(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
Thursday August 30th 2007 - club practice
Today was Walter's first time participating in the club practice. I'm finding that I rely a lot on my voice to get Walter to change direction rather than trusting more in body language. Must work on this! Started Walter's "running" a-frame contact by releasing early. He's really starting to get "go" now, going ahead over the obstacles and looking for the toy.
Sunday August 26th 2007 - K9 Kup #3
Our team didn't take any ribbons home today, but we did put in some good runs and good tries.
Standard
On the easy, modestly spaced pinwheel, he refused the middle jump by passing it on the near side -- caught me way off guard with that move! Success on the first attempt at the soft-entry 6-weaves. The video showed he actually wagged his tail a few times at the table! :-) He held all the contacts but I must say watching the video, I really don't like the shoulder impact on the a-frame...
Snooker
For the first time outside of a class setting, I got The Dreaded Snooker Whistle! And it was totally, completely my fault -- I lost track of where we were in the opening and sent him to the obstacle that follows in the closing. The moment he committed to it I realized the tragic error of my ways, and TWEET that was it for us. :-)
Gamblers
Tried the 6-weaves in the opening but he ran past them and I didn't bother retrying since by now it was 23 degrees and humid, perfect let's-run-past-the-weaves-and-pretend-we-don't-know-how-to-do-them weather according to Walter. Good job on the rest though including the mini-gamble and end-gamble.
A new thing is that he was yappy at the start line on the second and third runs even though I'm still not leading out. Not sure if I should see this barking as a good thing (he's so excited to start?) or not (he's going to start self-releasing?)..... :-/
Lessons learned: Today's video shows that my handling is really going to the pits so I need to get back into lessons! And, I think I've decided to change Walter's a-frame to a running contact. The shoulder stress is not insignificant especially considering his top-heavy build, and while he could theoretically be trained to use his haunches more on the descent I'm not convinced that it would stick without a lot of training which I'm just not into doing at this point. His teeter and dogwalk will remain 2o2o.
Monday August 20th 2007 - practice
Wow, I have really been neglecting practicing/reinforcing contacts over the last few months and it's really showing. He didn't hold 2o2o about 50% of the time today but I wonder if it's partly because I was pushing distance. "Get out" in the pinwheel is coming along.
Friday August 17th 2007 - practice
More work on the outside turn, this time using two jumps. Using "get out over" for the far jump in a pinwheel. Worked on proofing contacts by using more lateral distance and non-release words. This cooler weather suits him as he was peppy and playful.
Monday August 13th 2007 - practice
Working towards an independent dogwalk; put it at half height with toy at end. Got too hot to do much more than that.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
July 2007
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
Tuesday July 24th 2007 - semi-private lesson
It was Walter's first time at this facility doing agility and we had a gamble-skills-oriented lesson which was a lot of fun and really useful. She gave us a number of exercises to work on, and she made an interesting point, which is that a dog should be able to do gamble work without needing momentum to launch them into it. In other words, if your dog can do gamble exercises starting from a stay, then they have well-developed distance skills. Despite the heat he was well-motivated throughout the lesson, especially when we brought out the squeaky ball and flying squirrel!
Thursday July 19th 2007 - Advanced Trial
A good evening at Walter's and my first ever Advanced trial! We were entered in all classes: Standard 1 and 2, Jumpers, and Gamblers. The night got off to a late start due to a thunderstorm passing through, and the rain stuck around for the Standards after which the sky cleared. I really liked the courses which sure were a lot more interesting than those at the Starters level, but not super-hard either.
Standard #1
Given the weave "problems" Walter's been having lately, going into the trial I was 95% sure I'd make him skip the weaves. But, the rain seemed to have kept him cool and fresh so at the last minute (ie while he was approaching the jump that preceded the weaves!), I decided to heck with it and let him do them since calling him off would really interrupt his flow. He did the 12-weaves clean on the first try!!! Our dogwalk to snaked under tunnel was really messy but somehow we didn't incur a refusal. He crept up on his table down causing the countdown to restart, but I wouldn't want to lie down on a wet table either. Towards the end, he took the offcourse frame which I had thought he had sucked over to, but a keen observer noted that my body language was actually sending him straight to the frame. Silly mistake -- I should have taken special precautions since he's already told me several times that he loves frames! That offcourse gave us some faults for a NQ and we ended up with third place.
Standard #2
Wow, he didn't hold the dogwalk contact at all and seemed to have caught a scent. While I was trying to get his attention back and set him up for the weaves which followed right after, he hopped back on the down contact which gave us our only faults of that run. I was thrilled that he did the 12-weaves clean on the first try again! The run was good enough for first, but no Q to accompany it.
Jumpers
My handling plan at the pinwheel section got messed up, but Walter was very forgiving and managed to go through clean for a Q, first place and best Specials run for a cow thing tug prize!
Gamblers
Walter contributed his own recommendation to our opening which messed me up and I was sure we hadn't gotten enough points, but I was really glad that he did the gamble! The gamble was said to be easy for an Advanced gamble: frame parallel to gamble line, turn toward handler into snaked under tunnel, then jump following the tunnel exit at the max lateral distance. HOWEVER, his contacts were HORRIBLE. Sure he always hit the yellow, but I don't think he held a single 2o2o, on either the teeter or dogwalk in the opening nor the frame in the closing. I could understand the frame in the closing since I haven't proofed it much with distance, and I guess I'll "blame it on the rain" for the rest of the blown 2o2os... but I believe a fun match contact proofing session is in order! Somehow we ended up with enough points in the opening for a Q plus first place and best of Specials for another tug prize.
All in all, a good night that I really wasn't expecting much from other than finding out what Advanced courses are like and having fun with my dog. Note to self: During both weaves, I said nothing at all while he was weaving, neither a "yes" for entering nor any "good boys" so maybe I just need to shut it while he weaves. Gonna give him a nice break from agility unless we get a bout of cool weather and look forward to trialing some more in the fall.
Stats:
Tuesday July 17th 2007 - practice
Short practice using a super duper treat to reward the weave-a-matics. Trying to build a really positive association with the weaves.
Sunday July 15th 2007 - K9 Kup #2
Well, that feeling of being totally in sync with one's dog eluded me today in Walter's runs, but, that said, it wasn't *that* bad. I think I'm getting worried that the weaves are becoming an "issue" (more on that below) which is pushing aside in my mind the stuff he's doing well.
Standard
He was SO not feeling those 6-weaves today. Just like in the first run of the day at our weekend trial in June, he would have nothing to do with the weaves even after a few attempts, so we got an Incomplete straight off the bat. Very clumsy handling from weaves to frame, yuck! Watching his table, such a difference from Lucy, there's NO tail wag happening at all! How boring. Refusal at the tire, not sure why.
Jumpers
Refusal -- maybe a "go" should have been added to my over command or I should have crossed differently? But, narrow escape from a backjump there!! :-)
Snooker
Stangely, he forgot (?) to pause at the frame contact and I continued right away anyway!! ARGH!!!!!!! I hope hope hope I will not let myself do that again... guess I succumbed to the pressure of this being a team thing and wanting us all to score/place as well as possible. Bad handler, bad bad bad!! But, he held 2o2o at the last obstacle, the teeter, so that's good. Given the relatively warm weather (20 degrees) and his nonweaving weave episode earlier on, I opted to not even try the 12-weaves which were the #7 obstacle.
Weave Issue Developing? Ok, here's the situation. In practice and at events lately, Walter has not been weaving well, either popping or just not doing them at all. Unlike Lucy (who is a two-footed hop weaver) and many other dogs, Walter is not a dog who can do the weaves halfheartedly. Maybe it has to do with his being a single-strided weaver, but he has to really be into it right from the start, otherwise the weaves just don't happen. Warm weather really contributes to his weaving halfheartedness. His recent weaving performance reminds me of his lackluster attitude doing boxwork at flyball, NOT good. To address this, I will (a) go back to the weave-a-matics at practice until his speed, drive, and confidence are back up, and (b) not do fixed weaves (not even the 6-weaves) until he's driving well and staying in the wams. This means we will bypass the weaves in all events at our first Advanced trial later this week. In a way, this is kind of cool because it means there's no hope of a Q in the standards (and possibly Gamblers... do they put weaves in the gamble at the Advanced level?) so it will be a no-pressure opportunity to get exposure to the sorts of things one might see in Advanced-level courses and more importantly to focus on just getting Walter to have more fun! :-)
Friday July 13th 2007 - practice
12-weaves: The goal was to get a clean pass as part of a sequence in the hopes that the excitement of running a sequence would pump him up enough to do a clean pass, but it didn't quite work. He kept running past or popping, so as soon as he did one good pass it was party time and no more weaves for the day.
"get out": Following the post on Bud Houston's blog, today Walter started his "get out" training with two jumps and a tunnel. He did well until I rushed things and put a third jump as a decoy and then he wanted to take the jump. Why oh why is it always so tempting to push? :-)
Tuesday July 3rd 2007 - practice
Well, today's plan didn't exactly go quite according to plan. He hasn't done any weaves since the last trial, so today's plan was to simply run him through the 12 weaves 3, maybe 4 times MAX and really jackpot for that since he's tended to pop at the last couple of trials, and spend the rest of the time playing fetch/tug. The first goofup was I forgot to bring the super-duper treats. Oh well, I still had some other delicious treats and figured I'd just give him even more of them. Well, on the first pass he popped between poles 9 and 10. Hmmm. Again, same thing on the second pass. On the third pass he popped even earlier. Ok, Houston we have a problem, so I removed half of the weaves; now he should definitely be able to do it. Nope. Popped between poles 3 and 4, just like at our last trial. I always mark the entry with "yes" and it seemed today he was pulling out after I said it, but now that I think of it he didn't pull out so early in the 12-weaves so I don't think that's it. Funny how in both the 6- and 12-weaves he popped on the left side between the 3rd and 4th last poles. Am I somehow unknowingly pulling him off? Anyway, he did do one good pass on the 6-weaves so after playing I put him away to work with Lucy. Brought him out for one more exercise which was a run on a nice easy course with the 6-weaves in a different part of the field halfway through the course. This time he did it right on the first try, yay! Resisted the urge to try it "just one more time" and instead ended the session with a fun game of fetch the flying squirrel.
Sunday July 1st 2007 - practice
Tuesday July 24th 2007 - semi-private lesson
It was Walter's first time at this facility doing agility and we had a gamble-skills-oriented lesson which was a lot of fun and really useful. She gave us a number of exercises to work on, and she made an interesting point, which is that a dog should be able to do gamble work without needing momentum to launch them into it. In other words, if your dog can do gamble exercises starting from a stay, then they have well-developed distance skills. Despite the heat he was well-motivated throughout the lesson, especially when we brought out the squeaky ball and flying squirrel!
Thursday July 19th 2007 - Advanced Trial
A good evening at Walter's and my first ever Advanced trial! We were entered in all classes: Standard 1 and 2, Jumpers, and Gamblers. The night got off to a late start due to a thunderstorm passing through, and the rain stuck around for the Standards after which the sky cleared. I really liked the courses which sure were a lot more interesting than those at the Starters level, but not super-hard either.
Standard #1
Given the weave "problems" Walter's been having lately, going into the trial I was 95% sure I'd make him skip the weaves. But, the rain seemed to have kept him cool and fresh so at the last minute (ie while he was approaching the jump that preceded the weaves!), I decided to heck with it and let him do them since calling him off would really interrupt his flow. He did the 12-weaves clean on the first try!!! Our dogwalk to snaked under tunnel was really messy but somehow we didn't incur a refusal. He crept up on his table down causing the countdown to restart, but I wouldn't want to lie down on a wet table either. Towards the end, he took the offcourse frame which I had thought he had sucked over to, but a keen observer noted that my body language was actually sending him straight to the frame. Silly mistake -- I should have taken special precautions since he's already told me several times that he loves frames! That offcourse gave us some faults for a NQ and we ended up with third place.
Standard #2
Wow, he didn't hold the dogwalk contact at all and seemed to have caught a scent. While I was trying to get his attention back and set him up for the weaves which followed right after, he hopped back on the down contact which gave us our only faults of that run. I was thrilled that he did the 12-weaves clean on the first try again! The run was good enough for first, but no Q to accompany it.
Jumpers
My handling plan at the pinwheel section got messed up, but Walter was very forgiving and managed to go through clean for a Q, first place and best Specials run for a cow thing tug prize!
Gamblers
Walter contributed his own recommendation to our opening which messed me up and I was sure we hadn't gotten enough points, but I was really glad that he did the gamble! The gamble was said to be easy for an Advanced gamble: frame parallel to gamble line, turn toward handler into snaked under tunnel, then jump following the tunnel exit at the max lateral distance. HOWEVER, his contacts were HORRIBLE. Sure he always hit the yellow, but I don't think he held a single 2o2o, on either the teeter or dogwalk in the opening nor the frame in the closing. I could understand the frame in the closing since I haven't proofed it much with distance, and I guess I'll "blame it on the rain" for the rest of the blown 2o2os... but I believe a fun match contact proofing session is in order! Somehow we ended up with enough points in the opening for a Q plus first place and best of Specials for another tug prize.
All in all, a good night that I really wasn't expecting much from other than finding out what Advanced courses are like and having fun with my dog. Note to self: During both weaves, I said nothing at all while he was weaving, neither a "yes" for entering nor any "good boys" so maybe I just need to shut it while he weaves. Gonna give him a nice break from agility unless we get a bout of cool weather and look forward to trialing some more in the fall.
Stats:
Facility: All Dog Sports Club (outdoors on grass)
Weather: Thunderstorm preceded event, then rain during both standards and dry for last two classes; 20 degrees according to Environment Canada but it felt quite a bit cooler than that
Pre-event exercise: 20 minutes long-leash at BP
Crating: cool enough for the car -- seems happier staying in the car than in his xpen
Classes entered: 4 (Advanced Standard 1 and 2, Jumpers, and Gamblers)
Qs: 2 (Advanced Jumpers and Gamblers)
Time/SCT: 78.38/69.00 Standard #1; 72.70/70.00 Standard #2; 33.84/42.00 Jumpers; 56.06/60.00 Gamblers
YPS: unknown (forgot to write down yardage)
Difficulties: Deteriorating 2o2o
Tuesday July 17th 2007 - practice
Short practice using a super duper treat to reward the weave-a-matics. Trying to build a really positive association with the weaves.
Sunday July 15th 2007 - K9 Kup #2
Well, that feeling of being totally in sync with one's dog eluded me today in Walter's runs, but, that said, it wasn't *that* bad. I think I'm getting worried that the weaves are becoming an "issue" (more on that below) which is pushing aside in my mind the stuff he's doing well.
Standard
He was SO not feeling those 6-weaves today. Just like in the first run of the day at our weekend trial in June, he would have nothing to do with the weaves even after a few attempts, so we got an Incomplete straight off the bat. Very clumsy handling from weaves to frame, yuck! Watching his table, such a difference from Lucy, there's NO tail wag happening at all! How boring. Refusal at the tire, not sure why.
Jumpers
Refusal -- maybe a "go" should have been added to my over command or I should have crossed differently? But, narrow escape from a backjump there!! :-)
Snooker
Stangely, he forgot (?) to pause at the frame contact and I continued right away anyway!! ARGH!!!!!!! I hope hope hope I will not let myself do that again... guess I succumbed to the pressure of this being a team thing and wanting us all to score/place as well as possible. Bad handler, bad bad bad!! But, he held 2o2o at the last obstacle, the teeter, so that's good. Given the relatively warm weather (20 degrees) and his nonweaving weave episode earlier on, I opted to not even try the 12-weaves which were the #7 obstacle.
Weave Issue Developing? Ok, here's the situation. In practice and at events lately, Walter has not been weaving well, either popping or just not doing them at all. Unlike Lucy (who is a two-footed hop weaver) and many other dogs, Walter is not a dog who can do the weaves halfheartedly. Maybe it has to do with his being a single-strided weaver, but he has to really be into it right from the start, otherwise the weaves just don't happen. Warm weather really contributes to his weaving halfheartedness. His recent weaving performance reminds me of his lackluster attitude doing boxwork at flyball, NOT good. To address this, I will (a) go back to the weave-a-matics at practice until his speed, drive, and confidence are back up, and (b) not do fixed weaves (not even the 6-weaves) until he's driving well and staying in the wams. This means we will bypass the weaves in all events at our first Advanced trial later this week. In a way, this is kind of cool because it means there's no hope of a Q in the standards (and possibly Gamblers... do they put weaves in the gamble at the Advanced level?) so it will be a no-pressure opportunity to get exposure to the sorts of things one might see in Advanced-level courses and more importantly to focus on just getting Walter to have more fun! :-)
Friday July 13th 2007 - practice
12-weaves: The goal was to get a clean pass as part of a sequence in the hopes that the excitement of running a sequence would pump him up enough to do a clean pass, but it didn't quite work. He kept running past or popping, so as soon as he did one good pass it was party time and no more weaves for the day.
"get out": Following the post on Bud Houston's blog, today Walter started his "get out" training with two jumps and a tunnel. He did well until I rushed things and put a third jump as a decoy and then he wanted to take the jump. Why oh why is it always so tempting to push? :-)
Tuesday July 3rd 2007 - practice
Well, today's plan didn't exactly go quite according to plan. He hasn't done any weaves since the last trial, so today's plan was to simply run him through the 12 weaves 3, maybe 4 times MAX and really jackpot for that since he's tended to pop at the last couple of trials, and spend the rest of the time playing fetch/tug. The first goofup was I forgot to bring the super-duper treats. Oh well, I still had some other delicious treats and figured I'd just give him even more of them. Well, on the first pass he popped between poles 9 and 10. Hmmm. Again, same thing on the second pass. On the third pass he popped even earlier. Ok, Houston we have a problem, so I removed half of the weaves; now he should definitely be able to do it. Nope. Popped between poles 3 and 4, just like at our last trial. I always mark the entry with "yes" and it seemed today he was pulling out after I said it, but now that I think of it he didn't pull out so early in the 12-weaves so I don't think that's it. Funny how in both the 6- and 12-weaves he popped on the left side between the 3rd and 4th last poles. Am I somehow unknowingly pulling him off? Anyway, he did do one good pass on the 6-weaves so after playing I put him away to work with Lucy. Brought him out for one more exercise which was a run on a nice easy course with the 6-weaves in a different part of the field halfway through the course. This time he did it right on the first try, yay! Resisted the urge to try it "just one more time" and instead ended the session with a fun game of fetch the flying squirrel.
Sunday July 1st 2007 - practice
- frame to tunnel: getting a bit better.
- serps and threadles: much better than last time we tried them.
- started work on "get out".
- getting Walter's attention off the frame when it was in his face as a potential next obstacle: at first he wanted to take the frame but then he clued in that that wasn't necessarily what we were doing.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
June 2007
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
Friday June 29th 2007 - practice
After a week's break from agility we snuck in a quick practice before the skies opened up. Experimented with distance today. Lateral distance at the contacts he handled well except for sometimes not holding 2o2o. Going from snaked-under L-shaped tunnel to the frame by turning towards me went fairly well. Definitely need to work on turning away from me to go into the tunnel; even with reduced distance was rough. A little bit of weave entry work with a 2x2 using thrown ball as reward.
Thursday June 21st 2007 - Evening Starters mini-trial
Walter hung out in his xpen while I had a front row seat volunteering as ring crew for the two standards which was fun. Then, it was time to play!
First, Team Relay which was our first ever try at it. Our partner was having tire issues that night so I was happy to take the second half which had the tire. We had both agreed that this was to be a no-stress affair (well in theory anyway - easier said than done!!) since neither of us wanted to stress ourselves out. Walter waited patiently while our partner ran, and I saw that they had gotten a fault, so the supposed-to-be-nonexistant-but-definitely-existant-self-imposed-pressure was off! Then off we went. From looking at the course map and later walking the course I had a feeling Walter would be sucked over to the frame, just wasn't sure if it would be before or after the tire. Well, lo and behold that's exactly what happened, straight to the frame after doing the tire even though I was on his left. After backjumping 4, we then got back on track until the 6-weaves. I had front crossed after the tunnel because he gets the entries better when I'm on the left, and he got the easy head-on entry, BUT popped halfway through!! and there were only SIX weaves! and the weather was nice and cool! What the!! I really should have taken him back to do them again, but I thought I'd give the hand-leading thing a try since we practiced it a little bit yesterday, and although it worked, there was no satisfaction in it and I felt like we had cheated! :-( Anyway, a couple of rear crosses to finish it off. So, we were a perfect match to our partner, each of us getting faults which is very nice since this way neither of us feels we let the other down. :-)
Then it was Snooker. Although he got his Snooker Q last weekend, I had already registered for this trial and since it was a Starters-only trial there was no moving up so we ran it anyway. Although we didn't technically need it, I was really hoping to get this Q too because of the two-judge rule since all our other games Qs were under one judge so this way it doesn't matter who the judge is for future team relays (if I understand the rules correctly). Anyway, it was a pretty nice easy course with three of the reds huddled close to the #7 teeter. We took the leftmost red first since the nice open space after it gave me time to collect Walter and inform him that this was not going to be a go-go-go-at-whatever-obstacle-is-in-your-face sort of run. So, leftmost red, teeter, middle red, teeter, angled red, teeter, then around to the closing sequence which we managed to complete before the whistle. I can't believe I'm saying this, but ok maybe Snooker *is* fun, if only I could learn to relax a bit and not overmanage every move he makes in this crazy game! I heard the judge chuckle at me while we were running; must be pretty entertaining watching all the handlers running around panicking at every step their dog takes. Heh! A Q and best specials run (out of about 5 dogs) (lovely treat pouch prize).
Walter will have a break from agility for the next little while to keep him from turning sour given the rash of agility events lately!
Stats:
Sunday June 17th 2007 - K9 Kup #1
Many thanks to one of our teammates for these great action photos!
Here's the downed bar in Standard, fractions of a second before it came down.
Normally he gets lots of air...
... too much air!
Our team took 2nd place in Steeplechase!
Walter's first K9 Kup event! K9 Kup is a team-based event with three classes per day (Standard + two games) geared to dogs who are not yet trialing, run just like an official trial except it's not sanctioned and refusals are never faulted. All dogs run the same Starters-level courses, but titled dogs receive a handicap. Walter seemed to have no recollection of last Sunday's blood episode thank goodness!
Jumpers was first. He rear crossed smoothly between 4/5 and 13/14 since I wasn't sure I could get in position for the front cross. It was a clean run.
Next was Standard. Starting together off the startline as usual, I then sent him to the tunnel then booted it to change sides between 3 and 4, which worked. Not to be outdone be Lucy, he got the 6-weaves on the first try, and held his contacts while I led out from them. The surprise was that he jumped off the table before lying down, and then when he hopped back on took his sweet time to down. How generous of him to keep me on my toes! ;-) And for the first time in a LONG time he dropped a bar, at the second last jump (see photo).
Steeplechase: Although I wasn't sure how it would go, a rear cross between jump 2 and tunnel 3 worked fairly well. Refusal at jump 7 for whatever reason, might have gotten distracted by activity outside the ring; took him around to do it again, then the 12-weaves. He popped at the second last pole (argh!) and in the span of half a second I debated if I should just not push the matter and move on, or take him back to the start of the weaves to try again. Did the latter and luckily for me, a clean pass that time since I wouldn't have wanted to push again and risk demotivating him since he's not one of those weave-crazy dogs. Having taught him to weave with the hands-off weave-a-matics method, a skill I've been thinking I maybe should teach is to be able to target my hand through the last 2 or 3 weaves so that when he does pop near the end of the poles, we don't have to go all the way back to the start again. I'm just not sure if this is a good thing to teach or not, teaching him to enter at something other than the first pole AND on the wrong side if I'm on the left... hopefully it's not something we'd have to do often, but it would be nice to have that in the backpocket. Here's the video, starting a couple of seconds in. The good thing about being the last dog of the day is that everyone gives a really enthusiastic "yay" at the end since it means we all get to go home soon. :-D
Steeplechase (Starter's version!)
The bonus of the day was that our K9 Kup team won 2nd place ribbons for Steeplechase!
Sunday June 10th 2007 - Trial at ADSC - Day 2
Another gorgeous day weather-wise, and just two more classes for us.
The first class was Standard #3 which started off as a complete and utter disaster but I learned that Walter is part bloodhound or a wannabe search-and-rescue-dog! ;-) The poor dog running a couple of spots before us ripped a toenail but no one realized it until afterward when the next person saw blood on the table. So Walter and I were delayed while they cleaned the table, no big deal. So we started our run, first the tire, then the dogwalk, all was fine... until while in 2o2o at the dogwalk he picked up on the smell of the blood and that was that. Managed to get him to do a few more obstacles (including many offcourses) but he could focus on nothing but the blood (some of which I noticed on the teeter and frame) so I pulled him, no sense rehearsing him ignoring me. Turns out the dog had ripped his toenail on the second obstacle (dogwalk) so the blood was all over the course. The judge kindly offered to let us rerun after they cleaned the blood off the teeter, frame, and tunnels (thanks to a couple of young kids who were flexible enough to get in there!). With the blood being all over the field on the grass I wasn't expecting much but gave it a go. This time I booted it to keep Walter moving and somehow, after resorting to clapping to get his attention a few times, we sqeaked through clean for a Q! This being his third Standard Q under two different judges, what started as an awful run ended up earning him his first ever title: Special Agility Dog of Canada! (SADC, pity about the acronym!) There were 12 weaves on this course and on his good run he got the entry and didn't pop although he looked a little bit hesitant while weaving... but I was so glad/relieved he did them clean the first try since he probably would have stressed out and gone back to the blood if I had had to ask him to retry and retry and retry the weaves. Another first place and best of the specials (out of 6 dogs) so another tug toy prize, yay! Anyway, a lesson learned and although I wasn't in the least upset with Walter for his blood-sniffing, I should do some proofing against distractions on course but I don't know that anything could be quite as distracting as the smell of fresh blood!!
Last but not least was Gamblers. It was held in the other, non-bloody ring, but Walter seemed to be wondering if something had been wounded in this ring as well as he was a little bit nose to the ground but only for the first few obstacles. He changed our plan on the fly at a few places, but being Gambler's and the end of a long weekend I really didn't care. Didn't attempt the 12-weaves but did the mini gamble twice and the end gamble for a total of 26*2=52 points, a Q (squeaked in at 57.09!), first place and best of specials (out of only 3 dogs!! heh) for which the prize was a nifty t-shirt.
So, as fun as all these Qs have been, it means we now have to -- I mean, get to -- move up to Advanced in everything but team relay. I won't enter him in any classes involving weaves (especially now that it will be mostly all 12-weaves) until the fall when the weather is cooler which means the only ones we might try at evening summer trials are Jumpers and possibly Gamblers after we brush up (well, ok we need a lot more than just "brushing up"!) on distance skills.
Here are the stats of the day:
Moving up to the much more challenging Advanced, Qs and placements will be fewer and farther between but I'm quite sure Walter won't miss these silly brag photo shoots!
Saturday June 9th 2007 - Trial at ADSC - Day 1 (Walter's (and my) second trial)
A fun and successful first day of our first ever two-day trial. All events were at the Starter's level.
First up was Standard #1, which was where we had our only problem of the day: He kept running past the 6-weaves and would only weave the last 2 or 3 poles. Just like our last trial (where he didn't have any problems), the weaves followed the table with a nice head-on approach, but he just was not feeling that set of weaves today! Possible explanations for this are that the base was an H shape which he's not used to or that being his first run of the day in a brand new place he hadn't quite found his comfort level. Also, in general his concentration for that run was not at 100%... e.g. he was looking around rather than at me while holding 2o2o. But, no flow problems other than the weaves.
Next was Snooker and there were no weaves in this course. I planned the course for flow rather than points and the opening wasn't pretty (I can still hear my frantic voice making sure he didn't take a red instead of an obstacle of choice or vice versa), but 37 points got him his Q! and a third place finish in our division (out of 5 dogs) although they mistakenly gave us the 2nd place ribbon. When I noticed this and went back to return it for a 3rd place ribbon they said not to worry about it. I would rather have our actual third place ribbon, but oh well!
Jumpers was next and it felt nice and smooth with one exception at the chute where he came darn close to a refusal by nearly running past it but realized at the last minute that yes I really did mean *that* chute. A Q and a first place ribbon followed, as well as a brand new tug toy as a prize for the best Specials run! (out of 7 dogs) My pathetic ancient digital camera doesn't have zoom so you can't see too much, but here's our Jumpers run anyway, highlighting if nothing else my clumsy front cross after the tunnel (not sure how he kept that bar up):
Starters Jumpers - best Specials run
Finally was Standard #2. At this point it was quite warm and getting on in the day so I anticipated he might have issues at the 6-weaves again, but no! The weaves were led into from a jump at a slight angle that required a slight wrap and he nailed the entry and didn't pop, yay! The base of these weaves were the usual shape that we train on in case that made any difference. Anyway, another Q and first place ribbon and another brand new tug toy for the best Specials run! (out of 10 dogs). Here's the video, highlighting my crouched over starting position and late dogwalk and teeter cues. I really should stop babysitting his contacts and table and lead out before releasing him from them.
Starters Standard #2 - best Specials run
Walter received a number of compliments from people including strangers and the judge! They said he ran smoothly with focus and was fast (ok, not FAST fast, but fast enough!). I must admit, he is a wonderful dog to run which makes learning the sport of agility that much more fun and easy for me. Some of his German Shepherd traits I'm not crazy about, but his good work ethic sure is a nice one.
In summary, no sniffies/zoomies, and no problems with starting off the line together. I'm sure when we move up to advanced, competing against other fast and experienced dogs our lack of a lead out will be a more significant disadvantage placement-wise, but for now it hasn't kept us out of the ribbons so I'll enjoy it while it lasts! Tomorrow, just two more runs: Standard #3 and Gamblers.
Here are the stats of the day:
And the brags just wouldn't be complete without a photo:
(digitally fudged the 2nd place Snooker ribbon for a 3rd place ribbon which is what we should have gotten!)
Wednesday June 6th 2007 - practice
12-weaves - great! all but one of the 5 or so tries were clean. The goofed up one was where he didn't check his speed in time so couldn't wrap the second pole. Timing from the video shows first to last pole takes between 3.5-4.0 seconds. Hmm, I don't think he'll be turning in times like that at flyball! ;-)
"mark" starts - the problem is although it looks from my vantage that he's looking at the object I'm pointing him to, he isn't necessarily. Like today when I was pointing him to a jump in front of us, he went around it to go to the weaves which we had just been practicing.
threadles and serpentines - have gotten quite rusty, need to practice more often.
Looking forward to the trial coming up this weekend but a bit nervous about the starts since if we're not on the same page then it will not be too good!
Saturday June 2nd 2007 - practice
12-weaves - missed entries often tonight but no popping
dogwalk to tunnel - improving
"mark" starts - if I was pointing to the jump ahead of us with Walter on my left and there was a jump 90d to Walter's left he sometimes wanted to take the wrong jump.
Friday June 29th 2007 - practice
After a week's break from agility we snuck in a quick practice before the skies opened up. Experimented with distance today. Lateral distance at the contacts he handled well except for sometimes not holding 2o2o. Going from snaked-under L-shaped tunnel to the frame by turning towards me went fairly well. Definitely need to work on turning away from me to go into the tunnel; even with reduced distance was rough. A little bit of weave entry work with a 2x2 using thrown ball as reward.
Thursday June 21st 2007 - Evening Starters mini-trial
Walter hung out in his xpen while I had a front row seat volunteering as ring crew for the two standards which was fun. Then, it was time to play!
First, Team Relay which was our first ever try at it. Our partner was having tire issues that night so I was happy to take the second half which had the tire. We had both agreed that this was to be a no-stress affair (well in theory anyway - easier said than done!!) since neither of us wanted to stress ourselves out. Walter waited patiently while our partner ran, and I saw that they had gotten a fault, so the supposed-to-be-nonexistant-but-definitely-existant-self-imposed-pressure was off! Then off we went. From looking at the course map and later walking the course I had a feeling Walter would be sucked over to the frame, just wasn't sure if it would be before or after the tire. Well, lo and behold that's exactly what happened, straight to the frame after doing the tire even though I was on his left. After backjumping 4, we then got back on track until the 6-weaves. I had front crossed after the tunnel because he gets the entries better when I'm on the left, and he got the easy head-on entry, BUT popped halfway through!! and there were only SIX weaves! and the weather was nice and cool! What the!! I really should have taken him back to do them again, but I thought I'd give the hand-leading thing a try since we practiced it a little bit yesterday, and although it worked, there was no satisfaction in it and I felt like we had cheated! :-( Anyway, a couple of rear crosses to finish it off. So, we were a perfect match to our partner, each of us getting faults which is very nice since this way neither of us feels we let the other down. :-)
Then it was Snooker. Although he got his Snooker Q last weekend, I had already registered for this trial and since it was a Starters-only trial there was no moving up so we ran it anyway. Although we didn't technically need it, I was really hoping to get this Q too because of the two-judge rule since all our other games Qs were under one judge so this way it doesn't matter who the judge is for future team relays (if I understand the rules correctly). Anyway, it was a pretty nice easy course with three of the reds huddled close to the #7 teeter. We took the leftmost red first since the nice open space after it gave me time to collect Walter and inform him that this was not going to be a go-go-go-at-whatever-obstacle-is-in-your-face sort of run. So, leftmost red, teeter, middle red, teeter, angled red, teeter, then around to the closing sequence which we managed to complete before the whistle. I can't believe I'm saying this, but ok maybe Snooker *is* fun, if only I could learn to relax a bit and not overmanage every move he makes in this crazy game! I heard the judge chuckle at me while we were running; must be pretty entertaining watching all the handlers running around panicking at every step their dog takes. Heh! A Q and best specials run (out of about 5 dogs) (lovely treat pouch prize).
Walter will have a break from agility for the next little while to keep him from turning sour given the rash of agility events lately!
Stats:
Facility: All Dog Sports Club (outdoors on grass)
Weather: Rain and distant thunderstorm but cleared in time for our runs; 16 degrees
Pre-event exercise: 30 minutes long-leash at BP
Classes entered: 2 (Starter's Team Relay/Snooker)
Qs: 1 (Starter's Snooker)
YPS: not applicable
Time/SCT: 62.27/60.00 in Snooker
Difficulties: Sucked in by frame; popped the 6-weaves
Sunday June 17th 2007 - K9 Kup #1
Many thanks to one of our teammates for these great action photos!
Here's the downed bar in Standard, fractions of a second before it came down.
Normally he gets lots of air...
... too much air!
Our team took 2nd place in Steeplechase!
Walter's first K9 Kup event! K9 Kup is a team-based event with three classes per day (Standard + two games) geared to dogs who are not yet trialing, run just like an official trial except it's not sanctioned and refusals are never faulted. All dogs run the same Starters-level courses, but titled dogs receive a handicap. Walter seemed to have no recollection of last Sunday's blood episode thank goodness!
Jumpers was first. He rear crossed smoothly between 4/5 and 13/14 since I wasn't sure I could get in position for the front cross. It was a clean run.
Next was Standard. Starting together off the startline as usual, I then sent him to the tunnel then booted it to change sides between 3 and 4, which worked. Not to be outdone be Lucy, he got the 6-weaves on the first try, and held his contacts while I led out from them. The surprise was that he jumped off the table before lying down, and then when he hopped back on took his sweet time to down. How generous of him to keep me on my toes! ;-) And for the first time in a LONG time he dropped a bar, at the second last jump (see photo).
Steeplechase: Although I wasn't sure how it would go, a rear cross between jump 2 and tunnel 3 worked fairly well. Refusal at jump 7 for whatever reason, might have gotten distracted by activity outside the ring; took him around to do it again, then the 12-weaves. He popped at the second last pole (argh!) and in the span of half a second I debated if I should just not push the matter and move on, or take him back to the start of the weaves to try again. Did the latter and luckily for me, a clean pass that time since I wouldn't have wanted to push again and risk demotivating him since he's not one of those weave-crazy dogs. Having taught him to weave with the hands-off weave-a-matics method, a skill I've been thinking I maybe should teach is to be able to target my hand through the last 2 or 3 weaves so that when he does pop near the end of the poles, we don't have to go all the way back to the start again. I'm just not sure if this is a good thing to teach or not, teaching him to enter at something other than the first pole AND on the wrong side if I'm on the left... hopefully it's not something we'd have to do often, but it would be nice to have that in the backpocket. Here's the video, starting a couple of seconds in. The good thing about being the last dog of the day is that everyone gives a really enthusiastic "yay" at the end since it means we all get to go home soon. :-D
Steeplechase (Starter's version!)
The bonus of the day was that our K9 Kup team won 2nd place ribbons for Steeplechase!
Sunday June 10th 2007 - Trial at ADSC - Day 2
Another gorgeous day weather-wise, and just two more classes for us.
The first class was Standard #3 which started off as a complete and utter disaster but I learned that Walter is part bloodhound or a wannabe search-and-rescue-dog! ;-) The poor dog running a couple of spots before us ripped a toenail but no one realized it until afterward when the next person saw blood on the table. So Walter and I were delayed while they cleaned the table, no big deal. So we started our run, first the tire, then the dogwalk, all was fine... until while in 2o2o at the dogwalk he picked up on the smell of the blood and that was that. Managed to get him to do a few more obstacles (including many offcourses) but he could focus on nothing but the blood (some of which I noticed on the teeter and frame) so I pulled him, no sense rehearsing him ignoring me. Turns out the dog had ripped his toenail on the second obstacle (dogwalk) so the blood was all over the course. The judge kindly offered to let us rerun after they cleaned the blood off the teeter, frame, and tunnels (thanks to a couple of young kids who were flexible enough to get in there!). With the blood being all over the field on the grass I wasn't expecting much but gave it a go. This time I booted it to keep Walter moving and somehow, after resorting to clapping to get his attention a few times, we sqeaked through clean for a Q! This being his third Standard Q under two different judges, what started as an awful run ended up earning him his first ever title: Special Agility Dog of Canada! (SADC, pity about the acronym!) There were 12 weaves on this course and on his good run he got the entry and didn't pop although he looked a little bit hesitant while weaving... but I was so glad/relieved he did them clean the first try since he probably would have stressed out and gone back to the blood if I had had to ask him to retry and retry and retry the weaves. Another first place and best of the specials (out of 6 dogs) so another tug toy prize, yay! Anyway, a lesson learned and although I wasn't in the least upset with Walter for his blood-sniffing, I should do some proofing against distractions on course but I don't know that anything could be quite as distracting as the smell of fresh blood!!
Last but not least was Gamblers. It was held in the other, non-bloody ring, but Walter seemed to be wondering if something had been wounded in this ring as well as he was a little bit nose to the ground but only for the first few obstacles. He changed our plan on the fly at a few places, but being Gambler's and the end of a long weekend I really didn't care. Didn't attempt the 12-weaves but did the mini gamble twice and the end gamble for a total of 26*2=52 points, a Q (squeaked in at 57.09!), first place and best of specials (out of only 3 dogs!! heh) for which the prize was a nifty t-shirt.
So, as fun as all these Qs have been, it means we now have to -- I mean, get to -- move up to Advanced in everything but team relay. I won't enter him in any classes involving weaves (especially now that it will be mostly all 12-weaves) until the fall when the weather is cooler which means the only ones we might try at evening summer trials are Jumpers and possibly Gamblers after we brush up (well, ok we need a lot more than just "brushing up"!) on distance skills.
Here are the stats of the day:
Facility: All Dog Sports Club (outdoors on grass)
Weather: 22 degrees and sunny
Pre-event exercise: none except for a bit of long-leash on-site
Classes entered: 2 (Starter's Standard #3/Gamblers)
Qs: 2 (Starter's Standard #3/Gamblers)
YPS: 2.73 Standard #3
Time/SCT: 55.66/68.00 Standard #3; 57.09/60.00 Gamblers
Difficulties: Distracted big-time by blood!
Title earned: SADC
Moving up to the much more challenging Advanced, Qs and placements will be fewer and farther between but I'm quite sure Walter won't miss these silly brag photo shoots!
Saturday June 9th 2007 - Trial at ADSC - Day 1 (Walter's (and my) second trial)
A fun and successful first day of our first ever two-day trial. All events were at the Starter's level.
First up was Standard #1, which was where we had our only problem of the day: He kept running past the 6-weaves and would only weave the last 2 or 3 poles. Just like our last trial (where he didn't have any problems), the weaves followed the table with a nice head-on approach, but he just was not feeling that set of weaves today! Possible explanations for this are that the base was an H shape which he's not used to or that being his first run of the day in a brand new place he hadn't quite found his comfort level. Also, in general his concentration for that run was not at 100%... e.g. he was looking around rather than at me while holding 2o2o. But, no flow problems other than the weaves.
Next was Snooker and there were no weaves in this course. I planned the course for flow rather than points and the opening wasn't pretty (I can still hear my frantic voice making sure he didn't take a red instead of an obstacle of choice or vice versa), but 37 points got him his Q! and a third place finish in our division (out of 5 dogs) although they mistakenly gave us the 2nd place ribbon. When I noticed this and went back to return it for a 3rd place ribbon they said not to worry about it. I would rather have our actual third place ribbon, but oh well!
Jumpers was next and it felt nice and smooth with one exception at the chute where he came darn close to a refusal by nearly running past it but realized at the last minute that yes I really did mean *that* chute. A Q and a first place ribbon followed, as well as a brand new tug toy as a prize for the best Specials run! (out of 7 dogs) My pathetic ancient digital camera doesn't have zoom so you can't see too much, but here's our Jumpers run anyway, highlighting if nothing else my clumsy front cross after the tunnel (not sure how he kept that bar up):
Starters Jumpers - best Specials run
Finally was Standard #2. At this point it was quite warm and getting on in the day so I anticipated he might have issues at the 6-weaves again, but no! The weaves were led into from a jump at a slight angle that required a slight wrap and he nailed the entry and didn't pop, yay! The base of these weaves were the usual shape that we train on in case that made any difference. Anyway, another Q and first place ribbon and another brand new tug toy for the best Specials run! (out of 10 dogs). Here's the video, highlighting my crouched over starting position and late dogwalk and teeter cues. I really should stop babysitting his contacts and table and lead out before releasing him from them.
Starters Standard #2 - best Specials run
Walter received a number of compliments from people including strangers and the judge! They said he ran smoothly with focus and was fast (ok, not FAST fast, but fast enough!). I must admit, he is a wonderful dog to run which makes learning the sport of agility that much more fun and easy for me. Some of his German Shepherd traits I'm not crazy about, but his good work ethic sure is a nice one.
In summary, no sniffies/zoomies, and no problems with starting off the line together. I'm sure when we move up to advanced, competing against other fast and experienced dogs our lack of a lead out will be a more significant disadvantage placement-wise, but for now it hasn't kept us out of the ribbons so I'll enjoy it while it lasts! Tomorrow, just two more runs: Standard #3 and Gamblers.
Here are the stats of the day:
Facility: All Dog Sports Club (outdoors on grass)
Weather: from 19 up to 22 degrees and sunny
Pre-event exercise: 15 minutes long-leash in neighbourhood then 30 minutes long-leash at BP
Crating: x-pen between rings, he was quiet most of the time
Warm-up jumps: Didn't do the jumps, did other exercises instead
Classes entered: 4 (Starter's Standard #1/Snooker/Jumpers/Standard #2)
Qs: 3 (Starter's Snooker/Jumpers/Standard #2)
YPS: 1.9 in Standard #1 (darn weave refusals); 4.98 in Jumpers; 3.03 in Standard #2
Time/SCT: 72.57/66.00 Standard #1; 51.23/60.00 Snooker; 29.49/47.00 Jumpers; 51.80/73.00 Standard #2
Difficulties: 6-weaves in Standard #1, but fine in Standard #2
And the brags just wouldn't be complete without a photo:
(digitally fudged the 2nd place Snooker ribbon for a 3rd place ribbon which is what we should have gotten!)
Wednesday June 6th 2007 - practice
12-weaves - great! all but one of the 5 or so tries were clean. The goofed up one was where he didn't check his speed in time so couldn't wrap the second pole. Timing from the video shows first to last pole takes between 3.5-4.0 seconds. Hmm, I don't think he'll be turning in times like that at flyball! ;-)
"mark" starts - the problem is although it looks from my vantage that he's looking at the object I'm pointing him to, he isn't necessarily. Like today when I was pointing him to a jump in front of us, he went around it to go to the weaves which we had just been practicing.
threadles and serpentines - have gotten quite rusty, need to practice more often.
Looking forward to the trial coming up this weekend but a bit nervous about the starts since if we're not on the same page then it will not be too good!
Saturday June 2nd 2007 - practice
12-weaves - missed entries often tonight but no popping
dogwalk to tunnel - improving
"mark" starts - if I was pointing to the jump ahead of us with Walter on my left and there was a jump 90d to Walter's left he sometimes wanted to take the wrong jump.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
May 2007
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
Sunday May 27th 2007 - Fun Match
For some inexplicable reason I tried leading out on his first run of the day. After I got that goofiness out of my system the rest of our runs started off the line together using "mark" and worked well though it was hard to run fast enough in my big clunky rainboots. He did fine with the table and the 6-weaves in the standard (didn't include the 12-weaves in the gambler's) and we bypassed the dogwalk since it was raining. He did very well with the mini-gamble and less well with the main gamble which I will blame on me not giving him a very good lead into it.
Friday May 11th 2007 - practice (KK9)
I've decided to take a different approach to practice time this year, which is to choose one or two specific skills or exercises to work on in a session and have a plan that targets them instead of goofing around more or less aimlessly, as much fun as that is. This will keep the practice sessions short and therefore hopefully prevent the doggy boredom factor from arising. Anyway, today was Walter's first time at a new practice field. Today's plan was to expose him to the equipment and do some of the exercises in Go the Distance week 2. His first time on the table he did the sniffy thing, so I silently took him by the collar and removed him, then sent him again and this time he downed promptly. No problem on the dogwalk, and he held the contacts well when I ran past him. Didn't try the teeter because the wind was tipping it up and down. Good job with the 6-weaves on all three attempts. For the distance work, I was too lazy to set up the tunnel or chute so we did a pinwheel as well as sending over jump to table. It's so fun working with Walter because he "gets" my cues... I know Lucy will get there too but she's got a ways yet. He did some excellent stays while I moved things around.
Sunday May 27th 2007 - Fun Match
For some inexplicable reason I tried leading out on his first run of the day. After I got that goofiness out of my system the rest of our runs started off the line together using "mark" and worked well though it was hard to run fast enough in my big clunky rainboots. He did fine with the table and the 6-weaves in the standard (didn't include the 12-weaves in the gambler's) and we bypassed the dogwalk since it was raining. He did very well with the mini-gamble and less well with the main gamble which I will blame on me not giving him a very good lead into it.
Friday May 11th 2007 - practice (KK9)
I've decided to take a different approach to practice time this year, which is to choose one or two specific skills or exercises to work on in a session and have a plan that targets them instead of goofing around more or less aimlessly, as much fun as that is. This will keep the practice sessions short and therefore hopefully prevent the doggy boredom factor from arising. Anyway, today was Walter's first time at a new practice field. Today's plan was to expose him to the equipment and do some of the exercises in Go the Distance week 2. His first time on the table he did the sniffy thing, so I silently took him by the collar and removed him, then sent him again and this time he downed promptly. No problem on the dogwalk, and he held the contacts well when I ran past him. Didn't try the teeter because the wind was tipping it up and down. Good job with the 6-weaves on all three attempts. For the distance work, I was too lazy to set up the tunnel or chute so we did a pinwheel as well as sending over jump to table. It's so fun working with Walter because he "gets" my cues... I know Lucy will get there too but she's got a ways yet. He did some excellent stays while I moved things around.
Monday, April 30, 2007
April 2007
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
Saturday April 28th 2007 - Fun Match (Dogz at Sunset Farms riding stables, indoors on horse-pooped-on sand)
The good:
The not-so-good/needs-more-work:
The bizarre:
Monday April 9th 2007 - practice
Following on something Lucy and I are learning in obedience, Walter is learning "mark" which will be incorporated into our start line. So, rather than us running off the start with him looking at me and then having to look around to find the first obstacle, he'll already be looking ahead to it. This should reduce the chance of a dropped bar or worse, a collision with the first obstacle! Our home-made jump is coming in handy for this. Also, a few days ago started to teach "turn", the opposite of "around", using a music stand in the living room, and he's got it down now. Next steps will be to do both "turn" and "around" in the same session and to reduce the size of the prop, say to a can of tomato soup! Not strictly agility-related but I may try using this as one way of working on challenging weave entries... I read an article about it somewhere, but darned if I can find it now...
Saturday April 28th 2007 - Fun Match (Dogz at Sunset Farms riding stables, indoors on horse-pooped-on sand)
The good:
- he held every contact even though I ran a couple of metres past them
- no problems with the 12-weaves except for the first run when he popped at the second last pole (the entries were easy, basically head-on). rewarded with game of tug.
- no signs of nervousness on the dogwalk when it followed the snaked-under tunnel although I stepped a meter or two past the tunnel and gave him a treat before turning him around onto the dogwalk
- nice flow throughout except for the opening of the first two runs and a couple of horse-poop-sniffing moments
- some nice rear crosses over jumps
- he crated well in Lucy's crate, in the main area adjacent to the ring. A sheet was draped over to block his view and keep him quiet. Time to get a good-sized soft crate for him which will make set-up and take-down a lot easier.
The not-so-good/needs-more-work:
- the first two starts Walter decided to make up his own opening, must have thought I was pointing to the wrong jump. So I used a target after the first jump and by the third and fourth runs he was back on track.
- a couple of horse-poop-investigating moments but nothing too bad.
The bizarre:
- once at a tunnel snaked under the frame, he turned around midway in the tunnel and came back out the entry. He never does that; best I can figure is he paused to sniff some interesting scent inside the tunnel, then got confused about which way was which and chose the wrong way.
Monday April 9th 2007 - practice
Following on something Lucy and I are learning in obedience, Walter is learning "mark" which will be incorporated into our start line. So, rather than us running off the start with him looking at me and then having to look around to find the first obstacle, he'll already be looking ahead to it. This should reduce the chance of a dropped bar or worse, a collision with the first obstacle! Our home-made jump is coming in handy for this. Also, a few days ago started to teach "turn", the opposite of "around", using a music stand in the living room, and he's got it down now. Next steps will be to do both "turn" and "around" in the same session and to reduce the size of the prop, say to a can of tomato soup! Not strictly agility-related but I may try using this as one way of working on challenging weave entries... I read an article about it somewhere, but darned if I can find it now...
Saturday, March 31, 2007
March 2007
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
Saturday March 24th 2007 - Walter's and my first ever trial! (Dream Fields)
Back in the middle of February I took the plunge and decided to sign Walter up for his/our first ever trial! I had been really happy (for the most part!) with how he had been running in the course we were taking at the time, and thought since I was going to be driving all the way there to volunteer anyway, why not bring Walter and give it a go in a class or two. Also, I was attracted by Jumper's being the very first class which is a nice low-stress event, no having to make up a course or "worry" about weaves, contacts, or tables so a good way to ease into the whole trial thing. Then I thought, well, since I'm going to sign up for Jumper's, why not just give Standard a try too, which was the class right after anyway, so we entered those two classes. After submitting our entry, some attention problems cropped up, and then due to his benign lump removal we had some unexpected down time. So, going into the trial I wasn't quite sure how it would all pan out! Oh, and I made the decision once and for all to run him in Specials. He doesn't have the best build in the world, being pretty deep-chested/top-heavy, so I decided it was not worth putting his front end through the extra stress of higher/wider jumps and steeper frame. Ego be darned!
Well, I'm very happy to report that our first trial was a success! My goals were (a) to handle consistently with what we've been doing in practice, yet leaning on the conservative side to prevent refusals and therefore keep everything as happy and positive as possible, and (b) to maintain Walter's attention for the duration of the runs. Both goals were met, with some bonuses too!
Our day started with the measurement. I had temporarily taken apart my pvc jump and constructed a wannabe-wicket with it, getting Walter used to it over the last 3 or 4 weeks so that he wouldn't be too nervous about being measured. The measuring took place in a crowded little room and it turned out they were using a different type of measuring device, but while he was a little nervous there was no problem getting the job done. Walter measured in at 24", so he doesn't have to be measured again.
We were in the first and second classes of the day, starting with Starter's Jumpers. Our start was him sitting, looking at me, then off we went, and the run went extremely smoothly until the very last jump which he ran around the far side of, incurring a non-completion penalty of 20 faults. Looking at the course map at home I realized that for some reason I had never noticed the angled line between the last two jumps. Considering he tends to go around the far side of jumps if I run too close the standard, I can totally see why he ran round that last jump. Lesson learned, look at/walk the course *carefully*! There were no other refusals, no obstacle issues, no sniffing, no being nervous of the judge or ring crew; the run felt great! I was very, very happy with how it went. He ran the course in 24.99 seconds and had a YPS of 4.72. I played around with him a bit afterwards but since we were the second last on course I thought that the Standard walkthrough would be starting soon so I rushed somewhat in putting him back in the car. Then I realized the course had yet to be built, so there was actually lots of time to spend with him afterwards, which I'll remember for next time.
Next was Starter's Standard. The most bizarre thing happened at the table! Going into the run I was wondering if Walter might notice the judge at the table and become nervous, but no! With the judge standing only a couple of meters away, he lay down promptly and stared directly at... my navel! The whole entire time that the electronic count thing was counting down, his gaze was glued to my stomach, very strange indeed! So, no problems there, off to the 6-weaves which he nailed on the first go, yay! I had planned to be on the left side of the weaves but somehow ended up on the right. Front cross at the tunnel, then to the chute and the last two jumps and I made darn sure to handle them carefully so as not to mess up the ending this time. We got our first Q!! He ran the course in 53.26 seconds with a YPS of 2.74. It was good enough for first place in our height division (22"/16" combined, in which a total of only four dogs ran!) so we got a nice shiny red ribbon, and a bonus: it was the best run of the Special division (total of 7 dogs, ah the joy of small trials!) so we also got a little squeaky duck as a prize. Like the Jumpers, the run felt terrific with no sniffies, refusals, obstacle issues, etc, and contacts were fine.
Here are the courses we ran:
Here he is with all his accoutrements (it's not often that we'll take a first place so may as well enjoy it!):
In closing, I'm glad we gave it a go but I'm also glad we entered only two classes, a nice "lite" way of easing into the trial thing. I deliberately haven't/won't be entering the next several trials because I really just wanted to get my feet wet at this point and want to get in some more practice and skills improvement first. I'll be the first to admit that the courses weren't very hard, especially being used to nested courses at fun matches where there seem to be a lot more off-course potential and decoy obstacles, but that made it all the more an enjoyable introduction to trialing since when we make it into Advanced it will be a lot more challenging. Also, in a bizarre way, I'm kind of glad that we didn't Q in Jumpers. Jumpers is really fun, and a Q would mean having to move up to Advanced which means we wouln't get to do Jumpers again in a while since I'm not going to make Walter hang around a full day.
Here are the stats of the day:
Saturday March 19th - practice at Red Gate
no weaves for Walter, but the stitches are nearly healed now. Didn't work on anything specific today, just made a point of having fun and whipping out a super-duper special treat every now and then.
Saturday March 10th - Fun match (Red Gate)
The courses today were standard and steeplechase. Like last night, I forbade Walter from weaving due to his stitches. We had someone "judge" us for every run so that Walter remembers to expect to see someone out there, which went just fine. The start for every run was Walter sitting attentively at my side, "okay", and off we went. I was surprised at how smoothly it worked, and it was REALLY really nice to have stress-free starts to the runs. My plan is to start runs like this for some time and very gradually work in a step to the side, a step to the front, a couple of steps, and so on, ideally ending up with a decent leadout. But if that doesn't happen, then I am happy to live with us starting together! The first two runs (starter's and advanced standard) Walter continued his recent habit of sniffing (I think it's actual scent sniffing rather than stress sniffing, but I could be wrong) and just not being very attentive. Of note, he was leery about the dogwalk when exiting the snaked-under tunnel and turning 180 onto the upramp, I'm sure due to the scramble incident he had with that scenario in a class last fall. But, he made the choice to take the obstacle without any coaxing, and it was only one of the 3 passes that he displayed the hesitation. For the last two runs (starter's version of steeplechase), I brought out some super-duper special treats, rewarding occasionally with them, and it made a world of difference: He was attentive, responsive, and didn't sniff, and the runs felt great again like they used to. Driving home, a lightbulb went off: I have been really slacking off in properly reinforcing Walter in agility lately. The nature of most of our recent agility outings have been no-treat full runs, and I believe he's just gotten bored since verbal praise only goes so far for so long. Fortunately, spring is around the corner so it won't be long before we can soon get back into regular practices. Oh, and today I pushed the contacts by running past him a bit and he held 2o2o every time.
Friday March 9th - AAC Games course: Snooker #2
It was a decent note to end the course on. No imaginary Qs because I didn't allow Walter to weave tonight (stitches on hip still healing) and I planned the courses for flow rather than points. The good thing is our string of cursed 3rd-runs-of-the-night didn't follow us this evening. The first run of the day Walter had several sniffy moments, but these generally faded for the rest of the runs, although Walter refused several obstacles by running past them. Overall I wasn't feeling the connection the way I'd like to and have in the past, but now that I think of it, I wonder if it's because it's Snooker and you have to be ready to change your plan on a dime which changes the whole feeling of the run, even if you don't end up having to change it, which we didn't. I led out on every run to just past the first jump and practically every time he broke his sit so I had to go and put him back. Thing is, he gets anxious the moment I step away, or even before that since he's anticipating it, and tonight it was really bad, he'd break as soon as I started walking away. I am really going to have to figure this thing out. A lead-out or at least a SLS is obviously a big tool to have in one's toolbox and I'm not prepared to give up on it just yet, so we'll see.
Saturday March 3rd - field practice
Walter's known "around" for about a year now (turn clockwise around an upright object). At one of the fields we go to for walks, there are poles which I've started to ask him to "go around" before I throw his frisbee, to tucker him out more. I'm starting to ask for more distance, emphasizing the "go" part of it. We're at about 15 metres or so, and he drives ahead to the pole. Hopefully this will help with gambles and other distance work. I should also teach him a lateral move away, but haven't got "around" to it yet. :-D
Saturday March 24th 2007 - Walter's and my first ever trial! (Dream Fields)
Back in the middle of February I took the plunge and decided to sign Walter up for his/our first ever trial! I had been really happy (for the most part!) with how he had been running in the course we were taking at the time, and thought since I was going to be driving all the way there to volunteer anyway, why not bring Walter and give it a go in a class or two. Also, I was attracted by Jumper's being the very first class which is a nice low-stress event, no having to make up a course or "worry" about weaves, contacts, or tables so a good way to ease into the whole trial thing. Then I thought, well, since I'm going to sign up for Jumper's, why not just give Standard a try too, which was the class right after anyway, so we entered those two classes. After submitting our entry, some attention problems cropped up, and then due to his benign lump removal we had some unexpected down time. So, going into the trial I wasn't quite sure how it would all pan out! Oh, and I made the decision once and for all to run him in Specials. He doesn't have the best build in the world, being pretty deep-chested/top-heavy, so I decided it was not worth putting his front end through the extra stress of higher/wider jumps and steeper frame. Ego be darned!
Well, I'm very happy to report that our first trial was a success! My goals were (a) to handle consistently with what we've been doing in practice, yet leaning on the conservative side to prevent refusals and therefore keep everything as happy and positive as possible, and (b) to maintain Walter's attention for the duration of the runs. Both goals were met, with some bonuses too!
Our day started with the measurement. I had temporarily taken apart my pvc jump and constructed a wannabe-wicket with it, getting Walter used to it over the last 3 or 4 weeks so that he wouldn't be too nervous about being measured. The measuring took place in a crowded little room and it turned out they were using a different type of measuring device, but while he was a little nervous there was no problem getting the job done. Walter measured in at 24", so he doesn't have to be measured again.
We were in the first and second classes of the day, starting with Starter's Jumpers. Our start was him sitting, looking at me, then off we went, and the run went extremely smoothly until the very last jump which he ran around the far side of, incurring a non-completion penalty of 20 faults. Looking at the course map at home I realized that for some reason I had never noticed the angled line between the last two jumps. Considering he tends to go around the far side of jumps if I run too close the standard, I can totally see why he ran round that last jump. Lesson learned, look at/walk the course *carefully*! There were no other refusals, no obstacle issues, no sniffing, no being nervous of the judge or ring crew; the run felt great! I was very, very happy with how it went. He ran the course in 24.99 seconds and had a YPS of 4.72. I played around with him a bit afterwards but since we were the second last on course I thought that the Standard walkthrough would be starting soon so I rushed somewhat in putting him back in the car. Then I realized the course had yet to be built, so there was actually lots of time to spend with him afterwards, which I'll remember for next time.
Next was Starter's Standard. The most bizarre thing happened at the table! Going into the run I was wondering if Walter might notice the judge at the table and become nervous, but no! With the judge standing only a couple of meters away, he lay down promptly and stared directly at... my navel! The whole entire time that the electronic count thing was counting down, his gaze was glued to my stomach, very strange indeed! So, no problems there, off to the 6-weaves which he nailed on the first go, yay! I had planned to be on the left side of the weaves but somehow ended up on the right. Front cross at the tunnel, then to the chute and the last two jumps and I made darn sure to handle them carefully so as not to mess up the ending this time. We got our first Q!! He ran the course in 53.26 seconds with a YPS of 2.74. It was good enough for first place in our height division (22"/16" combined, in which a total of only four dogs ran!) so we got a nice shiny red ribbon, and a bonus: it was the best run of the Special division (total of 7 dogs, ah the joy of small trials!) so we also got a little squeaky duck as a prize. Like the Jumpers, the run felt terrific with no sniffies, refusals, obstacle issues, etc, and contacts were fine.
Here are the courses we ran:
Here he is with all his accoutrements (it's not often that we'll take a first place so may as well enjoy it!):
In closing, I'm glad we gave it a go but I'm also glad we entered only two classes, a nice "lite" way of easing into the trial thing. I deliberately haven't/won't be entering the next several trials because I really just wanted to get my feet wet at this point and want to get in some more practice and skills improvement first. I'll be the first to admit that the courses weren't very hard, especially being used to nested courses at fun matches where there seem to be a lot more off-course potential and decoy obstacles, but that made it all the more an enjoyable introduction to trialing since when we make it into Advanced it will be a lot more challenging. Also, in a bizarre way, I'm kind of glad that we didn't Q in Jumpers. Jumpers is really fun, and a Q would mean having to move up to Advanced which means we wouln't get to do Jumpers again in a while since I'm not going to make Walter hang around a full day.
Here are the stats of the day:
Facility: Dreamfields arena (sand)
Temperature: 4 degrees
Pre-event exercise: One hour off-leash at BP
Crating: In the car
Warm-up jumps: Didn't do the jumps, just heeled around them
Classes entered: 2 (Starter's Jumpers, Starter's Standard #1)
Qs: 1 (Starter's Standard #1)
YPS: 4.72 in Jumpers, 2.74 in Standard
Time/SCT: 24.99/37.00 Jumpers, 53.26/68.88 Standard
Difficulties: Last jump refusal in Jumpers (handler error)
Saturday March 19th - practice at Red Gate
no weaves for Walter, but the stitches are nearly healed now. Didn't work on anything specific today, just made a point of having fun and whipping out a super-duper special treat every now and then.
Saturday March 10th - Fun match (Red Gate)
The courses today were standard and steeplechase. Like last night, I forbade Walter from weaving due to his stitches. We had someone "judge" us for every run so that Walter remembers to expect to see someone out there, which went just fine. The start for every run was Walter sitting attentively at my side, "okay", and off we went. I was surprised at how smoothly it worked, and it was REALLY really nice to have stress-free starts to the runs. My plan is to start runs like this for some time and very gradually work in a step to the side, a step to the front, a couple of steps, and so on, ideally ending up with a decent leadout. But if that doesn't happen, then I am happy to live with us starting together! The first two runs (starter's and advanced standard) Walter continued his recent habit of sniffing (I think it's actual scent sniffing rather than stress sniffing, but I could be wrong) and just not being very attentive. Of note, he was leery about the dogwalk when exiting the snaked-under tunnel and turning 180 onto the upramp, I'm sure due to the scramble incident he had with that scenario in a class last fall. But, he made the choice to take the obstacle without any coaxing, and it was only one of the 3 passes that he displayed the hesitation. For the last two runs (starter's version of steeplechase), I brought out some super-duper special treats, rewarding occasionally with them, and it made a world of difference: He was attentive, responsive, and didn't sniff, and the runs felt great again like they used to. Driving home, a lightbulb went off: I have been really slacking off in properly reinforcing Walter in agility lately. The nature of most of our recent agility outings have been no-treat full runs, and I believe he's just gotten bored since verbal praise only goes so far for so long. Fortunately, spring is around the corner so it won't be long before we can soon get back into regular practices. Oh, and today I pushed the contacts by running past him a bit and he held 2o2o every time.
Friday March 9th - AAC Games course: Snooker #2
It was a decent note to end the course on. No imaginary Qs because I didn't allow Walter to weave tonight (stitches on hip still healing) and I planned the courses for flow rather than points. The good thing is our string of cursed 3rd-runs-of-the-night didn't follow us this evening. The first run of the day Walter had several sniffy moments, but these generally faded for the rest of the runs, although Walter refused several obstacles by running past them. Overall I wasn't feeling the connection the way I'd like to and have in the past, but now that I think of it, I wonder if it's because it's Snooker and you have to be ready to change your plan on a dime which changes the whole feeling of the run, even if you don't end up having to change it, which we didn't. I led out on every run to just past the first jump and practically every time he broke his sit so I had to go and put him back. Thing is, he gets anxious the moment I step away, or even before that since he's anticipating it, and tonight it was really bad, he'd break as soon as I started walking away. I am really going to have to figure this thing out. A lead-out or at least a SLS is obviously a big tool to have in one's toolbox and I'm not prepared to give up on it just yet, so we'll see.
Saturday March 3rd - field practice
Walter's known "around" for about a year now (turn clockwise around an upright object). At one of the fields we go to for walks, there are poles which I've started to ask him to "go around" before I throw his frisbee, to tucker him out more. I'm starting to ask for more distance, emphasizing the "go" part of it. We're at about 15 metres or so, and he drives ahead to the pole. Hopefully this will help with gambles and other distance work. I should also teach him a lateral move away, but haven't got "around" to it yet. :-D
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
February 2007
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
Tuesday February 27th - practice at Red Gate
Started with exercises 1 and 2 in the Oct 2006 CR article on pages 10/11, which he handled well aside from entering the weaves midway when they followed the tunnel. Did some work on 12-pole weaves including a 180 counterclockwise entry from a jump and he did well with the entry without any major babysitting. Well, that is until we put it as part of a course towards the end of the practice, by which point I think he had gotten tired and didn't even attempt the weaves unless I backed him up to give him a nice straight entry. His 2o2o were pretty good today and he's offering the bow more and more it seems.
Friday February 23rd 2007 - AAC Games course: Snooker
Snooker night!! Our group started with the advanced course in the big ring. Our first try, we got 39 points and an imaginary Q! The only problem was with the last obstacle in the closing, the 12-weaves. The weaves were directly facing the adjacent ring and when he was at pole 7 or 8, a big dog in the other ring went barking up the a-frame which couldn't have been any closer to the weaves in our ring. Talk about a distraction! Well, it was enough to make him pop so we tried again and completed them, yay! Our second try, we followed the exact same course but he kept popping near the end of the 12-weaves so we ended up with 32 points. Both times at the weaves he missed the entry on the first attempt so I had to take him back. Definitely need more practice (a) with weaves as part of a sequence and (b) with 12 weaves.
The starter's course was in the small ring. Our first try was a complete disaster! I'm not the sort of person who gets embarassed about typical goof-ups on course, either mine (which are plentiful) or Walter's, but what made this run embarassing (and I have never felt embarassed leaving the ring before!) and disappointing was that it felt like our agility partnership had totally, utterly vanished. You'd have thought it was the first time we had ever set foot in an agility ring! Walter had no focus whatsoever. Right from the start of the run he was totally scatter-brained, paid hardly any attention to me, kept sniffing a spot in the tunnel where a previous dog had peed, etc, etc. Also, he knocked the second red so my plan went down the drain which I'm sure didn't help the situation. Our second try, I slightly modified my plan (more on that below) and it went much better. We got 51 points and another imaginary Q, and the bonus is that he got the 6-weaves on the first attempt (but it was an easy head-on approach). He came close to being whistled off by taking the wrong end of a tunnel but he called off at the last minute for which I praised him heartily. The points were easy to rack up because the 7-point obstacle was the frame and it was practically surrounded by reds. Anyway, if I'm to give an excuse for our poor showing the first run, it's that the small ring has distractions that the big ring doesn't have: a noisy, rattling overhead heater, and two doors nearby frequently opening and closing. But, I don't really think those were the cause... Noteably, our third run last week was also problematic, focus-wise. I'll have to see if this becomes a trend.
In summary and lessons learned:
- Weaves need more work (no surprise there)
- I'm positive that I handle all crouched over, so I should add "keep back straight" to the loooong list of things I'm supposed to remember while running a course.
- In the starter's ring, our first run started with an awkward line and the whole run was terrible. For our second run, I modified it to start with an easy line, and the whole run was much better. Given that Walter's a dog who stresses at the start line, where possible I'll try to make the first line nice and easy.
- Except for the third run, Walter followed my plan so I didn't have to improvise. :-D
Friday February 16th 2007 - AAC Games course: Jumper's and Steeplechase
We started with the Jumper's course, which was at the Starter's level and in the smaller of the two rings. For our first try, we had one problem, which was when he ran past a jump right after a tunnel (refusal). Note to self, don't take for granted "easy" obstacles right after tunnels because they can come up fast before the dog is expecting it! For our second try, I took off his collar and he ran clean for an imaginary Q! (I guess technically the first run also got an imaginary Q since the refusal rule hasn't changed yet.) I was able to lead out past the first jump without any fussing from Walter. The SCT was 31 seconds, and Walter did it in 26 and 22 seconds respectively. At least one of the dogs in the class did it in 16 or 17 seconds, wow!
The Steeplechase course was in the large ring and had one set of 6-pole weaves done twice. For our first try, at the start line I didn't take my time to properly set up and focus myself or Walter and instead rushed off right away, and well, shall I say it wasn't exactly our prettiest run ever! Right off the bat after the first jump he took an offcourse frame, soon followed by an off-course jump. Then when he got back on track he took a wide turn and just generally wasn't paying the best attention to me. Then when we came to the weaves, it was awkward to start with because it was a difficult approach and we haven't had a lot of weave entry practice lately so I did some goofy/slow maneouvering to try to get him a better approach. This slowdown gave him a moment to notice the judges and become nervous about being watched, so he was hesitant to weave but eventually he did. The second time through the weaves, this time an easy head-on approach, he bypassed them the first time but got it the second. The rest of the course ran fine. Our second try on the course was much improved, thank goodness. I was able to lead out far enough to do a LOP and the only trouble with the course (aside from the sticky weave approach) was the second last jump which he ran past (refusal). Again, must remember not to take easy/obvious obstacles for granted! But, I was glad that every time that Walter actually entered the weaves rather than running past them or cutting through them, he got the right entry and didn't pop. The SCT was 40 seconds, and Walter did it in 112 (+20 for the off-course) and 58 seconds (clean) respectively. Ouch!! ;-)
Next time: The Dreaded Snooker!
February 10th 2007 - practice at Red Gate - all jumps at 16"
Ok, I hereby take back anything bad I might have ever thought about people who get up before the crack of dawn to go play a round of golf. Today I got up at 5:45 (yes, AM) to bring Lucy and Walter to an early morning agility practice in an unheated arena! How c-r-a-z-y is that! Like so many people who get into agility I must be on the road to becoming addicted.
Today's practice was mostly about handling, for which we used jumps, tunnels, and weaves only. Up until today, threadles (which I had never tried) and serpentines were "scary" to me because I really didn't understand how to handle them. After recently reading some articles on ways to handle threadles and serpentines, I was inspired to try out my newfound knowledge. WHAT a difference with the serpentines comparing today to any other practice we've had. The difference is I now understand what I'm doing (imagine that!) and can therefore give appropriate cues. Whereas in the past Walter wouldn't understand what my unclear, muddy cues meant and got frustrated, today he handled the serpentines and threadles wonderfully. I'm using the false turn method with the difference between threadles and serpentines being the timing/location of the FT. Some helpful videos and tips are at Agility Nerd.
We also did some of the sequences in Linda Mecklenburg's article in the Clean Run special issue on handling. Because my exposure to handling has been provided by a bunch of different instructors at several different schools, plus from watching Greg Derrett's and Susan Garrett's DVDs and reading various articles, all the various handling systems are all a jumbled up mish-mash in my head. But a lot of Linda's article makes intuitive sense to me and it seems the direction my handling has been leaning towards lately falls in line with her system. The article is definitely a keeper, full of diagrams and photos, and is deserving of multiple read-throughs. It really highlights the importance of being aware of all aspects of body language so that you're giving the correct cues to your dog. There is just SO MUCH to think about and keep in mind when walking and running a course!!
Lastly, I set up the opening sequence from the 2006 AAC Nationals Steeplechase Finals using 6 weaves instead of 12. I had seen some videos of it on Agility Vision and thought it looked like fun, which of course it was:
February 9th 2007 - AAC Games course: Gambler's
The first class of this fun and novel course was last week, theory only, for which the dogs stayed home while we went through the rules and some strategy tips pertaining to the AAC games classes. The course has the format of a fun match (two different courses, two tries at each), with the added bonus that everyone gets to judge and scribe four times every night! We get the course maps a week in advance so lots of time to figure out our action plan.
Tonight, it was Gambler's night!
Everyone had two goes at a Starter's level and an Advanced level course. Our group started with the Advanced Gambler's. Walter's generally pretty easy to run because he's not exactly Speedy Gonzalez and usually (key word) listens pretty well, and our first go at the Advanced went according to plan. And, to my surprise he actually got the gamble!! And within time, but just barely: 59 point something! From looking at the gamble on paper (see below) I thought it would be wayyy above our heads but except for a wide turn from 2 to 3 due to my late turning cue, Walter was spot on. The second time, the opening was fine (we did the exact same thing) but for the gamble he took jump 4 instead of tunnel 1, I bet because I must have turned my shoulders early. We got somewhere around 25 points in the openings.
It all went downhill in the Starter's! First off, the ring was about one third smaller than the one the Advanced was run in, and it was WAY more tight than what I had been expecting by looking at the course on paper all this week. I found myself running into obstacles it was so tight. I would probably have picked a different obstacle order if I had known how tight some places were, but having memorized my course all week I figured I'd just stick with the original plan. Over the course of our two runs, Walter blew a couple of contacts (well technically he did hit the yellow, but he didn't pause in 2o2o) so I made him redo them. And, he thought the staircase thingy that serves as a desk of sorts was there for him to climb, so I had to call him off that. Well technically I pulled him off since he wasn't responding to my call and he'd knock all kinds of things over if he climbed to the top. In the first try at the gamble, which compared to the Advanced one I thought would be a breeze, instead of taking jump 1 he went to the far side of the jumps to explore and sniff all the things that were being stored against the back wall. And he took his sweet time before finally heeding my request to leave the smells and get back on course. The second time at the gamble he did get it although we were over time because we were pretty far from the gamble when the whistle went. Of note, the classes we took in the fall were held in the larger ring so I bet the fact that he'd never been in the small ring before had something to do with his general kookiness.
Summary: Jumps were at 22" and no bars were knocked. We didn't attempt the weaves at all since we haven't had much practice with them lately. Got in some good rear crosses over jumps. Led out only on the last run of the night, just a few meters, and he held his sit-stay.
Judging was fun since there was no pressure. It was, however, a challenge to stay out of the running team's way since there was no way to know where they were going next. Scribing was easy so long as I didn't watch the running dog since what I saw sometimes conflicted with what the judge was calling out.
Next time: Jumper's and Steeplechase!
Saturday February 3rd 2007 - Home-made agility jump
After much driving from store to store and spending a heck of a lot more money than I expected, we finally have a home-made agility jump! The January 2007 Clean Run magazine has some nice detailed instructions that I used to make a jump out of PVC. The article claims that "this inexpensive, lightweight PVC practice jump is simple to construct and separates into four pieces for easy transport". I would agree with that statement except for the cost part but maybe I just shopped at the wrong stores. First I had trouble finding 1" and 3/4" PVC, then the store that did carry it didn't have the right size tees and end caps, d'oh! Some more driving and I finally tracked down all the required pieces. In hindsight I should have just called the stores in advance to see if they carried the stuff, but I had it in my head for whatever reason that any old construction-type store would have it. And the cost of all the pieces added up fast, close to $50 all told! I have no idea how much a "professionally made" jump costs but I wouldn't be surprised if it would have been cheaper! Plus the funny looks when store employees asked what it was for and I told them it was for a dog jump. Guess there haven't been hoards of other people going to the stores to buy PVC after receiving their Jan-07 mag. On the bright side, it was extremely easy to put together especially since the store had cut all the PVC for me so all I had to do was saw a few end caps in half, drill a few holes and fit it all together. I love how it's so lightweight and comes apart so easily for transport. The one downside of the design is that the jump cups are quite deep so it would take a hard knock to drop the bar so there could be some stung toes. That will be easily corrected by gluing some sponge or foam or something to the bottom of the cups to make them more shallow.
I rearranged the living room again so now there's more room for indoor training fun. In a recent Dog Sport magazine article, the author was saying how she basically clears out her living room every winter so that she has a convenient indoor training place. I was relieved to hear that I'm not the only crazy person around! Anyway, now that I have this one jump I'll watch the One Jump DVD again and play around with the exercises. Of course the jump will be kept on the lowest setting when used indoors since the living room carpet isn't exactly the best footing. In the spring it'll be fun setting up the jump and weaves in various places for a change of scenery!
Here are some photos. A few more end caps will finish it off.
Tuesday February 27th - practice at Red Gate
Started with exercises 1 and 2 in the Oct 2006 CR article on pages 10/11, which he handled well aside from entering the weaves midway when they followed the tunnel. Did some work on 12-pole weaves including a 180 counterclockwise entry from a jump and he did well with the entry without any major babysitting. Well, that is until we put it as part of a course towards the end of the practice, by which point I think he had gotten tired and didn't even attempt the weaves unless I backed him up to give him a nice straight entry. His 2o2o were pretty good today and he's offering the bow more and more it seems.
Friday February 23rd 2007 - AAC Games course: Snooker
Snooker night!! Our group started with the advanced course in the big ring. Our first try, we got 39 points and an imaginary Q! The only problem was with the last obstacle in the closing, the 12-weaves. The weaves were directly facing the adjacent ring and when he was at pole 7 or 8, a big dog in the other ring went barking up the a-frame which couldn't have been any closer to the weaves in our ring. Talk about a distraction! Well, it was enough to make him pop so we tried again and completed them, yay! Our second try, we followed the exact same course but he kept popping near the end of the 12-weaves so we ended up with 32 points. Both times at the weaves he missed the entry on the first attempt so I had to take him back. Definitely need more practice (a) with weaves as part of a sequence and (b) with 12 weaves.
The starter's course was in the small ring. Our first try was a complete disaster! I'm not the sort of person who gets embarassed about typical goof-ups on course, either mine (which are plentiful) or Walter's, but what made this run embarassing (and I have never felt embarassed leaving the ring before!) and disappointing was that it felt like our agility partnership had totally, utterly vanished. You'd have thought it was the first time we had ever set foot in an agility ring! Walter had no focus whatsoever. Right from the start of the run he was totally scatter-brained, paid hardly any attention to me, kept sniffing a spot in the tunnel where a previous dog had peed, etc, etc. Also, he knocked the second red so my plan went down the drain which I'm sure didn't help the situation. Our second try, I slightly modified my plan (more on that below) and it went much better. We got 51 points and another imaginary Q, and the bonus is that he got the 6-weaves on the first attempt (but it was an easy head-on approach). He came close to being whistled off by taking the wrong end of a tunnel but he called off at the last minute for which I praised him heartily. The points were easy to rack up because the 7-point obstacle was the frame and it was practically surrounded by reds. Anyway, if I'm to give an excuse for our poor showing the first run, it's that the small ring has distractions that the big ring doesn't have: a noisy, rattling overhead heater, and two doors nearby frequently opening and closing. But, I don't really think those were the cause... Noteably, our third run last week was also problematic, focus-wise. I'll have to see if this becomes a trend.
In summary and lessons learned:
- Weaves need more work (no surprise there)
- I'm positive that I handle all crouched over, so I should add "keep back straight" to the loooong list of things I'm supposed to remember while running a course.
- In the starter's ring, our first run started with an awkward line and the whole run was terrible. For our second run, I modified it to start with an easy line, and the whole run was much better. Given that Walter's a dog who stresses at the start line, where possible I'll try to make the first line nice and easy.
- Except for the third run, Walter followed my plan so I didn't have to improvise. :-D
Friday February 16th 2007 - AAC Games course: Jumper's and Steeplechase
We started with the Jumper's course, which was at the Starter's level and in the smaller of the two rings. For our first try, we had one problem, which was when he ran past a jump right after a tunnel (refusal). Note to self, don't take for granted "easy" obstacles right after tunnels because they can come up fast before the dog is expecting it! For our second try, I took off his collar and he ran clean for an imaginary Q! (I guess technically the first run also got an imaginary Q since the refusal rule hasn't changed yet.) I was able to lead out past the first jump without any fussing from Walter. The SCT was 31 seconds, and Walter did it in 26 and 22 seconds respectively. At least one of the dogs in the class did it in 16 or 17 seconds, wow!
The Steeplechase course was in the large ring and had one set of 6-pole weaves done twice. For our first try, at the start line I didn't take my time to properly set up and focus myself or Walter and instead rushed off right away, and well, shall I say it wasn't exactly our prettiest run ever! Right off the bat after the first jump he took an offcourse frame, soon followed by an off-course jump. Then when he got back on track he took a wide turn and just generally wasn't paying the best attention to me. Then when we came to the weaves, it was awkward to start with because it was a difficult approach and we haven't had a lot of weave entry practice lately so I did some goofy/slow maneouvering to try to get him a better approach. This slowdown gave him a moment to notice the judges and become nervous about being watched, so he was hesitant to weave but eventually he did. The second time through the weaves, this time an easy head-on approach, he bypassed them the first time but got it the second. The rest of the course ran fine. Our second try on the course was much improved, thank goodness. I was able to lead out far enough to do a LOP and the only trouble with the course (aside from the sticky weave approach) was the second last jump which he ran past (refusal). Again, must remember not to take easy/obvious obstacles for granted! But, I was glad that every time that Walter actually entered the weaves rather than running past them or cutting through them, he got the right entry and didn't pop. The SCT was 40 seconds, and Walter did it in 112 (+20 for the off-course) and 58 seconds (clean) respectively. Ouch!! ;-)
Next time: The Dreaded Snooker!
February 10th 2007 - practice at Red Gate - all jumps at 16"
Ok, I hereby take back anything bad I might have ever thought about people who get up before the crack of dawn to go play a round of golf. Today I got up at 5:45 (yes, AM) to bring Lucy and Walter to an early morning agility practice in an unheated arena! How c-r-a-z-y is that! Like so many people who get into agility I must be on the road to becoming addicted.
Today's practice was mostly about handling, for which we used jumps, tunnels, and weaves only. Up until today, threadles (which I had never tried) and serpentines were "scary" to me because I really didn't understand how to handle them. After recently reading some articles on ways to handle threadles and serpentines, I was inspired to try out my newfound knowledge. WHAT a difference with the serpentines comparing today to any other practice we've had. The difference is I now understand what I'm doing (imagine that!) and can therefore give appropriate cues. Whereas in the past Walter wouldn't understand what my unclear, muddy cues meant and got frustrated, today he handled the serpentines and threadles wonderfully. I'm using the false turn method with the difference between threadles and serpentines being the timing/location of the FT. Some helpful videos and tips are at Agility Nerd.
We also did some of the sequences in Linda Mecklenburg's article in the Clean Run special issue on handling. Because my exposure to handling has been provided by a bunch of different instructors at several different schools, plus from watching Greg Derrett's and Susan Garrett's DVDs and reading various articles, all the various handling systems are all a jumbled up mish-mash in my head. But a lot of Linda's article makes intuitive sense to me and it seems the direction my handling has been leaning towards lately falls in line with her system. The article is definitely a keeper, full of diagrams and photos, and is deserving of multiple read-throughs. It really highlights the importance of being aware of all aspects of body language so that you're giving the correct cues to your dog. There is just SO MUCH to think about and keep in mind when walking and running a course!!
Lastly, I set up the opening sequence from the 2006 AAC Nationals Steeplechase Finals using 6 weaves instead of 12. I had seen some videos of it on Agility Vision and thought it looked like fun, which of course it was:
February 9th 2007 - AAC Games course: Gambler's
The first class of this fun and novel course was last week, theory only, for which the dogs stayed home while we went through the rules and some strategy tips pertaining to the AAC games classes. The course has the format of a fun match (two different courses, two tries at each), with the added bonus that everyone gets to judge and scribe four times every night! We get the course maps a week in advance so lots of time to figure out our action plan.
Tonight, it was Gambler's night!
Everyone had two goes at a Starter's level and an Advanced level course. Our group started with the Advanced Gambler's. Walter's generally pretty easy to run because he's not exactly Speedy Gonzalez and usually (key word) listens pretty well, and our first go at the Advanced went according to plan. And, to my surprise he actually got the gamble!! And within time, but just barely: 59 point something! From looking at the gamble on paper (see below) I thought it would be wayyy above our heads but except for a wide turn from 2 to 3 due to my late turning cue, Walter was spot on. The second time, the opening was fine (we did the exact same thing) but for the gamble he took jump 4 instead of tunnel 1, I bet because I must have turned my shoulders early. We got somewhere around 25 points in the openings.
It all went downhill in the Starter's! First off, the ring was about one third smaller than the one the Advanced was run in, and it was WAY more tight than what I had been expecting by looking at the course on paper all this week. I found myself running into obstacles it was so tight. I would probably have picked a different obstacle order if I had known how tight some places were, but having memorized my course all week I figured I'd just stick with the original plan. Over the course of our two runs, Walter blew a couple of contacts (well technically he did hit the yellow, but he didn't pause in 2o2o) so I made him redo them. And, he thought the staircase thingy that serves as a desk of sorts was there for him to climb, so I had to call him off that. Well technically I pulled him off since he wasn't responding to my call and he'd knock all kinds of things over if he climbed to the top. In the first try at the gamble, which compared to the Advanced one I thought would be a breeze, instead of taking jump 1 he went to the far side of the jumps to explore and sniff all the things that were being stored against the back wall. And he took his sweet time before finally heeding my request to leave the smells and get back on course. The second time at the gamble he did get it although we were over time because we were pretty far from the gamble when the whistle went. Of note, the classes we took in the fall were held in the larger ring so I bet the fact that he'd never been in the small ring before had something to do with his general kookiness.
Summary: Jumps were at 22" and no bars were knocked. We didn't attempt the weaves at all since we haven't had much practice with them lately. Got in some good rear crosses over jumps. Led out only on the last run of the night, just a few meters, and he held his sit-stay.
Judging was fun since there was no pressure. It was, however, a challenge to stay out of the running team's way since there was no way to know where they were going next. Scribing was easy so long as I didn't watch the running dog since what I saw sometimes conflicted with what the judge was calling out.
Next time: Jumper's and Steeplechase!
Saturday February 3rd 2007 - Home-made agility jump
After much driving from store to store and spending a heck of a lot more money than I expected, we finally have a home-made agility jump! The January 2007 Clean Run magazine has some nice detailed instructions that I used to make a jump out of PVC. The article claims that "this inexpensive, lightweight PVC practice jump is simple to construct and separates into four pieces for easy transport". I would agree with that statement except for the cost part but maybe I just shopped at the wrong stores. First I had trouble finding 1" and 3/4" PVC, then the store that did carry it didn't have the right size tees and end caps, d'oh! Some more driving and I finally tracked down all the required pieces. In hindsight I should have just called the stores in advance to see if they carried the stuff, but I had it in my head for whatever reason that any old construction-type store would have it. And the cost of all the pieces added up fast, close to $50 all told! I have no idea how much a "professionally made" jump costs but I wouldn't be surprised if it would have been cheaper! Plus the funny looks when store employees asked what it was for and I told them it was for a dog jump. Guess there haven't been hoards of other people going to the stores to buy PVC after receiving their Jan-07 mag. On the bright side, it was extremely easy to put together especially since the store had cut all the PVC for me so all I had to do was saw a few end caps in half, drill a few holes and fit it all together. I love how it's so lightweight and comes apart so easily for transport. The one downside of the design is that the jump cups are quite deep so it would take a hard knock to drop the bar so there could be some stung toes. That will be easily corrected by gluing some sponge or foam or something to the bottom of the cups to make them more shallow.
I rearranged the living room again so now there's more room for indoor training fun. In a recent Dog Sport magazine article, the author was saying how she basically clears out her living room every winter so that she has a convenient indoor training place. I was relieved to hear that I'm not the only crazy person around! Anyway, now that I have this one jump I'll watch the One Jump DVD again and play around with the exercises. Of course the jump will be kept on the lowest setting when used indoors since the living room carpet isn't exactly the best footing. In the spring it'll be fun setting up the jump and weaves in various places for a change of scenery!
Here are some photos. A few more end caps will finish it off.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Sunday January 28th 2007 - home practice
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
Directionals breakthrough!! I haven't put a whole lot of effort into teaching left and right since first teaching Walter to spin left at our beginner's agility course a year ago, but I had it in the back of my mind that that was one thing I'd like to get done over the winter. He's got spinning left down pat, but over the last few weeks I've been doing the occasional short practice luring him to spin right but haven't been able to fade out the luring. Until tonight!! Walter was able to spin left and right on verbal cue only (well besides any unconscious nonverbal cues I may be giving) and I made sure to randomize which direction I asked for. It was so neat!! Just like I never thought I could teach a dog to weave, I never really thought I could teach a dog to distinguish between left and right either. Of course, we'll still have to work on him generalizing the directionals to mean things other than a spin directly in front of me. I found that using the clicker to mark the moment when he turns his head and is committed to the desired direction has really been effective. I'll admit that until fairly recently I was reluctant to use clickers for anything because I didn't understand their use (didn't understand that it's a training aid for teaching new things; thought I'd forever have to bring a clicker with me everywhere I went with the dogs) but I'm so glad I finally "gave in" in the fall and bought one. My appreciation of clicker training grows with every new thing I use it for!
Another thing, I've just started teaching wave and sitting pretty. Ok they aren't strictly agility-related, but the idea is I want to build Walter's repertoire of "tricks" (perhaps "tasks" is a more appropriate term?) which come in handy for focusing him before agility runs and lots of other situations where I might want him focused on working with me instead of worrying about what might be going on around him. So far we have a few of the basics: the obligatory sit and down, as well as bow, hand-touch, spin left, spin right.
On another note, January 2007 marks Walter's and my first year agility anniversary!
Directionals breakthrough!! I haven't put a whole lot of effort into teaching left and right since first teaching Walter to spin left at our beginner's agility course a year ago, but I had it in the back of my mind that that was one thing I'd like to get done over the winter. He's got spinning left down pat, but over the last few weeks I've been doing the occasional short practice luring him to spin right but haven't been able to fade out the luring. Until tonight!! Walter was able to spin left and right on verbal cue only (well besides any unconscious nonverbal cues I may be giving) and I made sure to randomize which direction I asked for. It was so neat!! Just like I never thought I could teach a dog to weave, I never really thought I could teach a dog to distinguish between left and right either. Of course, we'll still have to work on him generalizing the directionals to mean things other than a spin directly in front of me. I found that using the clicker to mark the moment when he turns his head and is committed to the desired direction has really been effective. I'll admit that until fairly recently I was reluctant to use clickers for anything because I didn't understand their use (didn't understand that it's a training aid for teaching new things; thought I'd forever have to bring a clicker with me everywhere I went with the dogs) but I'm so glad I finally "gave in" in the fall and bought one. My appreciation of clicker training grows with every new thing I use it for!
Another thing, I've just started teaching wave and sitting pretty. Ok they aren't strictly agility-related, but the idea is I want to build Walter's repertoire of "tricks" (perhaps "tasks" is a more appropriate term?) which come in handy for focusing him before agility runs and lots of other situations where I might want him focused on working with me instead of worrying about what might be going on around him. So far we have a few of the basics: the obligatory sit and down, as well as bow, hand-touch, spin left, spin right.
On another note, January 2007 marks Walter's and my first year agility anniversary!
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Saturday January 13th 2007 - Fun match at Red Gate
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
Today was our first Red Gate fun match, and the runs were standard and gambler's (jumps at 16" for the first run, 22" for the rest). I was very pleased with Walter's performance today considering our almost total lack of practice recently. For the standard, we did the starter's only since I wasn't up to memorizing multiple courses. He did a good job with 2o2o on the contacts except he tended to sniff the ground for crumbs instead of coming when I released him. For the weaves, the course provided a nice easy straight line into them with me on the left side, and I'm really happy that he got the entry both times (I had had visions of him repeatedly bypassing the first 3 or 4 poles), but he tended to pop out at the 10th pole. Understandable I suppose since he's had hardly any practice on more than 6 weaves in the last few months (or ever, come to think of it). There was no table, so nothing to report there. For gambler's, we just played around with the two starter's gambles and I'm happy to report that although not every attempt was successful, he did do both of them successfully several times (both were tunnel/jump combinations). At the start of the fourth and final run I decided to try recalling him through the weaves just for the fun of it but that was just not happening; he totally bypassed them and ran straight to me instead. So I didn't push it and instead we went on to do some more gambles. He did knock a couple of bars over the course of the day. Rear crosses over jumps were spin-free, yay! Of note, he displayed neither the tunnel hesitation nor the dogwalk hesitation that he had developed towards the end of our last agility class session. In summary, it was a fun day and I gave him several play breaks during the runs so I hope he'll fall asleep tonight thinking about the fun time he had today.
Today was our first Red Gate fun match, and the runs were standard and gambler's (jumps at 16" for the first run, 22" for the rest). I was very pleased with Walter's performance today considering our almost total lack of practice recently. For the standard, we did the starter's only since I wasn't up to memorizing multiple courses. He did a good job with 2o2o on the contacts except he tended to sniff the ground for crumbs instead of coming when I released him. For the weaves, the course provided a nice easy straight line into them with me on the left side, and I'm really happy that he got the entry both times (I had had visions of him repeatedly bypassing the first 3 or 4 poles), but he tended to pop out at the 10th pole. Understandable I suppose since he's had hardly any practice on more than 6 weaves in the last few months (or ever, come to think of it). There was no table, so nothing to report there. For gambler's, we just played around with the two starter's gambles and I'm happy to report that although not every attempt was successful, he did do both of them successfully several times (both were tunnel/jump combinations). At the start of the fourth and final run I decided to try recalling him through the weaves just for the fun of it but that was just not happening; he totally bypassed them and ran straight to me instead. So I didn't push it and instead we went on to do some more gambles. He did knock a couple of bars over the course of the day. Rear crosses over jumps were spin-free, yay! Of note, he displayed neither the tunnel hesitation nor the dogwalk hesitation that he had developed towards the end of our last agility class session. In summary, it was a fun day and I gave him several play breaks during the runs so I hope he'll fall asleep tonight thinking about the fun time he had today.
Monday, January 1, 2007
Monday January 1st 2007 - Goals for 2007
(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)
My goals for Walter's 2007 agility year include the following:
My goals for Walter's 2007 agility year include the following:
- Improved drive on the a-frame
- Work through SLS issues
- Improved distance work with all obstacles
- Faster down on the table
- Proof 2o2o
- Ability to tackle challenging weave entries
- Further develop our agility partnership in general
- Compete!
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