Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Saturday, February 16, 2013
I've Got Those Agility Blues
I dont want to talk about Trophy's agility class from Thursday.
It was bad. We were very disconnected. I dont know if it's because of the final member of the class being there tonight (a dog with some issues dealing with other dogs, who is afraid of most everything, and Trophy is very sensitive and not forgiving to unbalanced dogs after an incident a few years ago). Or it's because i didnt want Demo sitting next to said dog (i kenneled Dem in another room) but he was screaming/whailing and that might have thrown Trophy off too.
Trophy is sensitive to his siblings presence. When Pan and Tasha dropped out for a while Trophy was visibly mopey without Pan around and it took him a while to get back in the swing of things by himself.
Also, sometimes i dont know if i'm put into situations to learn from others or to help others. Until i figure it out it's going to be challenging.
And then i keep being reminded that i "need" to start trialing Trophy soon. Well, I can't. Plans for Trophy's agility debut had to be put on hold when two other pets became very ill and my money went to the vet.
Not to mention from the begining i've said two things
1. Flyball comes first
2. I don't care if i never trial with Trophy.
Ending my mini rant now. No flyball today, maybe i'll have something more beneficial to update on tomorrow.
It was bad. We were very disconnected. I dont know if it's because of the final member of the class being there tonight (a dog with some issues dealing with other dogs, who is afraid of most everything, and Trophy is very sensitive and not forgiving to unbalanced dogs after an incident a few years ago). Or it's because i didnt want Demo sitting next to said dog (i kenneled Dem in another room) but he was screaming/whailing and that might have thrown Trophy off too.
Trophy is sensitive to his siblings presence. When Pan and Tasha dropped out for a while Trophy was visibly mopey without Pan around and it took him a while to get back in the swing of things by himself.
Also, sometimes i dont know if i'm put into situations to learn from others or to help others. Until i figure it out it's going to be challenging.
And then i keep being reminded that i "need" to start trialing Trophy soon. Well, I can't. Plans for Trophy's agility debut had to be put on hold when two other pets became very ill and my money went to the vet.
Not to mention from the begining i've said two things
1. Flyball comes first
2. I don't care if i never trial with Trophy.
Ending my mini rant now. No flyball today, maybe i'll have something more beneficial to update on tomorrow.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Flyball Hangover 2.0
I love the term flyball hangover. It's so perfect to describe the aftermath of the crazy exertion of this sport all weekend.
For the dogs it means:
-being too tired to lay down before falling asleep. (Pan slept sitting up the entire drive home, she had plenty of room to lay down, she just... didn't)
-sleeping in an akward position that can't possibly be comfy, only you're fast asleep, so apparently it's comfy... enough. (Demo, who slept with his head cranked at a 90 degree angle to his body the entire way home using the door as a pillow)
-being so tired you don't bark when the front door opens. (Thankfully it wasn't a burgler!)
-long blinks that turn into longer blinks
-grumbling/growling when you are unexpectidely woken up.
For me it means:
-waking up Monday with tiny bruises on my lap from Pan using me as a launching board
-pain in my right thumb from being chomped on too many times while giving out cheese
-discovering an asortement of scratches/bruises i didnt know about when the shower water causes them to burn
-constant ringing in my ears for two days
-a very sore right leg (since i always get up from the floor starting with the same leg, it's like i did a million lunges but only with my right leg...ow)
After this weekend it also means i have to find a safe spot to store/display these babies:
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Trophy and Pan both earned their FM titles this weekend! I snagged the balls from their winning runs, complete with victory slobber.
Trophy's team had a much harder time acomplishing this that i would have thought, we had more hot passes than i've ever seen from one of our teams (i was guilty for 2 of them, and one with Pan). When our second race resulted in only 28 points i was worried that Pan might get her FM and Trophy wouldn't! We eventually pulled it together with two races to spare.
Pan's team did phenominally all weekend. They were our Multi team, and were seeded last in the only multi division. I was expecting them to go 3-and-out all weekend. Thankfully, due to racing those "division 1" teams that push their passes, despite the fact we ran 3 full seconds slower, we ended up going to 5 heats most of the time. Whereas Trophy's team in Division 3 Regular, seeded last against other teams there also racing for the points, did go 3-and-out all pretty much all weekend.
Once they earned their titles Demo finally got to race. I put him in for 3 races. He was running faster, 4.5's passing until i decided to widen our passing a bit (compared to his 4.6s starts in Euclid). His turn looked really nice too. And then we had a race where both of the left-turn dogs took bad bobbles. Bandy in the second heat, and then Demo in the third had another bobble that he chased into the left lane and we got called for the interferance. I'm so very grateful that his wild bobbles havent caused a collision with the other team, although he did try to take out the judge (twice) during that race.
Well, i'm off to get ready for work. Let's hope my hungover body can manage it!
For the dogs it means:
-being too tired to lay down before falling asleep. (Pan slept sitting up the entire drive home, she had plenty of room to lay down, she just... didn't)
-sleeping in an akward position that can't possibly be comfy, only you're fast asleep, so apparently it's comfy... enough. (Demo, who slept with his head cranked at a 90 degree angle to his body the entire way home using the door as a pillow)
-being so tired you don't bark when the front door opens. (Thankfully it wasn't a burgler!)
-long blinks that turn into longer blinks
-grumbling/growling when you are unexpectidely woken up.
For me it means:
-waking up Monday with tiny bruises on my lap from Pan using me as a launching board
-pain in my right thumb from being chomped on too many times while giving out cheese
-discovering an asortement of scratches/bruises i didnt know about when the shower water causes them to burn
-constant ringing in my ears for two days
-a very sore right leg (since i always get up from the floor starting with the same leg, it's like i did a million lunges but only with my right leg...ow)
After this weekend it also means i have to find a safe spot to store/display these babies:
Trophy and Pan both earned their FM titles this weekend! I snagged the balls from their winning runs, complete with victory slobber.
Trophy's team had a much harder time acomplishing this that i would have thought, we had more hot passes than i've ever seen from one of our teams (i was guilty for 2 of them, and one with Pan). When our second race resulted in only 28 points i was worried that Pan might get her FM and Trophy wouldn't! We eventually pulled it together with two races to spare.
Pan's team did phenominally all weekend. They were our Multi team, and were seeded last in the only multi division. I was expecting them to go 3-and-out all weekend. Thankfully, due to racing those "division 1" teams that push their passes, despite the fact we ran 3 full seconds slower, we ended up going to 5 heats most of the time. Whereas Trophy's team in Division 3 Regular, seeded last against other teams there also racing for the points, did go 3-and-out all pretty much all weekend.
Once they earned their titles Demo finally got to race. I put him in for 3 races. He was running faster, 4.5's passing until i decided to widen our passing a bit (compared to his 4.6s starts in Euclid). His turn looked really nice too. And then we had a race where both of the left-turn dogs took bad bobbles. Bandy in the second heat, and then Demo in the third had another bobble that he chased into the left lane and we got called for the interferance. I'm so very grateful that his wild bobbles havent caused a collision with the other team, although he did try to take out the judge (twice) during that race.
Well, i'm off to get ready for work. Let's hope my hungover body can manage it!
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Welcome To Agility, Demo!
Thursday night was our first night in our new flyball class. One of our former classmates moved into this class with us which was a nice surprise... and we managed to more than double the previous size of the class.
Demo gets to hang out while Pan and Trophy run, and overall he was really good. He did scream a little when i was running Trophy, but otherwise he was quiet and it helped him chill out before his beginner class, which has 6 other dogs in it, but more on that in a moment.
The course laid out for the first class had a really neat jump pattern, i'll try to diagram that when i get home (currently updating from my phone at a flyball tournament in beautiful and cold Davisburg, Michigan). After the weaves we had to front cross into a jump, send to a jump then pull the dog over another jump, front cross into a pinwheel and front cross again after the 3rd jump back into the weaves (it will make more sense when you see it), it was a lot of front crosses very quickly, but it flowed very nicely.
The best part of the night for me was actually in warmup when Trophy let me front and rear cross while he was weaving 12 poles!! I'm so proud of the work we have put into our weaves.
Then Demo had his beginner class right after. It is a big class, and Demo did so well. Luckily he's not the only dog with space issues, but it's a totally different class experience than i had with Trophy, the canine pacifist. I freaked myself out more than anything about the space issue, as was evident when i tried to fall asleep that night and woke up 3 times clutching my cat (who sleeps in my arms when it's cold) and freaking out that i was grabbing Demo seconds before he attacked a dog that ventured too close to his space.
In reality Demo only snarked at one dog. He was brilliant for everything else, but i'd already worked on turns on the flat and touch. He knows how to go thru jump uprights, he was a little freaked out by the noise of the hulahoop (mine has water not beads in it), and once he understood he'd get his tug for running thru the tunnel he flew through it.
Need to somehow find a 12inch wide board to work on walking down a plank into 2o2o. He couldnt keep his butt on the plank, so i also need to do some more hind end awareness tricks with him.
I'm really happy with him though, he's very focused.
Now we are at a flyball tournament. Pan needs 800 points to get her FM and we have racked up 450 so far (one more race today, 5 tomorrow). Trophy needs 500 more points to get his FM and he has 108 points so far (2 more races today, 4 tomorrow). Trophy's team had a really uncoordinated race for 28 total points, so i'm hoping we can pull it together. I'm going to be slightly mad if they dont both get their titles this weekend. :)
Edit: went back and added the paragraph breaks. Sorry! I forgot when i update from the blogger app-thingy on my phone enter does not equal a line break. Whoops! Havent had a chance to illustrate this post yet, sorry!
Edit2: finally added a crappy diagram of the agility course.
Demo gets to hang out while Pan and Trophy run, and overall he was really good. He did scream a little when i was running Trophy, but otherwise he was quiet and it helped him chill out before his beginner class, which has 6 other dogs in it, but more on that in a moment.
The course laid out for the first class had a really neat jump pattern, i'll try to diagram that when i get home (currently updating from my phone at a flyball tournament in beautiful and cold Davisburg, Michigan). After the weaves we had to front cross into a jump, send to a jump then pull the dog over another jump, front cross into a pinwheel and front cross again after the 3rd jump back into the weaves (it will make more sense when you see it), it was a lot of front crosses very quickly, but it flowed very nicely.
 |
| Dog on right out of weaves. Front cross before 2, Push dog over 3, Pull dog over 4 with a front cross on the landing side. Dog on right for 5 and 6, Push out back over 7 front cross on the landing side of 7 dog on left back into weaves. |
The best part of the night for me was actually in warmup when Trophy let me front and rear cross while he was weaving 12 poles!! I'm so proud of the work we have put into our weaves.
Then Demo had his beginner class right after. It is a big class, and Demo did so well. Luckily he's not the only dog with space issues, but it's a totally different class experience than i had with Trophy, the canine pacifist. I freaked myself out more than anything about the space issue, as was evident when i tried to fall asleep that night and woke up 3 times clutching my cat (who sleeps in my arms when it's cold) and freaking out that i was grabbing Demo seconds before he attacked a dog that ventured too close to his space.
In reality Demo only snarked at one dog. He was brilliant for everything else, but i'd already worked on turns on the flat and touch. He knows how to go thru jump uprights, he was a little freaked out by the noise of the hulahoop (mine has water not beads in it), and once he understood he'd get his tug for running thru the tunnel he flew through it.
Need to somehow find a 12inch wide board to work on walking down a plank into 2o2o. He couldnt keep his butt on the plank, so i also need to do some more hind end awareness tricks with him.
I'm really happy with him though, he's very focused.
Now we are at a flyball tournament. Pan needs 800 points to get her FM and we have racked up 450 so far (one more race today, 5 tomorrow). Trophy needs 500 more points to get his FM and he has 108 points so far (2 more races today, 4 tomorrow). Trophy's team had a really uncoordinated race for 28 total points, so i'm hoping we can pull it together. I'm going to be slightly mad if they dont both get their titles this weekend. :)
Edit: went back and added the paragraph breaks. Sorry! I forgot when i update from the blogger app-thingy on my phone enter does not equal a line break. Whoops! Havent had a chance to illustrate this post yet, sorry!
Edit2: finally added a crappy diagram of the agility course.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Productivity?
Only 4 people showed up for flyball practice this morning... it made running lineups for next weekend extremely difficult to say the least since someone had to load. *sigh*.
It wasn't a waste though, Had a teammate run Demo while I boxloaded. He didn't care one bit, and it was really cool to see his turn up close and personal at speed! I kind of want to see if my other dogs will let me load and watch their turns. Hehe. Took my video camera... even took the battery charger........forgot the memory card. >_< oy story of my life!
Didn't really do anything that was on my agenda... but there's always next time... unless people just stop coming. :(
Anyway.
Got home and took a wonderful nap snuggled with the pups. Later worked on weaving with Demo, Trophy and Pan.
Still trying to teach 2x2 weaves to Dem and Pan. I don't know if I'm trying to move to quickly again or if I just don't understand the system enough... but i don't think it's working. I start tipping the weaves and they do great, and then it all falls apart. Going to try to do my instructor's "old school weave-purist" ways and just lure them through.
I'm torn on this is so many ways.
1. I really believe that the dogs understand it better shaping it piece by piece
2. I haven't been training on a schedule... but i feel like we should have a little more progress made that we have in 2x2.
3. Trophy, who is my most clicker-savvy dog, was taught by luring .. and he is currently weaving extremely well. But... it's taken over a year.
BAH. I don't know what to do. :(
Speaking of Trophy's weaves, at home he will let me front and rear cross on him while he is weaving. SO MUCH INDEPENDENCE! He even correctly weaved back to me when i sent him through the weaves but didn't follow at all - just once, but he is really starting to understand entries! His biggest "fail" in weaving right now is skipping the first pole and entering at the second, but at least it's on the correct side (and it's rare). He wouldn't let me cross in class yet, but we are trying to warm up every class with the weaves.
And lastly, today I started shaping Trophy to go to the backside of a jump and jump back towards me. My agility instructor said only one student has successfully taught it to her dog, so CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. Started with part of my weaves set with only one pole in and taught him to wrap around that in the correct direction (that was the hardest part, he wanted to do it like he would be taking the jump and wrapping the pole to come back to me). Once we figured that out I added a second pole so he had, essentially, two jump uprights and he could still go to the back of the "jump" and then come back. Finally I added a low 12inch jump... and he did it twice before going "weeee we are jumping!" and I called it quits.
I'm going to call this behavior "Reversing a Jump" and the cue is "reverse". So, yeah. More to work on.
I'm trying (really, really hard, actually) to try to give my dogs a more consistent working at home schedule. It's really hard since I'm in such a funk right now and I can't fall asleep until like 2am, and I can't wake up before 9:30 and I don't get home till 8 or later (when my next round of classes start I will be teaching until 9pm M,T,W and then I have agility until 10pm on Thurs).
The weave poles are currently sitting in the living room as a reminder.
It wasn't a waste though, Had a teammate run Demo while I boxloaded. He didn't care one bit, and it was really cool to see his turn up close and personal at speed! I kind of want to see if my other dogs will let me load and watch their turns. Hehe. Took my video camera... even took the battery charger........forgot the memory card. >_< oy story of my life!
Didn't really do anything that was on my agenda... but there's always next time... unless people just stop coming. :(
Anyway.
Got home and took a wonderful nap snuggled with the pups. Later worked on weaving with Demo, Trophy and Pan.
Still trying to teach 2x2 weaves to Dem and Pan. I don't know if I'm trying to move to quickly again or if I just don't understand the system enough... but i don't think it's working. I start tipping the weaves and they do great, and then it all falls apart. Going to try to do my instructor's "old school weave-purist" ways and just lure them through.
I'm torn on this is so many ways.
1. I really believe that the dogs understand it better shaping it piece by piece
2. I haven't been training on a schedule... but i feel like we should have a little more progress made that we have in 2x2.
3. Trophy, who is my most clicker-savvy dog, was taught by luring .. and he is currently weaving extremely well. But... it's taken over a year.
BAH. I don't know what to do. :(
Speaking of Trophy's weaves, at home he will let me front and rear cross on him while he is weaving. SO MUCH INDEPENDENCE! He even correctly weaved back to me when i sent him through the weaves but didn't follow at all - just once, but he is really starting to understand entries! His biggest "fail" in weaving right now is skipping the first pole and entering at the second, but at least it's on the correct side (and it's rare). He wouldn't let me cross in class yet, but we are trying to warm up every class with the weaves.
And lastly, today I started shaping Trophy to go to the backside of a jump and jump back towards me. My agility instructor said only one student has successfully taught it to her dog, so CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. Started with part of my weaves set with only one pole in and taught him to wrap around that in the correct direction (that was the hardest part, he wanted to do it like he would be taking the jump and wrapping the pole to come back to me). Once we figured that out I added a second pole so he had, essentially, two jump uprights and he could still go to the back of the "jump" and then come back. Finally I added a low 12inch jump... and he did it twice before going "weeee we are jumping!" and I called it quits.
I'm going to call this behavior "Reversing a Jump" and the cue is "reverse". So, yeah. More to work on.
I'm trying (really, really hard, actually) to try to give my dogs a more consistent working at home schedule. It's really hard since I'm in such a funk right now and I can't fall asleep until like 2am, and I can't wake up before 9:30 and I don't get home till 8 or later (when my next round of classes start I will be teaching until 9pm M,T,W and then I have agility until 10pm on Thurs).
The weave poles are currently sitting in the living room as a reminder.
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