Dhali Driving

LOL!  Dhali 'driving' - driving to and away  from the jumps :)



Silvia thought he was doing much better having better obstacle focus and sending away from me.

I think he has gotten even better this last week.  Tomorrow if it isn't raining again we will video .




Dhali running on the carpet.  He is very good at this, but not so great at running on a flat board.  I'm not sure (still) what I want to do with his contacts.  I want running, but it will take a lot of work, because he is fast and I am slow :)

We have been playing around with 2 jumps and tunnel in between them.  I think it made the lightbulb go on in Dhali's brain - he was sending beautifully to the jump the last time we played.

Tibby is doing very good.  She is very relaxed and loves the warmer weather, but not when it's too hot ;)  Sometimes after I have played with Dhali, I bring her out to see what she wants to do.  She likes heeling for hotdogs outside - which is a major improvement for her.  Before she was too afraid/distracted by everything to do anything and would just run back inside.  I have to be careful not to get too close to the agility equipment when we are heeling or she will offer going through the tunnel or wrapping the jumps - she has a strong foundation!  :)

All The Things

All the things that are happening!  I'm sure I will forget a few.....

Video from last Friday's puppy class, that I forgot to post, oops!

It's a long video, so I'm sure no one is going to watch it, but if you did watch it......you would see - Dhali being a super star puppy!  Sure there were times when he was distracted, but 90% of the time he was paying attention and when I ASKED him to do something, he did it every time.

There were all new puppies in the class again.
There was a class of big dogs running and banging a full height teeter right next to our ring.  It was VERY loud.  Lots of barking and running and people yelling.  Dhali did just fine with all of that.

He wanted to sniff the other dogs, but he wasn't obsessive about it.  He was even able to choose me (and my treats) when another dog came right up to him.  Some people need to have dog space lessons!  Especially children that weigh less than their dogs.  If I'm trying to block your dog from my dog - maybe you should reel your dog in.

He did a tire for the first time - I'm pretty sure it was the first time....

He played with me.  It looks weird in the video, but yes we are playing - I'm not beating him up!

He chased his treats.  This is so he would chase after me and reward him in motion/ make it a game/ect.

He was a good little 9 month old (intact) male puppy.

Speaking of intact.....Dhali gets the snip tomorrow.  I'm kind of sad about it :(

First of all I'm nervous about the surgery.  Second of all, what if not having his jinglejangle makes him not as playful and wild and crazy.  I like the crazy!

But it has to be done.  He still has one stupid retained baby tooth and he has to get that out eventually and he has to be neutered eventually.  I have no idea what he's going to act like after the surgery - cone of shame?  Ha!  Dhali would have that off in 2 seconds.  I made Tibby wear a shirt after her spay, but I don't think that would stop the D-Man.

In other more news.....I signed us up for Silvia Trkman's foundation class.  It was a great class for Tibby and I think it will actually be fun to take it with Dhali.  As long as he doesn't change after the neuter!  Tibby has great agility skills, but doesn't want to show them off.  I hope Dhali will learn great skills and want to show them off every where!

In even more, more news....we were able to sign up for the class because I sold some treats in our shop on Etsy.  Want to buy some treats?!?  Click on that box on the right that says Etsy!  I've gotten a lot of good feedback about them.  I have asked a fellow blogger to review the treats - Helen I am sending them!  I just had to wait for more organic turkey gizzards to get 'harvested'.

Well, I think that is it.  I'm making a video of Dhali playing tonight -  nut version.  And then making another in a couple weeks - nut free.  We will see if there is a difference.

Dhal-baby

I have been wanting to post this all week, but I couldn't find the time. Here is Dhali being totally awesome and a smart fun puppy on Monday! This video makes me soooo happy! He can do a tunnel!  He really knows what I want too.  And only in a few easy training sessions!  :)  P.S. Look at me throwing a leash like a real agility person LOL!  I watched people doing that on Sat. and couldn't resist doing it myself.  It's fun!  P.P.S.  I got some nice deep holes in my arms/hands from our play session.  You can hear me say that we need a toy.  Uh, yeah!  I'm getting eaten!  But I try not to show it, because I don't want Dhali to stop playing.

Yesterday we had a not so great training day, but today he is back to acting like he did in this video. Play, play, play! I think the difference may be the amount of Tibby time he gets. So restrictions are in place. They get to play, but Dhali has to be willing to come to me if I call while he is playing. No come = tied to mommy for a while. Fun for both of us LOL!

Yesterday he was willing to do heeling, ride his skateboard, balance on a ball in front of a busy store. However, later when we went to a park he blew me off - wouldn't come/didn't want to tug. The park was empty. Weird little guy. He might have been too hot....but then again today it was hotter and he was playing like crazy at home. Not sure. Just have to keep on trying different things.

Today I was very happy when we were playing in the living room after a breakfast clicker session, Tibby was resting on her dog bed and Dhali was able to ignore her. We worked our way across the room until we were right next to her and he kept playing with me. He tried to go see her a couple times, but thanks to Mr. Always present Leash he quickly redirected back to playing with me. We will keep working on this every day.

Teeter Tippy

This video is a little bit old, but our agility activities have been few this past week.  The video is sped up, because it was kind of boring to watch - cute, but boring.  I showed it to Silvia and she said it didn't look too bad -

"It actually looks pretty good to me, especially those after 1:30 yes! But sure, it can’t hurt if you do some jumping on the end to ride it down again to make the end even more fun. It’s not unusual that they can’t hold the position on their fastest tries… I have to admit that with my dogs, since fast is always my major goal , I mostly relax the criteria some for the sake of speed and then revisit it again if I start to get fly-offs."

So I did a few sessions with the teeter lowered flat on the ground, then I changed my mind and put it up to full height (which is very high, I don't blame dogs for questioning our sanity when we ask them to run up it) and I am having her run up the teeter for cheese smushed on the end and then taking her off - we do that 5 times a day.

I'm hoping that this will make her run to the end of the teeter and then ride it down, but I'm thinking that Tibby might have other ideas.  Oh, well it's an easy and fun thing to play at. 

Ann Braue Foundation Seminar

We finally made it home today!  It was a fun vacation, but it's nice to be home.  It rained every day EXCEPT Sat. when I was inside a windowless building.   It was a perfect day on Sat.  Tibby and I took long potty breaks, just to enjoy the nice weather.

Yeah, so we went to an Ann Braue foundation seminar on Sat.

We took the long (and often) potty breaks to both enjoy the beautiful weather outside and also, because I didn't want Tibby to be the first dog to have an accident on Ann's carpet!  She has a really nice training place.  She gives a good seminar too.  I really liked her style of teaching, the way she explained things and how she took time with each team.  A lot of the things she said reminded me of Loretta! :)

Tibby was a good girl in a very distracting environment.  Of course, no surprise, but our weakest link is having her stay with me and not run around by herself.  She wasn't the only dog that had trouble with that though!  Her best working session was (surprisingly) the last one of the day.  The seminar was from 9am - almost 5pm.  She had her best session at the end of the day, because she finally relaxed in her crate and TOOK A NAP!!  Yes, that was the sound of hell freezing over :P

I had her crate set up like this - with the top open, so she could see me and not freak out, bark ect.  She whined and moved around pretty restlessly, but she was also quiet for some of the time.  Ann had her dog Scream out to demonstrate some things and then he sat on his red steps, which were only a few feet from Tibby's crate.  Scream likes to whine a little bit too and Tibby would settle down and then Scream would whine a little and Tibby would start up doing her own whining again.  So one of Ann's helpers told me to cover Tibby's crate completely.  I was nervous that Tibby would bark and I would have to take her out, but it turned out to be really good advice.  She still whined, but I was able to concentrate on the seminar a lot more AND eventually she calmed down and slept.  Which she really needed.  Little babies always do better after a nap! 

I can't post the video from the seminar - we all had to sign a contract that said we wouldn't post our videos on the internet for everyone to see, but we could use then for our own training/review. 

The seminar covered Linda Mecklenburg's 6 turns.

I liked the way Ann taught them.  I really understand how to teach them to Tibby now.

She's a very good teacher!

She gave us steps to start out with and then how to progress the training until we can do them in sequences, but she also said to remember to keep going back to the 6 basic turns every once in a while, so our skills don't get rusty.

The nice thing is that you only need a jump and maybe a tunnel.

This is Tibby jumping - if you can't tell LOL!

This is Tibby's crate all covered up.  She was sleeping in there, but it was a little difficult to see.  I thought (for 1/2 a second), when she was so quiet, that maybe she died.  But she was just sleeping - whew!

Just waking up in her crate.  She was even able to sleep through other dogs barking.  The dogs next to us barked whenever a dog was running on the floor in front of our area......and yet they did not have to cover their crates.  Too bad for them - I got good advice and we made a training step - Tibby slept in her crate!

That's Ann in the background behind Tibby.

Lateral send.

I would really like to know how to be exciting and keep Tibby's interest, but not step too much into her bubble.  It's SO HARD to figure out.  It's easy to say - be more exciting and keep your dog playing with you, but what I really need are the directions to this.  I need some rules!  I guess Tibby would have to give me the rules, since she seems to be the one in charge - hmmm, that didn't come out right! 

During this session there were some guys banging around with the plumbing in a back room.  Ann later said that she had thought that she should ask them to stop for a second, so Tibby could work, but she didn't.  Tibby was REALLY trying to figure out where the noises were coming from.

She did great playing with her toy - I was even using it as a bribe to get her to come back to me.  During the session that I didn't get videoed Ann said she had good play switching skills - toy to food to toy.  LOL!  Little does she know how hard we have worked on it!  The first time I offered Tibby the toy and she POUNCED on it, I was shocked.  Yay!

Tibby hanging out on Scream's steps.

I would take another seminar from Ann - the time went by super fast.  I like seminars - especially the way this one was run.  I was able to watch 11 other teams (some, OK most more advanced than us) and see the progression and how each step fit together.  It's also nice to see what other people (who don't know you or your dog at all) see in your dog/you.  They don't know your dog's history - for example how big a deal for us it was when Tibby could be quiet in her crate and have it completely covered.  We may not have the 6 turns - yet - but Tibby slept in her crate!

"I's so smart."

Daisy Peel Foundation Lesson - Standing Up Now

Another video for our foundations class with Daisy Peel.

This is what she said: "I think this is actually fine, but don’t be afraid to say good girl, or any other encouraging words it’s really easy to stand there and be pretty boring, and my examples are sometimes poor, because I tend not to say very much

I think this is actually fine, you’re changing your location fairly frequently, and pretty randomly, whether you intended to or not
sometimes, you are on the side, and sometimes, you are on the take off on the side, and that’s good.

The only thing that I might do differently, would be to clearly get myself on either the takeoff side, or the landing side, since standing parallel to the plane of the bar really doesn’t do much of anything in terms of cuing your dog towards one jumping effort or another. It is beginning, when we’re sitting on the ground, we are purposefully sitting parallel to the plaintiff the obstacle, because we’re trying to be in as neutral a position as possible, so as not to cue the dog to do anything other than to offer to take the jump. But, as soon as you stand up, you have to assume you are handling

I also don’t mind you are using the toy right at the end, as long as you can see that she sticks the landing, and is looking down, and as long as you don’t put the toy out there prematurely, which might encourage her to jump hyperextended, if she is looking up expecting the toy to appear.

I actually think this looks good! I might have actually gone that way out even earlier in the training session "
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And this is what I said, "“I might have actually gone that way out even earlier in the training session”
I think this means get the toy out? I had it out in the middle of the session and it perked her up a lot. You can see me stuff it down my shirt at one point LOL!!
Thanks for telling me that we can talk to the dog – I wasn’t sure about that. I usually talk to her – except when we are shaping something. So I will start talkng to her more. But we are still not supposed to cue the jump yet – right?

I will pick a side of the jump and not stand at the upright any more – I think that was what felt so weird!"
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And this is what she said, "Oh yes, sorry about that, stupid dictation software
yes, get the toy out sooner, that’s what I meant

I like the idea of “action cues” – cues that encourage the dog to take action of some sort without being specific about WHAT action. So while I might not say ‘jump’, I might say ‘what are you gonna do?’ or something else silly along those lines – an action cue."

Fast and Happy Weaves

Oh my goodness!  I think Tibby figured out speed.  She is very fast.  I need to learn how to handle her now.  Not in these videos, but we tried a sequence tonight and she was really, really fast.  FUN!! 



Silvia said, "Can’t believe how fast Tibby is running now, great job!!!   Wow, that sure was fast and fun! Great entries and independence too, yay!!! Looks like you can narrow a channel a little bit again!"

Yes!  We finally got a 'great job' from Silvia!  YEAH! 

I also showed her the threadle video and she said, "Your use of arms was very good too, it’s good to use dog-side arm for pushes and serpentine. For threadles (pulling her in in between the jumps), you need the opposite arm."

Tough Tunnels

I'm feeling pretty sucky about our tunnel/distance/discrimination skills training tonight. I asked Silvia what we could do to train this. Then I tried it and it went exactly the way it has always gone. Tibby decides which end she wants to go into and she ignores my directions. Or I have to go right up to the entrance I want her to take.


Silvia said, " What you would need is a better send to a tunnel – lesson 1, exercise 2… You can practice sends from the wrong (back) side and similar to teach her to search for an entry no metter what, even when it’s hidden some as in this situation with an A-frame.

Try a straight or only slightly curved tunnel, so that she can’t choose a wrong entry and you can focus on distance first! Try also strange approaches (tunnel curved away from you, tunnel hidden some behind weaves/see-saw etc.) and similar to have her search for it more on her own. There are so many things you need to try out in training first to be prepared for everything that it’s really not easy… But I’m sure it will just get easier&easier! You came a really long way already."

I said about our newest tunnel video (above), "What am I doing wrong here? Tibby really doesn’t like to be restrained, so I sometimes push back on her chest. She was maybe a little tired from our long hike yesterday (and getting a bath and full blowdry/groom).
It seems like I either have to go all the way up to the tunnel entrance with her or she will just decide that she is going to do the tunnel on her own.
Could this be because we have done a lot of shaping? So she is trying to offer something that she thinks is right?  

“so that she can’t choose a wrong entry and you can focus on distance first!”
Oops missed that part – so I should just let her choose whatever end she wants?"

Silvia said, "No, it’s not shaping, I do tons of shaping with my puppies and they still understand the body language really well. I think it’s partly because you’re both still learning about the body language and because she doesn’t have a will to please that herding dogs poses. Try to use a longer side of a room so that you can set the entries even further apart and she doesn’t see a wrong one. So no, I didn’t mean letting her choose, I meant taking one option out of the picture."

I hope know that someday we will get this and I'll laugh at how worried I was about it. I mean I thought Tibby would NEVER be potty trained! But it's still tough that this is lesson ONE of the foundations class and we are taking the class for the THIRD time and we still don't have it.

16" Is Too Hard? Daisy Peel Foundation Class

This last week for our Daisy Peel foundations course we started one jump exercises - from Linda Mecklenburg's book. 
Our first try at the exercise was Ok.  Then our 2nd one we had TROUBLE and it was BAD.  And I felt sad for Tibby and frustrated.  Daisy told another student to let their dog work through the higher height and let the bar fall on their head, so they will figure out that going under the bar doesn't get them a click/treat.  She said to just be patient and let them work it out.  So I followed that advice.

I would really, really appreciate it if you all would watch the video below  - I know it's way long -  you don't have to watch the whole thing!  Our session goes waaaaay downhill at 2:20.  So skip to there.

I think 16" is too hard for Tibby?  She wouldn't even jump for roast beef.




Our 2nd try at the one jump exercise.



Video One - Our first try at one jump exercises.

Daisy told me our session was too long and I should try the exercise in new places.

Okay.

Tiny Step Running

We tried the sequence in lesson 5.  It was really cold and snowy and windy outside, so we played inside.  It took me FOREVER to figure out a way to fit all the jumps in.  I thought we did pretty good considering the small space we're working with.  There are two cute moments where Tibby goes for the teeter when I say tunnel.  And when I'm "walking the course" she follows me around and does what my body is directing.  It's hard to describe,but.....  It was cute!

I did tiny running.  Please don't laugh too much.  I had some friends over yesterday and they almost died laughing at me.  Yeaaaaah it was funny, but I kept in motion!  Sort of.

Silvia said that we did fine, but Tibby had more speed in our other videos and a FC at 8 was not necessary.  But I like front crosses!

Last time we did this lesson we didn't even try to do the sequence, because it was too advanced for us.  So I think we are doing better!  Here is what we did last time Lesson 5

So Proud

So maybe this isn't exciting to anyone else but me, but I think Tibby is a rock star!! Check out this video! We struggled for SO LONG with this sequence our first time through Silvia Trkman's class. Ok not actually this sequence, because I made it a little harder for Tibby. If I do the same sequence over and over again she stops paying attention and just takes whatever jump she thinks should come next.



I think she is awesome :) Sure I would like her to be faster, but I think that will come eventually. I know she has the speed, she just doesn't use it (for good - LOL!).

It has been such a long road for us. Considering that 6 months ago I couldn't get her to do anything and I didn't know anything about agility - we're doing pretty good.

As always I had to (stupidly) watch someone else's video (why do I do that?!?). A 7mo BC can do the whole sequence perfectly and super fast. Pfffft. Whatever. Tibby's not a BC.

Foundations Lesson One Week Two

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!"

ST Foundations Class - Lesson One Week One

This is the lesson - there was a video to watch and then this:
1. restrained send to cik/cap - the purpose of this exercise is to play a nice chasing game, while teaching great sends, distance work and commitment - see how early I can start running in the other direction when sending Le to the jump.
Things to pay attention to:
- height: If you only did cik&cap on other objects so far, start with a jump now, but without the bar for first 3 sessions: and then put the bar VERY low - max. 5cm (2 inches) for smaller dogs, 10cm (4 inches) for BC size and bigger. You can then add some height every 5 sessions: 3cm up for small dogs, 5cm for bigger dogs - SLOWER with young dogs! If you already did cik&cap with more height, do this exercise on your normal height, send a video and I will tell you if it’s o.k. or you need to make it lower.
- distance: Start the dog very close to the jump first and then further&further every next try to slowly add distance. If the dog turns back to you (as Le does once in my video) or waits for you, start closer again and add distance more gradually.
- angle: Note from which angle I bring Le to the jump and in which direction I run away to reward. The purpose is to teach them to jump close to the wing, NOT in the middle of the bar! That’s why I always do this approach FIRST and do lots of it before trying any straight approaches.
- speed: You can’t expect much speed with multi-warps, but you definitely want it now. Restrain the dog, wait for a good pull, let him go and run away for them to chase you&the toy. Make sure the dog is rewarded when still moving - don’t stop and reward: run and reward!
2. If the first part goes well, you can also do some figure 8s + chase it game: it’s the same game, only that you use two jumps now and run from one to another, sometimes still rewarding the first wrap, sometimes 4th, sometimes 2nd, sometimes 5th, sometimes 3rd… Note the angle of the jumps and the distance between them: you want BIG distance to get good speed - something like 10m. Again, you want the jumps under this angle to make sure the dog is jumping close to the wing, not in the middle of the bar. DON’T do figure 8s on one jump, it teaches the dog to jump in the middle!
3. restrained send to a tunnel (obstacle discrimination!) + come to hand vs. go game
Restrain the dog very close to the tunnel, as he is pulling towards it, say “tunnel, tunnel” to them: pulling in the direction of that thing is what you want when you say “tunnel” - and then let them go. Slowly add distance. Later on, you can add more obstacles (jumps&contact) close to the tunnel to make the discrimination harder: only say “tunnel” when the dog is pulling in the right direction, you can feel it if you hold him. You do the same with jumps: call cik&cap and release to the jump that is first the only thing around and then add tunnels closer&closer. The goal is teaching obstacle discrimination AND actively pulling towards obstacles you call (as opposed to hanging with you, waiting to take them all the way to each obstacle).
To train even more things at the time, when the dog is out of the tunnel, either call to hand and when he is at your side, either do a front cross or a shoulder pull (see the video) and reward for closeness - OR say your magic “run FAST” word and throw a toy ahead when the dog is catching up with you - meaning that you’re moving in both situations, do NOT stand still when you send!
4. independent weaves
If you haven’t started weaves yet, set 12 poles in two rows (left row must always be 60cm/24inches closer to you when you stand in front of the channel in order to teach them correct entries), at least 1m apart, restrain the dog at least 3m before the channel, throw the toy through and release. As the dog is running to his toy, sometimes just stand back, sometimes run after him, on both sides, sometimes far, sometimes close, sometimes run and stop, sometimes run and turn etc. The purpose is to teach the dog to ignore your body language when in the weaves and complete the task. Slowly switch to a static toy 4m after the channel, bringing the two rows closer&closer as you practise independent performance (I’m using bowls with treats with Le as she isn’t too excited about dead toys… - but I quickly switched to a toy, thrown after she is out then to get more speed). See the video for some ideas on what to do when the dog is in channel. If the dog already knows the weaves, send the video of how independent it is. If it’s not, go back to the channel.
Have fun



What I said:
"Hi classmates! Well, we tried out the 3 basic parts of the lesson. I think this class is maybe a little too advanced for us, but we are just going to go at our own pace.
When I was putting together the weave pole set I realized that this was the first time I had ever touched a weave pole - so you see we are beginners!
Tibby had a little tantrum (as usual) when we were working on the cik/cap. This is something we are working on and she has made a lot of progress in the last few weeks. She used to just run away, but now she will come back and play some more. She has 2 speeds - flat/calm and cRaZy! Someday her brain will catch up and I think she will be able to control herself. I like to get her excited, because I want her to be fast, but it is hard to know HOW excited to get her before she has a little tantrum. Even though she is 14 months she is very much a baby dog. Baby brain.
I hope you enjoy our movie - there are lots of funny parts "

What Silvia said:
"Well, it’s much harder with dogs who are hard to motivate… Definitely only use her favorite toy and maybe don’t use it for anything but agility, to make it more special. Try to move yourself as much as possible too. Spend lots of time playing between one and another try to not bore her with too many repetitions. And, most importantly… Try to take the zoomies to your advantage… When she is running around as crazy, call her “run fast” word and run around as crazy too, pretending like it was your idea in a first place. Once she knows the tunnel better, you might also be able to redirect her running into the tunnel: that would be a real win. Once there, it’ very easy to throw in few more obstacles. It would a huge breakthrough if she realized agility is about running and see how much fun it is to run through the tunnel full speed.

So maybe focus on making her liking the tunnel first. To make the tunnel easier: no rear crosses on tunnel yet (meaning if you are on left side of a tunnel when she enters, be on the same side when she exits)! AND move with her to the other side. And to make it more fun – have her chase you once she is out, make it more abut running.
In general, no problem with the exercises as such, so motivation is definitely our major focus here."

What a classmate said:
"Hi Catalina,
You make my day! I was laughing my head off!! What such a smart girl you have!
Do not worry if you are in the wrong class me too!, as we dont even have proper poles we use the sticks to hold the electric wire for the cattle! Video coming soon, hopefully I will record it when I arrive home!!
Eva."

What Silvia later said about someone's post:
"Why is everybody thinking they’re not yet there as the rest of the class? The 4 exercises above, all of your dogs can do, if you practised cik&cap. The only reason why things sound difficult to those new to agility is because there are many fancy expressions (front and rear crosses etc.) and rules where the dog should enter weaves etc. that you can’t know about. I’m trying to explain those things, but I sometimes forget some important parts as it’s just so self-understandable after you’re in agility for 20 years That’s why I decided for video form: so that you can see things I don’t see anymore

Yeah, I removed the sound as you can only hear the wind… But I started using my weave verbal already in 2nd session yes – I start using it as soon as the dog is searching for the channel and staying in. I like to introduce verbals very early as it takes very long for them to learn them: much longer as a behaviour as such. You can first just use a “go” or something and then switch to “weave”. As soon as you see she is o.k. with those poles on each side, you can close it somewhat. At the beginning you can do it as much as 3 inches/8cm at the time, but once you reach a stage when the channel is not much wider as the dog, you need to go VERY slowly, I will often only move two poles in (I check the set up and move in those which are set the widest: if they’re equal, I move in those in the middle), for as little as I can (about 2cm – less than an inch). – But I will do it as often as two times per session. It’s better to do it more often in smaller steps as less often in bigger steps. In short: you need to progress slow enough that it doesn’t make the dog pop out of the channel too often (you should go for at least 80% successful rate) – if it happens twice in a row on the same spot, move that pole out a little.
For the tunnel exercise, you can as well use a straight tunnel. Later on, it would be good if you could bend it at least some… You can always work around it too, but if you can somewhere get a real tunnel, that would be even better." 

She bolds the parts that everyone should read.

Ok  our video and then I will tell you what I am thinking.....

Ok,so
1- I don't see Tibby as that difficult to motivate. I can make her crazy very easily, but once she is at 100 mph I can't do anything with her. Yes she has her own opinion and if she doesn't want to play with a toy she won't. But 99% of the time she will play with me.
2 - Tibby likes to think things through. She doesn't want to be rushed.
3 - Yes we only use certain toys for agility - check. Favorite toys - check.
4 - Yeah tried the whole run with Tibby when she is zooming and try to name it something. I give you Exhibit A RunRun Video.
Yes in some ways it worked. She was kind of running with me. I think? But she can run like this for a loooooong time and if I'm not running with her? No big deal. Also, I lost my voice from yelling to her "run run". Plus side - I can now say this and she will run really fast. True story! Anyway..... This is NOT a video of Tibby excited - this is her playing and running. See today's lesson video for a true excited zoomie.
5 - We just need more practice. Tibby will eventually go in one side of the tunnel and come out of the other side. Right? Fingers crossed :)
6 - I REALLY NEED TO STOP WATCHING OTHER CLASSMATES' VIDEOS!!! Do these dogs all arrive with perfect focus and drive?!?! *whine* It's not fair!
7 - Whatever I think Tibby is awesome.

Well, that is my opinion and it is totally biased toward thinking Tibby is the best dog in the world, so that is that.
P.S. We are having fun.  And come on!  Tibby is so cute when she's naughty!

It Begins

Uh oh!  The Silvia Trkman online Foundations class started today.  I printed off the directions for the first lesson, so I can read them when we are outside.  There are 5 pages of directions.  And we don't know how to do any of the exercises.  Like Tibby won't go through a tunnel yet (not sure why she used to love them) and we need to do a jump wrap to tunnel exercise.  Also, we need to do multi wraps around a jump upright.  Oh yeah! And get the dog to jump over a jump! Not knock the bar down?   Hmmmm, a little advanced for us.  And weaves.  Did I mention weaves?  Overwhelmed.

I'm shooting for 3 short practices today.  Thank goodness it is not raining again!  We got 6 inches in 4 days.  W-E-T.

Boot Camp or Watch Tibby Run

I took Tibby to a puppy agility boot camp today at On the Run Canine Center.  It was a fun class, but it was also a long tiring day.  We left at 9 am and got home after 5pm.  The class was an hour and 1/2 long.  The rest of the day was driving.  It was interesting to see so many puppies all doing agility activities.  The puppies were all 15 months and younger.  Most of the activities were things we had done in our Foundation class.  I liked the way the instructors explained everything.  I also felt that we got a lot of personal attention, even though there were 20 puppies there and there were 5 puppies (including Tibby) in our group.  Tibby had fun, because she got to eat lots of steak, sausage and tilapia.  An hour and 1/2 is a looooong time to have a class.  By the end of the 2nd 20 min. section I could see that I was loosing Tibby.  By the 3rd section, she didn't care about treats (except the steak) and she was not interested in playing tug at all.  She usually loves to play tug, even with other dogs around, but she had this glazed look on her face.  She was way over stimulated.  The last section was with a low dog walk, tunnel, pause table and some other stuff.
  At this point Tibby decided to make her own fun. 
Uh Oh.
 The dogs were supposed to go through the tunnel and stop on the pause table.  Ok, so Tibby does it the first time.  She didn't really stop all the way on the table (went off the other side), but she was under control.  The teacher said to really get the dogs excited. 
So I did. 
Whoops.
The other dogs trot or walk nicely through the tunnel, some make it on to the table, some don't.
Tibby tears through the tunnel like a rabid wolf and then takes off at top speed past the table and then does a huge looping zoom around the training area.  Thank goodness for fences or she would have run through the whole building.  Now Tibby is on one side of an A-frame and I'm on the other.  Everyone starts yelling, "Go the other way!  Go the other way!"  I'm confused - the other way around the A-frame?    No.  They want me to run away from Tibby.  And then in theory she is supposed to notice that I'm not playing and run to find me.
 Hmmmmm Ok.
 I'll try anything once.
 I go across the room and she doesn't notice me.  I call her and she runs over to find me.  But then I find out, "No.  You shouldn't have called her.  Next time don't call her."
Ok.
Now if they thought Tibby was fast the 1st time, well they haven't seen anything.  The next time through the tunnel, Tibby pulls out her moderately high super sonic speed.  I'm on the other end of the tunnel thinking that I'm ready to catch her.
 Um, no. 
At that speed only super heroes can catch Tibby.  I can't even see her, she is so fast.  She zooms around and around and I run in the opposite direction.  Except I have to keep changing direction, because she is zooming around the whole room! 
Oh, yeah and everyone is yelling helpful suggestions. 
Finally, I catch her.
The teacher says, "Ok, that worked.  Get in line and do it again."
Really?   Do I have to?
Tibby if course thinks this is the BEST GAME EVER!!!!!
I can't be mad at her, because the look on her face when she was running toward me was pure, PURE happiness.  I wish I had a picture of it.  She was even doing her crazy run - it's kind of like a squat/bunny hop thing- she only does it when she is being a 'naughty girl'.  She does it before she bites my pant legs when she thinks we are going for a walk - when she is super, super excited. 
Then she sits down and waits patiently, in line, for our turn.  So.......what does that mean?!?  She can be calm, but really wants to zoom?
Honestly, the other dogs in our group either walked or slowly trotted through the tunnel.  That made Tibby look even crazier.
The 3rd time through the tunnel was even faster than the 2nd time.  Aaaaaand she wouldn't come back.  The teacher finally stepped on her leash, because the 'run in the other direction' thing wasn't working. 
So that was our fun day at puppy boot camp.

3rd Foundations Agility Class

Yesterday was our 3rd class.  We've had 3 classes canceled due to bad weather.

It was another fun class!

Of course, there had to be a few bad moments to offset all the good.

Remember that Tibby spent the weekend playing at Woof Dah with her new friends.  This was 24 hour a day wild and crazy play.  She was *slightly* tired for about 2 hours.  Maybe that gives you an idea about her stamina and energy level?  Bouncing off the walls!

We were a little early for class so we stopped at Petsmart.  This was Tibby's first time in a store.  She was (of course) not afraid of anything - automatic doors, lots of people, slippery floors.  She was calm for about three minutes, but not calm enough to take treats.  When she saw a Great Dane and then a Pomeranian her brain went crazy, "Dogs, dogs, dogs!"  She has a high pitched whiny half bark that she likes to use when she wants something.  Oh, and she was pulling on the leash like a linebacker.  Fun.

These were pictures before she saw the other dogs.

I bought her a few bully sticks and some duck jerky and then we left.

On to class.  We worked with our target and with the jump uprights.  The dogs went through the tunnel a couple times.  Tibby loves the tunnel!!  In the video she acts like she doesn't like it, but later on when we walked by it she decided to go through it on her own. 

Then we worked on rear awareness with 2 ladders.  We got to show off our tricks.  Tibby did her "Assume the Position" or "Frisk'em" trick - got the idea HERE.  Tibby did it perfectly!  I was so surprised/happy.  Unfortunately my Mom didn't tape it, so I don't have any proof, but trust me Tibby did a good job.  We practiced having the dog turn away from us.  We worked with the wobble board.  Tibby walked right on to it and moved around.  I was surprised!  I can tell that she doesn't really like it, but she will do it.  We also worked on loose leash walking.  Yeah......I think I might try having Tibby target a clip on my pant leg, because I've tried a lot of other methods including the 180 degree turn when the dog starts to pull (that we did in class) and nothing has worked so far.  Tibby is happy to walk back and forth all day in the same spot, as long as she is moving.  The last thing we did was play a game.  We played wildly with our dog and then (when the instructor told us to) stopped and had our dog sit or lie down.  It was kind of like musical chairs.  Tibby and I like that game!

Now the 2 bad things.  Tibby pooped in class and my Mom tapped the whole thing.  LOL  I'm not sure why she pooped, because she went right before class too. 

The 2nd thing was one of the dogs tried to attack Tibby.  It was really scary.  It went for Tibby's neck.  I put my leg between it and Tibby and yanked Tibby out of the way and behind me until its' owner could catch it.  When we come upon a stray dog on our walks I do the same thing - put Tibby behind me.  Not sure if that was a good idea?  Although, I guess my leg is a lot bigger than Tibby's neck to take a bite from a dog.    

We still had fun.

The video is a whole bunch of little clips put together.  My Mom can't always tell when the camera is on and so there were a bunch of less than 10 second clips.  The pooping fiasco is in about the middle of the video. 

Week 1 Foundations Progress

These videos probably are only interesting to me, but here is our progress in the last 7 days since our first agility foundations class last Monday.
 The last video is REALLY funny.  If you don't watch any of the other ones you should watch the last one - it is CRAZY!  Ok I am the crazy one in the video.  It's Tibby's favorite game: Crazy Touch!

Anyway, our progress has been (I think) really good.  The videos helped me a lot.  I thought Tibby was only doing a nose touch on the contact, but in the video I could see that she is putting her paw on it.  Although, most of the time she thinks I'm an idiot.  You can even hear her sigh at one point, like, "Hey I just did that!  Why do I have to do it again?!?"  Even though you can't see it in the videos (I couldn't figure out the right angle) I'm trying to not give her any body signals. 

These are just some tricks.  I forgot to do back up or weave.

Crazy Touch!You can tell Tibby is getting tired, but she still plays with me.  Good puppy!

First Foundation Agility Class

IT WAS WONDERFUL!

It was so much fun!  There are 6 dogs in the class: Tibby (of course :P), Bella a 6 month Labradoodle, Dog an 8 y/o pit mix, Scarlet a 2 y/o pit mix, Jack a tiny terrier ( not sure on age or breed they came 1/2 hour late) and a 4 month old Belgian Malinois (forgot name).

This is our homework for the week

1-Load marker word or clicker.

2-Use marker to shape touching nose to target.

3-Reinforce attention in front and all sides.

4-Decide on trick. (we get to pick one to work on for the 6 weeks of class)

5-Two cookie game.

6-Bring bag with mat.

We worked with a clear plastic target in class.  At first Tibby was scared of the target, but she figured it out pretty fast.  I wish I could use my clicker in class.  I think it would go a lot faster, but we have to use the marker word 'yes'. 

  Then we did a game where one person has to be the dog and try to figure out what the other person wants.  My Mom went with me to the class and the instructor asked her to be the dog.  The instructor wanted to shape 'pick up my bag'.  It was so hard!  My Mom had no idea what to do, so she was a good person to do the first demonstration.  I've read some of Agility Right From the Start, so I knew what the instructor was doing.  Poor Mom!  She was a good sport though!

Tibby did NOT like waiting while we were doing our exercise.  She hates to be crated.  Really, really hates it. 

We did some restrained recalls and Tibby did great!  She ran after me right away.  One time she went to my right side and one time to my left side.  I was so proud of her!  We have come a long way from when she was 4 months old and she wanted to run to everyone in the room except me.  Scarlet was the only dog that ran away.  Bella was super jumpy, so the instructor had to wait for her to calm down. 

It takes about 1 1/2 hours to get to the training barn.  Tibby is awesome in the car.  She just goes to sleep.

The only thing I didn't like was all the dust in the barn.  It has a dirt floor and every time we ran big puffs of dust went everywhere.

~

So, what trick should I pick to work on?  I don't want anything that involves rolling on the ground, because of the dirt floor.  Trust me Tibby was dirty enough without doing that!  Any trick ideas?