It's pretty cold and windy today. Other than running the weaves and dog walk, I was uninspired to do much outside. Instead, we came inside and worked on our table and contact stays.
I piled up the big couch cushions and it didn't take long for him to figure out that it was a 'table.' His downs were super fast and I think the stays are improving. I worked on varying the amount of time I asked him to stay, I'd reward fast downs immediately, and I played with getting him to stop and stay even when I kept moving right past the table. We'll keep working, but I was pleased with the results.
Then I just took a box and had him stay in his contact position with 2o2o the box. Again I was trying to work on him being next to me up to the box, and then stop and stay until released even when I kept going right past him. It took a few tries, and I still have to give a separate stay command at this point (right now 'contact' means 2o2o but he doesn't connect that it means 'stay in 2o2o until mom releases me'). I was just working in the hall, so I didn't have much room to work on lateral distance, but he was great with me going a good ways out ahead of me. I'm still returning to reward his stays a few times usually before I release him.
It's nice to know that we can have some successful training even if we're stuck inside. I know our moving handling needs a good bit of work, but we'll have great obstacle performance by the end of the winter! Our teeter base should be here within the next week. By then we should also know if we've won any of the equipment from the Four Paws silent auction. It should be a good winter!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Penultimate Four Paws Class
Jonah and I got a semi-private lesson last night and we stepped things up. Unfortunately I was still sore from the weekend's events (I played my first frisbee in over a year, thanks to my ACL surgery), so my handling was not as smooth as it can be.
This week we had numbers out on the floor and we walked our sequences before we ran them. We would walk the course two ways and handle each sequence twice to try different methods. To work on: Jonah's stays. He was unhappy tied to the wall, so I asked him to stay while I walked the course. He wasn't terrible, but there's room for improvement :).
Our first sequence was weave poles to a U shaped tunnel where we had to take the far entrance, to a tire, shoot, 180 degree turn to the dog walk, then back to the tunnel, a jump and the A-frame. I've got a lot of work to do so I'm not going to draw out a full map today (sorry!). Here's the opening line that was a little tricky (===O is the chute, O is the tire, the funny thing at the right is the tunnel, and then the poles are at the bottom):
This week we had numbers out on the floor and we walked our sequences before we ran them. We would walk the course two ways and handle each sequence twice to try different methods. To work on: Jonah's stays. He was unhappy tied to the wall, so I asked him to stay while I walked the course. He wasn't terrible, but there's room for improvement :).
Our first sequence was weave poles to a U shaped tunnel where we had to take the far entrance, to a tire, shoot, 180 degree turn to the dog walk, then back to the tunnel, a jump and the A-frame. I've got a lot of work to do so I'm not going to draw out a full map today (sorry!). Here's the opening line that was a little tricky (===O is the chute, O is the tire, the funny thing at the right is the tunnel, and then the poles are at the bottom):
==O O O\
. . . . . . . . . . . . O/
The first time I handled Jonah on my left through the poles and pushed him out to the tunnel entrance (the upper on the map), then picked him up on my right out of the tunnel to push him to the tire and rear cross the chute. This worked great.
The second time I had Jonah on my right for the poles and tried to pull him to the tunnel entrance. Before I knew it, he'd plunged right into the entrance straight in front of him. Oops. We tried it again with me coming to a complete stop and calling his name as he finished the poles. He did it alright the second time. This handling scheme had me pick him up on my left out of the tunnel. We had trouble getting the line to the tire because I was already moving forward and he'd be taking too sharp an angle for the tire. This second plan was good for showing our weaknesses, but the first worked a lot better for us.
Our other sequences were mostly jumps, including a serpentine and pinwheel, a mini-threadle and some 'out's. I won't lay them all out right now, but here are our points of note.
He was wary of the teeter. I'm glad I ordered one because I think we're going to want to take some steps back. He would go across and tip it fine, but then he wanted to get right off at the end instead of staying in his contact position. We need to keep proofing that.
Jonah liked when I did the one-sided serpentine handling better than when I did a front cross in the line. He did better with the pinwheel when I rear crossed than when I stayed on the inside the whole time. The rear cross made him turn tighter as he was looking to catch up with me.
He popped up once on the table. Oops.
We need to keep working on our 'outs.' He got to the jumps, but it was a little shaky. At one point we were working with a box on the diagonals, and the first time he came in the gap between the jumps. It was very similar to the situation at All Dogs last week, so we need to keep working that.
His A-frame is awesome!
Other than doing sequences, we got a little advice about venues. I'm still not really sure what I want to do. I like to run, so NADAC could be a good option, but I'm worried that he'll just never be as fast as the border collies and it could frustrate me. I think we could be really good at CPE, but I think I'd like to do one of the more competitive venues, too. I guess I'm leaning away from USDAA right now because the heights would be the highest. AKC has a reputation of not always being the nicest people, though. Anyway, we'll see. There's a CPE trial that opens this Friday that's in mid-January at All-Dogs. I'm tempted...
Monday, December 6, 2010
Beginning of the Week
Brr.
Today was the first day I've really kept our outdoor training short because of the weather. It's 32 degrees with 21 mph winds, making it feel like 21 degrees. It's been flurrying, and the flakes are going sideways.
Anyway, Jonah had to go get some shots this morning. He was pretty good at the vet but thought the table that weighs him and moves up and down was pretty frightening. I had to pick him up and put him on the table. Brave agility dog? hmm...
After that, I decided he deserved a quick trip to Petco. We picked up some new food, a bag of Puperoni (his favorite doggie treat), and a new toy. Kong has a chew piece with ridges that you can put peanut butter/cream cheese/paste in, and it also has a rope going through it. I thought this would be worth a try since it could combine a tug toy and food all in one thing. Clearly I had to try it out when we got home.
When we got out to our training area, the ground was frozen and I didn't have too much interest in staying out too long. We worked on proofing contacts on the dogwalk with the stay in the 2o2o (front 2 paws off the dog walk and back 2 paws on) position and did the weave poles a bunch of times. On the weaves, I could throw the new toy, filled with peanut butter, out in front of him as he went past the last pole. It worked really well. Obviously he loves peanut butter and I was able to play tug with him, then have him drop it and charge on at the poles again. It was some of the fastest weaving I've seen him do. I'm getting really excited about his weaving. Tomorrow we'll play with the channels again at class and then on Thursday it's back to straight poles at All Dogs Gym. I'm hoping he'll be a little faster this week on Thursday than he was last week.
Today was the first day I've really kept our outdoor training short because of the weather. It's 32 degrees with 21 mph winds, making it feel like 21 degrees. It's been flurrying, and the flakes are going sideways.
Anyway, Jonah had to go get some shots this morning. He was pretty good at the vet but thought the table that weighs him and moves up and down was pretty frightening. I had to pick him up and put him on the table. Brave agility dog? hmm...
After that, I decided he deserved a quick trip to Petco. We picked up some new food, a bag of Puperoni (his favorite doggie treat), and a new toy. Kong has a chew piece with ridges that you can put peanut butter/cream cheese/paste in, and it also has a rope going through it. I thought this would be worth a try since it could combine a tug toy and food all in one thing. Clearly I had to try it out when we got home.
When we got out to our training area, the ground was frozen and I didn't have too much interest in staying out too long. We worked on proofing contacts on the dogwalk with the stay in the 2o2o (front 2 paws off the dog walk and back 2 paws on) position and did the weave poles a bunch of times. On the weaves, I could throw the new toy, filled with peanut butter, out in front of him as he went past the last pole. It worked really well. Obviously he loves peanut butter and I was able to play tug with him, then have him drop it and charge on at the poles again. It was some of the fastest weaving I've seen him do. I'm getting really excited about his weaving. Tomorrow we'll play with the channels again at class and then on Thursday it's back to straight poles at All Dogs Gym. I'm hoping he'll be a little faster this week on Thursday than he was last week.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
December Goals
It has come to my attention that it is now December, which means it's time for a goal check-in.
Here's what we wanted to accomplish in November:
1. Faster speed and distance up to 15 feet for dog-walk contacts
Our distance is improving, but I'd say we're more at 10 feet than 15. I would still like a little more speed, but his confidence is high, so I'm happy with that. I'm especially pleased that he went right on the new dog walk at full height this week at All Dogs Gym.
2. Fast down on table
Our last class at Four Paws was a step backwards with the table, but when we were at All Dogs Gym he was the best he's ever been. Maybe we'll pick up the pause table from the Four Paws auction and be able to practice with a real table at home.
3. Front and rear crosses
We're able to do front and rear crosses, so I'd say we've accomplished the goal I set out, but there's always room for improvement. I'd like to see full speed rear-crosses where he doesn't hesitate when I step behind him.
4. 'Passing' the advanced beginner class, having a plan for moving up to intermediate
We passed with flying colors, and have a pretty good plan moving forward. We have 2 more weeks at Four Paws, we've found a class at All Dogs Gym, and once finals are over we'll check out Riverside, which would be closer to us.
5. Attend a trial without competing (we'll see if my schedule at school gives me enough time to get to one).
Nope. Next weekend there's a trial at Riverside, though. Assuming I'm in decent shape for my finals and last paper, we'll head up there one of the days.
Our goals moving forward are a little tough to lay out because I don't know how long we'll be able to be working outside. Then I'm not sure what we'll do inside. I'm going to have to go check out the basement. I think we'll put the teeter down there, but there's not a ton of space for equipment other than that. The other concern for December is that I won't be done with finals until the 15th, and then we'll be busy with Christmas and New Years festivities for a few days, too. Anyway, here's my tentative goal list for December:
1. Attend a trial without competing
2. Get our new teeter set up
3. Get Jonah happily and confidently navigating our teeter and sticking the contact, even if not at full height and even if padded to muffle the 'bang' (Goal for January: full height, full noise teeter)
4. Proof staying the contact position--letting me walk away and have him stay until released
5. Rear cross at full speed. Hopefully we can get outside to do this or work on it in class.
That should keep us busy in an already busy month.
Here's what we wanted to accomplish in November:
1. Faster speed and distance up to 15 feet for dog-walk contacts
Our distance is improving, but I'd say we're more at 10 feet than 15. I would still like a little more speed, but his confidence is high, so I'm happy with that. I'm especially pleased that he went right on the new dog walk at full height this week at All Dogs Gym.
2. Fast down on table
Our last class at Four Paws was a step backwards with the table, but when we were at All Dogs Gym he was the best he's ever been. Maybe we'll pick up the pause table from the Four Paws auction and be able to practice with a real table at home.
3. Front and rear crosses
We're able to do front and rear crosses, so I'd say we've accomplished the goal I set out, but there's always room for improvement. I'd like to see full speed rear-crosses where he doesn't hesitate when I step behind him.
4. 'Passing' the advanced beginner class, having a plan for moving up to intermediate
We passed with flying colors, and have a pretty good plan moving forward. We have 2 more weeks at Four Paws, we've found a class at All Dogs Gym, and once finals are over we'll check out Riverside, which would be closer to us.
5. Attend a trial without competing (we'll see if my schedule at school gives me enough time to get to one).
Nope. Next weekend there's a trial at Riverside, though. Assuming I'm in decent shape for my finals and last paper, we'll head up there one of the days.
Our goals moving forward are a little tough to lay out because I don't know how long we'll be able to be working outside. Then I'm not sure what we'll do inside. I'm going to have to go check out the basement. I think we'll put the teeter down there, but there's not a ton of space for equipment other than that. The other concern for December is that I won't be done with finals until the 15th, and then we'll be busy with Christmas and New Years festivities for a few days, too. Anyway, here's my tentative goal list for December:
1. Attend a trial without competing
2. Get our new teeter set up
3. Get Jonah happily and confidently navigating our teeter and sticking the contact, even if not at full height and even if padded to muffle the 'bang' (Goal for January: full height, full noise teeter)
4. Proof staying the contact position--letting me walk away and have him stay until released
5. Rear cross at full speed. Hopefully we can get outside to do this or work on it in class.
That should keep us busy in an already busy month.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Friday Fun
By this point you might notice that I've spent a substantial part of today blogging. I guess I've decided I needed a day off after my last day of class.
Anyway, I have an update about equipment. First, Four Paws is having a silent auction for a bunch of their equipment, so I've put in bids for a tunnel, a pause table, some jumps and a set of weaves. We'll see how that moves forward, but maybe we'll pick up some new toys. Second, after much thought, I ordered a teeter base! I know it's getting cold, and in not too long there will be snow on the ground, but it was probably our biggest problem yesterday at class and I can't stand to not be able to work on it. I got an adjustable metal base, and I'll have to get and paint a board, but it should be good. It would fit in our rooms (although might not quite match the decor ;)), so I might have to set it up indoors for the winter :). I don't know how long the shipping will take, but I'm excited!
Jonah and I had a great practice session today. I set up five jumps in the pattern from yesterday's course numbers 3-7 and we just played with a bunch of ways to handle it. He was happy and fast, which was fun to see. Here's the setup:
So first we practiced it the way we did it yesterday: Lower jump to the left, jump above it jumping to the right, then down over the next, curl up to the vertical jump, then curl around to jump the far right jump 'down' according to the map above. I swear he remembered it, and he was a total star. Here are the ways I played with handling it:
1. Staying on his right the whole time.
2. Front cross on the landing side of 5 to get him to come in to me, making the turn after 4
3. Front cross after two, then landing side rear cross after 4 to direct him to 5
Then I did the whole sequence backwards. I tried:
1. Rear cross to the first jump (far right on map), then stay on his left for the rest of the sequence
2. Front cross after first jump, rear cross at 4
3. Handle entirely on his left
In general, this was great practice. I was impressed that pretty much everything we tried worked, especially running the sequence forward. The only problem we had in this direction was that if I got out in front of jump 3, he would jump two and come to me past 3. When I stayed solidly on the landing side of 3 he would always come jump it.
When we ran the sequence backwards and I was on his left for jump 3, he would sometimes not totally check in with me, and he would try to take 3 on a ridiculous angle. I had to call his name and step back to make a point of him needing to check in before I pointed him to the jump. The second thing was, when I was on Jonah's right through 2-3 and rear crossed at 4, he would slow down before the rear cross. I'm not quite sure how to improve that.
So, it was a great jumping session. I was thrilled with our ability to handle the sequence multiple ways, and it was chock full of difficult lines. Good boy, Jonah.
Anyway, I have an update about equipment. First, Four Paws is having a silent auction for a bunch of their equipment, so I've put in bids for a tunnel, a pause table, some jumps and a set of weaves. We'll see how that moves forward, but maybe we'll pick up some new toys. Second, after much thought, I ordered a teeter base! I know it's getting cold, and in not too long there will be snow on the ground, but it was probably our biggest problem yesterday at class and I can't stand to not be able to work on it. I got an adjustable metal base, and I'll have to get and paint a board, but it should be good. It would fit in our rooms (although might not quite match the decor ;)), so I might have to set it up indoors for the winter :). I don't know how long the shipping will take, but I'm excited!
Jonah and I had a great practice session today. I set up five jumps in the pattern from yesterday's course numbers 3-7 and we just played with a bunch of ways to handle it. He was happy and fast, which was fun to see. Here's the setup:
So first we practiced it the way we did it yesterday: Lower jump to the left, jump above it jumping to the right, then down over the next, curl up to the vertical jump, then curl around to jump the far right jump 'down' according to the map above. I swear he remembered it, and he was a total star. Here are the ways I played with handling it:
1. Staying on his right the whole time.
2. Front cross on the landing side of 5 to get him to come in to me, making the turn after 4
3. Front cross after two, then landing side rear cross after 4 to direct him to 5
Then I did the whole sequence backwards. I tried:
1. Rear cross to the first jump (far right on map), then stay on his left for the rest of the sequence
2. Front cross after first jump, rear cross at 4
3. Handle entirely on his left
In general, this was great practice. I was impressed that pretty much everything we tried worked, especially running the sequence forward. The only problem we had in this direction was that if I got out in front of jump 3, he would jump two and come to me past 3. When I stayed solidly on the landing side of 3 he would always come jump it.
When we ran the sequence backwards and I was on his left for jump 3, he would sometimes not totally check in with me, and he would try to take 3 on a ridiculous angle. I had to call his name and step back to make a point of him needing to check in before I pointed him to the jump. The second thing was, when I was on Jonah's right through 2-3 and rear crossed at 4, he would slow down before the rear cross. I'm not quite sure how to improve that.
So, it was a great jumping session. I was thrilled with our ability to handle the sequence multiple ways, and it was chock full of difficult lines. Good boy, Jonah.
School: The Beginning and the End (sort of)
Yesterday was (thankfully) my last day of class. I still have papers and finals to do, but I feel like I have sufficient time to do them and I'm glad the rush is over.
Yesterday was also Jonah's first trip to All Dogs Gym. The description of their Intermediate sounded like just the right fit for us: "In the Intermediate classes, the dog and handler become a team—with focus on learning and building basic handling skills. These skills include the front cross (in which the dog turns toward handler), sends (in which the dog is sent ahead of the handler) and the rear cross (in which the dog turns away from handler). Also, the dog will advance with weave poles and with the seesaw. The focus will be short sequences of 3-5 different agility obstacles with emphasis on learning, practicing and using different handling options. The goals of the Intermediate classes are that the dog is weaving 12 poles in line, comfortable negotiating a full height seesaw, and for the handler to have a working knowledge of the different handling skills." (taken from alldogsgym.com)
When we got there, we quickly realized that this was going to be a lot harder than what we'd done at Four Paws. Everything was full height, and the questions were very tough.
When we first arrived, Jonah walked right in and never seemed the slightest bit nervous. There were dogs in the kennel barking on the other side of the wall, just like at Gemini, but it didn't seem to bother him at all. I had some tasty cookies and we practiced some tricks while we were waiting for the beginner class to end. His attention was completely glued on me, with those big eyes staring at me and the tail constantly wagging.
There were 6 dogs in our class, including Jonah. There was a toy poodle, a GSD, a cocker, what looked like a lab mix, a big white dog whose breeding I was unsure of, and Jonah. The poodle jumped 12" (and was probably the best dog in the class), the white dog jumped 20", and everyone else jumped 16". I'd never had a choice about what height to jump, but I decided 16" was probably a good starting point.
Then we walked the first sequence. It was a jump to the dog walk to a tire to three jumps. The first three obstacles were a simple line, but the next three were baffling. When I first looked at them, I thought there was no way Jonah would do it. Laura, the teacher gave us a little bit of an idea of what to do: she wanted us to send our dogs out to the tire, have them turn to the next jump at a distance and then finish the next two as a serpentine. Gulp. Here is the course map for the day. Our first sequence was obstacles 1-6.
The poodle went first and, after a few tries, got it together. Then the brown dog went and couldn't get through the sequence. We went next. I thought, "Well, at least we wouldn't be the only ones to fail."
I set Jonah up in a sit before the first jump, led out and called him. He stayed well, and when I released him he jumped the first jump nicely and proceeded right up the dog walk. As I suspected, he didn't go full speed across the dog walk. He didn't look scared but was a little cautious as he trotted along the top. I was proud of him. He's had some concerns with dog walks before, and he'd never been on this one or any dog walk that was full height before. Good boy. Then he started down the ramp and stuck a beautiful contact. I gave him a cookie, heard a positive murmur from Laura behind me, and then sent him forward to the tire.
He drove out in front of me perfectly and jumped the tire. Laura had emphasized that the handlers had to book it to get on the landing side of 5 to push our dogs to 6 in time, so as soon as he jumped the tire I was focused on getting in position. Jonah curled right around the tire and came running happily towards me, running right by jump 4. Oops. Laura told me to slow down, and that he just didn't have the 'out' tool fully established yet, so I needed to support him a little through the turn from the tire to 4. We tried it again, just doing those two jumps, and then tried the end of the sequence. Once he had it patterned that he was supposed to go to jump four, he drove out to the tire, stayed out for jump four (although I did have to be a little closer than would be ideal, making me have to really move to the next jump), came into me and jumped 5 on a nice angle, and then I pushed him out nicely to 6. Wow! I know we ran into an issue with that turn of 4 to 5, but once we got it he did the sequence really well. It was a big confidence booster. Most of the other dogs in the class never got to the 6th jump, because the handlers couldn't get there in time. They could get the first turn done because they were closer, but they couldn't get in place in time for the last. I was grateful for a quick pair of legs!
The second sequence we did was a lot simpler. I couldn't get the map to show this so I left out a tunnel, but the sequence was numbers 7-12, except at 12 there was an obstacle discrimination. There was a tunnel at a 90 degree turn, with one opening just to the right of the A-frame, and then it curved downwards on the map. We were supposed to push out past the A-frame and do the tunnel instead. Jonah did 7-8-9 smoothly and ran happily onto the teeter. It was a lot different from the teeter we've been using at Four Paws. First, it was full height. Second, the board was wood, not aluminum. The implications of that were that the board was heavier and it dropped farther and faster than he was used to. When it hit the ground, it was a really loud, metal sounding bang. So, he ran up, tipped it and looked perfect until it hit the ground hard and bounced him off. The noise shook him a little bit. I feel bad that he got a little spooked, but I don't think it will be a long term thing. He got right back on but wanted to jump off before it fully hit the ground, so we assisted it down slowly and he was happy. Then we went on to 11 and 12. The second he saw the A-frame he wanted to go, and he almost ran me over to get to it before he even registered that there was a tunnel, and then he happily went through the tunnel. So, obstacle discrimination is now on our list of things to work on.
The last sequence was 10-14. They don't have channel weaves, so they had guides on the poles for the dogs who didn't weave independently yet. I figured that would confuse him more than help him, since he'd never seen guides before, so I said he'd weave without them. This time on the teeter we put a stanchion under the entry side of the teeter, so he hopped on in the middle and just rode it down part of the way. Once he figured out what we were asking him to do he happily rode it down and stuck his contact. Then when I released him he bounded over the jump, happily bounded up and down the A-frame into another perfect contact, bounced over the jump and entered the weave poles nicely. He did pop out at about the 10th pole, but the second time through he went smoothly through all 12. He wasn't as fast as he can be, but I didn't think it was too bad for a new set that looks so much unlike what we have at home. I would guess he weaved in about 5 seconds. Considering the fact that he's only weaved a real set once at Four Paws, and that was probably about a month ago, I thought he did well. The other two dogs who went through without guides popped out, too, so he certainly wasn't behind the pack.
Overall, it was a great class. The culture is really different from Four Paws. Because there were 6 dogs, we didn't have as much active time, and we only did the three sequences. That said, when it was our turn I felt like we got good attention from the teacher, and she really showed us things we have to work on. At Four Paws, I feel like our 'success' rate is probably over 90%, and we only have a few mistakes in a lesson. At All Dogs Gym, we made a whole slew of mistakes, but I don't think it hurt Jonah's confidence and it really opened my eyes to what our weaknesses are. It was reassuring that all of the other teams were struggling, too, so you could really see what the effective handling was, and we didn't feel like the black sheep of the group.
I have a few main focuses to work on:
1. Distance
2. The 'Out' command (Both distance and the 'out' command contributed to our difficulties with numbers 3-4)
3. Pushing around a stanchion (We didn't practice this, but it would be one way to handle the turn from 6 to 7).
4. A front cross in a turn like that from 6 to 7
5. Teeter (Harder to work on since we don't currently have one)
6. Obstacle discrimination
This will keep us busy!
Yesterday was also Jonah's first trip to All Dogs Gym. The description of their Intermediate sounded like just the right fit for us: "In the Intermediate classes, the dog and handler become a team—with focus on learning and building basic handling skills. These skills include the front cross (in which the dog turns toward handler), sends (in which the dog is sent ahead of the handler) and the rear cross (in which the dog turns away from handler). Also, the dog will advance with weave poles and with the seesaw. The focus will be short sequences of 3-5 different agility obstacles with emphasis on learning, practicing and using different handling options. The goals of the Intermediate classes are that the dog is weaving 12 poles in line, comfortable negotiating a full height seesaw, and for the handler to have a working knowledge of the different handling skills." (taken from alldogsgym.com)
When we got there, we quickly realized that this was going to be a lot harder than what we'd done at Four Paws. Everything was full height, and the questions were very tough.
When we first arrived, Jonah walked right in and never seemed the slightest bit nervous. There were dogs in the kennel barking on the other side of the wall, just like at Gemini, but it didn't seem to bother him at all. I had some tasty cookies and we practiced some tricks while we were waiting for the beginner class to end. His attention was completely glued on me, with those big eyes staring at me and the tail constantly wagging.
There were 6 dogs in our class, including Jonah. There was a toy poodle, a GSD, a cocker, what looked like a lab mix, a big white dog whose breeding I was unsure of, and Jonah. The poodle jumped 12" (and was probably the best dog in the class), the white dog jumped 20", and everyone else jumped 16". I'd never had a choice about what height to jump, but I decided 16" was probably a good starting point.
Then we walked the first sequence. It was a jump to the dog walk to a tire to three jumps. The first three obstacles were a simple line, but the next three were baffling. When I first looked at them, I thought there was no way Jonah would do it. Laura, the teacher gave us a little bit of an idea of what to do: she wanted us to send our dogs out to the tire, have them turn to the next jump at a distance and then finish the next two as a serpentine. Gulp. Here is the course map for the day. Our first sequence was obstacles 1-6.
The poodle went first and, after a few tries, got it together. Then the brown dog went and couldn't get through the sequence. We went next. I thought, "Well, at least we wouldn't be the only ones to fail."
I set Jonah up in a sit before the first jump, led out and called him. He stayed well, and when I released him he jumped the first jump nicely and proceeded right up the dog walk. As I suspected, he didn't go full speed across the dog walk. He didn't look scared but was a little cautious as he trotted along the top. I was proud of him. He's had some concerns with dog walks before, and he'd never been on this one or any dog walk that was full height before. Good boy. Then he started down the ramp and stuck a beautiful contact. I gave him a cookie, heard a positive murmur from Laura behind me, and then sent him forward to the tire.
He drove out in front of me perfectly and jumped the tire. Laura had emphasized that the handlers had to book it to get on the landing side of 5 to push our dogs to 6 in time, so as soon as he jumped the tire I was focused on getting in position. Jonah curled right around the tire and came running happily towards me, running right by jump 4. Oops. Laura told me to slow down, and that he just didn't have the 'out' tool fully established yet, so I needed to support him a little through the turn from the tire to 4. We tried it again, just doing those two jumps, and then tried the end of the sequence. Once he had it patterned that he was supposed to go to jump four, he drove out to the tire, stayed out for jump four (although I did have to be a little closer than would be ideal, making me have to really move to the next jump), came into me and jumped 5 on a nice angle, and then I pushed him out nicely to 6. Wow! I know we ran into an issue with that turn of 4 to 5, but once we got it he did the sequence really well. It was a big confidence booster. Most of the other dogs in the class never got to the 6th jump, because the handlers couldn't get there in time. They could get the first turn done because they were closer, but they couldn't get in place in time for the last. I was grateful for a quick pair of legs!
The second sequence we did was a lot simpler. I couldn't get the map to show this so I left out a tunnel, but the sequence was numbers 7-12, except at 12 there was an obstacle discrimination. There was a tunnel at a 90 degree turn, with one opening just to the right of the A-frame, and then it curved downwards on the map. We were supposed to push out past the A-frame and do the tunnel instead. Jonah did 7-8-9 smoothly and ran happily onto the teeter. It was a lot different from the teeter we've been using at Four Paws. First, it was full height. Second, the board was wood, not aluminum. The implications of that were that the board was heavier and it dropped farther and faster than he was used to. When it hit the ground, it was a really loud, metal sounding bang. So, he ran up, tipped it and looked perfect until it hit the ground hard and bounced him off. The noise shook him a little bit. I feel bad that he got a little spooked, but I don't think it will be a long term thing. He got right back on but wanted to jump off before it fully hit the ground, so we assisted it down slowly and he was happy. Then we went on to 11 and 12. The second he saw the A-frame he wanted to go, and he almost ran me over to get to it before he even registered that there was a tunnel, and then he happily went through the tunnel. So, obstacle discrimination is now on our list of things to work on.
The last sequence was 10-14. They don't have channel weaves, so they had guides on the poles for the dogs who didn't weave independently yet. I figured that would confuse him more than help him, since he'd never seen guides before, so I said he'd weave without them. This time on the teeter we put a stanchion under the entry side of the teeter, so he hopped on in the middle and just rode it down part of the way. Once he figured out what we were asking him to do he happily rode it down and stuck his contact. Then when I released him he bounded over the jump, happily bounded up and down the A-frame into another perfect contact, bounced over the jump and entered the weave poles nicely. He did pop out at about the 10th pole, but the second time through he went smoothly through all 12. He wasn't as fast as he can be, but I didn't think it was too bad for a new set that looks so much unlike what we have at home. I would guess he weaved in about 5 seconds. Considering the fact that he's only weaved a real set once at Four Paws, and that was probably about a month ago, I thought he did well. The other two dogs who went through without guides popped out, too, so he certainly wasn't behind the pack.
Overall, it was a great class. The culture is really different from Four Paws. Because there were 6 dogs, we didn't have as much active time, and we only did the three sequences. That said, when it was our turn I felt like we got good attention from the teacher, and she really showed us things we have to work on. At Four Paws, I feel like our 'success' rate is probably over 90%, and we only have a few mistakes in a lesson. At All Dogs Gym, we made a whole slew of mistakes, but I don't think it hurt Jonah's confidence and it really opened my eyes to what our weaknesses are. It was reassuring that all of the other teams were struggling, too, so you could really see what the effective handling was, and we didn't feel like the black sheep of the group.
I have a few main focuses to work on:
1. Distance
2. The 'Out' command (Both distance and the 'out' command contributed to our difficulties with numbers 3-4)
3. Pushing around a stanchion (We didn't practice this, but it would be one way to handle the turn from 6 to 7).
4. A front cross in a turn like that from 6 to 7
5. Teeter (Harder to work on since we don't currently have one)
6. Obstacle discrimination
This will keep us busy!
Four Paws Class
Ok, I'm sorry I haven't been posting as quickly as we've been doing exciting things, but here I go trying to catch up.
On Tuesday we went back to Four Paws. The big job of the day was to work on rear crosses. I was glad we'd been working on them at home, because Jonah had no problem at all in class. The other two dogs sometimes turned the wrong way, but Jonah was right on the money all but one time when I was a little discombobulated. We did one sequence of a rear cross to the channel weaves to a turn to the tire:
On Tuesday we went back to Four Paws. The big job of the day was to work on rear crosses. I was glad we'd been working on them at home, because Jonah had no problem at all in class. The other two dogs sometimes turned the wrong way, but Jonah was right on the money all but one time when I was a little discombobulated. We did one sequence of a rear cross to the channel weaves to a turn to the tire:
O
::::::::::::
___
So, we'd set the dogs up on our left, rear cross over the jump and do the weaves with the dogs on our right. Jonah had no trouble with the rear cross or the weaves, but then we were supposed to do a front cross after the weaves before the tire. Try as I might, I couldn't get past the weaves before he did. I'm pleased that he's driving through the channel so fast, but it wasn't working for me to get the front cross in. If the weaves had been straight, I would have been able to get past him, so I guess it's not a real cause for long-term concern. Anyway, the next time we did a rear cross to the tire as well as to the jump at the beginning, and that worked great!
We did a bunch of sequences but the one other one that sticks out in my mind is below (impressed with my map? Just wait for the next post!):
So, the line from 3-4-5-6 was a little tricky. Our teacher suggested two main ways of doing it. First, you could send your dog to three while you stayed near two, wait for them to come back to you and get lined up with a fairly straight line through 4-5-6. Second, you could send your dog to three and be moving between 4 and 5, so when they jump 4 on an angle you're there to catch them and turn them back to 5 and 6. The first time through we did the second method, where I was more ahead of Jonah, and it seemed pretty natural for us. Since we're trying to work on having him out in front of me more, I tried the first method the second time. I think I'm just personally more comfortable when I'm moving, so waiting for him to go jump 3 and come back to me felt awkward, but he got the job done both ways. It's neat that now we're getting into questions of handling 'style.' I'm learning that I'm most comfortable in front of Jonah, but it's good practice for us to work the other way, too. The jury is still out on which style makes Jonah run faster.
After doing a bunch of sequences we spent the last part of the class on the weave poles. Again, we never got them quite straight but they were only a few inches apart. I'm excited about this because Jonah is really quick through them and he's doing the one-paw-each-side method. I'm impatient to get them straight, but since he's still hopping at home and using this different method there, I'm optimistic about what going through the channel method again might do for us. If it makes him faster, that would be great. He also never pops out with the channel, even if it's only a few inches apart.
Another main take away point for this class was that I need to be careful about how I get Jonah excited. I was playing with restraining him, and at first it seemed to be working well, but as the class went on I could tell he was a little bit resentful of me. After realizing this, I tried getting him excited without being so physical. I'd just bat around with him, getting him to jump and wag rather than holding him still. This seemed to work better.
So, overall, this was a great lesson with tough sequences, rear crosses and good weaving progress. I felt like I didn't give Jonah my best because I was so stressed about getting through the last week of classes, but he was a star nonetheless.
After doing a bunch of sequences we spent the last part of the class on the weave poles. Again, we never got them quite straight but they were only a few inches apart. I'm excited about this because Jonah is really quick through them and he's doing the one-paw-each-side method. I'm impatient to get them straight, but since he's still hopping at home and using this different method there, I'm optimistic about what going through the channel method again might do for us. If it makes him faster, that would be great. He also never pops out with the channel, even if it's only a few inches apart.
Another main take away point for this class was that I need to be careful about how I get Jonah excited. I was playing with restraining him, and at first it seemed to be working well, but as the class went on I could tell he was a little bit resentful of me. After realizing this, I tried getting him excited without being so physical. I'd just bat around with him, getting him to jump and wag rather than holding him still. This seemed to work better.
So, overall, this was a great lesson with tough sequences, rear crosses and good weaving progress. I felt like I didn't give Jonah my best because I was so stressed about getting through the last week of classes, but he was a star nonetheless.
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