TrainingTag Archives

Understanding Collection and Turning

So I’ve been competing and training in agility for, oh, about five years now. Levi was my first agility dog, and he’s a collie, a bit long in the body and not very flexible. He is just about retired… and my new agility dog is Chase, a border collie. Chase is very flexible and very fast and we have had quite a bit of problems qualifying in AKC agility because the courses are so tight and twisty.

Well, last weekend I ran Chase in AKC agility. On a good note, he got his open Jumpers with Weaves title. Yay! It’s the only Q we got all weekend. Also last weekend I watched Front And Rear Crosses DVD by Stacy Peardot-Goudy. And for the first time I really was able to see, in her video, how a dog can collect and turn his body doing a front cross. I’ve never really understood or seen it before. And now I realize that Chase lacks this skill. He can jump and stretch out, but he doesn’t know how to collect and turn very well. And he doesn’t know how to do it on cue.

So, instead of giving myself a colon cleanse, I’m going to try to teach Chase how to collect and turn. So maybe we’ll have better runs in AKC agility. We do a pretty good job in ASCA and DOCNA, but the turns have always alluded me. Yeah I know I know, sometimes I’m a bit slow when it comes to learning things. But at least now I know there is something we can work on instead of just begin frustrated for not qualifying!

Cynthia

June 8, 2009

Agility, Chase

3 comments

Agility, Chase, Training

Tatum’s Taking the Dumbbell!

Yay! I’m so excited. For a while there I didn’t think she’d ever take the dumbbell on her own.

Tatum Dumbbell

I’ve been putting squeeze cheese on the dumbbell for her to lick, which she really likes. And no matter how many times I’ve read, in clicker training books, that a dog will naturally just open her mouth to take the thing after a while… I have never had a dog do that. Or else maybe I’m just not patient enough. LOL

So, with the help of my trainer, I rolled the bar of the dumbbell into her mouth when she was licking. She wasn’t too crazy about that, but when the dumbbell was in, I would click, and you could tell she understood that.

It only took a couple of days for her to start opening her mouth and taking the dumbbell in on her own! I was thrilled! So I didn’t need to start a hair loss treatment as I wasn’t pulling my hair out for too long!

So now we work on duration.. how long the dumbbell stays in her mouth. It’ll come, for sure. And she has to take it when it’s on the ground. All doable. I did it all with Levi and Lucy and they love the dumbbell.

My smart smooth collie girl is gonna do obedience!

Obedience, Tatum, Training

Classes Gonna Start!

Okay I know I know it’s not like I don’t do regular training with my dogs, but I’m excited because Tatum is going to be going to regular obedience and agility classes soon. Probably with the start of April. Should be fun.

Tatum Sitting

Levi’s obedience is winding down, he’ll still do ASCA which will be fun. And he can jump at 16″. Tatum is just starting. And I love working with her. I’ve been working stands, stays, recalls and heeling in the front yard now that it’s warm. I love that it’s starting to warm up outside! I gotta pull down the Bamboo shades to keep the heat of the sun out, but I like it, so they stay up.

So Thursday nights is probably going to be Tatum’s obedience night, and Friday night will be agility night. The downside is that I won’t really have a day off on the weekends. Bleh. So I might have to bug out of classes once in a while, or flyball practice, just to keep my own sanity. But that’s okay, I have to set boundaries and it’s always a learning process.

This picture is of Tatum when we were practicing stays at a trial a while ago. Isn’t she doing great! I am thrilled that she understands what stay means. And her recalls are getting to be enthusiastic, and so is her heeling. There is so freakin’ much heeling in obedience, and I really want my dogs to have happy drivey heeling! Even the Tot, my shy little collie girl who just really isn’t shy anymore.

Cynthia

March 22, 2009

Levi, Obedience, Tatum

3 comments

Levi, Obedience, Training

Update on Muffit’s Training

Muffit and a Toy

Well I am pleased to say that Muffit’s training is coming along very well! He is such a good boy. We had a private lesson last Friday and my instructor was actually very happy with how far he has already come.

Muffit Calm!

I discovered while training him at the local agility barn, that he was best if he had a clear beginning point and ending point. So last Friday we tried this with him, and it worked wonderful. Both his beginning point and his ending point will be a mat. He loves his mat, has a great down on the mat, and it’s like something that is very clear to him that he understands and can perform very successfully. And it’s a good calming place for him, too. Maybe if he had one of those mats with magnets it would help him even more! LOL I’ve been working with Muffit at home to teach him to calm down. This picture is of Muffit’s chin in my hand. This is his signal to be calm. When his tail stops wagging and he’s calm, then I slip a treat into his mouth. I haven’t been saying ‘good’ or ‘yes’ or clicking, because those things all bring his drive up. And he has so much frantic drive that I want to teach him to be calm and relax.

Muffit and a Toy

On his mat in the private lesson he was being much more calm than he has been in the past. We set up a tunnel, too, and he’d start on his mat, go through the tunnel, get a treat off the target plate, and then go back onto his mat. He does all this in the blink of an eye, LOL, he’s fast but he does seem like he’s thinking about it. And the tunnel was C shaped so that we could use the same mat for the beginning and the end.I was thrilled with Muffit’s progress. And he’s been there before, which helps him calm down, too. But that is okay because anything that helps him be calm, so he can think, and not be frantic, is great!

So flyball is on hold for him for a while. I’m actually not sure if he’ll ever be able to function in the environment. But I think he will be able to do agility. As soon as we start practicing on a weekly basis this summer, I bet his progress will go forward in leaps and bounds!

He is such a good boy. I love seeing him learn, seeing him relax. He loves to learn and he’s such a typical goofy boy. He just wants to make me happy and the treat slipped into his mouth may not even be something he really notices. But we’ll keep giving him treats, teaching him to be calm, and go over all the obstacles in agility.

Maybe we’ll even do some obedience with him. It’s going to be hard for him once he gets in trial environments, though. But I have a plan for that too. I’m excited for Muffit!

Long Days of Agility

Tatum's Recall

Whew! What a weekend! I am dead tired. At the end of the first day I thought having a 3 day ASCA trial was a great idea (ASCA is Australian Shepherd Club of America). However, today, after the third day was over, I think two days are better! I’m dead tired. So are my dogs, Levi, Chase and Tatum. Here’s a brief overview of how things went.

I entered Levi in Open A Obedience on Saturday. He is such a good boy. He did perfect on his 3 minute out of sight sit stay, and his 5 minute out of sight down stay! I was so proud, because he was having problems with these in the past. These were done first and out of the way. Then we did the obedience run through. Well, he didn’t sit at his halts very much again. Leftover from the show ring, I’m sure. He looses lots of points that way but maybe we can Q without sits. He failed at his Drop on Recall. Never before in training has he anticipated the drop. He’s always run to me too fast and dropped at me feet. So we have worked this quite a bit so he’ll drop when I say, not at my feet. Well… so he anticipated the drop the whole way to the drop point, the dork! Then when I called him to front, he anticipated again, and dropped at my feet. This goofy boy! LOL. His retreive on the flat was beautiful. His retreive over the high was okay… he went out to get the dumbbell, then on the way back he went by the jump, not over. Another spot we zeroed. His broad jump was excellent though!

So no Q for him. But that’s okay, we are still working out the kinks. We have about a month until the next obedience trial he is entered in.

Chase did great in agility on Saturday. He Q’d both his novice jumpers runs so I moved him to Open for Sunday. He also got a half Q in a standard run. I’m tellin ya… I LOVE ASCA with Chase! Instead of AKC where I have to turn him so hard, and my timing is not that quick… ASCA gave us nice wide open courses and just a small ‘Chase’ calls him to me and he has enough room to change course. Same with a ‘Turn’ for him to turn away from me. ASCA is great with me and Chase! I loved it.

So Chase ended the three day weekend with 5 Qs. He got his Novice Jumpers title the first day and we moved to open the second day. Of course off hand I don’t remember what he got on which day. He got a 1/2 Q in Standard one of the days (dropped bar, you can still get a 5 point Q). And he had a gorgeous run the last open jumpers in the last day. But now that 5th Q escapes me. LOL. I’ll have to go look at my ribbons. He needs 5 more points for his novice standard title. Hopefully we’ll pick that up next trial.

Levi didn’t do obedience Sunday, and there was none on Monday, so that’s okay. Chase did great all weekend. We had little mistakes like dropped bars and such. But he drops bars when I run too fast and race him. I have to find the sweet spot, where I’m not too close to him, and not too far, and I think I was really getting the hang of it. I hope to get some videos… I didn’t bring my camera. There was a guy filming Saturday and Sunday, and he’s going to send me a DVD, and then today a friend of mine hopefully got some of our runs. If so, I’ll put them up on YouTube.

Levi ran one Standard and one Jumpers run on Sunday and Monday. He did great! He didn’t Q, but we are just doing it for fun now. I wanted to see his weaves, for the heck of it. Levi is 9 and I’m not willing to ‘fix’ his weaves anymore. But when I held his chest back and said Find ‘Em he did great! So we were eliminated for training but that’s nice we can do that in ASCA! And his jumpers were great, jumpers was always his favorite.

Tatum also did great! Saturday she didn’t watch me too much right out of the crate, but we worked it and she got lots better. Sunday and Monday she was paying attention to me as we trotted around. Doing some heeling, some waits, even the practice jump. She did the paw touch before, got the click/treat, then over we went. Her tail was up and wagging the whole time.

This picture is of her doing a bit of a recall by our crating area. She is really getting her stays! She’s starting to understand, and it’s neat to see. And she’s starting to get her recalls, too.

I even took her down to where the obedience ring was, and I threw the ball for her. The tennis ball… she runs out to it, doing her goofy silly bunny hopp, touches it with her mouth, and comes hopping back without the ball. So I have to work on her picking things up. She’s going to have the silliest dumbbell retreive ever!

So we had fun. I hope I’m not totally beat for work tomorrow. Guess we’ll see. I plan on getting to bed very early tonight. And now the dogs are saying it’s dinner time. Good night!

Cynthia

February 16, 2009

Agility, Chase, Levi, Tatum

3 comments

Agility, Chase, Levi, Obedience, Tatum, Training

Tatum and Muffit and Agility Practice

I am so thrilled! I took Tatum and Muffit out to the local agility barn today and Tatum did so great!

Tatum A-Frame

She is a maniac on the A-Frame! Well, no, not a maniac, LOL, but she’s fast and not afraid at all. I thought she might be afraid of the contacts and I’m so glad she isn’t! She doesn’t even need corsets to keep her together! LOL

This picture is from last summer, one of her first times on the A-Frame. She is going to basically have a Four on the Floor. Because she is so straight and square I don’t want her back to be hurt doing a 2 on 2 off. And I am scared of running contacts because I like being able to catch up with my dogs!

Tatum goes up fast, then down, and lays herself down on her mat and eats the treat that is in the clip at the bottom. She already does it all by herself! I’m so happy. She also has to give me a paw touch before she goes up, so she’ll stay connected.

Muffit did good too but mainly we did relaxation on his mat. I did get him on the dog walk with treats, he was okay with that. He was afraid of the bang of the teeter so we’ll have to work on that. Otherwise he had his gentle leader on as we walked around and stayed calm. If he’s off his gentle leader then he bounces all over the place and doesn’t know how to calm down. On the GL he is much better!

Anyway, it was fun… I really hope I’m not catching a cold… I feel a bit off now that I’m home. Ugh.

Cynthia

February 6, 2009

Agility, Muffit, Tatum, Training

8 comments

Agility, Muffit, Tatum, Training

How Does Your Dog Sit?

Sitting

In Obedience, the dogs have to sit for one to three minutes, depending what level you are in. In Novice it’s a one minute sit stay with the handler in sight. In Open, it’s a three minute sit stay with the handler out of sight.

This is a picture of how Tatum sits comfortably. I hope to do obedience with her sometime. And when we do, I’ll have to find the position she can hold for up to three minutes.

Most dogs are supposed to sit upright on their haunches, square, as that is a solid position and the dog won’t tip over and go into a down. If they go into a down, they are NQ’d and don’t get a leg. However, it seems Tatum and Levi are both more comfortable when they have a bit of a swivel in their hips. Maybe I need some term life insurance on her in case she falls over!

Levi will be in Open A Obedience in March in AKC. Three days. Actually, this month on the 14th I entered him in one day of ASCA Open A obedience too. Hopefully he’ll hold his sit stay, and his down stay. The rest of his Open working is coming along nice. Actually, his stays are too.

Does this mean the dog has bad hips? I haven’t had either Tatum or Levi x-rayed, so I don’t know. I figure if I have them x-rayed and they do have bad hips, then what will I do… not compete or train with them anymore? Ugh. So far, the only sign they might have iffy hips is this sideways sit. Otherwise they seem fine and have not had any signs of bad hips or any problems. And, fortunately, collies are not prone to hip displasia!

Tracking Training

Do you track your training… or your competition? I don’t, really. I know I know, I should. But I don’t. I used to write down every run in competition, good or bad, Q or NQ. But I gave that up because it was one of those things I was obsessive about and then burned myself out on quick. Maybe I’m just not that… detailed.

Anyway, if you do track, how do you do it? I should track training because I do like to see how my dogs progress. I actually use this blog to do some tracking, but that’s about it. I wish I had a little electronic gismo I could easily carry around with me and record things on, either written or verbal. I used to have a PDA but I no longer do, my laptop pretty much replaced it.

I should look for a good sale, that would help. Though I’m kinda out of money now. But a PDA would be a nice thing to have again, or a little tiny personal computer. Dangit, I hate looking around for stuff like this, now I want one? Though Buy.com has some great deals right now. And every time I buy something, I figure hey, I’m paying sales tax and helping out the bad economy. The bad economy kinda scares me a bit, I just hope I can keep my job, that is the most important thing. And since I work for the government, taxes pay my salary! And buying something for Valentine’s Day is kinda fun…

Anyway.. back to the point, what tracking methods do you use, if any?