[Christina Wessel]

Hello!
I tried out the wobble game – since he needs enough space to do a down, I used two fit paws underneath my plank. So, not exactly a wobble board, but it definitely offered some instability. I was not exactly strict with following protocol on this (I should have printed off the field guide first!), so I definitely had too much arc/motion at first and he didn’t always get his hind feet on. But as I gave him a more straight approach, I thought he was doing a good job of dropping into his down, with a few extra nice reps where he was sliding into home base. I know he still needs some core work, but more and more it looks like he’s fading that nose dive prior to dropping. Still need to focus forward…need to write down my notes BEFORE I play one of these end games next time to make sure I isolate that a bit more.

Thanks!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hi Tracy, As you were looking at my last video, I was outside enjoying the gorgeous weather and playing with 2x2s 🙂 But I think we were right in line with next steps. He is doing great and had zero questions on this session! New place for him to do this – and his very first time in the front yard since the snow melted, so there was a little “hey, what’s that smell?” going on.

I did NOT edit the video, so you get the session in all it’s glory (including MM malfunctions) 😉

Christina

[Christina Wessel]

By George, I think he’s got it! We did channel weaves at TCOTC last night where he’s had the most trouble with one side entry. I had the MM out ahead and he was doing super good with all varieties of entries. He had a few misses in the session, but they were really tough ones (mean Momma!) and was able to figure it out right away. And I did remember your advice to give him an easy rep after a crappy click and that avoided a repeat behavior. 🙂 I keep throwing threadles in sessions for fun too.

Next steps for now is just to keep doing angles and motion on this? And for 2x2s working angles and motion as it moves to “straight”?

Thank you!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hello!
Thanks for the suggestions on building core strength. I signed up for a Bobbie Lyons foundation fitness class last year so I have some good exercises to work on. And we’ve noticed that he’s growing a bit more recently – finally visibly bigger than his sisters! So, I’m sure that’s playing into it as well.

Over the last two days we did a little more teeter work.

Back to the wonky teeter to do more mountain climbers and added more tip there. He seems totally cool with it and rear crosses don’t seem to phase him anymore. There were also a few nice moments of focus forward when I was behind. Just add more tip with this one?

And then did some downhill today at TCOTC. On this he also seem fine with more tip here – and even does a little more moving into the down position. I played a little with focus forward (needs more plank work) and also threw in some toy rewards at the end.

I have looked through the new exercises a bit – but I think I need to watch the videos to fully grasp them 🙂 For the Mountain and downhill – is it basically just keep adding trip for this round? That is PLENTY to work on for that – I just want to make sure I’m not missing a nuance. I know the end position games are definitely bring some changes – so that will be fun!

Thank you!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hi Tracy!
We did channel weaves in the basement last night and he wasn’t showing the same trouble making that entry. He had a few other questions along the way, but worked through them 🙂 My clicking was sometimes a little early (at first intentionally to reward the “hard” entry, but then I was just a little click happy). So, I don’t know if the 2×2 work has helped him figure it out…or if it’s the limited space so it keeps me from adding distance. It will be interesting to try this at TCOTC again with those channel weaves to see if the success he was having here with that entry carries over to that space. I think I’ll have a chance to do that on Wednesday. So, a day off from weaves today!!

Christina

[Christina Wessel]

AHHHHH! When you swear you posted something – but somehow you didn’t 🙁

Can’t remember all the brilliant things I said in my original post…but here is us finally getting back to end position. I changed the set-up so it was a little higher and more unstable than the fit bone, so it did take him a little to figure out the height. But I thought he had some good reps – and much better focus forward. I switched to a toy at the end and his little puppy brain went “poof!” for a bit. But it was a good change of pace and I’ll have to do that a bit more with the full size teeter (although probably not on mountain climbers since I don’t want him to fly off the end!).

Hey, any suggestions where to get a rubber surface for a teeter? I think my wooden plank at home is just too slippery and had thought about one of the skins from clean run. A little pricey…but then again I only paid $50 for the teeter…so not bad in the end.

Thanks!
Christina

Thanks!

[Christina Wessel]

Hi there!
I think 2x2s went really well yesterday! I really worked that tough side entry and he was having lots of success and nice turns. I even got it to “straight” 🙂 I balanced with a few entries from the other side, but really focused on the one issue. We’ll see how this translates next time we do channels. I might break my channels into 4 poles like at TCOTC to practice this a little in the basement. I’ll also be less tempted to add too much distance down there since there isn’t space 😉

It’s so interesting to train both of these methods at the same time and see how they create different questions for the dogs!

I was thinking of trying the tunnel discrimination challenge with him this week. He seems to be pretty strong on the 2x2s – and a little slower along on the channels. No big deal – I’m sure that will click for him soon!

Thanks!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Thanks for the feedback Tracy – I think the information on the timing of the clicking makes sense to me 😉 especially once we start adding more 2x2s and he has tougher choices to make! I will pay more attention to my timing on these.

We did channels again today and he’s awesome entering from the left – added movement for that. And I think I have my “clicking” down right with those.

But he’s still working through issues from the right side. So, will shift back to the 2x2s to help him figure that out 😉 But just to get it straight in my head – should I be adding MORE angle with the 2×2 so that it looks more like the entry to the channels? And when you said to try it “straight” – does that mean 12 and 6 – like actual weaves? Sorry…getting the lingo down while doing both tracks is taking a little more brain power than I have these days!!

Thanks!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Thanks! I can totally pull out the fit bone and do some practice on this. Much easier than a teeter 🙂

Today I tried out the downhill option by switching around the table/Teach It as you suggested. It was a little awkward getting him on, so I just did a random mix of me running past, running with, him running ahead (I was waiting for some focus forward on that one). He is offering to drop into a down pretty quick on this! I added more drop a couple times and he can’t gather the same speed as he can on the mountain climbers, but I also haven’t noticed any tip hesitation 🙂

Thanks!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hello!
So, I think I understood your suggestion for working on his right side issue. We’ll see what you think 😉

I did a basement session to focus on that with 2x2s and he was perfect. Then we went to my friends space and I started with just clicker and tossed treats…then went on from there to work other challenges. And I think I got the threadles right this time – helps to watch the demo video!

I think my next training session will be with channels again…so we’ll see if this 2×2 work has helped him think through the pole issue. 🙂

Presto went to his first seminar tonight – a jump grid one with Jacquelyn Hoye at OTR. He was super fabulous! Like at the trial last weekend, excited by the environment, but 100% able to focus and do the work. He quickly realized the ring was where the good stuff was and kept demanding to go through the gate 😉 Other than being a brat in his crate this time, I couldn’t have asked for more from a 13 month old boy!

Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hello!
We did some backing up end game yesterday, but didn’t get a chance to edit video until tonight. I added some more tip, a little more distance. Dude is still very barky on this exercise. I guess the hardest part for him is just staying straight. If he gets a little wonky barking at me, then he sometimes gives up and just spins to jump onto the board. Which is funny, because if I walk out of a room and he is waiting there, he will freely offer backing down hallways and around corners just to keep his eye on me!! It’s one of his quirkiest behaviors. But he seemed to be fine giving the little extra effort to back up when I added more tip.

Thanks!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hello (again, since I just posted the weave video),
Mountain climbers are so much fun. I can’t see him show any doubts on this – whether it is a different teeter, adding more drop, or any of my handling – he just loves driving to the “easy cheese”! I started with a small drop since he hasn’t played this game on this teeter…but added more drop a couple times during the session. I didn’t run every single challenge, but tried to do a variety of sending, running by, and more speed with the wing. I did notice I mostly ran on one side of the teeter – so I’ll pay more attention to balance in future sessions. AND I started using the wrong cues for wraps. Ugh. I think I need more sleep. Any advice and how quickly to add drop? I’m not in a rush, but also happy to move along. Although I may not get back to this game until later this weekend…need to go back to the end position games!

I was going to work one of the end position games, but didn’t feel like setting it up, so we just did some fun sequences instead. Since I have had so much focus on teeter, weaves, and dog walk the last few weeks, there hasn’t been as much balance in his training. But we did a couple little runs and it was SO much fun!! I’ll share with you just for smiles 🙂

Thank you!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Hello!
So glad I got your feedback before I left this evening – because I would have probably used 8 poles for the channels. But I’m really glad I just used 4 – it was enough of a challenge! Overall, our session at TCOTC with the different channels went well. He was practically running over the MM, so I was able to move it all the way out almost right away. I thought he had a few questions along the way, then made some really nice choices and was working to stay in (I laughed when I thought of your line “big moment in sports history”). TCOTC also started a day train option, and unfortunately there was a little barky dog on the other side of the door for part of our session – he seems to be developing a call and response relationship with little barky dogs 🙁

Anyhow, when I switched directions, he had his biggest struggle with entering from my right. I softened the angle and he had success and I was able to get a little more angle back. But not all the way. If weather gets as nice as it promises (upper 50s sounds awesome!), I hope to try this exercise on Saturday with my channels outside. I think he needs at least another session of just angles and no motion, maybe more.

But he really throws himself in to this task. Thanks to a friend, discovered Stella & Chewy’s baked chicken kibble for small dogs coated in a dusting of raw – which was today’s MM crack.

Thank you!
Christina

[Christina Wessel]

Good morning!
Introduced Presto to the channels yesterday. Entering on my right he was initially confused and kept wanting to wrap around the pole. But as the MM got further into the channel, he figured it out. We’ll be at TCOTC tonight so I’m going to try their channel weaves – definitely different and are in set of 4, so it will be 8 poles. I’m thinking that if picks those up quickly, I’ll start working on some sends.

I don’t think I can do many more sessions in my basement – the surface is already looking too slippery for him. 🙁

And we did a little more with 2x2s outside. I added in movement, some awkward threadles (I hadn’t actually watched that video yet) and added some angle. There was only one position where he had some questions. But he was so cute when he got it right 😉

Thanks,
Christina

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Christina Wessel.

[Christina Wessel]

Hi there! I had a chance to train at my friend’s place AND pulled out my own teeter for the first time, so I did do three games. But none were back to back – I did some stuff in between when I was inside.

Mountain climbers. I started off with the sends and rear crosses with no tip – and today it didn’t seem to phase him a bit. So I added some tip and started going through the series of challenges. I stopped before doing too much wing work because that seemed like plenty of reps at that point. But he does not seem to mind the rattle of the teeter at all. I think next time I’ll be doing this one on the TCOTC teeter on Wednesday.

Teeter bang game. I haven’t played this game yet, so started at the beginning. The sound/motion is not an issue and he seems to be working out his body position. He was doing some looking back at me – but I didn’t want to use the MM because it seemed the point was for us to deliver the treat in the end position. But let me know if I should do anything different 🙂

And, finally, table/teeter on my teeter. Kind of rattly like my friends’ 🙂 I think it needs some new screws and I also need to make the table surface less slippery. It has grit…but I think Presto’s wet paws were making the surface more slick. I started with just a little drop like last session, but was able to add more drop. And at the end, added just a little bit more.

Temps tomorrow may near 70!!! But then it’s back into the low 40s for awhile.

Hope you have some nice days coming too!
Christina

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