Friday, April 26, 2013

Baby Boy

So this is our 2nd or maybe 3rd week of Silvia's online foundation class.  This is the part that I love/hate (mostly hate) about these classes.  I think my boy is amazing and I hate to find out that he isn't perfect.  :(

Silvia says that he doesn't have any obstacle focus.  Sad, because it's true.  But I have been working on it and again that is what I hate about these classes.  Instead of us just having fun, it becomes work.
 


Silvia said he was just running as fast as my hand was going and wasn't seeking out the jumps himself. 



Cik/Cap or wrap




Just playing around with the tunnels.  We were sick of all the snow and bored.




"Weaving"  I don't know if he understands the weaves yet...

So Silvia said I should play the 2 ball game with Dhali.  Now I don't know what the 2 ball game exactly looks like, because I don't have her video (even though I have taken the foundation class 5 times...4 times $120 plus $220 for the first one...yeah I think I should get the video), but I watched a bunch of my classmates videos and I think I kind of figured it out.  2 balls and a tunnel and you get the dog to run chasing the ball and then recall through the tunnel to chase another ball.  This is supposed to teach obstacle focus.  Dhali thinks this game is ok, but "hey wouldn't it be more fun if you ran WITH me?!? Huh?  Wouldn't it?!?"

I'm not playing this game with him any more.  We both are not having any fun with it.  Dhali wants to tug and play with me and this game is just not for him.  I made a promise with Dhali that I wouldn't do things training-wise that I felt were 'wrong' for him.  I made that mistake with Tibby.  Someone can be an expert, but I know my own dog and I need to trust that.

I think time and experience and training and playing more agility.  PLAYING  more WITH me will give him obstacle focus.

He just needs experience.  I can see already this week that he is getting better about seeking out obstacles.  Even on that first video he was trying to find the jump to wrap - even if it was the far jump upright.  He doesn't know the rules! 

I've started him on the LM jump program thing too this week.  He will be a year old at the end of next month, so I think a little controlled jumping at a low height won't hurt him.



He is still a good, naughty boy.

3 comments:

Laura and The Corgi, Toller, & Duck said...

So he doesn't have a lot of obstacle focus, yet. What he does have is tons of joy for working and working with YOU. That is the magic piece of the puzzle that can take a lot of time for some teams. It's one that I'm still working hard at with Vito. Everything else is just a trick, one that can be taught at any time :)

Kiyi Kiyi said...

Thank you Laura! I would like to hug you :) LOL!

Diana said...

I think he was just excited for the toy in the first video. Plus it was hard as heck for you to run in the snow to show him where to go. Plus he wasn't rewarded enough with the toy , which I understand because he wasn't doing what you wanted, but this made him just want to get the toy more and loose focus. So if that happens , forget the sequence and get him to do one easy thing right so you can reward. Like just send to the tunnel and reward. But really ,I think the deep snow was the problem.