Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Photoshop Agility
So a friend video taped two runs of the same course at class, and of course both runs were major disasters with small highlights in each.
SO....
I edited together the good stuff. :)
Enjoy!
Thursday, April 11, 2013
What The Hell Am I Doing Here?
Tonight's blog title brought to you by "Creep", the cover done by Glee, which has been stuck in my head almost all day long. It really has no other bearing on tonight's blog post, other than I got lost a few times on the course tonight. haha.
Before we dive in to the break down I'd like to say hi to my agility instructor who is reading tonight.
HI!
And then, my promised video comparison of Trophy Versus Demo on the dog walk. I felt that Demo was more controlled than he has been, which could be due to the dog walk being at full height for the first time, but you can still very clearly see how different he is from Trophy. Trophy was in the middle of a run and has some momentum while Demo was starting from a standstill. We have decided, after viewing this, that I'm going to try to teach Trophy to run for a target/reward so he has more drive across the dog walk.
Ok, now on to the class break down. Due to storms and Pan's thunderphobia, I left her at home tonight. So it was just me and the boys at class. Trophy's class had a really fun course with some interesting and challenging jump sequences.
So you are coming into what I labeled 1 from the weaves, so dog is on the right at 1, front cross on the landing into 2. Fun 360type post turny move at 3-5, front cross into dog on right for 6. Then came the really fun part: distance! My dogs are learning distance and I'm super proud of how Trophy handled this as I *know* I'm going to need to know how to do lots of this for Demo. So my path was to cut from 6 to the landing side of 9 where I would front cross into 10 while pushing Trophy out and around 7 and 8. He did this SO FREAKING BEAUTIFULLY the first time... and then we pulled out the video camera and it all went straight to hell. But anyway... I freaking love that feeling when we are so connected and working in sync I love my dog, have I mentioned that? No one else tried to add the distance, but I went for it. What's my agility catch phrase lately? That's right, Balls Out. lol. :)
9 through 11 is pretty easy, dog on the left. Slightly tricky entry into the tunnel, as Trophy did it correctly once, and then went into the wrong side of the tunnel. First time he went into the wrong side I was calling here and totally signalling forward motion.. Second time as I'm trying to keep up with him I'm leaning back to try to signal collection, but yeah, still moving forward, so he still entered wrong. So third time, totally over exaggerated ALL SYSTEMS STOP, and he turned and went in the correct side of the tunnel. Of course it works when you listen to your instructor (no, I'm not really sucking up here, promise. maybe.)
So I really did enjoy working through that sequence.
Then on to Demo's class. Like I said earlier, I really felt like he was much calmer and collected tonight. We worked on a small sequence with the A-frame and a turn on the flat.
As this was our first sequence, baby-dog was a bit bonkers the first run through, so we did it again right away and it was slightly better. After everyone ran through it and we attempted it a third time I really felt him settle in, we were connected, he waited for my directions, and I didn't feel like he was crazy-dogging it. Now, it could be that he just learned the pattern I wanted, but I'm going to try to make myself feel better and say it was team work.
After that we went to the dog walk, which you can see on the video above. This was their first time running it at full height. Demo was slightly slower and more collected than before, but I'm ok with that, really. Then we did a small sequence, tire jump at a perpendicular angle to the entry of the dog walk so we kind of had to shape their entry, which is difficult with wild man, but he still did it well. Then we did the opposite on the way back, with us running between the dog walk and the wall. On the second run through of this sequence we added a front cross after the dog walk before the tire jump. On that last run through I opted to not use treats in Demo's target lids, it worked the way out (tire, dogwalk), but I should have given him something while i tried to do the front cross as he broke his contact for the first time in a while.
All in all, very happy with how everything went tonight. Pan will be back next week, so get ready for some crazy antics from her!
Before we dive in to the break down I'd like to say hi to my agility instructor who is reading tonight.
HI!
And then, my promised video comparison of Trophy Versus Demo on the dog walk. I felt that Demo was more controlled than he has been, which could be due to the dog walk being at full height for the first time, but you can still very clearly see how different he is from Trophy. Trophy was in the middle of a run and has some momentum while Demo was starting from a standstill. We have decided, after viewing this, that I'm going to try to teach Trophy to run for a target/reward so he has more drive across the dog walk.
Ok, now on to the class break down. Due to storms and Pan's thunderphobia, I left her at home tonight. So it was just me and the boys at class. Trophy's class had a really fun course with some interesting and challenging jump sequences.
 |
| The drawing tonight is especially sketchy, and absolutely not drawn to scale. I'm imagining my agility instructor cringing and rolling her eyes at me, and probably threatening to beat me when she sees me next or something... |
9 through 11 is pretty easy, dog on the left. Slightly tricky entry into the tunnel, as Trophy did it correctly once, and then went into the wrong side of the tunnel. First time he went into the wrong side I was calling here and totally signalling forward motion.. Second time as I'm trying to keep up with him I'm leaning back to try to signal collection, but yeah, still moving forward, so he still entered wrong. So third time, totally over exaggerated ALL SYSTEMS STOP, and he turned and went in the correct side of the tunnel. Of course it works when you listen to your instructor (
So I really did enjoy working through that sequence.
Then on to Demo's class. Like I said earlier, I really felt like he was much calmer and collected tonight. We worked on a small sequence with the A-frame and a turn on the flat.
 |
| I'm waiting for some bad-agility-course-drawing-police to come arrest me. Seriously. |
As this was our first sequence, baby-dog was a bit bonkers the first run through, so we did it again right away and it was slightly better. After everyone ran through it and we attempted it a third time I really felt him settle in, we were connected, he waited for my directions, and I didn't feel like he was crazy-dogging it. Now, it could be that he just learned the pattern I wanted, but I'm going to try to make myself feel better and say it was team work.
After that we went to the dog walk, which you can see on the video above. This was their first time running it at full height. Demo was slightly slower and more collected than before, but I'm ok with that, really. Then we did a small sequence, tire jump at a perpendicular angle to the entry of the dog walk so we kind of had to shape their entry, which is difficult with wild man, but he still did it well. Then we did the opposite on the way back, with us running between the dog walk and the wall. On the second run through of this sequence we added a front cross after the dog walk before the tire jump. On that last run through I opted to not use treats in Demo's target lids, it worked the way out (tire, dogwalk), but I should have given him something while i tried to do the front cross as he broke his contact for the first time in a while.
All in all, very happy with how everything went tonight. Pan will be back next week, so get ready for some crazy antics from her!
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Beginner Flyball Class
I'm teaching my first ever beginner's class for our flyball team. Having been in the sport for such a short time made this a very daunting task for me at first, but 3 weeks in and it is going extremely well. And when i don't know what to say, luckily my teammates do (unfortunately some of them like to talk over me, but i'm letting it go because they've been doing this longer than i have).
Week 1 we did a lot of talking and demonstrating, then we practiced restrained recalls. The most important part of the lesson being "don't look at your dog, RUN!" Everyone did very well, and we added one jump before a long run out for the dogs to start learning jump sequences to a reward.
Week 2 we had lost one student due to medical reasons, but gained another. So our class roster is this:
1. Cocoa, the Havapomesian Squeewok
2. Salli, a Koolie/Coolie
3. Solomon, GSD
4. Layla, Lab X Cattledog mix (like Trophy! only she has very little ticking isolated to her back toes)
But, Cocoa and Salli were the only two at class this week. We made a lot of progress with Salli who learned to sequence all 4 jumps down and back VERY quickly. Cocoa struggled with this, but she excelled at turns. For this class and for homework I had them just teach the dogs to "bounce" over a prop, the goal being to teach them to quickly go and come back over a low jump. Cocoa did so well the next day her mom asked for some one on one help (since she's a friend of mine) and we started teaching her an actual box turn.
After the class Jbiz and Salli's owner stayed for our practice so we let them run our experienced dogs (Jbiz will probably be running Trophy at an upcoming tournament).
Week 3 we had our full class back. We again worked on jump sequencing, then we started working on turns on the board. Cocoa is phenomenal We adjusted the props slightly to make sure she was learning to jump up high enough that she would be in a good position to grab the ball. We also ordered special squishy balls just for her and sent her home with a few to learn to retrieve them and play with them. Solomon struggled a bit with his long body to understand what we wanted, but he got it in the end. Layla did very well, and Salli also caught on very quickly. Then we worked on some jump sequencing again, and ended on some restrained recalls with out jumps to end on a happy note.
Since Cocoa's mom stays for our whole practice, at the end we gated the 4 jumps and worked on motivating her through all four jumps since the distance between the jumps is going to be her biggest difficulty being as she's so small.
During our practice, again Jbiz and Salli's owner stayed so we gave them more practice with running experienced dogs.
Week 4 is this up coming weekend. We aren't having a full practice, just the class. But I'm pretty excited to see what these guys do.
Week 1 we did a lot of talking and demonstrating, then we practiced restrained recalls. The most important part of the lesson being "don't look at your dog, RUN!" Everyone did very well, and we added one jump before a long run out for the dogs to start learning jump sequences to a reward.
Week 2 we had lost one student due to medical reasons, but gained another. So our class roster is this:
1. Cocoa, the Havapomesian Squeewok
2. Salli, a Koolie/Coolie
3. Solomon, GSD
4. Layla, Lab X Cattledog mix (like Trophy! only she has very little ticking isolated to her back toes)
But, Cocoa and Salli were the only two at class this week. We made a lot of progress with Salli who learned to sequence all 4 jumps down and back VERY quickly. Cocoa struggled with this, but she excelled at turns. For this class and for homework I had them just teach the dogs to "bounce" over a prop, the goal being to teach them to quickly go and come back over a low jump. Cocoa did so well the next day her mom asked for some one on one help (since she's a friend of mine) and we started teaching her an actual box turn.
After the class Jbiz and Salli's owner stayed for our practice so we let them run our experienced dogs (Jbiz will probably be running Trophy at an upcoming tournament).
Week 3 we had our full class back. We again worked on jump sequencing, then we started working on turns on the board. Cocoa is phenomenal We adjusted the props slightly to make sure she was learning to jump up high enough that she would be in a good position to grab the ball. We also ordered special squishy balls just for her and sent her home with a few to learn to retrieve them and play with them. Solomon struggled a bit with his long body to understand what we wanted, but he got it in the end. Layla did very well, and Salli also caught on very quickly. Then we worked on some jump sequencing again, and ended on some restrained recalls with out jumps to end on a happy note.
Since Cocoa's mom stays for our whole practice, at the end we gated the 4 jumps and worked on motivating her through all four jumps since the distance between the jumps is going to be her biggest difficulty being as she's so small.
During our practice, again Jbiz and Salli's owner stayed so we gave them more practice with running experienced dogs.
Week 4 is this up coming weekend. We aren't having a full practice, just the class. But I'm pretty excited to see what these guys do.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
The Squeewok
This is Cocoa.
She weighs less than 10 pounds.
She's a super amazing flyball heightdog in the making.
Her mom (whom I call Jbiz) and I are super excited about training her.
She's a Havanese-ish, she looks like a Squirrel X Ewok mix...
She is the Squeewok.
More updates to follow!
Friday, March 29, 2013
Remember To Breathe
In agility last night i learned an important lesson: keep breathing. But we'll get to that in a second.
First in Trophy and Pan's class, we worked on a really interesting course made up of lots of perpendicular jumps. The first half of the class was pretty straightforward but with a tricky lead out over a jump and into the weaves. Pan is still improving on her weaves, despite not having practiced them at home in a few weeks. She didn't need a food lure last night, although she's not yet fluid or controlled, and in fact sometimes i think she still has no idea what she's doing.
However, instead of shutting down today, despite me losing my own focus and showing more disappointment in her than i should, she got the zoomies on the course. She ran through the tunnel under the dogwalk twice and then took off, ignoring my direction, and bypassed the course to zoom through the tunnel in the corner a few times. My instructor and I both agreed, i would rather have the silly setter zoomies than a meltdown. At least she was having FUN.
The second half of the course involved a much trickier maneuver followed by a wild ride around the ring. First (obstacles 8 through 14) involved a 3 jump pinwheel back into a tunnel in the corner, over the last jump in the pinwheel again and to the a-frame. We spent several minutes talking about our options for running this sequence and how to take jump 11 and be in position for a good A-frame entry after 13), and i ultimately decided to (listen to my instructor) and stay on the inside of the pinwheel, do a turn on the flat after the third jump (green star) to send Trophy to the tunnel and stay on the a-frame side of the jump to call him back to me and then wrap him around my body to give him a straighter entry to the a-frame. It worked really well for Trophy, i had to try twice with Pan since she's so much faster and less methodical than Trophy.
After the a-frame was our wild ride around all of the jumps in a big 'U' shape around the ring (15-20). It was insane, but other than losing Trophy up the dogwalk instead of having him follow me to the last jump, i actually managed to keep up with him. Pan was similar, but the tunnel under the dog walk sucked her in.
All in all it was a interesting challenge tonight, and i survived day 2 of running both dogs.
Now on to Demo's class and breathing lessons.
Last week it was suggested i try teaching him a nose target behavior to teach him a more independent stop into his 2o2o. So all week we worked on that, first teaching him to touch a lid, then longer touches, then off the couch into 2o2o with nose touches, then down the stairs into 2o2o with nose touches. (It worked REALLY well for him and he picked up it right away on both the dogwalk and the a-frame!)
We once again split up the class. We were on the dog walk first, twice on leash then once off leash to practice contacts. Then we worked on a mini sequence. Double jump to the table, then to the dog walk.
This is where i need to breathe.
Demo is so fullspeedahead!! it scares me and I'm super tense and i stop breathing when i get to the line with him. I really need to take a video of him next week so i can try to convey some of my terror. Trophy trots calmly down the dog walk, Pan sometimes trots, sometimes has a slow controlled lope down the dog walk.... Demo? Demo RUNS (flyball style) down the damn thing and it freaking scares me to death. He does slow down on the descent, and he is hitting and holding his contacts, but it makes me crazy nervous. One wrong footfall and he's flying off into the wall.
When we switched, we worked on the a-frame. 2 reps on leash, one off leash, then mini sequences. This time it was jump, a-frame, tunnel and then the reverse. He doesn't scare me nearly as much on the a-frame as he does on the dog walk.
Lastly we finished up with some handling over jumps, pinwheels and pinwheel into a front cross.
Phew.
First in Trophy and Pan's class, we worked on a really interesting course made up of lots of perpendicular jumps. The first half of the class was pretty straightforward but with a tricky lead out over a jump and into the weaves. Pan is still improving on her weaves, despite not having practiced them at home in a few weeks. She didn't need a food lure last night, although she's not yet fluid or controlled, and in fact sometimes i think she still has no idea what she's doing.
 |
| Green Star indicates where the turn on the flat was. And as usual, not to any scale what-so-ever. |
The second half of the course involved a much trickier maneuver followed by a wild ride around the ring. First (obstacles 8 through 14) involved a 3 jump pinwheel back into a tunnel in the corner, over the last jump in the pinwheel again and to the a-frame. We spent several minutes talking about our options for running this sequence and how to take jump 11 and be in position for a good A-frame entry after 13), and i ultimately decided to (listen to my instructor) and stay on the inside of the pinwheel, do a turn on the flat after the third jump (green star) to send Trophy to the tunnel and stay on the a-frame side of the jump to call him back to me and then wrap him around my body to give him a straighter entry to the a-frame. It worked really well for Trophy, i had to try twice with Pan since she's so much faster and less methodical than Trophy.
After the a-frame was our wild ride around all of the jumps in a big 'U' shape around the ring (15-20). It was insane, but other than losing Trophy up the dogwalk instead of having him follow me to the last jump, i actually managed to keep up with him. Pan was similar, but the tunnel under the dog walk sucked her in.
All in all it was a interesting challenge tonight, and i survived day 2 of running both dogs.
Now on to Demo's class and breathing lessons.
Last week it was suggested i try teaching him a nose target behavior to teach him a more independent stop into his 2o2o. So all week we worked on that, first teaching him to touch a lid, then longer touches, then off the couch into 2o2o with nose touches, then down the stairs into 2o2o with nose touches. (It worked REALLY well for him and he picked up it right away on both the dogwalk and the a-frame!)
We once again split up the class. We were on the dog walk first, twice on leash then once off leash to practice contacts. Then we worked on a mini sequence. Double jump to the table, then to the dog walk.
This is where i need to breathe.
Demo is so fullspeedahead!! it scares me and I'm super tense and i stop breathing when i get to the line with him. I really need to take a video of him next week so i can try to convey some of my terror. Trophy trots calmly down the dog walk, Pan sometimes trots, sometimes has a slow controlled lope down the dog walk.... Demo? Demo RUNS (flyball style) down the damn thing and it freaking scares me to death. He does slow down on the descent, and he is hitting and holding his contacts, but it makes me crazy nervous. One wrong footfall and he's flying off into the wall.
When we switched, we worked on the a-frame. 2 reps on leash, one off leash, then mini sequences. This time it was jump, a-frame, tunnel and then the reverse. He doesn't scare me nearly as much on the a-frame as he does on the dog walk.
Lastly we finished up with some handling over jumps, pinwheels and pinwheel into a front cross.
Phew.
Friday, March 22, 2013
I Survived!
Yesterday was my first night running all 3 of my dogs without my sister in class (she is doing well after her surgery and is settling in for a looong recovery). I have been petsitting since Saturday so i was expecting the dogs to be crazy, having not really spent time with me since Saturday (i did pick Trophy and Pan up in the morning and took them to work so they wouldnt be totally wired), but they all did very well.
The course setup for Trophy and Pan was delightful. It was just challenging enough that i could really settle in and run the dogs without having to worry about any tricky handling spots. I could have done without both Trophy and Pan trying to run the teeter like it was the dogwalk with no reasonable explaination (i even told Pan to ease up, but she still ploughed right on through and went flying). Luckily neither was really phased by it, and while i didnt keep my head enough to cheer, i didnt gasp or do anything to make the event tragic in their little brains.
When we put the course together Trophy ran clean in a really nice run. I love love love running my boy. Pan's run was also nice, except she backed out of the tunnel...twice...in a row. She's so weird. Otherwise her run was really nice. Still working on her weaves, but they are coming along nicely and i'm happy with her progress, when her head is screwed on right she's so much fun to run.
Demo's class was also really good! I finally felt like we clicked. We worked on the dog walk some more, changing our training plan with him on the contact obsticles, going to add a target for him to nosetouch at the end to teach him to stop since i can not get ahead of him on the dog walk.
Then worked some sequencing, jump to a curved tunnel then another jump. Easy. Worked on startline stays, front crosses and blind crosses. Finally felt like he looked to me for a little bit of direction, success in that if nothing else. Then we worked on the a-frame, which i can get ahead of him on, that was much better. He was getting tired (resting his head on my lap while waiting for our turn) and i could definitely see him looking to me instead of just charging ahead.
As my instructor said, "he's having fun!" Lol.
Totally love my kids, so very lucky to have them.
Tomorrow starts our Intro to Flyball Class, really excited for it! Putting the finishing touches on my class plan tonight, then heading to bed early.
The course setup for Trophy and Pan was delightful. It was just challenging enough that i could really settle in and run the dogs without having to worry about any tricky handling spots. I could have done without both Trophy and Pan trying to run the teeter like it was the dogwalk with no reasonable explaination (i even told Pan to ease up, but she still ploughed right on through and went flying). Luckily neither was really phased by it, and while i didnt keep my head enough to cheer, i didnt gasp or do anything to make the event tragic in their little brains.
When we put the course together Trophy ran clean in a really nice run. I love love love running my boy. Pan's run was also nice, except she backed out of the tunnel...twice...in a row. She's so weird. Otherwise her run was really nice. Still working on her weaves, but they are coming along nicely and i'm happy with her progress, when her head is screwed on right she's so much fun to run.
Demo's class was also really good! I finally felt like we clicked. We worked on the dog walk some more, changing our training plan with him on the contact obsticles, going to add a target for him to nosetouch at the end to teach him to stop since i can not get ahead of him on the dog walk.
Then worked some sequencing, jump to a curved tunnel then another jump. Easy. Worked on startline stays, front crosses and blind crosses. Finally felt like he looked to me for a little bit of direction, success in that if nothing else. Then we worked on the a-frame, which i can get ahead of him on, that was much better. He was getting tired (resting his head on my lap while waiting for our turn) and i could definitely see him looking to me instead of just charging ahead.
As my instructor said, "he's having fun!" Lol.
Totally love my kids, so very lucky to have them.
Tomorrow starts our Intro to Flyball Class, really excited for it! Putting the finishing touches on my class plan tonight, then heading to bed early.
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