Monday, April 30, 2012

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. 

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Tibby Is Two!


Two years ago today Tibby was born!
I can't believe that she is 2 already.  Sometimes I feel like she has been with me forever and other times I feel like she should still be 4 months old!



Ah, baby.  You're a big girl now.












Friday, April 27, 2012

I Taught My First Lesson


I taught my first lesson today.  Well, sort of.  Because we aren't taking the Tuesday night classes at SB Training, Zoe' Mom and I decided to train together.  Since I've been doing agility for a longer, I'm in charge of the lesson plan.  We take turns with our dogs. 

We have different goals.  My goal was for Tibby to pay attention to me in a new HIGHLY distracting environment.  Zoe's Mom's goal was to get Zoe to do the jumps off leash.  We both met our goals!

Most of the time Tibby got to watch.  This is how the hour went: Zoe trains while Tibby barks.  Tibby's turn - she comes out of the crate, ignores me, sniffs the grass, I put her back in the crate.  Zoe's turn! repeat a bunch.  Finally by the end I think she got it.  Come out of crate, do agility with Mom or go back in the crate. 

It was hard for her, because not only was she in a new OUTDOOR place, with a barking dog on the other side of the fence, but it was extremely windy.  Tibby hates the wind.  She doesn't like things moving in the wind - leaves, windchimes, plastic bags, yard signs.  She really just hates the wind. 



I think Zoe and her Mom did really, really well.  We broke down the 3 obstacles that I brought over and then did them in little mini sequences and if Zoe acted scared we stopped and worked on getting her to feeling comfortable with it again.  I didn't tape all that stuff.  So the video is just a few highlights showing them working and eventually working off leash!  Which was Zoe's Mom's goal :)
The FUNNIEST part is at 2:40 on the video.  ZM goes to do a front cross and totally wipes out on the grass.  Slippery!  Or the wind blew her over!  LOL! 
There is also a little Zoe/Tibby play time in the middle of the video - for anyone interested in Tibby's 'play style'.  She plays drive-by-run-over-my-friend-smackdown.

The issue I have with Zoe's Mom is that she won't do any shaping/clicker work with Zoe.  I gave her a clicker once and showed her how to use the clicker, but she doesn't want to use it.  So that makes it extra hard to teach Zoe.  Basically I lured/shaped Zoe to go over the jumps today.  Come closer to the jump - treat.  Little bit closer - treat. Closer - more treats.  Nose over the jump - treat!  Jumps over the jump - BIG treats! 

I told ZM that I was only going to bring over one jump and a tunnel.  She begged me to at least bring 2 jumps.  I keep trying to explain that it doesn't matter how many obstacles you have - if your dog won't go over one - you don't need to have more than one!  She told me it would be perfect if we had 10 jumps and 2 tunnels and an A-frame.  And I said, well you still have to train one jump first.

It makes me worry that maybe I'm a bad student.  I hope I'm not!  I don't mind doing the boring foundation stuff.  I understand where ZM's coming from.  You want to have fun with your dog and play.  But I wanted to have fun with Tibby today and I had to make the choice - let her ignore me or let her sit in her crate.  Hopefully she learned something by sitting in her crate.  I know what she learns when she gets to ignore me!  Maybe I'm not explaining this very well.....Um, you can't get to the top of the ladder without taking the first step. 



This video above is the last part of our hour training session.  I made 2 videos, because I know you guys see Tibby ignoring me often enough ;)  So the first video is after she has been watching Zoe work and has been barking.  She had been in and out of the crate about 6 or 7 times.  She had mostly ignored me or tried the old do an obstacle and then run away trick.  Oh, ha ha that one is getting old!

In the short video above 3 things happen - 1 the tunnel tries to blow away.  2 - Tibby can wait for her release for a really long time when I'm on the other side of the yard with my back to her  3 - She CAN focus in a very distracting environment.



This video is the whole training session.  It's fairly boring - unless you like watching Tibby ignore me and then get put back in her crate.  She does good by the end though!  Yeah for Tibby :)

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Videos and Time

I
I realized I hadn't posted these 2 videos from our last last class, which was over a week ago.  Life has been getting in the way.  The weather is amazing - Tibby and I are back to our multiple walks a day.  Morning, after work and evening - more on week-ends.  There is endless yard work and garden projects I should be working on.   Family stuff has also been taking a lot of time.  Plus I'm starting to work full time hours.  Hopefully that doesn't last too long - I like my days off!  So after a long day on my feet, when I get home and after our walk, a few tricks are about all the training I have energy for.  Sorry Tibby :(

Someday we might get to do agility again.  Hopefully soon.  And a break is good every once in a while.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Down In The Valley


I sometimes wonder if Tibby likes me.
I think she does, but it's hard to tell.
It would be nice to rewind and start over when she was a puppy.
Maybe then I could figure out how to play with her.
I try.
But I guess I'm not a very fun person.
I never knew playing could be so difficult.
Too excited - not enough excited.  And I'm never right.
It would be nice if she would learn to speak English and tell me what she wants.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Plushy Puppy and Relaxed Rabbit


Tibby got groomed again on Friday.
Her legs were driving me crazy, so I told the groomer to take them shorter and then even up her coat.  You know, so she wouldn't look like a marshmallow on toothpicks.
I think she looks cute! 
And for all those people searching for "Tibetan Terrier puppy cut" - this would be a 'puppy cut'.  Although the groomer didn't call it that.

I was planning on going to the Tibetan Terrier National thingy in St. Louis this year, but some changes at work nixed that idea.  Silly people have to get married on the same week-end! *rolling eyes*
So that was one reason I was growing out her coat.
It's much easier to do agility with her in a short coat.  Like running contacts are way easier.  I had stopped training them...for many reasons....uh, they're hard and kind of boring for me (not for Tibby, she loves them) to train, but maybe now that I can see her feet, we can get back to training.
She's a lot more cuddly now too.  And I find myself petting her a lot more too.  'Cause she is sooo soft and plushy!
And also now we can do some swimming....


Kiwi says life is rough for a bunny.  Reeeelax.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Sends, Ahead and Fastest



I'm pretty sure this is the first time Tibby has ever run ahead of me on a course. Obviously I wasn't prepared for that! She also had a really nice lateral send on the last tunnel. I didn't have to run her right up to the tunnel. This was the first run of the night.



This was our fastest run of the night (maybe ever) and it was fun :) I started running the wrong direction at the beginning, so Tibby got to go through that first tunnel twice and it made her supafast!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Girls' Escape


Pictures from last week's vacation.
I forgot to mention when I was typing up the seminar/weekend post that this was Tibby's first trip out of the state.  It was also the longest trip we have ever taken - 4+ hours.  I stopped once and let Tibby walk around, but she slept almost the entire time.  Either slept or chewed on her bully stick.  98% of the time sleeping :P 
She's a very good traveler.


Grandma and Tibby


Tibby's personal assistant. 
 I didn't want to let Tibby get her feet wet in the grass, before she went back into her crate in the car, so my Mom carried her around.  Well, I had the camera to carry.....  Tibby is not spoiled at all LOL!  We don't even let her feet touch the ground!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Last Night of Class - Out With A Bang!


Tonight was the last night of class.
Tibby was SO naughty!  She did super amazing great for most of the hour, but for the last run of the last night of class she wanted to remind everyone that she is the ultimate party girl and that AGILITY IS SO MUCH FUN!
Especially if you make up your own course.
She makes me laugh.
I know we have sooo much work to do, but come on! those cute little sits that she pops when I call her back?  Darling!
Ok, yes I had to call her back a few more times than once :P but she eventually came back and did the course.....after she was tired out.  And I guess I have proof that she likes agility!  LOL! 


Brushing


I finally have a picture of me grooming Tibby.  My Mom took it for me while we were on vacation.
Tibby is a very good girl.  She holds still, 'relaxes' and lets me brush her.  I wouldn't say she likes it, but she tolerates it. 

Sunday, April 15, 2012

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."

Friday, April 13, 2012

Hanging Out


Just hanging out with my Tibby.


Tibby begging from my Mom.  She's not very subtle.



The people we are renting the house from have agility dogs too.
What are the chances of that?
The Pom on the far right is a MACH 5.

Does This Human Make Me Look Big?


Tibby sitting on my Mom.



LOL!  She looks gigantic!

My Best Bunny


Tibby's favorite spot in the vacation house.
She started to carry this bunny around and playing with it like crazy - shaking it around and bringing it to me to play tug and fetch.
It's very cute!
Everything Tibby does is cute!




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