DW and Pinwheel

We set up my dogwalk several weeks ago for the first time in months. I had a blast with it! We taped this a few weeks ago and just got around to editing out the boring parts. We later changed the pinwheel to a serpentine and that went well too. The first time through on the video is my fastest run. Mom thinks I am jumping faster than ever and have more enthusiasm for the game than before.

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Spring Dogwalk Practice

We set up the dogwalk the other day and got in some fun practice! We're using those clip and go contact hoops to keep me from being tempted to jump off the side of the board (especially when mom moves laterally). I think I am getting faster!

It sure is nice to be able to practice in our own backyard again!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Fast in My Own Backyard

The other day mom made up a little sequence that was based on one we did in class on Tuesday. It had an angled lead out, funky weaves (mom put together 12 poles, 4 2x2s, 6 stick in the ground, 2 2x2s - you'll see it was too weird for me and slowed me down so then she took out the 2x2s), serpentine handling, send to the tire and finished with some tight angles coming over the last two jumps. Notice how I am doing all the running and mom is basically just standing around. She says that's how it's supposed to be! :) Why can't I be that fast and confident at trials? Some day!

Yesterday we worked again on the tunnel entrance discrimination. That is difficult for me! I totally get the obvious entrance part and go flying into the tunnel. But for the non-obvious entrance, mom could call out my name all day and I still go flying into the obvious entrance! I can't hear my name when that tunnel is also calling out to me! So we need lots more practice on the entire concept.

I don't know if we are going to do a training challenge some where today. (We might at least try the walk in the other neighborhood this morning and hope we don't run into the OTCH/MACH woman again!) I didn't realize that it was only a 30 day challenge and the 30 days were over a long time ago. We have gotten lazy about it ever since Marie told us the challenge was basically over! We needed her motivation! Anybody else want to try to get out there some place every week? We want to keep doing it through October maybe.

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

The Last Days of November but Still Able to Practice in the Backyard

Hope everyone is having a good weekend and had a great Thanksgiving holiday! We had a wonderful time at grandpa and grandma's! Grandma made a delicious traditional Thanksgiving meal - melt-in-your-mouth turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, biscuits, cranberry, peas and corn frozen from their garden last summer, and pumpkin pie! I got to taste a little of the turkey and it was so good! Mom took me to run in the big backyard even though it was cold and windy, and we had our first real snow flurries! Then mom and dad and my grandparents played a card game called euchre for what seemed like hours and hours and I found it quite boring. We spent the night (I didn't sleep well and kept mom up most of the night) and came home after lunch on Friday. Even though I had fun, I was very happy to be home!

Today dad videoed a little of our agility practice in the backyard. Mom and I have been working on our speed and enthusiasm for the game. Nothing went completely right today but we're sharing the video with you any way!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Agility for fun in the leaves!

Lately when we practice agility in the backyard it's for fun and speed! Mom puts out my food target for the first few jumps and then she takes it away. I know I still look slow in the video, but I swear I am running faster (if you were here, you would see it!).

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Distance and the puzzler!

Sara blogged about her class with Oreo the other night and told us about the distance work they did and also about the puzzler that they worked on. She was nice enough to include the course maps, so today we printed them off and tried to set them up in our backyard. Each had to be modified a little to fit, but we think we got the general idea. (Sara, Oreo and Misty also practiced the puzzler in their backyard and video-ed it. ) It was tons of fun! The distance part went well - we only tried it twice but did it both times. Maybe having the weave poles as our not-so-imaginary red line was an unfair advantage? Then the puzzler (#1-11) went really well the first time. Mom lost it on the other times we tried it. At one point she experimented with unconventional handling and it really speeded me up, but she forgot the course! Any way, here's the video:



Thanks for sharing those exercises, Sara! We really enjoyed working on them today!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Backyard Practice

I've had my dogwalk for a week now and I am loving it! On Sunday mom set up a little course with jumps, weaves, and tunnel/dogwalk discrimination. We made a video focused mostly on the dogwalk, so we did some stuff off-camera that you can't see and also edited the video a lot. Hope you enjoy it though and agree with me that I am making some dogwalk progress and my enthusiasm for it is affecting the other obstacles too!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Slow Poke Agility

Finally made a video........

Gotta zoom!

Ricky