for the suggestions on the plank – she’ll get a kick out of being a tight-plank walker! I’ll have to concentrate more on acceleration and deceleration and going in closer to the obstacles on distance and wraps in runs. With my older girl, I had to send and run like crazy because once she cranks up that’s it. 😉 I have a feeling that Keiko may eventually be like that, or she may always want to check with me and to be SURE she’s doing things correctly. We’ll have to see. I really look forward to having the opportunity to be indoors on a matted surface. ~Kristie
And now we’re in week 7. The time does seem to go quickly, especially since you give us such nice exercises and topics to work on. 🙂
Here’s our Plankrobatics. I tried to move our 2 tables near each other, but they sunk in the mush yesterday, and are now frozen into the ground. Such excitement. So I fashioned something else for Keiko. It’s at 16″ (we’ll do higher when I can move tables again) and you’ll notice it has a nice little bounce to it. Keiko didn’t bat an eyelash – her only concern was that I not forget to give her a reward. 😉 Anything else we should be focusing on regarding this exercise? Thanks! ~Kristie
Helloooo, Tracy. Well, the ground’s certainly less squishy. It’s 24 degrees with a strong wind! So no slipping around today, just frozen in place. 😉 Here’s our Lead Outs and Big Lines #3. We played around with a variety of things that you covered this week. It was nice not to worry about falling, and Keiko seemed faster, too. Thanks for the feedback above – you may end up saying some of the same things again since we went out before you’d written… I really want to remember to do the tossed backwards reward more. I agree with you that it will entice her to drive forward more and to not pause or slow down to make sure she’s correct in understanding what I want.
Here’s the video. Thanks! ~Kristie
Hi, Tracy,
Ah, it was an experience today. The temps warmed to 40, and I was looking forward to doing some real running with these exercises. Unfortunately, 40 was just warm enough for the ground to thaw a bit, so Keiko and I ended up doing some slippy-slidey. Therefore, I kept the speed under control, and did a lot of sending rather than running with her. When things got too gooey in one place, I tried other things in other places. I do think we got in a lot of FF practice doing a variety of little sequence sets, and a few “balance” sets. Let me know what you think. 🙂
Hi, Tracy,
Big Lines 2: Thanks so much for detailing each run! I was able to go back and look at the video and really see what I need to focus on. Really helpful!
Seesaw: Thanks for the feedback. Also, I really like the idea of the weight to change the balance and tip. I’ve never seen that done before, and it makes tons of sense, especially since we’re not having the opportunity right now to try out different seesaws.
Forced Fronts: Thanks for the various ideas to make this more challenging and keep her thinking and paying attention.
As always, I really appreciate your feedback. Take care, ~Kristie
Hello, Again!
We also gave the Forced Front Intro a try. I’ve called it FF with Options since we varied things a bit. 🙂 I think I did everything you’d talked about in the video, and also threw in a couple of in-ins. It felt strange not going anywhere after the FF, so I’m not sure if my “after” motions were correct. Thanks.
Hi, Tracy,
I just wanted to be sure I’m on the same page with you. You recommended ditching the MM as reward for the seesaw entries and suggested I go back to running with her and rewarding on the target location by hand. I moved the ramps closer to the seesaw and we worked on entries and rewarding down – and a bit of a pause before being released from the table. Since she seems to like diving off the table, I figured this was a good time to stop rewarding that. 😉 I will get rid of the table – it’s only at 4 inches, and I don’t think we need since she was doing the seesaw without it until we added the MM.
So, is this getting back to what you’d like to see? What else should/could I be doing at this point? Thanks! ~Kristie
Hi, Tracy,
Here’s our take on the Lead Outs & Big Lines 2. I varied things, starting on different sides of the first jump, running to the right and left of jump 3, turning right and left on jump 5, etc. The first time I had her turn to the left at 5 and run down to the tunnel she decided to take jump 3 and almost cut me off. I thought my signaling and verbal were okay, but perhaps not (?). How does this all look to you? We enjoyed being able to really run AND have to pay attention to where we were going and what we were doing. 😉
Hi, Tracy! I was so pleased when I saw all the exercises based on the Live classes from the weekend. I couldn’t remember if week 6 was a “break” week or not, and I’m glad to see we’ll get to work on these exercises right away. They look like fun!
Here is our first take on the Lead Outs and Big Lines 1. You’ll notice on the first sequence that in our second set, Keiko was faster and I was partly in her way for the blind cross jump. Since this is bound to happen in real life (how did I manage to get my fastest dog at this point?), especially if there is no lead out, do you have any suggestions about how to handle this type of situation?
The second sequence was the “throw back.” I tried it from both a lead out, and then as more of a run in the middle of a course. On the second one, again, I was somewhat in her way, though she handled it fine.
The third sequence we did a few times, and included “go on”, left and right verbals. My husband came out to watch the first left turn run. Keiko loves him, and he was a huge distraction when we first started working. She is much more ready to keep working when he watches, but we continue to work on using him as a distraction since I know they’ll happen when we finally get to attend an “in person” agility class. This little girl has only had online and home schooling for agility. 😉 I know many folks are in the same situation.
Fun little sequences! Looking forward to the next ones. ~KristieThanks for all the comments, Tracy. I do think we need more work on tandems, and I’ll experiment a bit with the options you’ve suggested to figure out what works best for Keiko and me.
Hello, again. 🙂
Here’s another visit to the Turn Aways exercise, focusing more on putting things together and mixing it all up. Keiko does tend to go wide on the tandem sends around the wing, while she is able to hug the wing when wrapping after a lap turn. I think it’s easier for her to know what’s happening with the lap turn than with the tandem. Should I try bringing up both arms for the tandem, making more motion, starting the turn action sooner or ?? Thanks for your help, ~Kristie
Hi, Tracy,
Here’s our second visit to the Lead Out exercise. I tried to head to jump 3 rather than stepping into jump 2 on the blind crosses, and went to the far wing on jump 3 for the FC lead outs. I also tried tossing in a backside and wrap for the simple “path” release aspect. How do these look? Thanks, ~Kristie
Hello!
Here’s another visit to the Verbal object discrimination exercise. I worked on not giving any body motion like I did last time. You’ll notice that Keiko seemed to prefer her mat, or at least a few times she’d go to it first, then go to the tunnel. I’m wondering if it’s because she sees the treat coming on the mat, or because I usually toss 2 treats for the mat or ? She does love tunnel, and never balks about going in one. She is doing pretty well, I think we just need more practice time. How’s it look to you?
Hi, Tracy,
Keiko and I gave the ramp entry exercise a try with the seesaw rather than just a ramp. As you suggested, I did put a low table on the landing end – it gave us an obvious place for the MM. The seesaw is not at full height yet – the apex is about 20 – 21″ inches. I tried different angles and different motion on my part, and added the tunnel for angle, speed and need to focus and adjust. I thought she did pretty well. 🙂 Comments? Next steps to take? Thanks! ~Kristie
