[mjohnston]

Hi, Here is a video of the first four games

1) Drive to Handler
2) Go Forward
3) Send to Prop
4) Bowl Game (Wing Wrap Foundations)

(Sorry, you’ll have to ignore my husband in the background :))

[mjohnston]

Raven and I had a really good day at the High Octane trial on Thursday.

Below are a few links. We did 6 runs and she only disconnected on the 3rd run. A few thoughts:

*After the 3rd run, I remembered our conversation about what a dog finds rewarding may change as the day goes along. I applied that same idea to my pre-run routine. For the first 3 runs, I was trying to engage her with a toy before the run. For the first two runs she did seem engaged and then that dropped off on the 3rd run. When we went into the ring, she started to notice the judge and started sniffing at the start line. She actually got up – which I can’t remember if she had ever done that before. After a rocky start she did come back to me and we completed the run. Before the 4th run, I did more snuffle mat work with her where I play a game where I ‘hide’ the treats one or two at a time in the mat and she finds them. She seemed much more engaged for the 4th run. Then on the 5th run, I amped up the snuffle mat by also incorporating some cheese into the game which she really liked.

I’m not sure how since we didn’t Q in either Master series course but we did complete them and earned a certificate indicating that we were invited to compete at the 2023 US Open.

1st run – https://youtu.be/2e6NsrF8G_I – I made a mistake and we missed a jump but decided to keep going which kept her in motion.
2nd run was great and we Q’d!
3rd run with the disconnect at the beginning https://youtu.be/MtuNYx17tnI
6th run – Just to show how she was at the end of day. We Q’d! https://youtu.be/i4F3g395Ou0

We have seminars this weekend so I’ll let you know how it goes!

[mjohnston]

Hi Bobbie, Below are the notes for our call tomorrow. Talk soon. – Melissa

2-14-23 – Bella Vista – Judy K – Training
• Clip from 2nd run. Note, we were working on some hard weave entries so she may have been mentally tired at this point. She hasn’t done this in a while during training. However, I was pleased the she came back to me as I’ve been practicing her recall. I’ve been using the 1-2-3 game and really building up value for the word ‘Three’ so that is what I said and she almost immediately stopped and came back. https://youtu.be/npcH_VwCyKU

2-15-23 – High Octane – Evening Trial
• 1st run did well and Q’d
• 2nd run, had a bit of a disconnect but she came back fairly quickly. https://youtu.be/nvWXMX5kac4
• 3rd run – lots of distractions – Judge waving her hands at the beginning, over enthusiastic leash runner, and then a young boy with a person sitting on the ground as part of the ring crew. I made a few handling mistakes but she stayed with me – with a bit of barking. https://youtu.be/ReNoaFz_scM

It’s interesting, as I re-watch these videos, the disconnects feel so much bigger when they happen but then when I watch them on the video they don’t seem as ‘big’ or ‘dramatic’ as I felt there were when they happened in the moment.

[mjohnston]

Video from today’s trial at Y2K9. https://youtu.be/9c6Sv_bi894
First run was Gamblers. Although I was trying to get her into peak performance mode by engaging her before the run, I didn’t think she was really there. Which showed in the beginning when she came off the DW and barked a bit. But she did come back to me and then once she got into it, she was fine.
The next two runs I just did NFC. On the second run, the first half had some really nice lines and lots of tunnels so I just ran with her. I tried to reward her after the wall jump be she really didn’t seem interested in the toy. Took a moment or two to get back on track and wrapped it up shortly thereafter. Oh! Also, while we were waiting for our turn, Raven was barking a bit (ie sound of the dog running through the tunnels). In the past, I would have tried to redirect her from barking but I remembered you saying that barking can help a dog increase their arousal level. She really did seem much more ‘on it’ at the start of this run and even held her dog walk and teeter contacts.
Last run, I wanted to work on her Aframe contacts a bit. Again, I didn’t feel like she was at a peak performance when we started but I was lucky that I was able to have her do two tunnels in a row to start. I was pleased that when she got distracted in the weaves (2:23), she stayed with me rather than running off to bark at whatever caught her attention.

[mjohnston]

Thanks. I’m good for now. When we speak next, I’d like to talk more about what I should do if/when she does that level of disconnect where she runs away from me to go bark at something. I tend to freeze up and it takes me a few seconds to decide what to do. Thanks!

[mjohnston]

Here’s a video from the 2nd day that shows the behavior that I’ve previously explained. https://youtu.be/Qm7VHK9gNcQ

A few thoughts. This was the 2nd day and there were a lot of distractions on the other side of the ring. It was much louder than the previous day. When this happened there was someone running on the other side yelling ‘Tunnel, Tunnel, Tunnel’. Also what we were working on was much more mentally challenging – it was a lot of distance work. So we had a lot more ‘mistakes’ than she likes. You can see at the beginning of the clip she disconnected a bit and then came back. We continued to work but once we made the mistake, I think she had reached her mental resilience limit! Again, I did get her back and we did continue to work without any other instances for about 2 more minutes. This was the middle run of the day. We had one more run and she was good on that one.

[mjohnston]

Great! I’ve marked the meeting time on my calendar.

Try the link to the 2nd video again. For some reason the viewing settings were not correct. You should be able to see it now.

Also, here is a 3rd video from today’s seminar at Bella Vista. I thought she did really well with the distractions. There were dogs working in the ring behind where we were and there was no fence between where the dogs were crated and the working area. I’ve cut down the video below to only show the handful of times that she got distracted by something. https://youtu.be/iVufMtLVUgg Overall, I was really pleased that she came back to me very easily and re-engaged.

[mjohnston]

Quick video of a sit on the plank with a bit of motion override. https://youtu.be/11DYveS7zKk

[mjohnston]

Here’s a supper quick video on the Zig Zag with 1 jump. Can you take a quick look and let me know if you think I have the setup correct (jumps at the correct distance). https://youtu.be/YiesEw9Cc5A

Thanks!

[mjohnston]

Thank you. yes, the jumps were about 4 feet apart. I’ll try them a bit closer. I’ve been playing around with the moving target reward game. I’ll work on the 2 jump game next. Thanks!

[mjohnston]

Great, thank you!

[mjohnston]

Here’s a quick video of our first attempt at the zig zag exercise on the flat. https://youtu.be/sFrtHhSvt0E

[mjohnston]

Here’s a video of Getting Organized/Tight Sit. Trying to find a ‘platform’ that works for her size. let me know what you think of this solution. https://youtu.be/9XAeEkXHzt0
Thank you.

[mjohnston]

Hi! One quick question, will there be a way for us to continue to work with you after the class is over? Thanks!

P.S. your vacation sounds amazing!!!!

[mjohnston]

Thanks! Re your question. I did not give her a treat after she came back to me. Here’s where I get confused on what is the right thing to do. Since she ran off, should I reward her for coming back to me? Or reward her after she does the sequence correctly?

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