Stess

What a week at school. So there was no way I could get up and go to an agility trial and have fun or be fair to my dog. So a million thanks to Belinda and Bill for letting me come over and train, which for me is a great stress reducer. Of course, I over slept and got there like a half hour (or hour) late. Thai and I had fun. We did some bops and put up the broad jump boards as guides. It took some time for her to realize she wasn't bopping the boards...very amusing. Her heeling is less forgy and she did a good job of ignoring Belinda's distractions. I HAVE to remember when I go to Polaris Wed. to back way up. Get out the food. Keep it short! I digress. After the big circle heeling and serpentines we did some left hand turns. She was getting in nicely. The about turns were also looking nice and tight.
Holding the dumbbell is also increasing even in different places. Fronts were cute and she managed to do them even with Belinda staring at her butt LOL.
Belinda laid a nice little track in the snow...30 to 50 steps on each leg, one right and one left hand corner. Thai nailed it.
On the stays she laid down twice at the beginning sitting between Breezy and Greta and then was fine for the last 2 min. and never thought of moving on the 5 min. down.

I came home in a much better frame of mind so maybe I'll go agility it tomorrow...or not..we'll see!

Monday--no snow day :(

I was kind of hoping for a snow day, but not too hard since I had a workshop I would have gone to anyway. When I got home I motivated and worked on a few little things with Thai. We bopped and worked on getting it on cue instead of just madly bopping in hopes of a reward from the sky. Self control is hard LOL. She definitely has the idea of the sit after the bop. I wonder if it is bad to have that sit too automatic after the bop (Laura?). Then on to some stands which she still knows the signal for, but not the verbal only so worked on that. Walked around, over and tossed food from behind her and she was solid on the stay part of the stand. Then did some sits, downs and stands. Doing so many sits she had some trouble with the down from the stand, but a few rewards later we had it back to being as quick and clean as ever. Then on to some very nice fronts. She definitely has the idea of getting out and around my foot and I'm not sticking it out so far I look like I have a broken leg. Then some about turns, mainly rewarding when my toes are together. Also worked the get in. Then the hold with the dumbbell. She let me get both hands on the ends without spitting it out. It seems like the mouthing is only their when she is impatient for me to get the dumbbell so she can get her treat. So I need to work on increasing the interval while she holds the dumbbell. Then did a sit while feeding the cat in front of her (talk about torture) and a down while I typed this LOL

I notice I need to start using the rule I use with my students, that I can't start any sentence in the same paragraph with the same word. Could I use Then one more time?

Maybe I'll just blame it on fatigue!!!!

Winter has Come

Well, snow has finally started to fall here in Ohio. First I took Thai tracking. Boy is she a visual dog. It was a 3 legged track, with a 90 degree left turn and then an open right turn. Each leg about 50 yards. She started strong with her nose to the ground, then looked up and kept going, dropping her head every once in a while to double check she was right. When there was another set of tracks she'd sniff them, go "nope, not it" and go back to the correct track. Overshot the first corner a tad, but quickly came back and found the second corner dead on. She doesn't circle her corners yet like her brother. I need to stop leaving food after the corners or anywhere but the end because she'll be tracking along, get a few feet past the food and say "whooooaaa, what was that smell?" and back track to find the food.

Then we went to Petsmart to train. It was busy and we worked a lot on attention in the face of strange dogs and snow monsters LOL. She did some nice straight line heeling down the rows, right up to people and dogs and sit with never attention off my face. We worked about turns and left turns at the end, when she was more comfortable. Her fronts were nice, even under the stress of the store, but the bop feel apart and we had to backup to just bopping. Stands were nice, but didn't see anyone I would ask to go over my dog LOL. Her sits were also nice.

Now it's freezing rain and we are all holed up in the house snoozing :)

Beth

Must be a Weekend

It must be a weekend because I've trained twice and had time to post them separately LOL When I got home this afternoon after creating a DVD of the Tom Sawyer plays the 8th graders did I did some obedience in my living room. There is much more room at school and tomorrow I'll work there. We started with some bopping. I can't count the number of times she knocked the stanchion over and didn't care. She is now getting you bop then sit when I say to...don't keep bopping without a cue...won't get you a treat!!! We worked on getting sit and stand on cue better. She had a few really nice sits. We worked fronts with my leg not out so far and with her at really odd angles which she nailed. Then we worked the hold. AAAHHHHHH. But when I became really consistent (yeah go figure --you'd think I'd know that by now) and if she mouthed the dumbbell at all I took it away from her and then started over I got some really good grab down and bite it hard and hold it for 5-10 sec. The nice little furrowed forehead. Then we worked the about turn very slowly. She forged some and once when she got way out of position I stopped, looked at her, asked her where she was, very slowly took her collar and slowly guided her into place and then quietly praised. When we did it again she was dead on. Hope I did that correction correctly...it seemed to work. Then we held the metal article, a few quick stays, a kick back stand, and we were done.

Now onto my homework for my history course!

Tracking

Boy, it may be sunny, but it is cold!!! LOL So of course I decide to go tracking. Ok, so not really go somewhere to track, but I was at school finishing grades and there's a nice field out back so when I got stir crazy I laid a track. It was about 30 yards, left hand turn and another 30 yards to the glove. There were 2 ice puddles the track went over. No wind, aged 15 minutes. Thai overshot the corner and circled back and found it. Other than that it was a fine track even with the distraction of kids playing about 100 yards away.

Now back to grading :)

Agility

My life has been busy, so this is a post about agility class at Flashpoint Agility on Wednesday. I was going to skip it, but then I decided I needed to keep my news year resolution LOL

So, I ran home from school, let the dogs out, threw them in the car and ran to class. It had been a long day at school and I was pretty drained and definitely still thinking more about school than my dog! It also was one of our first COLD days this winter. And boy was the arena coooooolllllldddd. We had two standard courses set up. Thai's big problem right now is weaves. We walked the course and then ran it. I blew the opening, but the rest went well, including the weaves. The course was A-frame to weaves in a straight line. Thai has great contacts so she held the contact and then I directed her to the weaves and rewarded after. Her sit on the table was also quick (now that I've worked on teaching her the sit).

The second run was also a standard run, although it was a slightly harder course. I goofed up the opening, but then when we came around by the wall near the weaves and the A-frame Thai totally disconnected and was into or scared of the wall which may have had a raccoon behind it, or she may have been worried about the big silver ladder on the ground...I'm not sure, and am still not sure. But boy did she disconnect. So after everyone ran I went over and did a lot of attention stuff near that wall, including some soft corrections and then lots of playing afterwards. She became more comfortable, but was never totally relaxed over there.

I left feeling bummed, but maybe it is good that I took the time to reflect on this through the blog. I think I wasn't all there, and didn't handle de-stressing her well and moving on. I think I perseverated on that spot too long. Should have done more of an instant (like while running the course) little heel pattern, reward, and then move on to another part of the arena and then come back to it 10 min. later

ahhh...20/20 hindsite is wonderful LOL.

Belinda and Bill's

Today, after school...which is always longer after a 3 day holiday...I went over to Bill and Belinda's new building. Even though it was cold outside it stayed comfortable in there with the heaters. Vox and Breezy (Bill's big white poodle) joined us in training. I started off with a lot of tugging just to get Thai used to the building and the noises. We then did some stand stays with Belinda (no prob!) and big scary Bill (I think it was the hair that did it...wish I had a picture to post LOL). She moved a foot or two each time but the last time was best with just a shift of a front leg. Then we played with some heeling, but I didn't do it very purposefully. I had the pinch on and was walking around, but didn't really get focussed on what we were working on. I need to make a plan, especially for heeling which has sooooo many little parts, so I know what I'm working on. The we bopped. Thai has that game nailed now, bopping both a plastic and wooden stanchion. I got back about 3 feet with her able to bop and sit and bop and sit.

On to the hold which she did for 10 seconds and with a light tap on the end. We then did some short pickups (cuz that is much more fun than holding ) and she even grabbed it between Bill's feet quickly and cleanly. We then pulled out the metal article and did the same thing. She is now comfortable enough with it that I did holds with it as well as pick ups.

The fronts around my feet are much better with Thai going around my fit...not on them LOL.

Breezy, Thai, Vox (in that order) did stays. Thai went down on the sit after about 45 sec. and then was fine for 2 minutes. The down was fine and we had some distractions of balls bouncing, noises, etc. She was rock solid!

Then I went back to heeling and was much more purposeful on what I worked on. Started with pivots, then slow lefts, then large circles with Bill and Belinda creating distractions, and ending with Vox and Thai heeling past each other. She needed a few corrections for lack of attention. Partied hardy afterwards and Thai went on with more energy.

Bill and Belinda even had weave pulls that we pulled out and Thai did on left and right side (it was a set of 6) with Breezy working at the same time.

Maybe part of my training blog needs to include what I will do next time--
1. Make a heeling plan
a) start with some big circles...add distractions, find rythm
b) add pivots and slow left turns and about turns
c)go back to serpentines
d) end with some more distractions

2. Hold up to 15 sec and with light tap
3. increase distance of dumbbell from 4-6 feet to 6-8 feet (like I can toss that accurately LOL)
4. Bop with Thai sitting at stanchion and me moving back to about 6 feet
5. metal article play
6. Stays
7. Stands with men walking by, women beginning to do more than a novice exam

Will I be able to carry through? :) Next time I train obed. will probably be the weekend so we'll see.

Starting out

I'm going to teach my students to blog so I figured I'd best start my self. So what was I going to blog about except, of course dog training. Since I decide that this year was going to be dedicated to teaching Thai some serious obedience I figured I'd journal my journey here.

Thai is my 3 year old australian shepherd that you can meet here . She tends to be very cute, and just a little bit independent :)

Today, we worked on some fronts and attention at the local pet store. She did well even in the tight spaces going between the aisles with dog bones on the shelf :)

At home I shaped her bop from the wall to the stanchion (sp?) using a clicker. Took Thai about 5 minutes to figure out what I wanted, mainly because her nose touch is so strong she just couldn't believe that I didn't want one. I'd click her for moving near the stancion but that just made her more convinced that I wanted a nose touch. Since she is very good at bopping the wall I finally picked up the stancion and held it against the wall. She then bopped it when she went up but she didn't get it when the stanchion was on the ground...she was still sure it was a nose touch I wanted. And I'm not very good at being patient and lowering the stanchion by inches. So then I turned it 90 degrees to the wall and held it up with my foot as it was against the wall on the other side. Treats in one hand, clicker int he other. I was sure I was going to drop something soon LOL But that position somehow caused her to hit it once clearly with her paw. Once she did the behavior Thai had it. She was hitting it with her paw so often it fell over several times. I figured that was okay since I'm sure she will have ring gates falling at some point so she better get used to the noise. And as long as she could make the food keep coming she didn't care. In fact, when we went to work on fronts she would run over and bop the stanchion when the fronts were too hard :)

We worked on holding her dumbbell and got to the point I could tap an end lightly. Then we did the "fun" stuff with the dumbbell and clicked quick grab and turns. The dreaded Metal article came out next, but even that is becoming more fun and she picked it up more quickly (although not as fast as her dumbbell). She was feeling comfortable enough with it we even worked a few short holds.

The fronts were fun and she only sat on my foot a few times as I had my leg out as a guide. We were working pretty hard angles...maybe 270's both ways. Se was better clockwise (which is her hard way) but was overrotating counter clockwise.

This has gotten kind of long...does that mean it is time to go do school work now so I know what I'm doing with my students tomorrow??? Dang...I just remembered we have a messed up schedule tomorrow too!!!! AHHH better get on it :)

Beth