Weaves and Jumps

I took both girls to open weaves tonight plus Gracie had her advanced jumping class.  I was super proud of both girls' weaving.  Gidget was super fast and accurate.  I think she's getting into the habit of faster weaving as long as I run faster and have a big party for those speedy weaves.  Could those slow walking weaves be in the past?  Probably not quite yet, she'll have to transfer that skill to the trial ring which may take a bit more work.  It won't be long though!  Gracie had some great solid weaves during her turns.  She got the set of 6 poles perfectly almost every time.  She may have had more iffy 12 pole weaves than solid ones, but it was still better than the last time I ran her at open weaves, progress!  It did help that the class was less crowded and spread out using the entire room instead of sharing the room with another class.  I do think that much business still worries Gracie, but we're working on it.

We worked on 270s in Gracie's jumping class.  I had a little issue getting my turns down and pulled Gracie through the middle a couple times.  I have more trouble with post turns with 270s (or 180s) than front crosses.  I guess I need to act like I'm doing a front cross til the last minute then do my post turn.  We also threw the tire into the mix.  It was Gracie's first time seeing the tire and she figured it out quick as usual.  She was jumping her full tire height in just a few tries.  Next week she'll see the double and triple jumps and get to run a bit of a jumpers course.  It'll be fun and it's the last class, which means that in 2 weeks Gracie will move the the Thur. night level 2 agility!  Gidget's in level 3 but I don't think Gracie will be catching up too soon, I'm not in a rush.  Happy agility!

Volunteering

The author of a blog I like, AgilityNerd.com, has sent out a request to make today a "Why Volunteer?" blog action day.  I thought I'd join in!  I'm new to the trial world and am still trying to figure out how to best manage my dog at trials so that she has a great experience.  So for now I'm putting volunteering on the back burner to be added back into the mix in the next year.  I have volunteered twice, once before Gidget and I even started trialing, and once at a trial we were entered in.  My first time volunteering was a lot of fun, the coordinator was happy to show me the ropes, and I met lots of very nice people.  There was one guy who was rather rude to me, but all the other nice people and the fun experience more than made up for it!  It was a great way to figure out the trial scene before I actually entered my dog. 

Since I had such a good experience volunteering that first time I thought I'd try again at a different venue when Gidget was entered in her third trial.  I was a bar setter for the open classes and ran Gidget in the novice classes.  I like bar setting, you get to watch other dogs run and have one of the best seats in the house!  So that part of my second volunteering adventure went fairly well, though the coordinator at this trial wasn't nearly as nice or helpful and I was freezing the whole time.  Then I was supposed to be part of the tear down team too.  I was handed a piece of paper and told to start at it.  Some of the tasks were fairly obvious, but the rest seemed to require me to know where things were or were worded confusingly.  I tried to find someone to at least point me in the right direction but no one was very helpful.  I have to say that new situations like this can make me rather nervous, I can easily start to panic if I don't know what I'm doing and can't find someone to help or figure it out on my own.  I hate to admit it but I eventually gave up trying to figure things out and just left.  So my second volunteering experience didn't go so well.  Don't worry, I won't let this completely stop me from volunteering in the future, I just have to get comfortable trialing in different venues first, then add the work.

I am very greatful to all the volunteers that make the trials run.  Many of them have been very kind and helpful to me when I feel lost at a trial.  I think it'd be awesome if clubs held fun volunteer training events.  I'd love to learn how to scribe or be a timer, or just learn more ways I can help out.  Not to mention it'd help to introduce the newbies, like myself, to more experienced volunteers and help them feel more at ease when they start volunteering. 

Agility trials wouldn't exist without awesome volunteers.  I promise to join the ranks as soon as I can!  I encourage all newbies to at least try volunteering once... no twice, just so you can see that the small things that may sour a volunteering experience are few and the good things are many!  More volunteers are always needed, and how do you know if you'll like it til you try!  If volunteering isn't for you, then at least make sure to thank a volunteer every chance you get.  Happy agility!

Back From Vacation

Alright, back from a short vacation visiting family with the hubby. Now it's time for the real fun, agility! Gidget didn't have class last Thur. because of our trip but she did get to do some jumping in open jumping on Wed. A jump box was set up for us to practice all sorts of crosses and avoiding wrong courses. In Gracie's jumping class we got all the way to a perfectly straight serpentine! We also talked about leadouts, both lateral and... shoot, don't remember what the instructor called the other leadout, probably a forward leadout. Oh, there was a pivot and... oo, can't think of it so I'll describe them. The pivot involves changing the direction of your lead foot as you turn your dog from the first obstacle to the next. The one I can't remember serves the same purpose but you change your lead hand too, so you end up facing a completely different direction from where you started. A lateral lead out lets you step off to the side of the first obstacle to set up for the second. We also talked about setting the dog up so that they have one stride over their first obstacle. That way they always know what to expect and you can always set them up for success. For Gracie, this means about 2 of my strides away from a jump and for Gidget closer to 1.5 strides.

Ok, enough of that, on to the above courses from about a week and a half ago. The instructor emphasized that the handler needs to be behind their dog in order to rear cross 2-3. A few of my classmates with slower dogs did do front crosses there. 5-6-7-8 was a bit of a struggle for Gidget and I. I tried to front cross after 6 but Gidget ran right past me to the tunnel. The instructor had me try to layer the pole and send Gidget out to 5 and 6 so I could front cross on the landing side of 7. Unfortunately, Gidget's "out" command isn't quite strong enough and I couldn't get my path straight enough to not pull her away from the jumps. I might have been able to straighten my path if Gidget had more independent contacts, but I feel I still need to babysit them. I ended up staying with Gidget and post turning to 7 then I did a rear cross/flip on the landing side of 7 to send her over 8.

The start of the second course looked like a good spot to try something new. I sent Gidget to the tunnel and then positioned myself on the landing side of 3 with my left hand up. Then I could handle 4-5 with Gidget on my left. It took me a few tries to get my timing right, mostly when I should move from the first jump to the 3rd. For 8-9, Gidget's too fast through the tunnel for me to get a front cross in, but if I just started running after flipping Gidget to the tunnel it was easy to get into position to run a straight line from 9-11. Everyone needed to remember to decelerate before 14 to get a nice tight turn. Ok, back to a regular schedule this week. Happy agility!

Treasured Moments with my Dogs

I'm sitting at the computer after getting home from a walk with the girls.  Gracie's lying quietly by the door, waiting for her dad to come home.  Gidget is napping under the dining room table.  It's quiet and peaceful, a rare moment with high energy dogs.  Of course that moment was just ruined by someone walking by in the hall, so Gidget had to let out a bark and Gracie's now up looking for something to do.  Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.  My favorite quiet moment with Gracie happens right before I get in the shower.  When I turn the water on to warm it up, Gracie comes in the room and sits right behind me until I give her some affection.  She'll stay there as long as I'm scratching her ears, rubbing her back and head, and kissing her forehead.  After a minute I tell her I have to get in the shower now and she gets up and walks out of the room.  I'm not sure why she does this, maybe she's not sure I'll ever come out of the shower again, who knows, but it's a moment with her that I'll always remember and will miss if it were to stop.  My favorite quiet moment with Gidget usually involves laying on the couch watching a movie.  Gidget likes to snuggle up against my torso with her head resting on my arm.  It's sweet and cozy and always enjoyable.

I have favorite wild moments with the girls too.  Like when I let Gidget loose in a big field and she runs in great big circles around me.  It's great to see her so happy and enjoying herself, while also knowing I can call her back to me at anytime.  With Gracie it's less wild, but still active.  Any training with Gracie is always fun.  She just loves working so much that it's hard not to enjoy it.  There are stressful moments, but they pass and Gracie gets all happy again. 

Ok, quick class update.  I took both girls to the open weaves class but there were so many dogs there that I didn't work with Gracie much.  I only took her out once a lot of the dogs had left so she only got one chance to work on weaving.  She did better than last time.  Gidget had some nice fast weaves and of course had lots of fun.

In Gracie's jumping class we worked on serpentines.  We started with the 3 jumps in a line but angled to each other so that the dog had an obvious straight path over the jumps.  We started at a lower jump height too, making the jumping easier as we focused on a more difficult skill.  Through the class we kept straightening the jumps and eventually raised the jump height back to their normal heights.  All the dogs and handlers did really well.  It was fun to see Gracie to really well with that too.  Happy agility!

Videos

Oh man, our standard run was even uglier than I thought.  Gidget missed both the dog walk and A-frame contacts and ran around the tire.  She looks faster than it felt running with her though, especially as she took off for the A-frame!  Lots of learning at this trial!





Our jumpers run still looks pretty good.  I forgot we had a little bobble in the weaves, but made it through them on the first try.  Then it looks more like I pulled her off that last jump than stepped into her.  I still can't really complain on that run though, Gidget made my day with her happiness to run!

Trial Report!

Gidget and I were in our first outdoor trial this past Sat.  The weather was perfect!  Our day, however, didn't start out near as nice.  To start with I was not in the best of moods, never good when you want your dog to be happy and having fun.  I did my best to put that behind me, and after watching some nice excellent runs, got Gidget out to warm her up.  We walked around a bit, ran a tad, did some tricks then checked out the practice jumps.  Then it was time for me to walk to course and get ready.  I got Gidget back out a minute or two before the open STD class started since there were only 7-ish dogs before us.  So we watched the smaller dogs run and then it was our turn.  Well Gidget was slow and out of it again.  It took 3 tries to get the weaves and the chute was out of the question (though I can't blame her on that one, it did look kinda funny).  We made it through the course but I was rather bummed with the performance and knew I had to do something different.  So for our JWW course I didn't get Gidget out (besides a short walk/potty break) until it was practically our turn.  We did some quick tricks to warm up (like we do in class) watched maybe one dog and then we were up.  Did that ever make the difference.  Gidget was happy, quick, and focused.  We almost had a perfect run... until that last jump.  I was told I stepped into her path just a bit, enough to send her around the jump which she then backjumped.  Oops!  Oh well, I was very happy with my Gidget!  It made me feel 10 times better to know that I may have just figured out my dog and what she needs at a trial.  Our next trial is a whole 5 weeks away, so I guess we'll get to test it then.  Happy agility!

Outdoor Indoor, Indoor Outdoor

Last Thur. Gidget and I were lucky enough to practice both inside and outside.  There was a jumpers course outside.  Gidget's first turn up, she was so excited to be outside that she took off in her favorite high speed circles around me.  Crazy dog!  We sort of got through the course, but I can't help but be happy when she's in that sort of mood.  My classmates got a kick out of her too, most of them have never seen her misbehave that badly... er funly?  Our second turn was better and I learned some things watching my classmates.  I really wanted to practice a rear cross into the pinwheel from 3-4, but Gidget didn't really give me a good chance for that.  I think on our second run it sort of worked.  We'd practiced this at open jumping the day before, it seemed I needed to be a good ways behind Gidget to send her out far enough to the next jump.  I did a front cross after 5 which worked well.  Had to remember to slow down before 9 to prepare for the weaves, though the tunnel sucked Gidget in our first try.  We needed a front cross after 14 to avoid the wrong tunnel entrance.  That was a big issue for us at our last trial. 

The indoor course was fun too.  We worked it in sections, first 1-9, then 9-17, and finally put it all together.  2-7 were just like an exercise we'd done in Gracie's jumping class the night before and it was nice to practice it again with a different dog.  It's all about the 180 body positioning and supporting your dog's path.  I had to remember to call Gidget to me in time after 7 to avoid the off course tire.  The instructor purposely set jump 8 at an angle so that we'd be encouraged to run straight out and set our dogs up with a straight path to the A-frame.  It's much safer that way and the dog is less likely to miss it.  I love doing turns off of contacts into tunnels, Gidget's so good at them.  I tended to stop while pushing Gidget out to the tunnel after 13 which tended to pull her a little towards the A-frame.  Gotta remember to keep moving while doing that.  I used a front cross after 14, but had I needed to, I could have done this after the teeter instead.  The big advice from the night: look ahead at the next obstacle, not back at the dog.  Remembering that made for smoother runs with few mistakes (and could keep me from running into an obstacle).  Trial report coming soon.  Happy agility!

A post done on time... What?!

Last night there was open jumping and Gracie's advanced jumping class.  The open jumping set up was kind of fun with a pinwheel and 2 jumps set up for a 180 or serpentine so that the whole set up looked like an arrow.  With Gidget I worked mostly on serpentine into pinwheel with different handling strategies.  We used front crosses, rear crosses, setting up on the landing side of the jump after the pinwheel, anything I could think of.  The rear cross into the pinwheel was difficult.  I realized I really needed to be well behind Gidget to get her to go out to the middle jump.  Otherwise I'd end up turning too early and Gidget would miss the middle jump and go for a 180.  I only took Gracie out twice to practice the pinwheel, didn't need to wear her out before her class.  She didn't shut down the way she had with the weaves last week, which was good.  She was still a little distracted, but was happy to work once I had her attention.

In the advanced jumping class we first reviewed the pinwheel.  Both last week and this week we talked a lot about handler positioning for this sequence.  It feels sort of unnatural, but you can't turn perfectly with your dog.  That will only pull the dog in from the middle jump.  You have to face their path until they are committed to that jump and then you can turn to finish the pinwheel.  That's for a post turn pinwheel, for a pinwheel with a front cross at the end you never turn toward that second jump.  Stepping sideways while always facing your dog's path works better.  Then you have to start your cross without going too far past the second jump (that will send the dog around the jump) or backing up (that will pull your dog between the jumps).  It's tricky, especially if you over think it.  It seems natural to me with Gidget, but I have to think about it more with Gracie since we're still learning together.  We also worked on 180s which are similar but you don't want a hand to go up sending them wide like you would for the middle jump of a pinwheel.  You still have to support your dog's path and time your crosses correctly but the dogs need to learn to distinguish the little differences in handling so that one day they can avoid an off course when the jumps look like a pinwheel but you want them to do a 180.  Serpentines next week!  Outdoor and indoor class tonight with Gidget!  Happy agility!

This Week in Dog Training

Last Wed. both the girls had classes.  I took both to the open weaves class.  Gidget did fine, though she did miss a couple poles on her first turn.  There was a lot going on at the time in the training building.  There was the open weaves class and an obedience class in the main ring and a puppy class down in the puppy room, so lots of dogs there.  This may have thrown Gidget off at first, but she handles that well.  Apparently Gracie does not handle such business as well.  I got her to weave a little but she was unfocused and shut down pretty quickly.  It was just too much for her.  I'll take shutting down over going after any of the dogs, but still, did not want to find another challenge to taking Gracie to trials.

Gracie's first advanced jumping class was right after open weaves.  All the other classes left so Gracie was much calmer.  We worked on pinwheels.  Six jumps were set up in an oval for 2 pinwheels.  We practiced doing the sequence with post turns and with front crosses between the pinwheels.  Gracie and I did pretty well, but definately something we need to practice.  Hmm... to find the time to practice outside somewhere.

Gracie had her last reactive obedience class on Mon. though we could probably take the course again if we wanted.  Our instructor brought in a couple of her dogs to help the reactive dogs practice.  One of the dogs was her reactive sheltie.  Gracie handled it well, got a little hyped up, but didn't make a sound or lunge which is good.  We haven't seen many dogs or squirrels on walks lately, and our last dog encounter didn't go so well, but over all she's improving.

Gidget and I had the opportunity to practice outside again last Thur. but due to timing, we decided to go to our regular indoor class instead.  The courses were pretty fun with some good challenges.  The chute was set up the direction of the black drawing for the first course and like the red drawing for the other 2.  I always front crossed after the teeter, going to the tunnel.  I needed to do this in the second course (red) so that I didn't block the weaves, a rear cross to the tunnel would have put me right in her path from the tunnel exit to the weaves, didn't need to risk that.  I had no reason in the other 2 courses, though I have been trying to practice front crosses after teeters, I should have practiced both methods.  Gidget had a little trouble with the weaves at first, I'm pretty sure she was distracted by the open garage doors, she didn't like the road sounds coming into the building.  In the first course I treated 4-5-6 like a serpentine with Gidget on my right.  I pushed Gidget out for 5 and rear crossed 6.

Second course: I front crossed 2-3.  I planned on running to the left of 10 and wrap the tire but I somehow ended up on the right of the weaves.  It ended up being a slightly awkward push from the weaves and post turning the tire, oops!  12-13-14 was a serpentine again.

Last course: 5-6-7 had several handling options.  The handler could stay on the lower side (dog on left mostly) and wrap around the far standard of jump 6.  I think this would involve a partial front cross - start a front cross to get the dog over the jump but immediately turn back so the dog is on the original side.  The inner standard of jump 6 could also be wrapped with a front cross, but then 7 would have to be rear crossed.  You could front cross after 5 then either front cross after 6 or rear cross 7 (I did this with the rear cross).  The entire sequence could be done with a post turn too, but this is slower and an off course jump is more likely.

So a good week of classes, and in an hour we'll start our next good week of classes with a trial thrown in there!  Happy agility!