Gettin' Tricky

We had a couple tricky, but fun, courses Thur. night.  4-5-6 was our biggest trouble spot.  My first attempt led Gidget to the wrong tunnel entry.  My instructor told me I need to send Gidget further out from 5 before heading towards the tunnel.  This involved placing my front cross further out from the teeter so that Gidget and I headed for 5 straight on instead of at an angle.  Then Gidget would have a wider turn leading her towards the correct tunnel entry.  Another option my instructor suggested was to let Gidget handle the teeter on her own while I set up for a front cross on the landing side of 5.  This almost worked on our first attempt, but Gidget headed for the jump ahead of her instead of turning with me to the tunnel.  Our second attempt didn't work at all.  Gidget saw me moving away and hopped off the side of the teeter, scaring herself a little as the teeter went back up.  That was when we went back to finding better placement of my front cross.  Gidget needs a little more support on the teeter making it difficult to move away from her to set up the next move.  It'd be nice to teach her more independence on the teeter and other contacts, but that hard to do without owning the equipment and having space to use them.  We messed up one other spot, 10-11, when I turned toward the A-frame Gidget headed for the tire.  Just needed to pull her in a little tighter, no issues with this on the next course.

The second course was fun and slightly less tricky.  I think Gidget missed her A-frame contact due to me pulling away to set up for a front cross to 5.  She needs that contact support.  12-13-14 worked nicely with a front cross after 12 and treating the rest like a serpentine.

For a last bit of fun we ran all the outer obstacles like you might after earning a MACH title.  We started at the teeter and ended at the weaves.  It was fun and fast.  Can't wait to see that speed at a trial!  Happy agility!

Last Night at Classes

Gidget had a jumpers class last night.  We worked on 270s (2 jumps in a V shape where the dogs jump from the inside of the V to the outside, around the 270 degree angle and jump back into the V).  We started with the jumps really close together, they were wing jumps so there was some space between them but the dogs weren't supposed to be able to get through.  We worked the jumps with post turns and front crosses.  Our first turn up to practice post turns, Gidget managed to find the little gap between the jumps and squeeze through!  She did this 2 or 3 times!  I realized I needed to work on supporting her path, but still, what a little stinker!  The post turns are a lot harder to do than the front crosses.  With a front cross you turn toward your dog so it's easy to support their path, you automatically face that direction.  For a post turn your turning with the dog and if you turn too past the dog's path doesn't get supported at all and they'll come inbetween the jumps.  We figured it out though and managed the rest of the exercises just fine.  We did a mini course with the 2 jumps, a tunnel, and a dog walk which was a nice challenge.

Nothing much new to report from Gracie's class.  We were still working on getting 2 sets of 2x2's straight and together.  Most of the class is struggling with this but Gracie and I have got it down so it's a little frustrating that we don't get to move ahead.  It is nice learn what challenges other handlers may go through.  From working with itty bitty dogs to dogs that are very nervous and have a hard time getting used to new things like the weave poles.  There are so many factors that you have to take into account just to teach weaving.  Our instructor was nitpicking on Gracie and I since we were doing so well.  I still need to work on my treat throw timing and aim and I need to remember to have treats ready in my throwing hand.  If I fumble with treats while Gracie's weaving or if I'm slow on throwing the treat, she looks at me and starts to turn towards me which is not what we want.  When Gracie's weaving that's all she should be focused on and, for now, she should always run straight out of the weaves without checking in with me.  I'm getting better though.  Happy agility!

Not Wise to Delay Note Taking

Thankfully I write my notes down right after class, this post is just delayed.  Gidget and I had a good class on Thur.  I had hoped to have some extra time before class to walk around the building and have some focus time, but of course I got there just in time to walk the course.  I did have time however to work a couple obedience exercises which seemed to help.  Gidget was much more focused than usual for our first run.  Between it being our first run and me not facing myself in the correct direction Gidget didn't take the A-frame after 5, she headed for the chute instead.  I needed to remember to be more parallel to the A-frame to tell her where to go correctly.  No more issues hitting the A-frame after that!  I used a rear cross between 6 and 7 but it didn't work all that well.  I really wanted it to work though and kept using it in other runs.  In our last run I realized I did have time to get in front of Gidget for a front cross after the A-frame.  Those front crosses almost always seem to work better, gotta remember that!  I stuck to the left side of the A-frame because there was less tunnel sticking out on that side so I wouldn't have to move away from the A-frame at all as I ran past it.  I did not think a front cross would work well between 9 and 10, much too dizzying, and I was right.  Using a "turn" move into the tunnel worked great!

I was very excited on our second run that Gidget took the A-frame and not the tunnel.  I made extra certain that I was clearly telling her A-FRAME!  I set her up before the first jump pointing right at the A-frame, led out and made sure every inch of me was parallel with the A-frame (except my head which had to look back at her).  I was very happy it worked!  I did a front cross after 7 to help make the weave entry easier and after 9 so that I wouldn't pull her in away from 11.  That meant I had to do a rear cross before 11 (this worked much better than when I was using it after the A-frame) with two obstacles left for a near perfect run!

Our last run was also pretty decent.  I used a front cross after 2 so that I'd send her toward the tunnel and not that other jump.  We had no issue getting onto the A-frame this time!  Then I tried that darn rear cross from 9 - 10.  It was smoother but still didn't work well, too slow.  Front cross is a must! 

Earlier tonight I took Gracie to a reactive dog obedience class.  It was a nice small class and I knew all the dog/handler teams except one.  Gracie does so well in a class setting, she was the only one who didn't react during the class.  People aren't going to believe me when I say she's reactive, aggressive even!  That side of her does come out now and then at class, but her behavior has improved so much in the year we've had her (it'll be 1 year exactly on May 7 I believe).  She's been one heck of a challenge, but I've grown to love her and am very thankful for everything she's continuously teaching me and the direction she's leading my life.  Happy agility!

Weaves Anyone?

Both girls had different weave classes yesterday.  Gidget's class had 12 weave poles and 6 weave poles set up in a "V" shape.  There was also a jump that started out at the top of the "V" after/before the 12 poles (hope that makes sense) and then was moved to the side of the 12 poles... never mind, I'll have to draw it.

There, that's better.  The long black line is the 12 poles, the short black line is the 6 poles, and the red and blue lines are the jump in it's different spots.  The first two runs were pretty basic; jump-12 poles-6 poles and 6 poles-12 poles-jump.  Though Gidget was unfocused our first run, as usual, and took a few tries to get her weave going properly.  After that she was good to go.  Then the jump got moved and things got a little trickier.  We first did 6 poles-12 poles-jump, starting at the bottom of the map on the right side of the 6 poles and going to the upper left side of the 12 poles.  The poles to poles wasn't too tricky, it was the poles to jump that could get tough.  A rear cross before the 12 poles didn't sound like a good idea since it'd be tough to get a good entry angle to not mess Gidget up when I passed behind her, I'd be more likely to send her right through the poles toward the corner of the room.  I thought about doing a "turn" (turning her away from me so I end up doing a rear cross before the jump) at the end of the 12 poles to send her to the jump and probably could have pulled it off, the angle just didn't seem right at the time.  I went with a front cross after the 12 poles, which worked just fine but made me a little dizzy.  Our last course was just the reverse: jump-12 poles-6 poles.  Here I decided to try something new and fun!  I lead out from the jump so that I was even with the start of the poles but still facing the same direction as Gidget.  I released Gidget and when she got close to me I turned toward her and the poles like a front cross right before the poles.  Had the angle been a little less sharp Gidget may have gotten it, but she'd never seen this before and was unsure.  We got a second chance and she seemed to understand better but was a little slow.  It was still fun for me to try and something we can work on for the future.

Gracie's class was a little more basic.  We kept working 2 sets of 2x2's at greater angles.  The instructor kept pointing out how I was working the arc, sending Gracie to the poles from different places along an arc that prevents forcing the dog into too tight of an angle into the poles.  I'll maybe draw that another time.  I did need to work on my treat throwing timing so that Gracie didn't look back at me too much as she exited the poles.  My aim for the reward line wasn't great either.  Still 5 more classes to work on all of that!  They're hoping to have most the dogs weaving a straight line of 4-6 poles by the end of next class!  Happy agility!

Lots of Jumps!

Had a fun jumpers course for Gidget's class last night.  It had a lot of space between the jumps which meant remembering to converge!  It seems to be becoming standard for our first run at class to be kind of sloppy, not that our first run last night was horrible but I'll get to that in a minute.  I know our first run is sloppy because Gidget's all excited to be at school and I'm not quite focused where I need to be.  I think a kennel might help with Gidget's excitement and it would keep her from distracting me so I can focus more.  She doesn't have an issue with this at trials where she does get kenneled.  I'll be getting a kennel for Gidget soon, I'll need it when I have the two dogs in classes on the same night on a regular basis.

As for our first run it certainly wasn't our worst ever.  It was short and only had one challenge for Gidget and I.  We had trouble at 5-6, just couldn't figure out that weave entry.  The pole (little black dot) next to the jump certainly didn't help, but I think I just didn't slow down obviously enough.  I'm pretty sure I was stopping as we got to the weave entry which must have confused Gidget as to whether or not she was supposed to take that entry.  Had I slowed down earlier, before jump 5, and kept moving she may have gotten it better.  Our instructor also mentioned that Gidget was looking for a treat at the end of the weaves so I probably reward the weaves a little too consistantly.  I'll have to mix it up with practice at home.

The second and third courses went much better.  The second course had a big figure 8 of jumps.  I used a front cross after jump 5 but considered other options too.  I could have done a rear cross over jump 6 but that easily could have pushed Gidget to an off course jump and at that point I may not have been behind her which is kind of required in order to pass behind the dog.  I realized later that I also could have done a front cross after 4 but it's just so easy to use Gidget's speed and pinwheel work to push her out to 4 and meet her after 5.

The last course had some tricky work with the building's poles.  Had to do some good thinking to do the 4-5-6 sequence without running into one of the poles!  A front cross after 4 would have avoided the poles, but if not set up correctly could easily push a dog off course.  Rear crossing 6 might have been doable, but tricky with the poles there.  Our instructor suggested to another student that she layer both poles and rear cross on the landing side of jump 6, it didn't seem to work too well for her though.  I went with a front cross after 5, it meant running carefully between the jump and pole, but it worked perfectly!  The rest of the course was just fast and fun!  Happy agility!

Busy Agility Night

Both Gidget and Gracie had agility classes last night.  The extra weaves and jumping class are being switched to Wed. instead of Mon. so my Wed. nights are going to be quite busy for a while.  First it was a jumping class for Gidget.  Our instructor introduced a simple (the set up was simple anyways) two jump exercise that was challenging and fun!  The jumps were 10-15 ft. away from each other and slightly angled.  The goal was to go back and forth between the jumps using front and rear crosses and post turns.  We could also work on deceleration as a cue to the dog to turn.  We were told to walk out a plan without our dogs first.  Often I'd think "Two jumps? Why would I need to walk that?" but having a plan definitely helped.  Had I just gone up there and went with it, I wouldn't have know what crosses I was doing when and it would have gotten messy, leaving me learning nothing.  Instead I was ready for each of my turns (I did have Gidget wait off to the side for a second so I could refresh my memory or adjust a plan) and got the most of the time I had at the jumps.  It was a fun little exercise and I can't wait to try it with Gracie sometime!

After driving back home, eating a quick dinner, and switching dogs, it was Gracie's turn for class.  The class was a combo last contacts class/first weaves class.  We got some good work done on the teeter.  I'm thinking I'm going to have to keep a target on the teeter for quite a while, I don't want her trying to fly off at all and the target makes a great stop sign for her.  We even did a tunnel to the teeter and that target (it was loaded with cheese) stopped her in her tracks when she started with more speed.

Starting weaves was fun.  Gracie can already weave 6 poles at home but I know she needs some extra help before I can consider her weaves as reliable as Gidget's.  We use the 2x2 method (made popular by Susan Garrett, but apparently she wasn't the first to come up with it!) and started with just two poles.  With this method there is a "reward line" which is where a treat or toy should be thrown to reward the dog.  The line matches the line that the complete set of weave poles would make and extends out past the end of the weaves.  The first two poles are set so that they are perpendicular to the reward line.  The dog is asked to run through those poles along the reward line.  Once the dog gets a hang of this a second set of perpendicular poles is added.  The way the weaves are being taught is through back chaining.  In other words, we're starting at the end of a set of 6 weave poles and working backwords.  So the first set of poles are poles 5 and 6 and the second set are poles 3 and 4.  This means that the second set of poles needs to be added so that the dog goes between that second set before going through the first set.  The dog has already developed drive for that first set so when they go through the second set and see that first set, they already know/want to run between them for their reward (I don't know for sure, but I'd bet the dogs can tell the differences between the sets even if they look the same.  The reward line position certainly plays a role in the dog recognizing that they need to go through both sets of poles).  Once the dogs are readily running through both sets of poles, you can start rotating the poles closer to lining up with the reward line.  That's where we got to last night, two sets of poles slightly rotated.  There's so much info I could talk about with weaves but I think I'll stop there for now.  I know that weaves can be taught fairly quickly with this method and I'm curious how stretching the process out over a few weeks differs from teaching it in one week.  What are the advantages/disadvantages of how long you take to teach this tricky skill?  I do know that this class won't be stretching it out too long because once the dogs are weaving there are plenty of other weave related skills to work on.  I can't wait!  Happy agility!

Short Post!

Weaves class with Gidget last night.  Need to work on getting Gidget to continue on to the end of the weaves without me so that I can set up for the next obstacle when she has to a 180 or more to get to it.  Not sure how to do that because I barely have to move to get her to finish her weaves (6 poles) at home.  Will have to think on that one.  Happy agility!

Gidget is Back!

Not that she'd been gone very long.  She missed a week of agility due to a cough.  You could tell she'd been gone though, she was very unfocused to start with and our first run was quite messy.  She went around jump 5 the first time, I likely pulled her away just a hair too much, but still not like her.  The turn from the weaves to the A-frame (7-8) was tricky to start with but we really messed it up.  I had to figure out how to get her to finish the weaves without getting so far ahead that I'd get stuck behind the tunnel or accidentally pull Gidget into the tunnel (which was what happened our first attempt).  The instructor said the trick was to converge to the end of the weaves, without going all the way there, then switch and converge to the opposite side of the A-frame, without going too far in front of the tunnel, and not turn until the dog is committed to the A-frame.  Gidget and I couldn't quite get it, so hopefully we'll see something like that again in the future so we can work on it.  The A-frame was only a start to another fiasco.  I turned Gidget away from me to the tunnel (9) which she can normally handle just fine, but this time she thought she'd head out to the tire instead!  She didn't take the tire, but calling her back left me unprepared for a front cross after the tunnel.  So I pulled her in over 10 and planned to send her out over 11 (serpentine style) but after 10 she took off back towards our seat.  Aah!  A second attempt at that ending went much smoother thankfully.

Our second run was much prettier.  A front cross after 3 worked best for us for the jump-jump-tunnel sequence (just the opposite of the ending from run 1).  We had a minor issue 8-9 where Gidget headed for the double jump instead of turning with me to the ramp, she didn't take the jump though and came right back to where I wanted her.  Our instructor reminded us to use an opposite arm pull to call the dog off the jump right in front of them and turn to the correct obstacle.  A front or rear cross before the A-frame would have been tricky due to the spacing and the double jump that prevented giving the dog a straight line to the ramp.  I also made sure to stay far enough away from the start of the ramp so that I wouldn't have to jump out around the tunnel that stuck out the other end.  If I'd been a little faster or Gidget didn't have a running contact, I would have been able to do a front cross between 9 and 10, but I couldn't get there so I rear crossed 10 which wasn't the prettiest, but it worked!  Going from 13-14 (4-5 in the first run) went much smoother this time.  I slowed down, called Gidget's name, and used an opposite arm pull all for just half a second then sped back up and sent Gidget to the proper jump.  It worked perfectly!  So we had one minor blip in the second run and few things to consider, but otherwise it was a very nice run!

Last we did a short little sequence to practice that opposite arm pull to the A-frame and a tricky weave entrance.  Gidget and I had no problem getting the A-frame and I remember to point myself (especially feet!) at the invisible first pole to send Gidget for a perfect right angle weave entry.  I noticed a lot of my classmates bringing their dogs out so they could start weaving from a straight line.  It works when necessary for a dog, but I'm glad I've managed to train Gidget for various angles for a weave entry.  It's fun and handy!

It occured to me when I sat down to catch my breath after our second run, that I'm eventually going to have to run both dogs in the same hour of class!  That'll be exhausting!  Good practice for me though.  It's tough running full speed with Gidget, and Gracie's already faster!  I'm sure glad I work out... now to take on actually running regularly.  Happy agility!

Last Contacts Class!

Gracie and I had our last contacts class last night (though I thought we still had one more).  We did everything at full height!  Well, the A-frame was at full height for small dogs not big dogs but we did it without the carpet on the up-side!  It was fun and Gracie had no problem with the dog walk or A-frame and she thought she had no problem with the teeter, though I disagree.  I learned that Gracie stays on the contacts better for 2-on-2-off if I try to get in front of her so that I'm rewarding her from straight on instead of from the side where my bending over may push her off the contact.  Gracie's definitely much better at "bottom" on the dog walk than the A-frame.  I think this is because the A-frame is steeper and at home we practice with a dog walk width board.  We started the teeter with a small stool under the starting end and a cushion on the end that the board slams down on.  Then we took these away and instead caught the board as it tipped then letting it slam from only a few inches above the ground.  Gracie was doing great with this, so the last couple times I thought I'd try it without anyone catching the board.  She had been stopping on the teeter near the end when I said "stop" but without anyone there to slow her down she kinda just kept going.  It wasn't quite a fly off, but it was close.  So definitely need to work on learning "stop."  We did a little course with the three contacts and a tunnel at the end which was a lot of fun, but I was out of breath by the end, Gracie's fast!

With the weather getting to be so much nicer (finally!) we're starting to run into more dogs on our walks.  Strangely we haven't seen many more squirrels.  There has been news of coyotes showing up more in town, trying to get away from the flood waters, so they may be eating all the squirrels.  Anyways we saw 5 dogs on our walk today.  The first one was hanging out off to the side of the path with it's owner and we had to walk past it.  This didn't go so well, Gracie was lunging and barking and Gidget wanted to play, but we made it past.  The rest of the dogs were walking on the path and I saw them first every time and was able to leave the path by 10ft. or so and get both girls in a sit.  I rewarded them both for paying attention to me (I've recently learned that this is called the Premack Principle) and we didn't have a single issue when other dogs had to pass us.  Gracie's improved by leaps and bounds with her reactive issues (and so have I!).  At class last night, a classmate noted how well she did in class when I had said she's my problem dog.  That made me feel good, because I know she hadn't always been that good and in other situations still isn't, but we're improving and I think we will one day manage to walk into an agility trial without issue!

Jumping With Gracie!

Only took Gracie to the jumpers class last night.  Gidget has a couple more days before she can back to class since that darn cough.  The class focused on converging and call offs.  There were 6 jumps in two parallel lines that we'd do in a horseshoe shape.  We used a different type of turn/cross each time we did the jumps.  First we'd do all 6 jumps then we'd only do 4, two on one side and two on the other forcing us to call our dogs off that third jump in the line.  Gracie and I did really well.  I kept my focus on the last jump in the set of 3/2 and she jumped really nicely, quickly, and didn't have to check in with me overly.  We even pulled off the front and rear crosses quite nicely, though the rear cross definately has a lot of room for improvement.  She did knock a couple of bars, so I'll have to watch and see if I can figure out what's causing that.  More practice with series of jumps at faster speeds will help with that too.  I used a C-set to start Gracie on the jumps for some reason.  I use a startline wait with Gidget and was planning on doing so with Gracie too.  It'll be good to be able to do both though so we'll just see where that goes.  Happy agility!

Last Tunnels Class

I had quite the busy day yesterday.  I spent the morning at the training school helping out with an open agility event.  I didn't run either of my dogs though.  Gidget had a cough earlier in the week so she took a week off to recover and make sure she's not going to pass anything on to any of her agility buddies.  Gracie just isn't quite ready for that kind of event yet, there were too many obstacles she hasn't seen yet: panel jump, double and triple jumps, tire, full height contacts, and 12 weave poles.  It was fun to watch so many dogs, some I knew and some I didn't, and some different handler methods.  There was one handler that made me kind of sad with how she scolded her dogs for every mistake they made, from breaking a stay to knocking a bar.  The dogs wanted to please but seemed scared into doing so.  Not that I've never scolded my dogs, Gracie certainly knows how to help me lose my temper, but I don't like it when I do so and try to avoid it.  I certainly think agility should be all fun and have never angrily scolded them for messing up there.  They hear "oops" and "try again" a lot and probably even more "sorry, my bad" when I mess up, but not much else.  The one handling issue I noticed was several dogs being over zelous on the teeter and just about flying off.  The teeter was at a sharp left turn from a tunnel and several handlers use a front cross to the teeter.  I think this blocked the dogs' view of the teeter so they weren't prepared once they were on it.  Most of the dogs that were turned to the teeter with a post turn had a much better performance.  I had walked the course just for fun and when I tried the front cross there it did occur to me that I'd be blocking my dog's view of the teeter.  Hopefully being able to see that will keep me out of trouble in the future.

After a run home for lunch and to get Gracie, it was back to school to help with tear down and Gracie's last tunnels class!  We did sequences the whole time.  They started with just 3 obstacles and we worked our way up to 8 obstacles.  The biggest challenge involved 2 parallel tunnels and using a post turn to send the dog from one to the other without having to move all the way to the ends of the tunnels.  This allows the handler more time to get back to the end of the second tunnel for a front cross or other handling move.  I had 2 problems with this, not facing my dogs path and standing still.  My first attempt I turned too far toward the second tunnel and Gracie came between the tunnels to me instead of going into the second tunnel.  I had to face her path toward the entrance of the second tunnel in order to send her there.  Once I had that part fixed I stopped moving when I got into position.  Gracie figured out where to go, but hesitated not knowing if she should keep moving since I had stopped moving.  I just had to remember to keep some part of me moving, even just my arm, to keep her moving.  We figured it out pretty well by the end of class.  So now there are no more Sat. classes for Gracie.  The next Sat. class is contacts which Gracie is already in on Wed. plus we're coming up on travel/wedding/trial season for us so we'll be home fewer and fewer weekends til next year.  Gracie will be finishing up contacts and starting weaves in a few weeks here and there are still the drop in jumps classes that she can do.  Beginner agility class should be just a few months away for her!  Happy agility!