Tuesday's class

We were on our way out the door yesterday when we got the call that our class had been canceled due to weather! No, not again! We had freezing rain and some snow the day/night before but although our neighborhood streets were very icy, we assumed the main roads would be fine. Guess not.

Any way, back to those few nice days from last week (before everything was covered in snow yet again). We made a video of the 180 exercise from last week's class. It didn't go all that great - I was not very fast and mom's handling was not very good - but at least you can kind of see what the exercise was and we can remember it for practicing in the future.

Mom and I don't make fancy edited videos much any more - we just stick it up on YouTube - so here is what we tried to show you -

First we did the 180 with a backy uppy a couple times (mom didn't mean to do the rear cross or anything before the 180 but due to poor planning she was on the wrong side of me).

Then we tried the serpentine version.

Then we did a couple with double front crosses (my favorite).

In class we did a curved tunnel to the DW and then into the 180. At home we just used that straight tunnel but it didn't propel me forward like it should have.

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Tuesday's class

I went to class yesterday even though it was my birthday and I would've rather just been out chasing squirrels or something. Mom says I am still young enough to learn new things so off to class we went.

Class was about backy uppys, serpentine recalls to heel, foundation recalls, and double fronts with some obstacle discrimination thrown in. We warmed up at one jump with the BU, SR, and FRTH. (abbreviations by me). Mom chose to use the triple and double jumps for me just to get me more exposure to them. I did fine and did knock any bars or anything.

Then we had to do sequences that included those handling skills. The first one was jump to aframe but there was a straight tunnel next to the right side of the aframe. Mom knew I would want to take the tunnel and while most people started with a lead out and the dog on their right and just said, "Frame" and the dog went up the aframe, mom ran with me on her left and tried her hardest to block my access to the tunnel (planning to rear cross me as I went up the aframe as there was no room for her to get around the right side of the tunnel). Well I could not be thwarted and took the tunnel any way! Yay for me! I love tunnels! And it WAS my birthday. Then I did double, triple and I was supposed to look at mom and run by the big gaping obvious right end of a curved tunnel and follow her around to the far-away left end of the tunnel. Mom called my name and I blew past her and into the wrong end. But I was very happy about it - I had a huge grin on my face (and I have to say again it was my birthday)! Jenn was NOT happy about it and she said to mom (and I quote) "He is extremely unresponsive to his name!" Well. So there.

I also ignored mom on a serpentine recall involving a 180 and preferred to go and do the chute! Yes, somehow the chute and I have become good friends!

At the end of class we did a timed experiment to see what would be the fastest way for each of us teams to handle a 180 - backy uppy was first, then serpentine, then the double front. It was fun and of course I was fastest with the double front. This will be a good exercise to try again in our yard and to video for you guys some day! We will try to remember.

After class I got to go to my favorite pet store and they gave me lots of treats and I got a new bully stick - I love to chew on them and they are really helping to clean my teeth! Also they had a Nino Ottosson Dog Magic game out on the floor of the store and I got to play with it -

I had it figured out in no time and had a blast moving those silly bones out of the way and getting the FOOD underneath. Mom was glad she didn't have to bother to buy me a new toy!

It has finally warmed up around here - today was 59! So most of the snow is gone and we just have a little ice in the grass where the sun never shines on it to melt it. Our yard is all soupy muddy puddley now. But in the very back of the backyard the ground is drier so mom set up my table with a straight tunnel right next to it and we practiced jump to either table or tunnel and sometimes mom called me off - and guess what? I was responsive to my name! Ha! It felt so great to be outside doing agility again. AND our daffodils are starting to peek up out of the ground. We know winter is not completely over but this is such a nice and welcome break from all that snow and cold!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Tuesday's class

If you are checking in expecting to see our tRicky T-Day video, sorry but you'll have to wait until next week! LOL!

Before going camping the other day we went to our Tuesday class. It was all about the backy uppy versus the forward motion front cross. The backy uppy is one of the six recalls to heel in APHS. The backy uppy is executed by the handler on the take-off side of a jump (the handler does not go past the plane of the jump) and is used when the next obstacle in the sequence is also on the take-off side. A FMFC is executed on the landing side of a jump and is used when the next obstacle is also on the landing side. Both involve the handler using her outside arm. The backy uppy involves so many turning cues (shoulder rotation, outside arm, deceleration, turning and facing the dog) that it is imperative that the handler says"Jump!" as a forward motion cue to the dog (and takes a step backward in the direction of the jump). For me, mom has to wait until the last possible second to turn towards me - so her timing is very critical for our success.

Last week we were talking about a foundation exercise where the handler puts a treat in her outside hand and the dog learns to walk in a straight line next to her without going past her outside arm. We asked Jenn about it again to try to make sure we understood it and found out the handler also needs to turn her shoulders into the dog. (Mom was originally looking straight ahead while doing it.) Kathy wanted to see a video of the exercise - we tried and it's here in this video but we sure hope we're doing it right! Also in the video - the handler should be able to keep a dog from going straight ahead and jumping by bringing up her outside arm and turning her shoulders. We're not too great at it yet - as you will see. Then we threw in a backy uppy at the end (at least we think we were doing a backy uppy)!

Sorry for the poor video quality. The Flip takes great HD video but if we want to edit with titles and stuff, we have to convert the Mp4 to AVI to get WMM to accept it. And then there goes the HD quality! (Do you think whole conversations will soon consist of only abbreviations?)

Jenn is off on a seminar next week so we get a break from class.

Wow - only a few more days in this week. I hope we get our training challenge done!!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky