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Hi! We went on a week-long vacation, so we missed a lot of package 3 and haven’t started 4 yet, but we are getting caught up! I was able to find some time to get some training in this last week, but I haven’t had time to also edit and post videos, so I have several to post. Please take your time to look at them all! (This post isn’t really about camp stuff, so I’m not expecting any feedback. 🙂 )
I actually did some agility on our vacation! Since I had Nox with me, I looked around online to see what opportunities were near us (as one logically does on a vacation, lol) and found Close Enough Farm. They were nice enough to invite us to play in their Agility League as FEO. That was really cool! I think she liked the dirt surface better than turf. I’ve included the video here just for fun. 🙂 (This was our 3rd and final attempt at the course.)
We also played UKI at Level Up last Sunday. Our first run was really nice until I decided I couldn’t make my blind (watching the video, I totally could have!), and then it got messy from there. Our 2nd run was much better (got our title!). We also did a jumpers run that was very nice. I tried to apply what I’ve been practicing in camp with connecting and finding the WoO. 🙂 She runs a lot slower at LUDS than on grass and at Quicksilver. She puts in lots of short strides before jumps. I think she’s unsure of the surface. I’ve included a video below of our 2nd speedstakes run for comparison of her striding (it’s evident in the first 3 jumps). She’s running 12″ select. I’m hoping with more experience on the surface she’ll get more confident.
Finishing up last week’s standard courses!
We did a full run through of both of Package 2’s standard courses today. I tried not to stop and fix things unless we needed to reset in order to be able to move on. Unlike other dogs I’ve run, I can’t just go past things a lot of times with her because she’s probably already facing me and yelling about my handling inadequacies, lol. I only had enough cookies on me to reward contacts for the purposes of trying to run it once. I had hoped we wouldn’t have too many of those problem spots, but at least they weren’t the same places we struggled with before I guess??
I had been working on digging a garden for two hours before I trained her (that’s been an adventure, haha). In hindsight, this may not have been the best idea, but I had to train her before it was too hot, but I also needed to wait until the ground was not soaking wet from the morning dew. This was the compromise.
Here’s Standard Course 2 (the training at the beginning was from yesterday; the run was from today).
Here is Standard Course 1 (we ran this after Course 2 this morning)
I took into consideration how many jumps were in our training today, which is one reason we didn’t try to run the whole thing again even though there is definitely room for improvement! The perfectionist in me is conflicted, lol!!
I completely felt myself pulling off that last jump. I didn’t redo it since I knew what happened and it was soooo hot! I’m ready for winter, haha! I can see how an outside arm would help with this situation. I’m going to have to start playing with that.
We did a short session on the layering EOS. She did really well, so we only did 3 minutes total on the whole session. The only thing I cut out was her struggling with the velcro on our new Lotus Ball, lol. Need to break it in!!
We are going on vacation for a week starting on Saturday. Nox will be coming with me, and I want to keep working on some camp skills (and puppy foundations class skills!). We are staying in a cabin at a state park, so I won’t have any equipment or safe off-leash space, but I thought I could do some things inside in a small space. Plus, she will need some games to work her brain so she doesn’t drive us all crazy, lol.
Do you think it would work to do the threadle wraps with a pop-up laundry hamper? I think it’s about 16″ wide (roundish-square). She wouldn’t be wrapping as tightly as with a wing, so I wasn’t sure if that would be a problem.
We’ll also work on the behind the back starts. I can see this being useful for a few different things even though we have a good start line already. Never hurts to learn something new!
*I always take several floor runners with me so we have a non-slippery surface to play on. 🙂
I like the TTFJ rule, lol. That sounds like a good thing to practice! My first two shelties seemed to come pre-programmed with that rule and saved me quite a bit!
Thank you for all this info!!
I don’t think there is a sports vet nearby unfortunately. I did take Nox to be evaluated by Dr. Chris Zink when she was about a year. She was very happy with her structure at the time. 🙂 I would love to have her looked at more often by a sports vet, but we would have to drive to find one. She does get regularly adjusted by a couple of different chiro vets, but I know that’s quite the same. I’m also interested in learning more about fitness exercises and programs, but there are so many online programs to choose from that it’s been a daunting task to decide on one!
Nox is just under 16″, so she is technically jumping over her shoulder height at 16. I think for now, I will run her in Select and Skilled for UKI and NADAC since they both seem similar in that you can switch back and forth and it doesn’t seem to make a difference which one you do. I’m still undecided about AKC. I would love to be able to take Nox to national level events one day (I think she has the potential), and it seems like being a preferred dog can make this more difficult. I wish AKC would allow you to switch without starting over like the other venues!!
Hi!
Here is the video from our session a couple days ago of Package 2-Standard Course 2, Round 1. I knew a couple spots would be tricky for us, so I started the session with those. It doesn’t quite go with the theme of camp, but I wasn’t sure how to handle the spots, and I wasn’t sure if Nox had the skills to do it. The first half of the video is the small pieces. They were a little rough (except the layering at the weave poles was good!). The video shows everything we did ahead of time and then the first of two attempts at the whole course. The problem spots were definitely in the big run still!!
Hmmm… I’ve never thought about it terms of the number of jumps in a session. I tend to think about the time and how the dog is working. I also try to be aware of how many weaves and contacts I ask for. I will have to keep this in mind when planning my sessions! Do you apply this idea even when using very low jumps (like 4 or 8 inches)?
I will look at my list again and just pick out a couple of small pieces from the courses I’ve already done that I want to work on. Then I can concentrate on the full walk through of the new course and hopefully nail it the first time! 🙂 I will limit the full course to 2 runs total or one run and work hard pieces even if we don’t get it the first time. I am going to try to count the number of jumps my plan involves beforehand. And not all of these things will be full height.
Thank you for your insight!! This might be the most valuable thing I’ve gotten out of CAMP so far…
Somewhat related question… Nox can jump 12″ in preferred, select, and skilled (NADAC). How do you decide if you want your dog to jump their full height or do the lower height classes? We have done very little trialing so far (still trying to get those contacts and work on her BIG feelings about all the things), so it would be easy for me to do either at this point. I will jump her at 12″ in NADAC because does not change anything about the titling system or champs. I’m not sure what the benefits are in AKC and UKI really. Any thoughts on this topic?
Although I didn’t run this course with Nox again yet, I went back to my training facility this weekend and found out that the course had been numbered wrong, lol. The owner of the place was nice enough to set it for me, and someone else numbered it. I should have looked at the course map again after seeing the opening, haha.
Goals for tomorrow night (when I go to the facility again):
Standard course 1: try correct opening, pull to the tunnel, jump after a-frame, try correct closing
Standard course 2: run it once (no fixing unless it’s a complete mess), choose 2-3 pieces to work on, run it one more time
Jumpers course 1: (starting at #7 tunnel) try blind and German on 10-12 section, try a throwback after the weaves, run it 1 time all together
Jumpers course 2: I don’t know yet!This should give us plenty to work on with only running 4 full courses. I really need to work on planning my sessions better and not just looking at success as a full perfect run. I think writing down the specific things ahead of time will help. I always get to the facility to train my dogs (Nox plus a friend’s dogs) a couple hours before the class I teach. Then she gets a nice long rest in the car (fans or AC) and then we usually work again before going home. It’s easier when the courses are in my yard since I can do more but shorter sessions. However, I wouldn’t get to as much stuff just at home. 🙂
Hi!
All that info about using the off-side arm was very helpful!! I am going to add this to my list of things I want to teach (myself and Nox). The video for teaching threadles was also awesome! Thank you for sharing that.
I’m LOVING camp (I think everyone who knows me has heard about it at least a few times, lol, even my non-dog friends who already think I’m nuts), but I now have this massive list of things I need to train. It’s sometimes hard to prioritize what to work on first!
I ran the 2nd jumpers course on Saturday since I had just submitted the video for the 1st run the day before and didn’t have the feedback yet. I will be doing round 2 for both courses tomorrow when I go back to the facility where I train. The video is a little longer than usual; I think watching the first 2 minutes and the last minute would give you a good picture. We really struggled with the wrap at 16(?) before the weaves. In hindsight, I did not use reward placement to help me at all in this situation. I wish I had thought to throw my Lotus Ball to the landing side of the jump to get her to drive towards it and then worked on the wrap from there. I also saw that my decel right before the jump was a big problem. Do you expect your veteran dogs to take a jump even if you stop like that, or do you expect them turn back and look at you like Nox? In other words, is this a training commitment issue that I need to work on, or is this just bad handling? (I know we need to work commitment A LOT, but I meant in this context specifically.)
Those jets may very well be the same ones!
I have never tried an outside arm for an out. Actually, I’ve never used an outside arm for anything! After watching your video about teaching threadles with an outside arm and seeing this comment here, I have a question. I was talking to a friend recently about using the outside arm. She is very successful with her dogs and does not use it. Her reasoning is that it causes too much handler focus and then it’s hard to switch them back to the line or next obstacle. What are your thoughts about this? I’m trying to figure out which technique and cue I want to teach Nox. 🙂
It’s funny you suggest the throwback there at the jump after the weaves. My friend I was training with, Nicole Davilli (not sure if you know her), said the same thing. I need to work on that skill. Again, I haven’t progressed very far with the puppy foundations self-study class now that camp has started, but is it safe to assume that the prop game helps teach this? She gets a bit sticky with the prop game after a couple of reps because she really dislikes countermotion!!
We are a little late on this one! This is from Package 1. Our main issues were with the threadle to the tunnel and with the German turn before the weaves. I have watched the videos you shared with me about how to teach threadles, but we haven’t had a chance to actually train it yet (too many things, not enough time!!). I think the German turn on the jump was just a matter of me figuring out the correct place and time to do it. I just learned that move a couple weeks ago on the first jumpers course, so it needs a bit more practice. 🙂 We ran this course last weekend and again on Tuesday (took me a while to get it edited and posted). Since then, you’ve told me about taking that extra step to get commitment, which was an issue a couple of times for us here.
My jumpers video finally finished processing, woo hoo!
This is Package 2 Jumpers Course 1, round 1. This was a super fun course! I think Nox did so well with the layering last night because we worked on it Tuesday in this course. We haven’t gotten to the layering EOS yet, but since the live class set up was so similar, I’ll probably set that next just to get some more practice, especially with balancing the skill of NOT taking the outside line (that requires less collection, lol!).
I had so much fun with the live class!! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I really enjoyed the format and the sequences. I’m so glad I got the opportunity to participate.
The opening was tricky at first because I had to figure out which side of jump 2 I wanted to be on. It felt good once we got it!
As far as decel goes, I Shays forget it’s a thing, lol. It’s a totally new concept to me to SLOW DOWN while running agility! It makes complete sense; I just forget to do it. Same with taking that extra step for commitment since I know I will be behind after that. I’ll keep working on both.
I’m not sure how independent her contacts are yet. I tried desperately to train a running contact with her, but this was also a new concept to me and I did not do well, haha. I took Trkman’s online class but I needed more guidance than that. (Maybe you want to teach one online in the future… 😀) we switched to stopped contacts and have been doing them for a month or so. She’s great if there’s a physical target on the ground, but if I take it away, she wants to creep and wait for me to go to the bottom with her. I’m not quite sure to fade the targets yet. I’m thinking of using clear targets and cutting them smaller and smaller until they pretty much disappear. I’ve never had the truly independent contacts that I want/need with Nox. My previous dogs have all been much slower! I will try releasing with motion with a lead out since she is stopping at the target, though. I don’t think it would translate without it right now.
For big lines with jumps, do you think a jump chute would help? I’ve been told I can try putting jumps in a line at varying distances (15-30 feet) and have her run that with me in different places and adding motion gradually. I’ve been told jump grids will help (I’m not very good at adjusting things in terms of spacing or troubleshooting when things don’t look right…), but I didn’t know if that would help with the big lines at full height since most grids are tighter and lower (at least what I’ve gotten to in Susan Salo’s book).
I’m working on editing a couple of other videos from a few days ago. That takes way longer than training and running them, lol.
