More Agility

This is a video for our foundation class with Silvia Trkman.  I think Dhali is doing pretty good - little steps and time.  He's fast that's for sure!

Pre-Week of Foundations Class

I'm a week behind in posting this, but Silvia Trkman's AF class started last Monday.  We are in the class......again!  It's Dhali's first time in agility foundations, but this is like my 7th class with her or maybe more?  I've lost count LOL!

So this was our pre class video.  Silvia said not to worry, because the class hadn't even started yet.  LOL!  I'm not worried.  Dhali is awesome.  If he can't become some kind of agility dog then I have a problem.  He loves to play the game.  He's fast and he learns quickly.

Finally he is learning!  I took a break from clicker training him and let his brain catch up with his growing body.  Now I think his brain has matured enough that he can focus without getting frustrated.

Although he still gets frustrated and then he bites me!  Silvia said he needs more forward focus and obstacle focus.  Yes, but how do I train that when I've done such a good job training handler focus! :P

Dhali is also over 17 inches tall at this point.  Fingers crossed that he settles down a little bit and ends up shorter, but I'm not holding my breath.  Tibby is just under 16 inches and Dhali is about an inch and 1/2 taller than her.  I don't know if it is related to his neuter?  Or if he would have had this growth spurt anyway?  But he shot up right after he was neutered.  Boo.  Oh well, he's still perfect.

P.S.  Hello to all my AF stalkers!!  *waving*  I didn't even know you were out there LOL!

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.

Daisy Peel Seminar

So phase 1 of adventure week is over!  We went to the foundation session of Daisy Peel's seminar at Cloud Nine Dog Training in Hopkins, MN. 

Way back in 2011 I heard that Daisy was coming to MN and I thought, "Wouldn't it be neat to take her online class and then at the end of that class attend her seminar and meet her in person?!?"  So yup, that's what we did.

Oh, yeah and maybe I should have read the fine (or not so fine) print that said the session was from 1pm to 5pm.  Hmm, yeah that's 4 hours!  That's a long time for a dog to work and not have a putty fried brain.  Actually, that's a long time for ME to work and not turn into a zombie.

Yes, I turned into a zombie.

I signed up to audit the rear cross session which started at 6:30pm, but I was toasted by 5pm, so we left.  I looked at Tibby, I looked at the clock and then I thought about the 2 hour drive home.  It wasn't a very hard decision.

Daisy is like a totally normal, average person.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but she's OK.  Not scary or whatever like I had read in a few places.  In fact when we first walked in I didn't recognize her.  She's smaller than I thought she would be!! :P  Daisy said she thought Tibby looked bigger than she thought she would be LOL!   

Ahh the internets - where size is only relative.

The Cloud Nine place was nice.  Kind of small and built like a split level maze type (fill in your own word I'm tired).  They are having a teacup agility trial there at the end of the month.  It would be the perfect size for teacup agility!  Really, it was nice and all the people were very nice.

There were only 12 people there (1/2 working, 1/2 auditing), so it was really more like a semi-private lesson.

I want to say this in the nicest way possible, so please don't get offended:  Because I'm new to dog sports/agility/dog training I some times feel like I'm entering a new culture.  Have you ever been to a foreign country or high school???  It's like the first day of high school.  I try to soak everything in and figure out what these people are about.  So not only is the agility information new, but all the social stuff is too.  Like should I walk past you with my dog, if your dog is tugging or should I wait?  Is it OK to pet your dog if it comes up to me?  Or why would someone bring a dog they don't live with, but are planning on training and the dog's actual owners also are auditing, but they don't train the dog?  Confusing stuff.  :P

So anyway, Tibby did awesome.  She was CrAzY.  If she could have bounced off of the walls she would have.  Focus?  Not so much.  But I'll take crazy Tibby over scared Tibby any day.

My hand was actively bleeding 5 mins. into the seminar.  I think Tibby got a little ketchup with her hot dogs.  yuck! hee hee hee.  She has sharp teeth! 

She actually worked for 4 hours.  Right to the very end.  AND she played with her toy.  No issues, except that she wanted me to run around with her and actually play.

Of course, there were breaks for Daisy to lecture.  But for Tibby the lecture parts were the worst.  It took her 3 hours to remember that she had a delicious lamb stuffed Kong to lick in her crate.  So yeah, I crated out of my car and she barked.  Until she remembered the Kong and then she was quiet, but of course then we were almost done.  She also sat with me for part of the time.  I had a 2nd Kong and she licked that. 

Daisy would have us break up and practice in different parts of the room and then she would come around and watch us work.  By the 3rd time of doing that I stopped working until she came around to us.  First of all, Tibby would do it perfectly until Daisy came to watch and then she would get too excited to pay attention.  Second of all, I was getting tired and I thought Tibby would get full pretty soon with all the treats she was getting!  Third of all, I didn't want to practice it wrong a bunch of times.  So some of the time we sat on the (nice cushy mat) floor and watched the other teams.  I learned from that too.  It's interesting seeing a lot of dogs and handlers doing the same thing.  And yup we were all at about the same speed.  Everyone has a different issue, but we all have issues :)

I took some notes, but they would require a lot of back explanation.  If you have the Foundation Jumping book by Linda Mecklenburg - then you know what we covered at the seminar.

Things I thought were interesting (and new to me):

The cue to the dog to jump is the handler's motion towards the jump or location to the jump.

Building value for jumping - Dog should see a room full of jumps as a million opportunities to be rewarded.

Handler ahead of dog - forward cue

Handler behind dog - turning cue

Indirect eye contact - forward cue

Direct eye contact - turning cue

Example: weaves - indirect eye contact - forward cue

Dogs have to be trained to follow arm cues - this is not instinctual

Steer a dog with motion - motion is instinctual to dogs

Obstacle name = forward cue

dog's name = attention cue

She said none of her dog's know direction cues like right, left, ect. 

She said with a novice dog she would run them to where she wanted them to go instead of trying to use arm cues or directional cues.  They will get them evenutally, but it's easier to use your motion to move them around the course.

AND it's offical:  Daisy said I was very calm.  And that Tibby needs me to be less calm.  More rewarding with my voice. 

She said Tibby is a party girl.  Like a bunch of times. 

Ok, ok.  I'll try to be more of a party girl with Tibby.  But I was tired!  It was a loooong time to be training!  I don't have the stamina of Tibby.  :P

I think I was doing pretty good for the first hour or so giving Tibby verbal encouragement.  She does like it a LOT.  But after a while......

Tibby highlights:  She did one jump back and forth (boring) for 8 mins.  We worked our way around the room at different jump stations - Tibby did from 12" up to 16".  By the end of 8 mins. I was tired, but Tibby was still offering to jump the jump.  Back and forth.  Without me moving at all.  So all the work was Tibby's.

At the end of the seminar we did a little sequence of 1 jump wrap to a tunnel to a 2nd jump wrap.  Tibby did it and I think she read my cues pretty well :)  And that was after 4 HOURS of working! 

OH YEAH  and PS I had the wrong size treats AGAIN!!!  Every time I go somewhere they are either too big or too small.  Last night I spent an extra hour (around midnight) cutting Tibby's treats nice and small.  Then today Daisy said we should have big treats - like a cheese stick!  Or a hot dog!  Seriously I can never win.  Daisy would have liked the treats I brought to Jane Killion's seminar and Jane would have liked the treats I brought to Daisy Peel's seminar, BUT I can never get them at the right seminar!!!

So to re-cap if your couldn't tell with all my whining:  Good time, Tibby did great, Daisy was nice.

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."

Daisy Peel Foundation Class - Snow-hike-gility

I forgot to post this!  Here is another video of our jumping and crosses.  We took it on the road last week and did our homework on a long hike. 

Daisy said, "Oh my goodness, this is AWESOME – a stick and the snow I love it!
Tibby is like, you want me to do WHAT with this twig?!
 Way to make sure you are having FUN – maybe you weren’t have so much fun squatting in the snow, but I bet watching the video again made you chuckle
 I think this is easily the best foundation training video EVER. Seriously. No fancy equipment necessary
 And with the four basic turns, that trail with snow on it makes it easy to have a reference for a 90-degree turn
 Oh, no we are back indoors, probably with a cup of cocoa on that table next to you
 I think Tibby likes this a bit better
 She is sticking her landings pretty nicely, that’s good! I think you are fine moving on to the next step, changing your own location relative to the jump bar You are probably going to want to move quickly with her, she masters things and will get bored if you stick at one place too long
 Cool!"

Flashback Friday

I thought it would be fun to do a flashback friday!  This is a video from Tibby's Foundation Agility class waaaaaaay back last year.  She was such a little puppster!  But not much else has changed - I still wear that jacket, Tibby still has that leash.....she still tries to jump around on Papillons.  I hope we are better at agility though!!  :)



Wonder if any of Tibby's old classmates are still training agility?

She's The Tops

I SO wish I had a video to share with you!  We had a fun adventure tonight.  Tibby was amazing and awesome. 

We are taking a beg. agility class on Tuesday nights.  It's not my first choice for taking a class, but it's the only place that (1) Would let us take a class with them.  Seriously.  (2) Had classes on a night when I don't work.  (3)  Don't use methods I'm not comfortable with.   The building has asphalt as a flooring, sooo that's not good, but Tibby is doing low jumps - not full height and she isn't doing weaves or any contacts.  So basically, tunnels and low jumps.  The class includes all the weaves, contacts and everything, I just told the instructor that I didn't want Tibby to do those right now.  She was fine with that.  She lets us do whatever we want, which is what I was looking for!  I figure that Tibby runs on more asphalt at home when we go for walks (full speed for more than an hour) at certain places.  She also has a penchant for jumping off of the stairs at home.  Still working on stopping that......or at least slowing it down.

Tibby did such a good job.  Like wow! I was shocked.  Ok she wasn't quiet.  Yes, she was the class barker yipper.  When she gets excited, she can't help it and a few yips fly out.  BUT she was able to focus on me and WORK.  Did I mention FOCUS.  Playing endless It's Yer Choice games and the focus games from When Pigs Fly helped Tibby offer behaviors while a very large lab sat (trying to sniff Tibby) a foot away.  She was a star!

Yup she was the  star of the class!  OK, yeah, none of the other dogs had ever been through a tunnel or over a jump, but still......we've worked really hard to be where we are now.  So I am still proud of her.

The instructor set up little courses for us to do.  Tibby was wicked fast.  You've seen her zoomies?  She was that fast, but she was doing a course.  Focused and Fast?  Be still my heart!  The other dogs were within easy reach for her and she was off leash!  Only once did she go to a dog instead of to me.  That was a tough situation though, because she was coming out of the tire and the other dog was directly in front of her and only a few feet away.  It was the end of the course we were running too, so not a big deal.  In my opinion.  She did come to me after a quick sniff hello to the other dog.  She was the only dog that got to go off leash, so that helped. 

The last course was straight tunnel-jump-jump-jump-Aframe(we skipped)-jump-curved long tunnel-short tunnel-tire.  Tibby did the whole thing!  I rewarded in a couple spots, but she was really running fast and happy, happy, happy!  AND the other dogs were standing right in amongst the equipment.  It's not a very big building, so there isn't really any where for them to go.  Also, the next class was starting to come in, so there were extra dogs too. 

She wasn't scared of anything.  Even when, at the start of class, she had her leash on and she pulled down a bunch of jumps behind her as she ran the course.  She was able to keep going and not get scared!

There were 5 other dogs in the class: French Bulldog, BC mix, lab, lab, aussie.  The BC mix was reactive and had to wear an ace wrap (thundershirt?).

So we had fun.  The ride home went by fast!

ST Foundations Class - Lesson 6

Lesson 6 - LAST LESSON :( 
So sad that this class is over.  Happily we signed up for another Foundations class, so yay!  there will be many more videos of us learning agility.  LOL!  I'm sure you are all super happy about that!! 

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Your last homework already! Two more weeks left to catch up and then with October 3rd, this class is finished. If you want to keep working on Foundation stuff in a class form, you can join October Foundation class (that is repeat of this class) for a reduced price. If you want to take things further, you’re welcome to continue in Handling class that will start 31st of October, I’ll open the registration soon. In Handling class, I’ll be posting two different exercises for two different levels: the whole course for more experienced teams and shorter sections that will still be focusing on training to some degree for beginners.

1. sequence


Let’s check your stays. I usually train them away from agility until they are 100% with toys flying, dogs running around, me moving etc. -- and then just use them here and there also in agility: probably only for about 10% of sequences we run, to make sure I’m not given too many opportunities to ruin them In this sequence, you need a stay. Position your dog at the good angle to be on a good line for 2nd jump, go to your position and start. Choose how you want to handle it.

2. front, rear and blind crosses: as there were some questions on the crosses, I included a video with different crosses on the same sequence. Normally, I first do front crosses only (as I only do collection sequences) + blind crosses on tunnels, then add rear crosses on flat and at tunnels, then blind crosses and then rear crosses on jumps. So try rear cross on a tunnel and on flat first and if that goes well, try it on a jump: see the video -- just ignore the double tunnel, use a single tunnel of course, I just used whatever I already had in a set up. If you want (I’m not forcing anybody, I’m just including those as some participants were asking about them), you can try it with blind crosses too. Normally, I will choose the cross based on a situation: for collection, I will use a front cross OR, if I can’t get there in time, rear cross at the jump. For extension, I will choose blind cross OR, if I can’t get there, rear cross on flat. At trials, I do the most front crosses, then blinds and maybe one rear cross every 5 runs… Yeah, not big fan. But of course, it’s important the dogs know rear cross too as sometimes it is the only option!





You could of course run those sequences with front crosses only, I showed it with rear and blind crosses only as by now, I think we mastered the front crosses already, so we can try some rears and blinds (if you want).

3. send in your contacts, see-saw, weaves and multi-wraps (on your current height) work again to check how it’s going and to give you some suggestions on how to proceed after the class is finished.
Hope to see you in Handling Class!



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Silvia Trkman Agility Foundations Class Lesson 4

Lesson 4

1. straight line as a serpentine: now that you mastered straight lines too, it’s time to show the dog they can come in different forms Let’s try angling the jumps as you can see in a video, still working on extension vs. collection. Keep angling the jumps all the way to a serpentine. You should still throw in some wraps to keep them attentive to possible collection cues.
Showing the angling in 4 steps, but try to go even more gradually and make it a serpentine in 6 or 7 steps:



2 Sequencing



With long-strided dogs, 10 will be hard – so you can simply take the other entry instead.
3. let’s check how far you have got with weave entries: send in your “top 5″ – choose the 5 hardest entries your dog found, the 5 you are most proud of.

What I said, "I know you said to only send the best weaves, but we haven’t done them at all, so this is all the weaving we have done so far. I don’t really get what I’m supposed to be doing. I think I have to wait until she gets more commitment to doing them before I start with the distractions - right? The 2nd video is what we did today. Tibby was having so much fun! I’ve started doing a ‘dying rabbit’ sound that Tibby likes. Later in the day I tried to do the sequence, but Tibby was too tired. I think she likes the straight running parts the best. I left in a lot of the parts where we are playing.'

What Silvia said, "Yeap, for the weaves, you are trying too complicated stuff too early in the process. I would still work with something at the end for her to focus on and releasing her to it from very slight angles. With something at the end for her to focus on, you should be able to do some work for independence (doing different stuff when she is in), but you sure need something at the end for now to be able to do that. Rewarding from hand is not yet a good idea. And yes, she sure seemed to like that straight line! You can mostly work on that for now if that’s what she loves the most. Still, make sure to not do too much, I think two sessions per day, if they include more as for example one or two straight lines, are too much for her for now. Definitely don’t push her to do it if she doesn’t feel like it! "

Silvia Trkman Foundations Class Lesson 3

Lesson 3

This was a long lesson - many weeks - there was a break, so there are 3 videos of Tibby at the end.

1. introducing straight lines: after all the cik&cap work, it’s time to introduce some straight lines and extension jumping too. Set a straight line of 2 or 3 jumps between two tunnels (or simply use one if you don’t have two), start with some cik/cap to tunnel, cik/cap to tunnel, then straight over the first jump to cik/cap on a second jump back to tunnel, then two straight jumps to cik/cap on a third one, cik/cap again on a next jump etc. - just think of something, putting more and more straight jumps in between one and another cik/cap. See a video and again another example here:


Make sure the dog is jumping differently when you just run, saying your “jump/over” or “go” cue as when you say your collection cue. Take off and landing spot must be different for collection vs. extension. Put the jumps on whatever height you’re currently at with cik&cap.
2. sequencing: start with cik on 1, run in for a front cross between 2 and 3, ask for cap on 2 from the landing side, RUN for cik on 5 (extension jumping on 4), another cap on 6 and finishing with cik on 8, rewarding in the direction of 9.

3. bang the see-saw game: if you did the “closing drawers and doors” trick, then you’re all ready for this new game. If you don’t have a see-saw, you can use a small plank with something underneath so that it moves when the dog pushes it with front legs. If you have a see-saw, either lower it almost to the ground or support it so that one end is 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) off the ground and have them push it down with front feet - you can then raise it somewhat more off the ground. Do not promote 4 feet, 2 feet is better to teach them to push. Jackpot for most powerful pushes and eventually stop rewarding the gentle touches. Reward away from the see-saw, you want a push&go (I’m not doing very good job on that in the video, I forgot to bring better treats for that - a toy would actually be even better). ONLY work on this part (step 1 and 2) for next 2 weeks (no 4 feet yet!) - I included next steps in the video just to give you an idea what’s the plan

I’ll be answering your comments till Friday 29th. Then I’m leaving for EO and have the camp after that, so we’ll be on break till 15th August so that everybody can catch up AND you can practice cik&cap some more. We’re introducing straight lines too today, but if you only started with cik&cap when the class started, you still need to do quite some work on that anyway - especially exercises 1 of lesson 1 and 2! You can also keep adding height… So, plenty of work for everybody! The second week of this lesson will be from 15-21st August, with no video commenting in between. I like those breaks as they take some pressure off and I can always see a huge progress after the break!

Lost Baby Picture

I found these pictures on my Mom's camera.  She took them at the Foundations Class we took last winter - a million years ago.  Look at cute baby Tibby!  She was pretty good at the wobble board.  Wow we have learned so much in this last year.

This was the other picture I found.  It's not Tibby - obviously!  I sometimes wonder what happened to the other people/dogs in that class.  Maybe we will see them again some time.

Foundations Class Lesson 2 Week 2

I said, " I think we are getting better! We are having fun, so that makes me happy I tried a couple of times to get Tibby to do 2 things in a row - cik and then the tunnel, but she isn’t ready yet. She also doesn’t think it is necessary to do mutiwraps! She told me off - shook her head and then took the tunnel. It was really funny She has her own mind about things!
I split the vid in 2 - for some reason I can’t upload any video longer than 4 mins."

Silvia said, " Cool! She is so cute playing at the beginning of the video! And so fast when she is doing her zoomies! GREAT that she comes in to you in between, so try to just reward that by running away with her toy and having her chase you – don’t stop it by grabbing her collar! That’s contra productive: you come and you get grabbed. It should be you come and we play together! Anyway, she seems to like all the new toys! On the plank, you can start clicking as she is running at the end of it. If you don’t have a wider plank, make some kind of a channel (poles or cones or you could even use a tunnel as a barrier to keep her on) – it’s really just a waste of time to try to teach her to stay on. It’s better to focus on just running and having fun. Well, you’re definitely on the way there! Great job, was fun to watch Tibby so happy!"

ST Class 2nd Lesson Week1

2nd Lesson Week One

I can't believe it is already the second lesson (and technically the 2nd week of that lesson, but I'm trying something different), this class is going by very fast! I have been trying to make this fun for Tibby. She hasn't had a zoomie issue for a while. Maybe it's the heat, but I think she is getting the game - little by little. I've been working on not demanding she do things (still I am bad at this) and rewarding even when she isn't 100% right. So often I will go back to the video and it was my movements that put her off doing something.

The Lesson:
1. multi-wraps with handler in different positions: set a bar at your current cik&cap height and have a dog do multiple wraps around the wing. Change your position so that you’re sometimes on take-off side, sometimes on landing side of the jump. Reward by reaching in with a toy to reward close to the wing. Multi-wraps should always be your first exercise when you put the bars on the next height and you should keep working on them on each height, it’s great collection jumping exercise, I actually do some before every training, within our warm-up.

2. cik&cap sequencing: we’ll mask this training for different handler positions and moves into a little sequence and include a tunnel for extra fun Start with cap on one, try cik with handler on a landing side on 3, a shoulder pull from 4 to 5, cap with a front cross on 5, tunnel again and then push for another cik on 7. Reward in the direction of where I set number 8. Break it down in little parts first.

3. Running contacts or 2o2o



What Silvia said:
"Cool, I love how she is taking the jumps and tunnel on her own! And she can collect really well when avoiding landing on the cat! Very interesting method And she sure looks really happy now! – Especially in that living room session! Maybe you could keep one jump indoor all the time and work on one jump things indoor (multi-wraps and sends – those are even more important for her), in very short, but frequent sessions? She is still a little bit confused what this game is all about, but she is sure liking it more&more. Do you still see that instructor you mentioned that you found? Could you maybe ask her to show you a front cross? It’s really easy when somebody takes you through it. If jumps with bars make more sense to her, you can use a bar, but very low, not what you’re using at the beginning – that looks pretty much like full height already. It’s too much for her age and agility experience. But hey, she sure does seem to be having fun now!!! Great job!"

What I said,
"Thanks! I wanted to ask what should I do when Tibby skips a pole in the weaves? I want to keep everything fun for Tibby, so she will keep playing with me. Do I just ignore it and have her try again?

I’m doing RC with Tibby – it looks like more fun and Tibby needs it to be fun. It’s a little hard when we can’t go outside- there isn’t a lot of room in the garage, but it’s better than not being able to practice at all.

We have lessons about every 2 weeks with our instructor. She has been having me do front crosses since out first lesson, but I forget to do them – I get so excited when Tibby decides to work with me.

The bars on the jumps….well, when I have the bars lower Tibby knocks them down. She puts her head down, knocks them over with her head and then walks through. When they are higher she doesn’t do that. When we do cik/cap I just put the bars on the ground, so I don’t have to argue with Tibby about it. I think I’ll just keep the bars down for now – I was just experimenting in those first 2 sessions.

Thanks watching our video :)"

Silvia said,
"Yes, you can just ignore the unsuccessful tries and only reward when she stays in the whole channel. RC is definitely more fun, but somewhat tricky with dogs who have different speeds and won’t run full speed after the ball every time… But well, you can still try and introduce a stop later if necessary. Interesting bar problem You can keep it down for now yes and then very slowly add height, maybe she will leave them up if they are very low Front crosses get easier with time, so just keep practising, you can practise it on walks too, in slow motion"

A Classmate said,
" I love that cat! I think he wants to be trained!
So obvious that it trusts your dog explicitly & wants his tummy rubbed!"

A different classmate said,
" The cat is too funny!"

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!"

More Heel and Side Practice

We are still working on heel and side.  We are about 3 lessons behind everyone else in the class.  I can see a big difference in the 2 halves of the video.  The first part is from June 20th and the second half is from yesterday July 4th.

Also, the 1st one is outside, so Tibby was a little bit more distracted.  She was really excited to work yesterday - you can see her little tail wagging!  She was so excited that she couldn't remember what to do at first.  Then she decided to change things up at the end - heeling was just so boring.

I don't think we are ready to fade the perch yet, but I am still waiting to see what Silvia says.  More practice, but maybe by the end of summer we will have it.

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.

Introducing Objects

Last night I wanted to train something new with Tibby, so I put different objects down on the floor and Tibby interacted with them.  Last night I used a green flower pot, a glass chicken and a big wooden chicken. 

  In Feb. I'm taking Tibby to get her pictures taken and I would like her to pose with different props.  My goal was to get Tibby to put both paws up on the green flower pot and then to have her bow.  In 3 sessions she got it.  I was surprised at how quickly Tibby can guess what I want. 

 Clicker training is amazing!

I made a video today of Tibby with the flower pot and also how she acts when I introduce a new object: a tea pot.  The tea pot was a challenge for her, because it made noise when she touched it.  I am trying to get her used to the idea of making noise. 

2nd Foundations Agility Class

Last weeks class was canceled because of snow, so this was our 2nd class.  It went by way too fast.
 First of all, we got lost on the way there- it was dark, snowy and my GPS obviously hates me.  We left at 4:45pm and got there at 6:32pm.  Class started at 6:30pm, but I was hoping to get there early so Tibby could calm down and get use to the space again.  Maybe at our next class.  
Everyone was practicing with their touch targets when we arrived.  Tibby is very good at this now.  I started treating her on the target last week.  She has started to paw and bow on the target.  She can find the target when it is more than 8 feet away and if the target is behind her.  One thing I wanted to ask in class and forgot to:  When you run with your dog toward the target and you are going to run past the target, but you want the dog to stop at the target, When do you say target?  When you start to run?  When you are close to the target?
Then we worked on having the dog go to the mat.  I started this a tiny bit with Tibby last week, so she did pretty good.  EVEN WITH ALL THE DISTRACTIONS!  Tibby gets distracted very easily.  My Mom says she has ADD.  She really likes people and dogs and oooo dirt and oooo lawn chairs and oooo more people and.....  Of course I get distracted easily too, so together well....there is a video this week that I'm not terribly excited to show off.
Then we worked on hand touches.  Tibby can do this, but she only wanted to do it for about 30 seconds.  So I had her do some of her tricks, take a bow, spin, high five.  Good proofing practice. 
Then we did the wobble board.  It was Tibby's first time on a wobble board, but she eats all of her meals on a rocker board, so the movement didn't scare her (too much). 
Then we did the Susan Garrett Ready 123 game.  Tibby was so happy - we got to RUN!  She did good with this game.  It only took her 2 or 3 times before she figured out: eye contact = run.  She wasn't interested in her toy or treats, so I rewarded with just running!
Then we did something which I didn't completely understand, because Bella's (the goldendoodle) Mom asked me if Tibby gets snow balls in her feet, while the instructor was explaining the game.  Argh!  I missed the instructions!  By the way, yes Tibby does get snowballs in her feet and I have started to spray a little Pam on her feet before we go on long hikes.  It seems to work.
The game was something about working the dog on both sides of your body and going through the uprights of a jump.

During the class, when the instructor was explaining something or another team was doing an exercise I worked with Tibby on eye contact, relaxing and doing her tricks.  It kept her occupied 78% of the time. I was very surprised with how much eye contact and concentration I got from her.  A bunch of times (for several minutes each time) she lay down at my feet with her back to the rest of the group.  And then she would stare at me.  Yay! 

I had fun and Tibby had fun.  She has a tummy full of hot dogs.  100% successful class!

Now the horrible video.  My Mom had the camera.  She couldn't tape when Tibby was doing her wobble board or when Tibby was concentrating on me - Nooooo she had to tape us with me zoned out and lost and Tibby wild and crazy.  I was trying to figure out what we were doing.  While also keeping Tibby moving and most importantly NOT letting her STOMP on the Papillons.  Why oh why couldn't she tape it when Tibby and I finally figured out what was going on and we went through the uprights!?!? 

Week One Progress
1st Foundations Agility Class

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!