Well, we rented the ring last night with Amanda & Skeeter and it was fabulous to have just 2 of us in there. All the contacts were down to 'puppy height', but that was fine with me... since our object was to work on our contacts, it actually made it easier for her to stop on the downside - especially the a-frame. I tried to send her out to the a-frame too, but she still wants to head for the tunnel if it is on the 'near' side. More practice needed here.
She did much better on her contacts on all 3, the a-frame, dogwalk & teeter. Her contact on the teeter has always been good, but we threw that in just to have some fun. She also nailed all 12 weaves. I did try to push her speed once and she missed a few in her rush, so we slowed it back down again.
After a half-hour of working straight, we were both toast and look forward to 'free Friday' tonight. The object tonight is nothing but focus... even if we don't jump anything at all.
The weather has cooled down tremendously (it was 74 by the time we left last night) and that also adds to our successes!
8.29.2007
NCA, week 5
Class went well again last night. We were in split classes again; Whitney and I with Buddy and Waste'.
We started over a combination of tire to a-frame, right-hand u-turn to tunnel. Again, Waste' kept aiming for the tunnel instead of the a-frame. Lynn said it is probably because I have to 'fade' left to go around the tunnel entrance and that is drawing her towards it, instead of the a-frame. We slid the tunnel under the a-frame and sure enough, she went right over it. That will take some additional practice - I think sending her to the a-frame from a distance, whether there is a tunnel there or not.
Next we did the dogwalk to the table - back and forth several times, working on her contacts. Now, Lynn said letting her sit on her contact is okay if that is what is comfortable for her. I can always skip it when it comes to competition. We can live with that. Her table was excellent, as usual.
Oh, as an aside... she has taken to jumping up on the old maple stump at home... that is about 4' high and 4.5' across... who needs to build a table when we have one built in!! LOL she is turning into a mountain goat, jumping from one stump to another!
Back to class, then...
After the dogwalk/table exercise, we swapped sides with Rosie's group. There we worked on weaves... and did excellent! also did some pinwheel work with front and rear crosses, also incorporating the teeter. We still have some work to do on our rear crosses and making sure she is on the correct lead going in.
I'm hoping to do some more work this Thursday with Amanda and Skeeter, and Friday on free night. It's supposed to cool down again and I know she'll enjoy herself more when she doesn't get so hot. We also have a vet appointment on Saturday for our annual vaccinations, etc. I'll also ask Dr. Jackson about her weight and her limp... she hasn't been limping now for a week or so, but will still check it out.
We started over a combination of tire to a-frame, right-hand u-turn to tunnel. Again, Waste' kept aiming for the tunnel instead of the a-frame. Lynn said it is probably because I have to 'fade' left to go around the tunnel entrance and that is drawing her towards it, instead of the a-frame. We slid the tunnel under the a-frame and sure enough, she went right over it. That will take some additional practice - I think sending her to the a-frame from a distance, whether there is a tunnel there or not.
Next we did the dogwalk to the table - back and forth several times, working on her contacts. Now, Lynn said letting her sit on her contact is okay if that is what is comfortable for her. I can always skip it when it comes to competition. We can live with that. Her table was excellent, as usual.
Oh, as an aside... she has taken to jumping up on the old maple stump at home... that is about 4' high and 4.5' across... who needs to build a table when we have one built in!! LOL she is turning into a mountain goat, jumping from one stump to another!
Back to class, then...
After the dogwalk/table exercise, we swapped sides with Rosie's group. There we worked on weaves... and did excellent! also did some pinwheel work with front and rear crosses, also incorporating the teeter. We still have some work to do on our rear crosses and making sure she is on the correct lead going in.
I'm hoping to do some more work this Thursday with Amanda and Skeeter, and Friday on free night. It's supposed to cool down again and I know she'll enjoy herself more when she doesn't get so hot. We also have a vet appointment on Saturday for our annual vaccinations, etc. I'll also ask Dr. Jackson about her weight and her limp... she hasn't been limping now for a week or so, but will still check it out.
8.25.2007
my ilp submissions
Well, I finally got my card reader operable
again and got the pictures off the camera that
I took for our ILP (Independant Listing Priviledge)
submission - so that we can compete in AKC events.
So, here they are... front shot and side shot... isn't she a pretty girl??
again and got the pictures off the camera that
I took for our ILP (Independant Listing Priviledge)
submission - so that we can compete in AKC events.
So, here they are... front shot and side shot... isn't she a pretty girl??
8.22.2007
NCA, week 4
We had our combined class last night and ran courses. Both advanced and novice dogs. The ring was set up with 'nested' courses - that means the placement of the obstacles does not change, but the order does - based on level. We ran a novice standard and novice jumpers with weaves.
The standard course was a vertical (1) to the dogwalk (2), a right hand turn to the weaves (3), left over a vertical (4) thru the left opening of a tunnel (5) to the a-frame (6), right u turn to a tunnel (7) that goes back under the a-frame, left to a vertical (8) and on to the teeter (9), another 2 verticals on a left-bending line (10 & 11), back over the dogwalk (12) to the table (13), then finish over 2 more verticals coming home (14 & 15)
we ran this one twice. first time thru I forgot to do a front cross to the weave and we got bamboozled. between 5 & 6 she got sucked into the tunnel instead of up the a-frame [note: the opposite problem that we had last week with a choice of tunnel or dogwalk]. after we managed the a-frame, she lost focus and started running toward other jumps, but i got her back to do an awesome 8-11. coming home over the dogwalk, she got away from me again... trying to go out the door to the cooler outside... got her back and did a super table and finish over 14 & 15.
2nd trip thru, we nailed our front cross between 2 & 3 and she got all 12 weaves. I got her eye coming out of 5, hit the a-frame and zipped thru 7. by the time we got to the teeter, i was getting pretty winded and couldn't get the words out, but she nailed it and the rest of the jumps while I just ran to keep up. Damn. I was really sucking air after that one! LOL
The JWW did not include any contact obstacles. It started out over 3 verticals (1,2,3) to the tunnel under the dog walk (4) to the weaves (5) and on to the right side of the tunnel (6), back to a vertical (7) sending us into a wicked pinwheel of 4 more verticals (on a circle) (8,9,10,11), back thru the 4 tunnel (12) and finish over the first 3 (13,14,15).
She did very well until after the #6 tunnel... I lost her to the teeter. She just stood at the apex looking back at me like... 'are u coming?'. After resuming, the pinwheel was not as daunting as it appeared and she nailed the #12 tunnel and finish.
It was great watching all the more advanced dogs run and the problems that they had to deal with too. It made me feel like there is hope for us! LOL
The standard course was a vertical (1) to the dogwalk (2), a right hand turn to the weaves (3), left over a vertical (4) thru the left opening of a tunnel (5) to the a-frame (6), right u turn to a tunnel (7) that goes back under the a-frame, left to a vertical (8) and on to the teeter (9), another 2 verticals on a left-bending line (10 & 11), back over the dogwalk (12) to the table (13), then finish over 2 more verticals coming home (14 & 15)
we ran this one twice. first time thru I forgot to do a front cross to the weave and we got bamboozled. between 5 & 6 she got sucked into the tunnel instead of up the a-frame [note: the opposite problem that we had last week with a choice of tunnel or dogwalk]. after we managed the a-frame, she lost focus and started running toward other jumps, but i got her back to do an awesome 8-11. coming home over the dogwalk, she got away from me again... trying to go out the door to the cooler outside... got her back and did a super table and finish over 14 & 15.
2nd trip thru, we nailed our front cross between 2 & 3 and she got all 12 weaves. I got her eye coming out of 5, hit the a-frame and zipped thru 7. by the time we got to the teeter, i was getting pretty winded and couldn't get the words out, but she nailed it and the rest of the jumps while I just ran to keep up. Damn. I was really sucking air after that one! LOL
The JWW did not include any contact obstacles. It started out over 3 verticals (1,2,3) to the tunnel under the dog walk (4) to the weaves (5) and on to the right side of the tunnel (6), back to a vertical (7) sending us into a wicked pinwheel of 4 more verticals (on a circle) (8,9,10,11), back thru the 4 tunnel (12) and finish over the first 3 (13,14,15).
She did very well until after the #6 tunnel... I lost her to the teeter. She just stood at the apex looking back at me like... 'are u coming?'. After resuming, the pinwheel was not as daunting as it appeared and she nailed the #12 tunnel and finish.
It was great watching all the more advanced dogs run and the problems that they had to deal with too. It made me feel like there is hope for us! LOL
8.15.2007
NCA, week 3
We had class cancelled last week because of heat. It was 98 outside and who-knows-what inside. That week will get tacked onto the end so we won't miss anything.
Also, last week, she started up a limp. Worse when she woke up from a nap and it always worked out. I did lots of manipulations and felt for heat, but could not pinpoint it. From the way she limped, it appeared to be in her right front shoulder. Well, Tuesday morning she woke up limp-free. It was like she knew class was that night. I resolved to go ahead, but keep a close eye on her. Thru the course of the evening she never took a bad step and she woke up fine this morning as well. Who knows what she might have done to herself!!!
Class went well last night. Whitney and Buddy didn't make it, but Amanda and Skeeter did. Waste' was happy to see Skeeter - they're ol' buddies
We first worked on obstacle discrimination... the tunnel entrance next to the dogwalk... we did very badly with that... she would go into the tunnel and then come back out the entrance to go over the dogwalk! at one point she laid down in the tunnel and wouldn't come out. it was a loosing battle so we moved on to the next exercise.
That exercise was 2 jumps to either another tunnel or the teeter. they were not right next to each other so the handling was much easier. She did very well with that, both pushing and pulling. (pushing means sending her away from me, pulling is drawing her towards me).
After that exercise, we swapped sides w/Rosie's more advanced group. There we worked on weaves and pinwheels.
You can tell that she is getting more comfortable with the weaves... she increases in speed as she goes thru... kinda like "oh, I get it!"
We did the pinwheel 3 different ways... each time we approached from a tunnel... the 1st way was a post turn - I stand in the middle and send her over 3 jumps in a half circle. With that one, she drove wide over the second and had trouble making the third and brought a pole down. 2nd, I send her over 1 & 2 with a front cross to the 3rd. That brought her to the 3rd on a much better line. 3rd i did a rear cross between the tunnel and the 1st which sent her to the 2nd and I pulled her to the 3rd. This one involved less foot travel for me and shaved seconds off.
So, in all, it was a good night. We'll have another chance to work on the tunnel/dogwalk discrimination another time.
Also, last week, she started up a limp. Worse when she woke up from a nap and it always worked out. I did lots of manipulations and felt for heat, but could not pinpoint it. From the way she limped, it appeared to be in her right front shoulder. Well, Tuesday morning she woke up limp-free. It was like she knew class was that night. I resolved to go ahead, but keep a close eye on her. Thru the course of the evening she never took a bad step and she woke up fine this morning as well. Who knows what she might have done to herself!!!
Class went well last night. Whitney and Buddy didn't make it, but Amanda and Skeeter did. Waste' was happy to see Skeeter - they're ol' buddies
We first worked on obstacle discrimination... the tunnel entrance next to the dogwalk... we did very badly with that... she would go into the tunnel and then come back out the entrance to go over the dogwalk! at one point she laid down in the tunnel and wouldn't come out. it was a loosing battle so we moved on to the next exercise.
That exercise was 2 jumps to either another tunnel or the teeter. they were not right next to each other so the handling was much easier. She did very well with that, both pushing and pulling. (pushing means sending her away from me, pulling is drawing her towards me).
After that exercise, we swapped sides w/Rosie's more advanced group. There we worked on weaves and pinwheels.
You can tell that she is getting more comfortable with the weaves... she increases in speed as she goes thru... kinda like "oh, I get it!"
We did the pinwheel 3 different ways... each time we approached from a tunnel... the 1st way was a post turn - I stand in the middle and send her over 3 jumps in a half circle. With that one, she drove wide over the second and had trouble making the third and brought a pole down. 2nd, I send her over 1 & 2 with a front cross to the 3rd. That brought her to the 3rd on a much better line. 3rd i did a rear cross between the tunnel and the 1st which sent her to the 2nd and I pulled her to the 3rd. This one involved less foot travel for me and shaved seconds off.
So, in all, it was a good night. We'll have another chance to work on the tunnel/dogwalk discrimination another time.
8.01.2007
New Class! Novice Competion Agility, week 2
We missed our first week, since we were in Florida visiting the folks. While we were down there, we did get to work out with Cissy of Best Behavior Dog Training. She is awesome!
The course was outside and the first time we have ever worked away from home. Poor Waste' was so flabbergasted to have been either on a leash or in the car for 6 whole days that the freedom of the arena was too much for her to bear... all she wanted to do was run and sniff!! Cissy suggested some great things to try to increase her focus - many of which we already do, including obedience work (she's getting so good at rally!). But we did complete all the obstacles one at a time, including all 12 straight weave poles and the teeter! I expected strange obstacles to be the problem, not her focus! LOL
So now we are on our 2nd week of our new class. a new group of dogs, and you know what that means to Waste'... shall we say that our 'focus' suffered greatly.
all in all, she did well. there are 2 instructors for this class; Rosie & Lynne. both have been very successful in agility themselves. Rosie has shelties and Lynne has poodles (1 reminds me ALOT of Jocko!) we worked with Lynne last night and I like her very much. we started out with some handling and discrimination exercises.
the first exercise had us over 2 verticals heading toward both the a-frame and a tunnel. Lynne had us 'pull' the dogs thru it - we stayed on the left side and called the dogs to us thru the tunnel.
second, we jumped a vertical on a bending line to a triple bar with a front cross and hard right turn back to the tunnel. if the front cross was not done correctly, they may go off course to another vertical or up the a-frame... or, if your dog really isn't paying attention to you, they go chasing ruckus, the jack russell.
our third exercise was the same first two jumps to the a-frame and we worked on our down-side contact. Lynne asked me what kind of contacts I've been working on and i told her we've been doing 2o2o (2 on [contact], 2 off [contact]), but have been having problems with that on the a-frame. we used a target and she ran right by it. the second time thru, she stopped for it, but swung her butt around. Lynne says Waste' is trying to tell me this is too difficult for her to do and we can do a different kind of contact for a-frame only.
then we moved to the other side of the ring and worked on weaves. she did all 12 straight weave poles and even had a bit of speed with it! then, coming from the right, she got into her nose-pushing, but got thru about 10 of them... Lynne said we could leave it at that...
after that exercise, we moved on to the dogwalk and contacts there... she did great!
finally, we did jump, teeter, jump. we found that we are slowing down a bit too early, that we should wait another stride to allow her weight to drop the teeter more quickly, shaving off seconds of our time.
it was a hot evening (91), so we quit with that... came home and fell asleep on the couch in front of Law and Order. LOL
The course was outside and the first time we have ever worked away from home. Poor Waste' was so flabbergasted to have been either on a leash or in the car for 6 whole days that the freedom of the arena was too much for her to bear... all she wanted to do was run and sniff!! Cissy suggested some great things to try to increase her focus - many of which we already do, including obedience work (she's getting so good at rally!). But we did complete all the obstacles one at a time, including all 12 straight weave poles and the teeter! I expected strange obstacles to be the problem, not her focus! LOL
So now we are on our 2nd week of our new class. a new group of dogs, and you know what that means to Waste'... shall we say that our 'focus' suffered greatly.
all in all, she did well. there are 2 instructors for this class; Rosie & Lynne. both have been very successful in agility themselves. Rosie has shelties and Lynne has poodles (1 reminds me ALOT of Jocko!) we worked with Lynne last night and I like her very much. we started out with some handling and discrimination exercises.
the first exercise had us over 2 verticals heading toward both the a-frame and a tunnel. Lynne had us 'pull' the dogs thru it - we stayed on the left side and called the dogs to us thru the tunnel.
second, we jumped a vertical on a bending line to a triple bar with a front cross and hard right turn back to the tunnel. if the front cross was not done correctly, they may go off course to another vertical or up the a-frame... or, if your dog really isn't paying attention to you, they go chasing ruckus, the jack russell.
our third exercise was the same first two jumps to the a-frame and we worked on our down-side contact. Lynne asked me what kind of contacts I've been working on and i told her we've been doing 2o2o (2 on [contact], 2 off [contact]), but have been having problems with that on the a-frame. we used a target and she ran right by it. the second time thru, she stopped for it, but swung her butt around. Lynne says Waste' is trying to tell me this is too difficult for her to do and we can do a different kind of contact for a-frame only.
then we moved to the other side of the ring and worked on weaves. she did all 12 straight weave poles and even had a bit of speed with it! then, coming from the right, she got into her nose-pushing, but got thru about 10 of them... Lynne said we could leave it at that...
after that exercise, we moved on to the dogwalk and contacts there... she did great!
finally, we did jump, teeter, jump. we found that we are slowing down a bit too early, that we should wait another stride to allow her weight to drop the teeter more quickly, shaving off seconds of our time.
it was a hot evening (91), so we quit with that... came home and fell asleep on the couch in front of Law and Order. LOL
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