[missjessjones]

Hello again,

Here’s a few videos from our Unit 6 and a couple of Unit 5s I just got round to videoing. I’ll work on the others – I’m doing some short hit-it board work at a low angle and she’s getting the idea of jumping onto it rather than walking (in addition to which my veteran-with-a-crap-turn Roxy has been doing the same exercise and did actual swimmers turns at practice yesterday!!).

In the below video I managed to tug out of frame, but it was a good tug day 🙂 I’ll be mixing it up loads for the future!

Prop Intro:

[missjessjones]

Hi there! Forgot to set my notifications of new posts so just saw this 🙂 I am glad to see the Cato board there since this is something I’d been trying on my own, so I will keep trying and video in the next day or two.

• This reply was modified 6 months, 1 week ago by missjessjones.

[missjessjones]

Hello! Working on our week 6 exercises (and I finally nabbed a prop from practice for Unit 5!) but I have a couple of questions straight up:

– Kiki seems to have really gone off the boil in terms of tug drive, sniffing around and just generally disinterested. She has been in heat since approx. 9/20 and I’ve seen this in the last couple of weeks; should I just put it down to hormones? Anything else I can be trying in the meantime? She’s still interested in our food-based training like the conditioning exercises.

– For the sit to kickback stand exercise, I’m starting on the flat for now. I find when I lean into Kiki she is mostly maintaining her sit and shuffling backwards rather than popping into a stand – and when she does she almost immediately goes into a sit again. If I’m quick enough I mark the stand and treat treat treat, but she’s quick. Any tips for this one?

Thank you much!

[missjessjones]

Got it, THANKS! We’ll work on this!

[missjessjones]

I didn’t notice the slip, I feel bad now 🙁 Being her cheerleader is easy, she is just the best even when she’s driving me crazy <3 so I’ll keep working on this! Also with her coming into heat I’m noticing she’s needed a bit more love and comfort so I’ll work on keeping things not too challenging for a few days.

Thanks for the mat time feedback, gives me confidence we’re heading in the right direction!

[missjessjones]

I never responded to this, sorry! I think I’ve been trying to implement this, but I want to make sure I am understanding correctly. So, here’s my understanding, let me know if I’m right?

1. Send to retrieve tug or ball.
2. Kiki returns tug/ball. If tug, YES!, tug a bit then cookie. Then more tug, double whammy!
3. [??? Not sure on this one!] If ball, ask to out, YES!, cookie, then tug??

Let me know what you think. Thank you for all the support!!

[missjessjones]

Hello! Here’s most of my unit 5 stuff, plus an updated backing up video (straight onto the Cato board, yay!!) and a longer video of Kiki’s mat time at DGF weekend before last.

She took to Pivot pretty much immediately despite not being the biggest fan of moving away from body pressure 😀 but let me know what you think about form.

I have a video of RSO + mat + tug here from a rainy day but she has been doing well with distance/movement also. Continuing to work turns in both directions.

I think my mat time video (don’t feel the need to watch all of it, you’ll get the gist after a bit!) shows some of the focus challenges I’m seeing. I think in this example I should have called it quits while I was ahead but I was a bit unprepared going into our timeslot and panicked, lol! Welcome any general feedback.

Haven’t done Prop intro yet because I don’t have one and Kiki came into heat this week so she won’t be at practice for a while, but I’ll try and make one based on your specs above!

[missjessjones]

Hello! Sorry I’m so late posting these, labor day got in the way.

Target Mat + Distance: I have a feeling I posted this before, but here it is again with the Cato board and I did both sides – she’s still baffling me on the preferred side front. I think I messed up which hand I was holding the tug in!

Bow + Wobble Board: I THOUGHT I’d videoed her doing a regular bow on the ground, but apparently I didn’t press record! So here she is on the wobble disc. To my surprise she got bow immediately (I have been trying to teach Roxy this trick forEVER without success, but she’s also extra long), but tends to pop straight up unless I feed feed feed in position, which is fine. In this video, I think her rear feet are a bit wide on the disc – she’s had better form in non-recorded sessions, but does seem to be trending this way. Any suggestions?

Jump + Retrieve: So today I had MUCH better success with this (got a new tug out!) having rewatched your video, but I think this recording shows well what challenges I’m seeing i.e. wandering off to eat her tug alone. She was doing this at the start of the course, but in all other exercises she’s been much better at engaging with me with the tug, so I was a bit surprised. Welcome your feedback on this and the rest of the video!
(Note: I do have actual flyball jumps at home (6in) but I think I’m opting to leave out the jumping until she’s a bit older. We’re doing gutters at practice.)

I haven’t done the jump + distance bit yet, but we’ve also been hard at work on learning agility and have introduced both a target and the concept of “sending” to a jump, so hopefully that’ll be an easy capture!

[missjessjones]

Love that name! Foxy! Kiki’s name is Japanese inspired as well (after the anime Kiki’s Delivery Service). We spent 3 years in Japan prior to her arrival.

[missjessjones]

Hi again! Here’s my vids for this unit, at last 🙂 You’ll see Kiki is a bit distracted in several of these, she’d decided there was a morning ghost in the corner of our yard!

Backing up (flat, then fail at Cato board):

Mat + turn:

RSO + Tug/Distance (I forgot to do starting at my side, but she has done that successfully also):

Two Tug + Distance – outing the first tug still a bit of a struggle but she has a good carry):

[missjessjones]

Thank you! She is really quite the social butterfly and one of the things we need to work on in general obedience is her arousal level – she gets

so

excited when there are people to meet and dogs even more so that it is very hard for her to concentrate. She does get VERY excited to go to practice, so maybe I also work on good manners in and around the sounds of the sport so she doesn’t lose her mind the second we go in the general area of the ring.

I did try backing up onto the Cato board today because I think our steps are too big for her and she basically concertinas herself rather than put a back put up, lol! I’ll keep working on the flat backing up and get a video of the steps soon. And I’ll check out Frankie’s vid (the link to the conditioning platforms was an amazing resource, thanks Frankie!)

[missjessjones]

Hello! Just checking in – running a bit behind on this unit as I was out of town week before last and then husband started his new job in Maryland last week!

RSO + tug is going well, I was able to get her off leash almost immediately (I am so grateful our agility instructor had us focus on a baller stay and get ready before this course lol).

Back Up to steps – I was struggling with just backing up on the flat – Kiki just kept sitting down – but she seemed to get it today so I’ll keep going.

Going less well – Flyball practice in general, haha! We were already doing ball retrieve to tug at home prior to starting this course but she seems to have a 3-repeat limit before going to goof off with the distractor dog/literally anyone else other than me. We are going to limit to 3 tries at a time for next practice and also reduce the difficulty i.e. no distractions for a while. Her restrained recall is great though!

Will try and get videos up before Wednesday!

[missjessjones]

Hi again!

Thanks for all the tips, here’s a few updates 🙂

Mat work – thanks for the guidance! I have a regular Cato board so I used that under the mat instead since it’s a similar length. Progressed to just the mat on the floor well this week. She did offer some two-foot targeting again but only once and then seemed to understand all four feet were required!

Two Tug – definite progress! See below video 🙂

Lead foot – having watched her more this week I think definitely a lefty who can throw in a righty when she feels so inclined.

Unit 1 restrained recalls – at practice this week we tried some of the techniques you recommended and definitely saw some improvement. I think I also realised that in a practice environment she has about a 3 repeat limit before puppy brain takes over and she just goofs off, so next time I’ll try quitting while we’re ahead.

General note: Think she might still be having some teething pain…she’s been chewing a bunch this week and wasn’t super keen on tugging this morning.

[missjessjones]

Hello!

I wrote this whole post yesterday…and then forgot to hit “post”. Doh! So trying again.

At the bottom are our videos for: Lead Foot, Middle (which I’d already taught as Get Ready with a right leg wrap before the course started, whoops), and Platform/mat work. Still working on the others.

Need help troubleshooting:
1. Two Tug Game – one tug ALWAYS seems to be higher value, e.g. I have 2 identical fur/fleece tugs, but one has slightly more fur so she wanders off with it. Any thoughts on how to address? We haven’t made it far with this exercise.
2. Lead Foot – I still have no idea which way she turns! Every time I think, “yes, it’s definitely that way” she seems to turn the other way and she also seemed to be changing lead on me. Let me know what you think when you watch the video…

Lead Foot:

Middle/Get Ready:

Platform:

[missjessjones]

Sorry I completed missed your replies! Here’s the Here game link (sorry about the goof!):

And here’s an additional one for restrained recall – it’s 6 minutes long (!) but I left it unedited so you could see some of the challenges we had with the distractor dog and also just goofing off a bit, but I think here brain was fried by then anyway:

Thanks for the tips on the RSO game, I’ll keep working on it. I think she has *just* stopped teething but grip strength has definitely been an issue so far, so I’ll try taking it a little easier and see if that helps.

More to come on the Two Tug game – she is very particular about real fur and one of my real fur tugs is missing, so I’ve been having a hard time making both tugs equal value. Going to hunt for it today, must be here somewhere…

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