[Laura Niday]

You’re so right about the arms! Thanks for pointing that out. I think I feel extra weird when working with just wings, like I loose some mental clarity on what I’m doing, so then I feel the need to extra emphasize the wings? But big arms (or arms that don’t add value) has always been a problem I’ve been aiming to work on.

Glad to hear I sounded enthusiastic! Trying to always bring the energy
Which doesn’t always come natural.

I’ll keep working on the earlier tunnel turn cues!

Did you by chance see our post from yesterday? Just didn’t want it to get lost in the shuffle! Thanks!

[Laura Niday]

Adding in our Starfish video now! Had fun with this one. I got a little slack on supporting a couple of the wings on the last two videos but I was pretty pleased otherwise. Fun game to put stuff together! I also kinda improvised the course a bit but I think we did the important components 😬

[Laura Niday]

Did some repeat work on the lateral lead out and parallel backsides this afternoon. Really pleased with both of those. I took away the bar for the backside and focused on showing more motion forward (not speed so much as forward motion) and she did mucho better. So do you only train parallel backsides with your pups or is this a separate skill from a regular backside? I think if I’m understanding correctly, this is simply how you handle backsides and the end result is better efficiency for you to get further ahead.

Second video is the accordion. She seemed to manage her strides pretty well I thought. Is tomorrow our last day to post content for review?

Thanks! Hope you had a nice weekend!

[Laura Niday]

I’m thinking the backsides with the parallel line is maybe another lesson we missed in the first edition of the class? We’ve worked backsides but as you’ll see shortly, I’ve always pushed my lower body to the outside of the wing to help cue them. Soooo I’ve got two videos that show us attempting parallel line backsides but really rewinding quite a bit. She was able to get more independent with it (less dependent on my lower body) on the right but the left side not as much. I can see in rewatching the videos as I compiled them that some of my problem may be in pushing into wing too much so that then my motion is really confusing if a backside is what I want.

Also throwing in one video of lateral sends. Did really well at first then we hit a wall. This was the end of session after we had done second half of the backsides. I tried rewatching to see if I changed something, I can’t really tell that much of a difference from where we started to where we hit our wall. But either way I’m glad I was able to get her to end on one success. Will work this one more tomorrow!
Happy Friday!!

[Laura Niday]

Thanks for sending those! Will work on them as soon as the darn rain quits 😂. I knew I must’ve been missing something.

[Laura Niday]

Sorry forgot the link: https://youtu.be/8kwpjS0c6c8

[Laura Niday]

Just getting back from a quick little vacation. Arty got to stay with her Grams for the first time so this was the first agility she’s seen since early last week. I definitely have not yet taught this skill so I had to break it down a bit. We got a bit more successful after these first attempts but my phone died so didn’t capture the later efforts. I’ve never trained or used a verbal for this. Am I relying on my hand flick too much here to turn her away and into the tunnel? One time I rewarded her for following that hand even though it didn’t result in a tunnel. I’m going to use “By” for my word but again right now it means nada to her. Will definitely do more practice here!

[Laura Niday]

I had fun with this one! Felt very awkward but she seemed to read it well. I could definitely see what you meant where this one is 90% handler focused. Had a good handful of oopses but still stayed more up beat together. Took a motivation break in the middle of this for some tunnels and running which I think was good. Overall pleased with this as a start, definitely need to keep practicing!

[Laura Niday]

Oh yes, sorry! Just meant the last segment of this video!

Will try and do the last piece from last week tonight when I get off work!

[Laura Niday]

Zig Zag part two! https://youtu.be/Rgcu0OO1kHs

I still feel real awkward on this, I think especially with the single wing and bar scenario. I think some
Parts she read well and then we also had a few good opportunities to practice staying upbeat in the face my bad handling! I didn’t crop out the boo boos for that reason. Overall I was pleased with how she had fewer absolute shut downs. I tried to just keep her moving and stay happy through any issues. We got a little stuck in the last video which was the end of the session. I stepped in to make it easy so we could finish and break.

Was just checking out the third installment of this class! We did not do first but it seems like that would be an appropriate next step?

Thanks!

[Laura Niday]

That’s all super helpful as far as trying not to demotivate my girl. I’ll work harder on staying upbeat and finding something to reward (tricks) more quickly to keep her spirit and
motivation up.

We ended a full day with the wind in hair with tight turns. I think Artemis was a little tired after having mom off work all day preventing her from
Naps 😂 I threw a few tunnels in in between runs to get her moving a bit more which she seemed to appreciate. We did work both sides evenly even though I didn’t get them all
On camera due to some wind gusts knocking over my tripod. I felt really awkward doing this but I think that may have been because she was moving a little slower so I was having to really put the breaks on to keep from moving too much if that makes sense?

[Laura Niday]

[Laura Niday]

Did some “out” work today. This is totally foreign to us so I was really supporting with that outside arm. Took a couple tries but I think we got some understanding by the end of the session. Do you use this same “out” for distance gamble sends or do you have a different word/handling for that?

[Laura Niday]

Thanks so much for taking the time to help me look at the jumping! I feel better now 😅 we did our rear cross exercise this evening and I’ve got to say, I’m proud of this! I didn’t teach my older dog Peaches (first agility dog) rear crosses until we were 4 years into trialing! I can’t believe the progress Arty has made on these at such a young age!
I left one part in there for you where she blew past the jump then seemed pretty demotivated when she didn’t get rewarded. Do you think this is a “likes being correct” sort of thing or just expects rewards and is confused when she doesn’t get them? It’s always taken her a moment when she is wrong to get back on track to whatever I’m
Asking of her. Just wondering if you have any tips there.

Thanks so much! Sorry the lighting is a little rough in this one.

[Laura Niday]

Got some more video of the ladder grid to further investigate the slight hips to the side as she’s coming in on last jumps. I’m thinking it may just be her approach to the toy or item of value. I see it a lot on recall, especially when she’s really jazzed up and excited to come to me or when I first get home for the day. Also with excited toy play. When you asked if she’s right or left handed and referenced fly ball, is this kinda how the dog comes in to approach the object? If so then this all kinda makes sense. I think it’s always the hips kicking out to the right of her shoulders if your facing her, not matter my side or toy location. Thanks for helping me think through this and investigate!

We also did our diamond work this afternoon. I had to stop and let her play with me he toy and “walk it” bc I could not get myself doing a tight blind. I still think the toy was not in the correct hand for me as you described. I was also thrown off a bit by trying to hold her and get her rev’d up. I’m trying to do that more so we aren’t “practicing” doing agility with low energy but instead trying to maintain enthusiasm and higher energy if that makes sense?

We may get back out for last weeks exercise this evening so I can finally be caught up! Thanks!!

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