I made up a little animated gif for how the 2×2 training method works. However, this is ONLY after the dog has mastered the 2poles only, being able to get that entry at all half-moon angles:
(PIC REMOVED)
March 2005Monthly Archives
Class March 29th – Levi
Levi was doing so well on his weaving! Oh my, I have NEVER seen that dog go through the weave polls that fast. Head down, just cooking! I’m going to retrain his entry, though, with the 2x2s and see how that goes. It should work really well, maybe build his confidence up, too. The next NADAC trial my intent, again, will be to have those weaves be FUN! And to encourage him even if he only gets one of them and blows the rest. Who cares?! It’s the FUN that matters! 
Also, gonna retrain Levi’s contacts. Will use a target so his head stays down, and throw treats away from me so he’s not always looking at me for them. Flat board. See how it goes.
Class March 29th – Chase
Ooo Chase’s weaves are coming along so nicely!
I can half-moon around those 2x2s now with him, and he hits them each time. Looking for that darn entry! Wow, I’m impressed. I throw his toy out, too, and he then keeps his head down, and bends to the right for when the next polls are set up.
So we are going to move on to the next step. The 2 sets of 2x2s will be extended out a bit, so he has to go through two gates. Teacher says he’ll learn this super fast. If the snow would only melt!
I’m super excited about his weaves. I will admit, I didn’t know a toy was so much motivation for a dog. And play and tug. He just loves this game and it’s working very well! I love using all positives!
March 28 Update
Just a quickie update. We have class tomorrow night, but working with Levi and Chase this weekend was fun!
Chase is really getting his 2×2 weaves down! I can set that jump up, and he goes over it, and gets the 2×2 weave entry in the yard almost every single time. 9 times out of 10 for sure. He is a bit weak when I’m on the outside and he is inside nearer the polls, but we can work on that. It is just how we play, and throwing that toy as a reward seems to work great.
Levi, I’m working on his contacts. Have a board at home and we are getting a good solid 2o2o at the end of it. Hopefully that’ll transport over to the contacts, but we are doing so gradually in stages.
Lucy is doing a great job of retrieving the treat bag for me! And Angel is learning all the voice commands and hand signals for all the tricks she knows.
March 9 Update – Levi
Levi is a goon!
We set up a full standard NADAC type course in the back again for this.
Levi missed his weaves EVERY SINGLE TIME! He did not do the full set of 12 once, at all, ever.
Just like he does at a trial. However, I didn’t babysit him through, either. If he went fast and got some of them, we played and had fun. So the goal is to pack the 2x2s up into the car again like I was starting to do last fall, and go to various parks, and have him tunnel weave like we did. Boy needs weaving confidence I think, in different environments. Silly guy.
I also realized that when he blows his weaves, it also smashes my confidence, and I get embarrased and ashamed. Ugh. So I think this weekend at the NADAC trial I’m going to just blow off weaves. So what if we don’t Q in any game that has a weave in it. As long as Levi is having fun, and maybe he’ll get a couple of them, that’s okay.
I think he really needs weaving confidence.
Though maybe the Farmington site is becoming familiar to him, and that’s why at the AKC trial last time, he got 3 out of 4 entries? Hmm, possible. He is so darn sensitive, that silly boy.
Otherwise he did really good. He’s getting some distance and having some fun. I’m cranky with PMS right now, so it’s hard to stay up beat, and I think he picks up on that, too.
March 9 Update – Chase
Had class last night, it was another fun class.
Crate Games:
Chase is getting fairly good at his crate games, though we need to work on this more at home. I’ve been doing more weave poll exercises with him instead.
2×2 Weaves:
Last night at class the teach instructed me to throw the toy out paralell… err, I think that’s right, to the weaves. I’ve been throwing it out perpendicular.. so he goes through the 2x2s, just straight, and I throw it straight. Well, that’s silly of me, because I want him to weave! So I threw it at an angle and viola, he is more like weaving. So I will work on that, I think that’ll help me understand the process. And add a jump in too, so he goes jump, and wraps to the weaves. Once he gets some distance, she says we will add another 2×2 set.
Jumping:
She set up three jumps in a row, also, to see how these new dogs do with jumping. Chase waited for me while I walked out one jump! Yay! (lol it was like three feet from him, but heck, that wait is hard!) And we got him over all three jumps. He seems to jump with his front shoulders a lot, instead of his hind quarters. So we are supposed to practice this so he becomes more comfortable jumping. I’ll need to enlist Aaron’s help.
Out/Distance:
Teach set up a single weave poll and we stood right by it. The dog is supposed to walk around it, the C/T, and then get more distance from it. Chase is so quick, he knows that whatever I put out, he should do something with it, so instantly he walks around this thing. C/T! He is so smart. He’ll pick this up in no time.
I love clicker training!
March Third Chase
Chase:
Chase’s class was also a lot of fun. We had the big dog class first so we could set up the course outside and catch the last of the sunlight. Hopefully it’ll be much warmer soon!
Phonebook: Chase has the phonebook exercise down pat. I put it down, and he plants both front feet on it and waits for that click. He is so smart. Then I can move my body around, and his back end moves too, and I C/T that. The teach said he might not get to moving his back end by himself, and that’s okay. So we will continue working this back end awareness exercise.
Ladder Forwards: He goes through the ladder frontwards just fine. Not afraid of the ladder at all.
Backwards: He knows backwards really well, too, though not yet on cue. That’s okay, the cue will come. Practicing last weekend in the ladder, he didn’t really want to go backwards in the ladder, so we will have to work on that this weekend also. I’m going to be so happy when it’s lighter longer during the day, and warmer out, so I can work with them outside after work.
Nose Touch: Having a wee bit of a problem here. He does it a little bit, in class and at home, but he’s so darn gentle. Teach wants a nice hard nose touch to the hand. Was doing this with Levi and Angel, and both of them, especially Levi, give me a nice solid push, and even more so if I don’t get them the treat. Chase… he is more timid. He will look at my hand, lick my hand, and gently brush my hand with his whiskers. I think I just need to keep this up until he offers more of a push. Might take a little while with him.
Weave Poles 2×2: I understand better now. Teach put up a jump at a 90 degree angle from the 2x2s and Chase went over the jump (I haven’t taught him jumps yet, more later) and spun around and went zoom right past the weaves. Then zoom to go see the other dogs in the class. Silly boy. I need to work this at home with less distraction, see about getting him through the 2×2 polls. I think he’ll get it pretty quickly. Haven’t had time to work on it at home yet. Ugh. (I really need to retire.)
Tire: Last weekend I set up the new tire jump I got, and Chase went right through it, no problem. For a C/T. And now he goes through for a toy. Will be working on this, too.
2o2o: We are practicing standing on the end of a board with the back feet on and the front feet off, and treating. Chase loves this, and will hop right onto the flat board for his cookies. I think he’ll be great at 2o2o!
March Third Update
Class Tuesday night was great! First Levi, then Chase.
Levi:
Our teach set up a NADAC jumpers course we could run. Elite, of course. LOL. But it was excellent practice. The course had a set of four jumps in a serpentine. She told us to just run the serpentine without uttering a word. Just run straight parallel to the jumps, and only use arm motions out, in, out, in, for the dogs to follow.
I was impressed! Levi didn’t even have a problem. He nailed it, didn’t matter if I was talking or not. I really have to give that boy more credit, and trust him more. He knows what he’s doing, it’s me that screws up. I think I need to practice that more so I can rely more on, and be more aware of, my body movement.
Since that video last week that we watched of ourselves, and I was clapping my stupid hands in the ring, I started asking myself what else am I doing in the ring that I don’t know I’m doing? So I’m going to try to relax, calm down, and watch myself more. And I think Levi will respond a lot better to that, too.
The Elite course was a lot of fun. Someday, I’ll be in Elite. We will have our first NADAC Open Standard and Jumpers runs weekend after next. I really want to just relax, and have fun, and watch myself more, and not worry about the Qs (if I can!).
