What I said,
"Let’s see….we are working on motivation, so getting Tibby excited. Seems to be working ok. Except that my neighbors have been setting off fireworks ALL day long for the last week. During the day and during the night. Just when I get Tibby excited to play, they will set some more off. She isn’t scared, but they make her nervous and she wants to go inside. Tonight she did pretty well and would play with me even with the fireworks going off, but she was subdued.
I need to work a lot on my handling. I walk around and try to figure out how to direct Tibby. Probably I do more practicing by myself than with Tibby!
And it is so HOT here. Bleh. We have been doing cik/cap inside, but there isn’t a lot of room to run around."
What Silvia said,
"Did you try to use zoomies to your advantage, to call, run and have her run with you? That would be great, to use that speed and joy for running for agility. If she doesn’t like restraining, you don’t need to do it. However, one thing you need to pay attention to is to keep her at the same side. The goal of the tunnel exercise is to practise front crosses and shoulder pulls: see my reply to Eva with Darwin. Also on wraps, always do a front cross and then run away, but have her run after you on the same side as you take off, watching her all the time. For now, you just take off and then after a while check back with her where she is… You need to know all the time where she is and keep her on the same side all the time other than when doing a front cross. I know it can be hard, but do check the videos, for example from Alicia, Diane etc. and then practise it on your own, without Tibby, but all the time imagining where she is and how she is reacting to one or another move."
Edited 7/10/11 TO ADD:
The conversation continues - I said, " Yes I’ve tried running with her when she is zooming. Sometimes we just play and that is her favorite way to play. But how do I channel that into doing the excersises? She wants to run around away from me not with me.
I have watched almost every video, but I don’t think I understand what I am seeing. And yes I am practicing by myself, but I must not be getting it."
A classmate said, "Hi Catalina, Maybe when she does zoomies run around with her make funny noises or “gogo!” chase her, then run away and see if she’ll chase you, then throw a toy or treat. Just experiment, all you want is to be included in the game and running.When you watch the videos, watch what the person does, don’t watch the dog at all, the front cross is like a dancestep. I hope this helps. I know it is very difficult trying to do all those new things and watch your dog at the same time
"Silvia said, "Would she run away from you into the tunnel?
Try to rehearse the moves as you watch the video. If you see a person has a dog on left side, take Tibby’s toy in your left hand, imagining it’s Tibby and put it from one hand to another as people change the dog from one side to another. Once you have it with a toy, go out and try with Tibby AND the toy, changing the toy as you did when watching videos and having Tibby follow the toy and change from one hand to another just as you are changing the toy."I said, "At 3:33 that was my attempt at a shoulder pull."
Silvia said, "Yeap, that was a good one!!! Now let’s try also a front cross and then just stick with those two moves, that’s all we need for now!"
