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Hi Tracy,
I managed to squeeze in a session with the poles near the tunnel. We had no problem at all with left side entries. Right side entries were harder, but not because of the tunnel suck, he seemed to thing he should enter front on to the poles instead of going round the back between the tunnel and the poles which I thought was odd. He did it more than once.
Mostly he didn’t care about the tunnel, but with a bit of speed on, I wonder if he would think the same…. When I do turns of the dw with him, he can do it without speed, but as soon as we are in full flight across the dw he eyes up the next obstacle and can’t do a tight turn. It’s quite frustrating and shows a hole in my training!
L.
Hi Tracy,
We are back at home for tonight’s session. I don’t know what your definition of a tiny tiny bit more tip is, but I think I may have exceeded it a tiny bit lol. I didn’t remember where the stool was and I have people come and use my arena. It would have been smart of me to review a previous video and see how far of the ground the seesaw previously tipped, but I wasn’t smart. There is a bar under the seesaw that hits the stool first, the bar is sloped, so the further out towards the end I pull the stool, the more tip we get.
Hero seemed to go ok. We have many brands of peanut butter here that are just peanuts and salt, which I have in the cupboard so that was easy. Sorry my video is mostly loading the target with peanut butter, I probably should have edited that part. I think I have a Go Toob somewhere, I’ll find it and fill it so I can just squeeze a bit out, that will be faster and easier and won’t end with a pyrshep in my peanut butter lol.
I started to run a bit towards the end of the session because Hero seemed pretty comfortable after the first couple of reps.
L.
Hi Tracy!
Working from home today so got a sneaky 1-7 session in. Hero did well, he only had a couple of questions when the entries were hard off my threadle side. I mixed up threadle and normal sends.
He is very happy in his work, he loves the TT lol. I slowed everything right down and that helped and I didn’t get number circling. Should I do a session of straight poles next?
L.
Hi Tracy,
I didn’t do what we planned for the next uphill session because I had the opportunity to train at Hero’s brother’s place. His seesaw is the new regulation (500 mm at the pivot and 3.6m long with 1m contacts. My seesaw is 500 mm at the pivot and 4 m long with 1m contacts).
I didn’t want to add tip as I wasn’t sure how he would go. He was a bit tentative at first so I did a couple of really short sessions. We when I started to add a wing wrap he gained momentum and looked more confident but jumped off the end! It is a whole different state of arousal in a new place, I didn’t know it would affect him that much!
The second session didn’t go too badly, but I am glad I didn’t add tip. I can see I will have to do a bit more of this. Club also has a seesaw that is the new length, but it’s too hard to get out on my own, so I will have to rent a buddy to go use that one.
L.
Hey Tracy!
Today Hero and I have angled the poles to 2-8 to try those entries again. I tried to run straight with each rep (not my forte!). When adding the threadle entries, Hero kept trying to do “middle”, our start position for agility. I had to keep closing my legs or else I ended up with a ginger weirdo between them 🙂 We have never practiced sending from the threadle side before so he was tentative.
When practicing extreme entries from 7-5 Hero kept adding in the number on the ground as something to pivot round before doing the weave poles. Is this just my body language making him do that? Or does he think it must be more complicated than just doing the poles?
I didn’t get to viewing the poles next to the tunnel yet, so maybe since we are not actually weaving yet, we can have another session tomorrow and look at that. But if he is using numbers as pivots, weaves near a tunnel will be interesting!
Hi Tracy,
Hezzy Bear is a little ginger daredevil. I can’t seem to get through a session without him dismounting at least once in a scary way! Today was no exception. He was getting really good at stopping for the treats while I ran past the end of the seesaw. There was no flying practice :-p But he did jump right from the top to get a treat that fell off the treat target :-0 No dog was hurt in the making of this video
We did some more practice with teaching the target on the plank. Watching this back I am not good at marking the moment his paws hit the tape and so he got quite confused. I taped the spoon on the end of the board but the little speedster is so good at anticipating that he is grabbing the food from my fingers before it gets to the spoon! I realised he still needs a bit of help, so towards the end of the session I positioned myself more to the front of the plank and he seemed to target better, not because he understands the game, but because my body position is luring.
He is so enthusiastic. It’s quite good having a foodie dog because I am sure that makes shaping so much easier!
Hi Tracy,
Thank you so much for your feedback! Today we started at the beginning. I was actually impressed! Hero was enthusiastic as usual. He loves the TT!
Should I keep following the 2×2 track for now?
Cheers,
L.Good evening Tracy, we’re back!
Hero got first in Novice at the weekend. I was so excited. He nailed his contacts (no seesaw in novice), and actually did the full set of weaves.
Today we have continued with the uphill track, taking the advice from last week. Same tip, more motion from me, and a wing wrap at the beginning.
I still don’t have a target word in place because I thought I really need to get solid behaviour on the plank before adding the word. I might work on a session of that tomorrow.
Cheers,
L.Good evening!
More uphill stuff today. Hero had no trouble with the wing wrap to the climb. I was laughing when I was looking at the video because he is almost skidding to a stop, and if he went any faster I think he might go over the handlebars lol.
Because he was ok, I progressed in the same session to adding some tip. He didn’t even notice. He’s all about the food and the thrill of the game. I love my ginger weirdo 🙂
We have a show tomorrow, so we won’t be doing training. See you Sunday 🙂
L
Hi Tracy,
My dogs have many alias’s lol. I’m sure yours do too. Hero is known as Hairy Maclary, Hairy for short. There is a NZ children’s book author named Lynley Dodd and she writes a whole series about Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy. Hairy Maclary looks very pyrshep and is black like Ruse. Hairy really is a fun dog and I love being his partner for agility.
Hero also goes by Hez, Hezzy, hezzyraldo, Raldo, Mac, Hairy Mac, ginger weirdo. If I could figure out how to do emoticons here I would post laughing face right now. BTW, how do I change my profile pic to Hairy? I tried edit profile but didn’t see a way to change the anonymous avatar.
I get what you mean by the spoon on the plank to help him focus. I might try that out next. Today we did Uphill track. He was so much better than the first session. Except right at the end I ran too fast and he was going to leap off he end. I half caught him by the collar and broke his descent. I won’t do that again! I always get too excited by his progress.
We will play some more wobble board games as you describe. He will love it. I used to teach him back up between the coffee table and the couch. I might do a reminder session before I ask for that on the board. It’s been a very long time. I hope to have a first crack at the weaves too. Thank you for fixing that up.
Cheers,
L.Good evening!
It was a wet day here today so time to do some inside stuff. We had a crack at the target on the plank. I put cardboard under the tape, so it is a little bit raised, but it could probably stand to be a little bit more raised, as Hero still isn’t 100% on what he is getting rewarded for. I was rewarding for a paw or both paws on the target. I kneeled down and to the side and he was getting it. But when I swapped sides I accidentally rewarded when he had one back leg off the plank. Then I had to wait him out to get all paws on the plank an two paws touching the target. He was desperate to get the food so he was trying everything. I didn’t want to be in front because he is lured by that, so I was kneeling side on. Hopefully I can stand up as he gets the game more and more.
Here is Hairy’s first look at the wobble board. I just let him interact with it and then tried to see if he would turn on it. He’s basically just following the food, but he is not phased by the tipping.
I also paid for the weave course. Will the course just appear under my courses in Agility University? My paypal is connected to a different email (astralcindy@gmail) so hopefully it will recognise me.
Hoping for sunshine tomorrow so we can do some more uphill work.
Cheers,
L.Good evening!
I see what you mean by opposition reflex! Hero was gunning it today, even with noise after removal of the yoga mat. He Cracks me up, he couldn’t keep his paws off the seesaw, he loves a good game. I went a bit fast for him at one point, he forgot to stop for the treat. At least I know how much challenge I can get away with now!
The wobble board has arrived! It went to the wrong house so I only picked it up this evening. I’ll give you a demo tomorrow!
Would you be able to email me the details for signing up to the weave course with the discount for doing two courses when you can? I can get started on that as well.
Cheers!
L.Hi Tracy,
That would be great if you could hook me up by email! Thankyou so much. The savings will pay for the wobble board! 1 USD is 1.4 NZD at the moment.
Cheers
LucindaGood Evening!,
Hero is still ok with the seesaw tipping slightly today. I think he is getting faster at it. He doesn’t care about the reset noise, which surprises me because when I drop things in the kitchen, he runs a mile.
We did a little more “wobble board” today. I tried not to keep my food hand on his nose, and let him work it out. He is a creature of efficiency. He worked out he could sit in the centre and balance quite well, so I had to keep asking him to stand. It’s not the ideal set up, but my new board should be here tomorrow!
As an extra bonus, we did some more target practice for dinner. Hero got the first couple really well and feeding at neck height did help with the crouch. But I noticed he was really focused on the food and not really concentrating on where his feet were, so I decided to test that. I tossed a cookie away, and he got all confused about what I wanted. I eventually rewarded for one paw on the tape a couple of times so that he knew it was about the tape. The end couple were really good and jackpot worthy.
You convinced me about the weaves, I will sign up with Hero. I should have done the combo package. DOH!
