Tuesday's class

Mom says thanks to all of you for leaving such supportive comments about my horrible trial day on Saturday. We appreciate all of the advice and support and love so much.

Today at class Jenn was sick and we had a classmate as the substitute instructor. He did a great job! Only three other dogs/people were there (no barking dogs either). So it was nice and quiet and we got to run more sequences than usual and move at a faster pace. Maybe all of this contributed to making me feel like a completely different dog than I did on Saturday!

I got to warm up on tricks, jumps and a tunnel. More warm-up time than usual. I was flying into and out of the tunnel. Our sequences had a lot of really tough 270s. We got some of them but not all of them. Mom had to really push me around to the back of the second jump in order to keep me from coming through the gap. But during the class I did some really fast weaving, a super fast dogwalk (mom moved laterally away from me and layered the chute while I was on the DW) and it made me go so fast! I had very little trouble jumping (but there were no spreads today) but I did skip the aframe once (I just wanted to stay right next to mom). One of mom's favorite moments was when she messed up and had her shoulders pointing toward the tunnel (instead of a jump) and I flew past her and into the tunnel!

Any way mom signed us up for the next class session since I enjoyed today so much. Jenn is adding another building for classes which will have matting and the current agility building is going to be redone with turf! So now I will finally have a chance to practice on the same kind of surface that I see at most of my trials. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for me to get comfortable with it.

For now we are not doing any more trials though. We're going to try to enjoy classes and maybe get to some run-throughs and keep trying to get better on the things we can improve - drive, speed, focus. Jenn still claims that I have ETS (early take-off syndrome) and that it won't get better and that there really isn't anything we can do about it. It's hard to not worry about this and to stay positive and keep going with the training BUT I feel good right now and that makes mom happy. We'll just have to see....

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Tuesday's class

I did GREAT in today's class! We started off with a deceleration dogwalk drill - Jenn had our treat and acted as a target and each dog ran the DW to her when it was their turn. We did it about four times, and each time the handler was supposed to stop running farther back from the end of the DW (you know so that eventually the handler can decel and move into position for the next obstacle and the dog would continue and finish the DW on their own). Well, I could've cared less what mom was doing once I knew that my treat was waiting at the end of the DW! I love my targets! I could hardly wait for my turn and kept wanting to take off when the dog before me in line was told to "Walk it!" Mom had to laugh!

After that we practiced some 270 recalls to heel with one jump because the theme of the class was 270s. We were once again glad we had been reviewing recalls to heel - mom knew what to do and how to set me up, etc.

Then we started doing sequences with 270s. First we did the 270 with a pull (no side change). This does not use the recall to heel position. There are 3 parts to the handling of a 270 - first is a forward send to the first jump. The handler should decelerate to indicate a turn but should not move laterally and should not move past the plane of the jumps (see the photo below - the jump bars on the ground indicate the plane the handler should not cross). Dog sends over the first jump then second the handler turns and runs (walks) towards the second jump and this motion pushes the dog around to the back of the second jump, and third - the handler pulls the dog over. Make sense?

The other way to do a 270 is with a front cross (when a side change is necessary) and with a front cross, the handler does use the recall to heel. Everything is the same as above but as the dog comes around the back of the second jump, the handler gets her outside arm up and begins rotating for the FC. When doing a 270 with FC, the handler should not move past the middle of the second jump when she sends her dog to the first jump or she will be out of position for the FC.

Ok, we tried to show you with this video. First we do a couple 270 recalls to heel with one jump. Mom does not like her footwork and wishes she were making her inside leg more obvious to me and making sure she was at a 90 degree angle to the jump. After that, 2 tries at the 270 with a pull - I am such a good demo dog - I do things slowly enough so that you all can see! LOL! And finally we do a couple tries of the 270 with a front cross. Hope we did well enough for you to get and idea. We should've put a jump in at the beginning to possibly increase my speed though.

Mom wasn't sure I would be able to do the 270s with the jumps so far apart but I surprised her and did them all! I got every 270 today and did great dogwalks and aframes and weaves! I jumped 12" and I did the double a few times just for practice and had no trouble with it. Mom is keeping her fingers crossed that I am feeling better finally!!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Agility practice and more on the Flip!

First of all, I'd like to say that I had the class of my life on Wednesday night! I was feeling very confident and did everything much faster than my usual poke-along speed! People were asking mom what she was doing differently - she made up her mind to run faster and to be more confident herself and to not wait around for me. I guess it worked! Sorry there is no video to prove it all - typical! I even played with mom at the class and that is a big milestone for us!

The other day we practiced doing some 270 jumps (from our class the week before). We put our old camcorder on the tripod and warmed up with some tricks and then tried some sequences.

Then yesterday we set up the Flip camera on the tripod (in the same location as the other camera) and practiced some serpentines and pinwheels. Sorry the one jump in the serpentine is not in the camera view! Also the pinwheel is deeper than it looks on the video and mom didn't step into the pocket - she made me go and find the jump on my own.

We are liking the Flip more and more. It is really easy to operate and to carry around. It makes pretty decent quality videos. The only thing mom didn't like was the software. It is very basic but super simple to use. But she figured out how to get a Flip video into Windows Movie Maker. WMM won't accept a video clip from Flip but if you make a Flip movie, you can then import it into WMM and make a better movie from there. Diana asked if we thought the Flip would do well at a distance - we have seen video of agility trials and herding that turned out good. We are taking it to our next trial in June and we'll see.

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Class video

We took the Flip camera to class on Wednesday night and one of our former instructors was there and she was nice enough to stay around and video us! It was not our fastest, bestest class ever, but it was neat to have the video. That way mom was able to remember the sequences we did so that we could set them up at home and practice!

In the first half of the class we worked on discriminations (easier ones than last week) and contacts. I did great until we had a sequence with the table - I found a treat that was left over from the puppy class that happens before our class - some little puppy's lost treat became my treasure! My teeter is monumentally slow but did you see how one of my dogwalks was pretty fast?

In the second part of the class we worked on weave entries and 270 and serpentines. I work on serpentines at home, but in class they always seem to be angled differently or something. The 270 is something we haven't worked on much, but we have it set up in the yard right now to practice. (Yesterday I wasn't getting it at all until mom moved the jumps closer together). Any way, mom watched a very good classmate during this half to see how she walked the sequences. This worked out well for mom and theoretically well for me but not practically for me. So mom still needs to figure out how to run the sequences to motivate me. If she just stands there and expects me to run ahead and do all the work, it's just not going to happen right now! So get in there and run and do some front crosses, mom! I also got pretty distracted in the second half of class - I was a little tired from being outside all day long I guess.

Well, we hope you all have a good long weekend! We're still enjoying really nice weather here - although the last couple days have been too hot for me! Thursday evening we went to a bbq/birthday party at a friend's house - very fun. Today we are going out to grandma and grandpa's for another bbq - this time my cousin Wilson will be there! I am really looking forward to seeing him! 

Gotta zoom!

Ricky