[Christina Wessel]

Hello 🙂
We got one day of weaves in last Wednesday and just getting the video up now – if you read the teeter stuff first, you’ll know why 😉

I did a morning and evening session. We had a few missed entries – mostly I think because I added too much speed too quickly. I narrowed the weaves to 2″ and also started adding his actual weave cue. I probably did a few too many reps in the afternoon – but I knew he would get four days off 😉

Oh, I also included a video of Nikko doing her weaves (open at 2″ too), since I’ve mentioned hers. I think a key to her speed might be how she lowers her head to drive through. Sole has solid quick weaves, but she keeps a more upright posture that probably adds half a second or so.

Overall, I think he’s adjusting quickly to the decrease in pole width, but still just figuring out how to gather for entries, especially with angles and movement.

Seems like some more work at 2″ is the right next step?

Thanks!!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Good morning!
Holy smokes, I haven’t posted in what feels like AGES! We also have had limited opportunity to train with schedule and weather. But hopefully that’s a good brain break. I did do a few sessions of training last week but then we were up at our cabin, so I have been slow to pull it together and post. I will likely not have too much chance to do teeter this week either because we are headed to visit my parents.

So, we did some more fade the target on the plank. I was also moving the reward frisbee out a bit to also work on fading that.

The next day, I did a session of bang game and elevator game. For these, I also use a smaller target and was working on moving the frisbee out further and not preloading it.

The bang game went well. On the elevator game, he was having a bit more problems with focus forward, but I think you had said that as long as he is focused forward as he goes into position, it’s not such a problem if he checks in with me afterwards.

So, I feel Like I’m a bit stagnant on the teeter stuff. But, that may just be me feeling a little impatience 😉 If I only have a chance to work on the teeter once this week – what would you recommend we focus on?

Thanks!!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hi Tracy!

We did another session (well, two, short sessions) with the weaves still at 2.5 inches. I added movement and also added some angles, but then I read the stuff about not adding too many challenges at this stage so we can focus at bit more on confidence and speed. So in the afternoon I mostly stuck with just speed/distance. He was really great. I also dragged my husband out to video from the side because I thought it would be cool to see it from two perspectives – and it was!

I thought he actually showed even a little improvement just from the morning to the afternoon session. I used the MM to keep his focus forward, except for the very last rep where I tossed a lotus ball just to change itup.

I guess this is the point where I can also start using my real weave command? And next time we train is it ok to change up the middle poles? And he’ll definitely get tomorrow off 🙂

Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Oh wow! Today was the day…we have footwork!

This morning I did a session with my channels set at 2.5″. We did a few reps and I noticed he was doing poles 1-4 and then popping out. Then I remembered we had done only 4 poles at 3″ at TCOTC. So, I reset the poles so that the first 4 stayed at 2.5″ and the new poles 5 & 6 were set to 3″. Bingo – he figured it out right away. I did several reps trying a few angles and adding some motion. Then we stopped. After dinner (like 8 hours later) I set all six poles to 2.5″ and allowed myself just four reps and used a thrown toy instead of the MM. And he got it right away 🙂 At this point, he is definitely choosing to swim/stride! The first three reps looked super nice and consistent, although I noticed by the 4th rep his striding was getting a little sloppy (feet landing on the weave bars instead of the grass). So, could be some fatigue…hopefully its not a sign of what I sometimes see where dogs just plow through and bash the poles with their shoulders.

Thanks! Looks like you are enjoying time with family? Such a treasure these days! I am super excited to see my parents at the end of the month 🙂

Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hello Tracy!
Had a lot of fun playing teeter games with my barky boy yesterday and today 😉 Yesterday we went back and played bang game since we haven’t done that in awhile. I’m fading the target a bit in games since I don’t think he needs that big strip of yoga mat anymore. He was jumping up nicely and getting into position easily. Is this a game we should be continuing with and add more tip. I’ll need to stop being lazy using a chair and start pulling out the teach it. 😉

I was going through all the games packages this morning and realized there was one I had been planning to do and completely forgot when the weather turned bad – the instability/weight shift. So I tried that today using a fitbone for the end since he has practiced stand/down on that quite a bit. I taped the end target to it, although I think he thought that was just weird 😉 This video is kind of long because while I did edit it, I left more of the set up stuff in. He really was starting to figure out how to get into a nice down despite the unstable surface.

Thanks for all your help and feedback!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hi Tracy!
We sure had fun with weaves! I did one session yesterday with channels at TCOTC where I closed the poles to just 3 inches. I thought I’d see more footwork with that, but while we were doing the training I didn’t notice it – I thought that skinny little dude was still just slipping through. However, in watching the video straight on, I did notice there was a little bit of footwork starting. So, I probably did too many reps. 🙁 So, I was thinking tightening it maybe another 1/2 inch and limiting reps? But he was doing super good with the challenges, just that one entry. It’s funny that on channels, entering from one side is hard, but on 2x2s, it’s the other side he has issues with.

Speaking of 2x2s, I did a session of that with him this afternoon. And, I think I counted 15 reps (with a few of them being misses). Probably still too much 🙁 But that was a super fun session. I think it was just cool being able to run and tossing the ball (instead of just clicking a MM) and also just watching him drive to the poles and do so many nice entries. And maybe just playing outside for the first time after the snow 🙂 Anyhow, I think we still need to keep this set up and keep playing with challenges, especially that straighter entry?

No weaving tomorrow! Although, if I did 12 channels fully open, we are allowed to work other challenges, right? 🙂

Thanks!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am actually tearing up right now – from relief. Because while part of me was saying barking is not ok, another part of me was saying, why do you think that? What is actually wrong here? And as I mentioned, I totally allow it with Nikko. She screams on the start line, she screams in her weaves, she screams if the first obstacle is a tunnel, and as she has gotten older she screams more and more and people can hear her outside the building. And I laugh and call her my screamin’ demon. I know she is super happy when she is screaming. When she is quiet I am worried.

I could totally see how I was making both of us more and more frustrated by trying to extinguish the barking. And I think it’s just perceived peer pressure (which could have been a vicious cycle of me saying it’s a problem, so others supported my concerns, so then I felt it definitely was a problem). I think what will help ME in the future is to clarify with an instructor or training partner that barking is fine as long as he meets his start line criteria. If I set the expectation, then I can change that cycle.

Again, I just really appreciate the much needed perspective on this. He is such a happy, biddable, focused, hard working boy – I knew I had to make peace with this element of his personality now before I risked hurting our relationship and his joy for work.

Thank you!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hi Tracy,
Um, so this is not directly teeter or weave related…barky, barky dog. This is a new issue for me to face with Presto, and I know I’ve joked about it before, but now that we are working in classes and start lines are becoming very important, I feel like I’m at a cross roads. So, I hope its ok if I ask for your advice/insights now rather than waiting for it to be a HUGE problem I bring to you in the summer camp (signed up for the working spot yesterday!) 😉

I know Presto has always been a frustration barker since he was 7 weeks old. I would far prefer a dog that never barks, but I also realize that Nikko is a screamer and I largely tolerate her screaming as excitement and only discourage it when its clear that she is so overworked she is no longer thinking. When we are just training, I can deal with and work through the barking.

But start lines are where I’m struggling to figure out where to draw the line. I would say that he barks roughly half the time. Currently, if he starts barking then action stops. At a minimum, I stop leading out and sometimes return to him and then perhaps do some little games for rewards and reset his start line. But, if I come back, he often keeps barking and barks right out of his sit. I have also played a bit with ASKING for a cued bark before I start my lead out (which I’m calling “ping” – as in “one ping only” from Hunt for Red October, which makes me a super geek). I can’t say that I’ve seen these strategies help consistently. In the end, I don’t like him barking at the start line. I would like to stop that behavior. BUT, I also need to recognize he is who he is and at least ask the question whether his barking at the start line is a problem when it comes to his performance. Is it potentially his way of saying he is ready to play? And, if he is barking because he is frustrated and excited to get going, I am wondering if all that control behavior on my part is just leading to MORE frustration. 🙁

Did you hear any question in there 😉 What I’m asking myself is whether or not I should accept some barking, if so, what is ok and how do you draw the line? If no barking, how do I discourage this behavior without adding more frustration. I did pull together some video of class today where he had a couple barky start lines and one that wasn’t and included the “set up” for context so you can see what’s happening.

On the good side, he does NOT bark when he runs – only while waiting to start.

Again, I hope it isn’t out of line to ask this here. I’m just really in super new this particular issue and would so appreciate any insights you may have 🙂

Christina

[Christina Wessel]

YAY! CHRISTINA UNLEASHED!!! Can’t wait 😉

[Christina Wessel]

Hi Tracy!
3 INCHES!! Woohoo! Can’t wait to try that – but guess I’ll have to wait for the snow to melt. 🙁 But when it comes to challenges with the poles wide open, I’m also thinking about dragging my husband out as a distraction and setting up the poles to weave towards walls/shrubbery, etc. 😉

So I could do 2x2s at my friend’s place – I pretty much stuck with the challenges we were working through in the last 2×2 session. Other than one rep where I had too much movement (no surprise Katarina made me sit in a chair during early dog walk work), he was doing great finding entries. And you could also really see him doing a bit of weaving footwork. He was 100% finding that straight entry with me stationary, so I think next time I could add some slow motion.

Thanks!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hi! Shoot – now that you loaded more games I am ANOTHER package behind!! I need a magical extra day in the week to just watch your videos.

But, I figured the path I was already on was worth continuing. So, this morning I did more fade the target on the plank and in the afternoon we did the elevator game. Presto was really into both games today!

For fade the target I hopefully followed all your good advice. I have dropped taping the strip of yoga mat as the target and now I’m just using some blue painters tape. Works fine for him! I started with a pretty small target, then got so focused on the different challenges that I realized I should remember to make the target smaller. It’s a little funny – there are a couple of reps near the end where as Presto goes down he’s like, “what the heck is this blue dot?” But he was doing some really nice slides into home, even though the board was slipping around a bit. And he had nice focus forward too. I was super happy with him.

And we did the elevator game on the different teeter – and I kind of started to fade the target here too by just putting some painters tape on the teeter. I adjusted the mechanics as you suggested (once again, hope I remembered everything!) and your advice about not encouraging the stopping makes total sense. At first I used cream cheese balls that were thawing too fast – so that was awkward since one hand was reserved for treats. It felt a little smoother once I switched to some pre-placed turkey hot dogs so I could use both hands for the mechanics (although he was not a super fan of the collar holding). But there were a couple nice reps in there where he dropped before the teeter hit. I feel like another round of this with a little more height and pre-placed treats?

Oh – and I’m excited because I should be able to make the zoom call – I finish teaching at 6:45 so hopefully at least I can jump on by phone to start 🙂

Thanks!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hi Tracy!
I did finally work the fade the target game this morning. 🙂 I’m trying to mindful of getting more focus forward in any end position stuff – not releasing when he looks at me. I used the frisbee again as a visual target. I was just adding yellow tape over the blue to “fade” it – although next time I will likely use a smaller target to begin with. I think we are making good progress on this too – but definitely appreciate your advice to keep us on the right track! 🙂

And at TCOTC we played the elevator game. Yikes. This was a challenge like last time. I was careful to hold the board and use the count down. But he really did NOT want to stay standing while I counted down – he just wanted to drop right where he was. I did have a few reps where I could get him to stay by feeding him constantly that are in the video, but then he was super focused on my hand rather than the end position. I just felt like we weren’t really achieving the purpose of the exercise. So, then I switched to having him sit a little further up so that he had enough board to move into a fully standing position and then drop into his down. Hopefully I didn’t go too rogue – but it seemed to help a lot. He got super focused and excited about moving into the down position while I counted down. He started having some butt in the air issues – but I think he’ll stop that with another session or two. Otherwise, I was really happy with how he was moving into his down with the motion. I add a little height to the drop once during the session.

Thank you!!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hi!
We played with channels today 🙂 I started closing them a bit – I decreased the width by a finger at home. I measured the poles as 4″ from the center position and used 6 pole set at home. I used a toy for a reward at home and didn’t click or really even use a marker word and he drove straight through nicely. I started adding some challenges and I was careful to limit my reps. Plus, the cheese flew out of the treat ball every single time, so he also got a break as we both searched for all the cheese in the grass – the velcro is a little old 😉

Then this afternoon we played again at TCOTC and there I used just the four poles, but also measured them so the poles were 4″ out from center. He was doing so well I decided to throw in a few challenges with the wing for something different. 🙂

Thank you!!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Thanks Tracy – I really appreciate your explanation of working that straight entry. It should probably have been more obvious to me – I see plenty of fast dogs that fail to collect when driving into the weaves and just can’t stay in. So, taking the time at this point to get Presto to think through how to collect and enter has so much value. Patience, patience 🙂

Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hi Tracy! My plans to work on teeter today were thwarted by the cleaning guy vacuuming the back – also where the channel weaves were. So, instead we did another 2×2 session. Fortunately, I had written down next steps and I think this session went much more to plan. I was super pleased.

I changed to using a “yes” and tossed rewards (no clicker). That did seem to improve his rate of looking forward. And he was doing great on right side entries so I got much closer to 12 & 6 (maybe 12:30 and 6:30) and added some angles and motion and he was 100%.

After the right side we took a break and did some other stuff. When we came back on the left side 1 and 2 were straight and I started adding a little angle to poles 3 & 4. Again, he was great with all the challenges – except an essentially straight entry with too much motion. When I slowed down, he had more focus and remembered to get the pole 🙂

Overall, though, I think I did way too many reps even if this isn’t real weaving yet! I think I need to give myself a certain number of treats or set a timer on my watch to make sure I don’t overdo it 🙂

Thank you!
Christina

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