Well today I had my long awaited private agility lesson with the two terrors!!
Jemma:
We did some weave work - with me at different speeds and she did well, she only went wrong when i really really raced her!!! We did some jumping work too and she was good although we really need to work on her drive into the tunnel as this was making things difficult from a handling point of view, she was also very bad and went behind me a couple of times!!! Naughty naughty girl!! We finished with some contact work and Pen rekons she is slowing down on the downward plank, especially on the dogwalk although her contacts were generally good!! Might be looking at bringing back her target as when there is one at the bottom of the contact she does go faster and drives better - much to pens delight!!! :P
Elliot:
We did the same jumping bit as with jem and he worked it a lot better, he has better drive into the tunnel and didnt do any silly going behind me!!! :D We did some weave work with him too and he went really really well until i tried to do "the walk" on the right and then it all went to pot!!! dont know why but it took a while to get him bak doing a nice set with a recall!!! We then did the most important thing - worked on his contacts!!!! We did all three separately and then but them all in sequence - he actually worked really well with the target at the bottom, only going wrong again when i raced him. His main problem is staying on the contact after being rewarded once so I shall work on the stuff from the contact dvd (cant remember its name right now!!) to help with this, i also realised that this was actually the first time we had but contacts in a course in training so why i expected him to do them in competition without the target I dont know!!!
So all in all a good session, I have got my enthusiasm back for elliots contacts and have come up with some more things to work on with jemjem!!!
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Group training times two
Elliot
Well he was much better today than last week. He did really well on his jumping and only broke his wait once. One thing we did identify that needed work (with both dogs actually) was thedrive on into a tunnel as if i stopped he stopped, which got us all in a muddle!! We then did some jump - seesaw work and he was quite good, he wasn't overly confident with his nose touch but he did go to the bottom and kind of touch it, we then did the same with the aframe and again he was quite good but occassionally he flew it and broke his wait - i think he was getting tired so we just finished on some wait work - with me walking past him and going back, breaking him and saying a different word and checking he didnt break and by the end he was doing this nicely too. So all in all a lot better than last week but I think as regards his contacts I need to do some confident building work for me with them as I feel I have kind of lost the will to train them as I dont feel we are getting anywhere, hopefully that will happen tomorrow in our private lesson.
Jemma
She wasn't bad, as I said above she also needs to work on her drive into the tunnel as well as anti-cross behind exercise as she keeps doing this and it is really naughty, little tinker!!!! She also needs work on jumping grids as she was knocking poles again. Contact ends need sharpening up again as she has gone a bit daudly again!! Oooo and also her long distance look on the start line needs work as she was only looking at one jump and not beyond but I think the anti-cross behind stuff will help with this as it will remind her that she has to stay infront of me!!! All in all not a bad day for her today either :)
Well he was much better today than last week. He did really well on his jumping and only broke his wait once. One thing we did identify that needed work (with both dogs actually) was thedrive on into a tunnel as if i stopped he stopped, which got us all in a muddle!! We then did some jump - seesaw work and he was quite good, he wasn't overly confident with his nose touch but he did go to the bottom and kind of touch it, we then did the same with the aframe and again he was quite good but occassionally he flew it and broke his wait - i think he was getting tired so we just finished on some wait work - with me walking past him and going back, breaking him and saying a different word and checking he didnt break and by the end he was doing this nicely too. So all in all a lot better than last week but I think as regards his contacts I need to do some confident building work for me with them as I feel I have kind of lost the will to train them as I dont feel we are getting anywhere, hopefully that will happen tomorrow in our private lesson.
Jemma
She wasn't bad, as I said above she also needs to work on her drive into the tunnel as well as anti-cross behind exercise as she keeps doing this and it is really naughty, little tinker!!!! She also needs work on jumping grids as she was knocking poles again. Contact ends need sharpening up again as she has gone a bit daudly again!! Oooo and also her long distance look on the start line needs work as she was only looking at one jump and not beyond but I think the anti-cross behind stuff will help with this as it will remind her that she has to stay infront of me!!! All in all not a bad day for her today either :)
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Group training
Because of the snow we joined in the evening classes indoors as the paddock where we normally train was too dangerous
Elliot:
Not a very successful lesson in terms of agility with him today. We started on some contact work, the target was really hard to see and kept getting buried and as soon as elliot couldn't see it he would just go back to bombing off the end, which just tells us what we already know about his contacts and as they weren't getting any better I stopped doing them as I didn't want them to get any worse, so shall leave them for a private lesson!! He did do some nice jumping although started to go under the first jump but i think that was all because of the main problem we ended up having to work on - his wait and focus. One of the other dogs in the class took a bit of a dislike to him and when was working in a different part of the arena came over at least three times and got right in elliots way so that he ended up jumping on him and then he had a go at elliot so i think this worried him a little bit. We then tried some weaves but he wouldn't hold his wait and kept getting it wrong because I wasn't where I wanted to be. This is clearly is main problem when other dogs are around so I spent the rest of the lesson working with one jump getting his wait and working on his focus. I also just did some work getting him to concentrate on me and walk to heel which he did very nicely :) Still feel his wait and focus needs lots more work in group lessons - another thing to add to the list!!
Jemma:
We did some courses that involved interesting weave angles and she was best when i helped her as little as possible - when i tried to make it a straighter angle she would go in too far down!! I just need to have more confidence in her!! She is also best if i keep moving, even running, rather than standing still which i guess makes sense although technically it shouldn't make a difference!! All in all I was very happy with her, bless her :)
Elliot:
Not a very successful lesson in terms of agility with him today. We started on some contact work, the target was really hard to see and kept getting buried and as soon as elliot couldn't see it he would just go back to bombing off the end, which just tells us what we already know about his contacts and as they weren't getting any better I stopped doing them as I didn't want them to get any worse, so shall leave them for a private lesson!! He did do some nice jumping although started to go under the first jump but i think that was all because of the main problem we ended up having to work on - his wait and focus. One of the other dogs in the class took a bit of a dislike to him and when was working in a different part of the arena came over at least three times and got right in elliots way so that he ended up jumping on him and then he had a go at elliot so i think this worried him a little bit. We then tried some weaves but he wouldn't hold his wait and kept getting it wrong because I wasn't where I wanted to be. This is clearly is main problem when other dogs are around so I spent the rest of the lesson working with one jump getting his wait and working on his focus. I also just did some work getting him to concentrate on me and walk to heel which he did very nicely :) Still feel his wait and focus needs lots more work in group lessons - another thing to add to the list!!
Jemma:
We did some courses that involved interesting weave angles and she was best when i helped her as little as possible - when i tried to make it a straighter angle she would go in too far down!! I just need to have more confidence in her!! She is also best if i keep moving, even running, rather than standing still which i guess makes sense although technically it shouldn't make a difference!! All in all I was very happy with her, bless her :)
Saturday, 19 December 2009
Dog Vegas
In the Agility and Jumping classes the dogs got two runs with their best one counting;
Elliot:
Helter Skelter
Well I dont think I handled this very well, not really sure why or wot makes me say that but it just didnt seem to flow right and he ran round one jump and under a few.
Jumping
He did well in this but knocked one pole both times, the same pole!! It was the pole after the one after the tunnel and I rekon he mis-strided the one after the tunnel and didn't manage to correct himself by the next jump as it was apparently his back legs that caught it!!
Agility
Well, he was naughty, not even a hint that he knew what contacts are and that he is supposed to stop at the bottom but then it did go dog walk tunnel!!! I put him back three times and he still did it!!! On the first run I then just did some jumps to the finish but on the second run he got taken out!!
Jemma:
Agility
First round she knocked a pole on an oddly angled jump and then I hung back to much so she came out before the end of the weaves, so I took her back and made her do the two jumps weaves again and didnt hang back!! Second run she had a pole down on the straight because I dropped my arm, I worked the badly angled jump much better and she kept it up, and I really raced her through the weaves and she did them beautifully :D Shame she didnt keep the pole up as she was 2 seconds quicker than the winner!!
Helter Skelter
She did a beautiful clear round although I felt she was a little bit slow, although she finished 3rd, only just over 1 second slower than the winner (which was BrennBrenn!!!!!:D)
Jumping
Clear first time round although again not that fast, finished 8th though, again just over 1 second slower than the winner!!! Second round she was really naughty and went behind me on the pull through part of the course and jumped the jump the wrong way, very naughty!!!!!!!!!!!!
All in all not a bad day and I was reasonably pleased with them both, quite enjoyed having two goes at each class, not that we did much better on any of our second runs!!
Elliot:
Helter Skelter
Well I dont think I handled this very well, not really sure why or wot makes me say that but it just didnt seem to flow right and he ran round one jump and under a few.
Jumping
He did well in this but knocked one pole both times, the same pole!! It was the pole after the one after the tunnel and I rekon he mis-strided the one after the tunnel and didn't manage to correct himself by the next jump as it was apparently his back legs that caught it!!
Agility
Well, he was naughty, not even a hint that he knew what contacts are and that he is supposed to stop at the bottom but then it did go dog walk tunnel!!! I put him back three times and he still did it!!! On the first run I then just did some jumps to the finish but on the second run he got taken out!!
Jemma:
Agility
First round she knocked a pole on an oddly angled jump and then I hung back to much so she came out before the end of the weaves, so I took her back and made her do the two jumps weaves again and didnt hang back!! Second run she had a pole down on the straight because I dropped my arm, I worked the badly angled jump much better and she kept it up, and I really raced her through the weaves and she did them beautifully :D Shame she didnt keep the pole up as she was 2 seconds quicker than the winner!!
Helter Skelter
She did a beautiful clear round although I felt she was a little bit slow, although she finished 3rd, only just over 1 second slower than the winner (which was BrennBrenn!!!!!:D)
Jumping
Clear first time round although again not that fast, finished 8th though, again just over 1 second slower than the winner!!! Second round she was really naughty and went behind me on the pull through part of the course and jumped the jump the wrong way, very naughty!!!!!!!!!!!!
All in all not a bad day and I was reasonably pleased with them both, quite enjoyed having two goes at each class, not that we did much better on any of our second runs!!
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
All weaved out!!
Elliot:
He was back to being a good boy on the weavies today :D we managed to have me walking on the left AND right, and then had recalls from behind one jump - he struggled when i tried to do l/r with him behind the jump but i think this was because he was tired so we did one more good one hald way between the jump and weaves and left it at that but will start from there next week and really work it up with the jump before!! We did a little bit of contact work but i forgot the perspex (oops) so we used a pringles lid again and he wasn't quite as clear on the fact he had to do long nose touches but it was good as eventually there will be no targets so he has to get used to doing long nose touches on different things!! So we worked on trying to get him to do the long nose touch straight away, rather than dithering for a bit first!! We finished on a little bit of jumping which was much better than last week although he still went under a few jumps.
Jemma:
We started on a bit of jump work which went really well, we then really worked on her weaves today too and found that actually it is not so much my speed that causes problems but the angle she enters the weaves and her speed. So we worked a lot on this, with different jump combinations before the weaves and then some on just the angles, I think my plan with this is the angles has to be what i really work on!!
He was back to being a good boy on the weavies today :D we managed to have me walking on the left AND right, and then had recalls from behind one jump - he struggled when i tried to do l/r with him behind the jump but i think this was because he was tired so we did one more good one hald way between the jump and weaves and left it at that but will start from there next week and really work it up with the jump before!! We did a little bit of contact work but i forgot the perspex (oops) so we used a pringles lid again and he wasn't quite as clear on the fact he had to do long nose touches but it was good as eventually there will be no targets so he has to get used to doing long nose touches on different things!! So we worked on trying to get him to do the long nose touch straight away, rather than dithering for a bit first!! We finished on a little bit of jumping which was much better than last week although he still went under a few jumps.
Jemma:
We started on a bit of jump work which went really well, we then really worked on her weaves today too and found that actually it is not so much my speed that causes problems but the angle she enters the weaves and her speed. So we worked a lot on this, with different jump combinations before the weaves and then some on just the angles, I think my plan with this is the angles has to be what i really work on!!
Monday, 14 December 2009
Agility Nuts 13/12/09
Elliot:
Agility:
Elliot still isn't ready for contacts so I didn't enter him in this class :)
Jumping:
We only did the course upto the weave and then we made up our own little bit at the end but he worked beautifully and worked really well round some long gaps as i was front crossing, i was really pleased with him!!
Speed & Power:
Again we only did the speed bit as he isn't ready for contacts but he worked really nicely up to this bit, I was really happy with him, just need to sort his contacts out!!!
Take your own line jumping:
I did the same course as I had planned for jem but started after the weaves and he worked it lovely again, and just took one jump wrong at the end but again I think it was my fault bless him!!
Jemma:
Agility:
Well there was something that all the dogs found interesting to sniff in this course and sadly it was by the weaves, so although i didn't think jem would notice it as she has her "agility brain in gear least when she is doing the weaves she sadly did!!! She did however get the entrance to the weaves very nicely! But i got her collar and sent her jump-weave again and she did it beautifully and ignored the smell!!, she then did a lovely a-frame contact but has got into the habit of breaking when i tell her yes (her click word) so i put her back on!!
Jumping:
Well we got a fourth in this class and she worked some lovely long gaps whilst I was front crossing, I was really pleased with her, however when it came to the weaves she went towards them and then came back to me and then did them, so basically the same as she did at blackdown - i clearly need to find out why as i reckon in both these classes we may have won it if she hadn't done (although in this class she was 6.587s slower than the winner).
Speed & Power:
I was so annoyed with myself in this class - Jem worked all the jumps beautifully and then I made her really work her seesaw and dog walk which she did lovely but then I stood in a stupid place after the dogwalk and she knocked the pole which obviously because of the class she was eliminated but she then did a lovely a a-frame too afterwards!! so beautiful dog, rubbish handler!!!
Take your own line jumping:
The course I designed started jump jump weave and she did the same thing as before - went up to them and then turned round so I took her back to the beginning and she did it lovely, however the rest of the course didn't go quite as planned, probably due to me not workin it as hard as I should have done because she messed up the beginning!!
All in all it was a very enjoyable day if not overly successful :)
Agility:
Elliot still isn't ready for contacts so I didn't enter him in this class :)
Jumping:
We only did the course upto the weave and then we made up our own little bit at the end but he worked beautifully and worked really well round some long gaps as i was front crossing, i was really pleased with him!!
Speed & Power:
Again we only did the speed bit as he isn't ready for contacts but he worked really nicely up to this bit, I was really happy with him, just need to sort his contacts out!!!
Take your own line jumping:
I did the same course as I had planned for jem but started after the weaves and he worked it lovely again, and just took one jump wrong at the end but again I think it was my fault bless him!!
Jemma:
Agility:
Well there was something that all the dogs found interesting to sniff in this course and sadly it was by the weaves, so although i didn't think jem would notice it as she has her "agility brain in gear least when she is doing the weaves she sadly did!!! She did however get the entrance to the weaves very nicely! But i got her collar and sent her jump-weave again and she did it beautifully and ignored the smell!!, she then did a lovely a-frame contact but has got into the habit of breaking when i tell her yes (her click word) so i put her back on!!
Jumping:
Well we got a fourth in this class and she worked some lovely long gaps whilst I was front crossing, I was really pleased with her, however when it came to the weaves she went towards them and then came back to me and then did them, so basically the same as she did at blackdown - i clearly need to find out why as i reckon in both these classes we may have won it if she hadn't done (although in this class she was 6.587s slower than the winner).
Speed & Power:
I was so annoyed with myself in this class - Jem worked all the jumps beautifully and then I made her really work her seesaw and dog walk which she did lovely but then I stood in a stupid place after the dogwalk and she knocked the pole which obviously because of the class she was eliminated but she then did a lovely a a-frame too afterwards!! so beautiful dog, rubbish handler!!!
Take your own line jumping:
The course I designed started jump jump weave and she did the same thing as before - went up to them and then turned round so I took her back to the beginning and she did it lovely, however the rest of the course didn't go quite as planned, probably due to me not workin it as hard as I should have done because she messed up the beginning!!
All in all it was a very enjoyable day if not overly successful :)
Training back home
Im back home for christmas now so had a lesson with Pen on Saturday.
Elliot:
Well I dont quite know what happened to his weaves as he was rubbish!!! it took us about half the lesson to get him doing 6 from a recall, he couldn't even do it with a over the shoulder recall from the end!!! Don't really know why, was v odd!! We then did some jumping he kept going under the jumps when on a corner - we are thinking this might have something to do with me being crap and getting in his way when I am front crossing, so as always it is me that needs the work!!! I also need to work on his focus on long lead outs as he started to struggle and loose his confidence!! We finished on a little bit of contacts, and yup it is definately the fading of the target that needs work now!!
Jemma:
We did some weave work, she wasn't great on angles from the right but much better from the left :) we then put the weaves in a course and worked out that it is my speed that is affecting her in the weaves, so again, something to work on!!
Elliot:
Well I dont quite know what happened to his weaves as he was rubbish!!! it took us about half the lesson to get him doing 6 from a recall, he couldn't even do it with a over the shoulder recall from the end!!! Don't really know why, was v odd!! We then did some jumping he kept going under the jumps when on a corner - we are thinking this might have something to do with me being crap and getting in his way when I am front crossing, so as always it is me that needs the work!!! I also need to work on his focus on long lead outs as he started to struggle and loose his confidence!! We finished on a little bit of contacts, and yup it is definately the fading of the target that needs work now!!
Jemma:
We did some weave work, she wasn't great on angles from the right but much better from the left :) we then put the weaves in a course and worked out that it is my speed that is affecting her in the weaves, so again, something to work on!!
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Blackdown Limit Agility Comp 6/12/09
To make my blogging life easier I was very lucky to have my friend Tasha come with us so she took videos which means you can just enjoy watching them rather than reading my waffle!!!
So...
Jemma:
So...
Jemma:
Agility - I was convinced she got 5R for the weaves, so although very happy with a 7th I was a bit annoyed at myself for really leaving jem to find the weave entry by herself when she could have done with some help, I just have to be careful because if I talk to her too much she just looks at me and doesn't see them - something we need to work on I guess!!
Jumping - I should have back crossed when she was in the weaves but I didn't trust her not to come out and instead blocked her view of them!! :( Then I sent her back down the tunnel because I did what I had planned for if she came shooting out the tunnel to the left and didn't change it because she had come out on the right!!
Helter Skelter - what can I say - clever little girly :D
Jumping - I am so annoyed at myself - I walked the end bit two ways and then couldn't decide which way to do it and those split seconds dithering sent her round that jump - so fustrating!!!!
Elliot:
Agility - I decided not to take him in for this class as there was no part of the course I could do without him at least trying to get on a contact.
Jumping - I have never seen him like that before, he was just so nutty!! I was really annoyed with myself for not putting him back when he broke his wait and so then I stood no chance of getting control back or him doing the weaves!! After the weaves I did the same as with Jem (I ran him first tho!!) so there we go, bless him!!
Helter Skelter - I loved this round, I really enjoyed it as the whole way round I could tell Elliot was having an amazing time, he let out a little bark as he went over each jump and it all just flowed, it was lovely, especially looking at some of those nice flicky legs :D It was also interesting to compare the times of the two dogs, it is the first time I have been able to compare the speed of the two of them properly and there was only 1.314 seconds between them and I reckon Elliot can go faster :)
Jumping - another completely nutty round, something about that ring - maybe because he had to queue where he could see the other dogs running and so he was really hyped.
I was really pleased with him because in both his nutty runs when he realised I wasn't with him he came back to me and didn't bomb off after the other dogs :D
On my youtube account there is also videos of Asher and Poppy :)
All in all it was a good day out and I was pleased with both dogs :D
Saturday, 5 December 2009
What a lesson!!
Jem:
She was pretty good, we worked on tightening up her corners and me using my arms to push her out/bring her in. Her contacts were a little bit wobbly so we worked on them a bit and then we tried the course again to finish and she did the most beautiful fast a-frame contact, it was lovely :) Her weaves were also really good, spot on every time and they were in the middle of the course and their were 10 of them :)
Elliot:
Well, he was a clever little boy!! We started with some jumping and he was good when I got it right and didn't drop my arm!! Also, the beset thing about his jumping was his style - probably about 80% of the jumping on the straight lines he was flicking his back legs back rather than tucking them up, all from just that one short session last week on the spread :) The next bit is to work on him doing it when we are going round corners as then he tucks up about 99% of the time!! We then did some contacts, with the perspex he can do the whole peice of equipment and slaps his nose on the perspex and does a lovely long nose touch. The plan for when I go home over christmas is to really work on fading out the target!! Then we went on to the weaves ... ... :D ... ... he did six beautifully with me on the left walking from the first pole, he then did jump, weaves exactly the same, really fast flowing weaves, it was lovely to watch and I am so pleased with him!! The plan for tomorrow now is that if any of the courses are jump weaves or jump jump weaves then I am going to give them a go. He will get three attempts, two normally, the last one I shall sit him and do a recall and if he still doesn't do it I shall sit him before the next jump and make it as if that is the start :) If they are in the middle I shall see how the course flows as to whether we will do them or not, again if nec. sitting him before them!
I am really looking forward to tomorrow, not only with my own dogs, but watchin asher, hex and my friends dog poppy :)
She was pretty good, we worked on tightening up her corners and me using my arms to push her out/bring her in. Her contacts were a little bit wobbly so we worked on them a bit and then we tried the course again to finish and she did the most beautiful fast a-frame contact, it was lovely :) Her weaves were also really good, spot on every time and they were in the middle of the course and their were 10 of them :)
Elliot:
Well, he was a clever little boy!! We started with some jumping and he was good when I got it right and didn't drop my arm!! Also, the beset thing about his jumping was his style - probably about 80% of the jumping on the straight lines he was flicking his back legs back rather than tucking them up, all from just that one short session last week on the spread :) The next bit is to work on him doing it when we are going round corners as then he tucks up about 99% of the time!! We then did some contacts, with the perspex he can do the whole peice of equipment and slaps his nose on the perspex and does a lovely long nose touch. The plan for when I go home over christmas is to really work on fading out the target!! Then we went on to the weaves ... ... :D ... ... he did six beautifully with me on the left walking from the first pole, he then did jump, weaves exactly the same, really fast flowing weaves, it was lovely to watch and I am so pleased with him!! The plan for tomorrow now is that if any of the courses are jump weaves or jump jump weaves then I am going to give them a go. He will get three attempts, two normally, the last one I shall sit him and do a recall and if he still doesn't do it I shall sit him before the next jump and make it as if that is the start :) If they are in the middle I shall see how the course flows as to whether we will do them or not, again if nec. sitting him before them!
I am really looking forward to tomorrow, not only with my own dogs, but watchin asher, hex and my friends dog poppy :)
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Flyball
Not really much to say for today apart from the fact that we did some one on one box training with the other dogs racing asher. I am not sure it particularly sped elliot up but when he has the ball he has no drive for his tuggy so maybe it is this we need to work on. Jem was ridiculously focused today, maybe she knew asher would eat her if she thought about going to him/his box and she did them all perfectly :D She was however naughty in the speed training and had a go at keri as she ran past her (keri waiting to be released) but then she didn't have anyone running along with her, still very naughty tho!!! That is it for me for flyball now though until 18th Jan as I am off back home for Christmas (next Sun I am Blackdown)!!
Saturday, 28 November 2009
CONTACTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jem:
o dear god, y did we retrain her contacts?!?!?I now have a dog that will do contacts at any opportunity even if it means ploughing me out the way!!! She is however doing beautiful 2o2o on the bottom of the a-frame! :) Her dog walks were a little off so we worked on them - as soon as you put treats in your hand she does them wonderfully, cheeky madam. The seesaw however, hmmm......the next obstacle was the a-frame so she decided she would jump sideways off the seesaw when it was half way down!!! She did this a couple of times so we trained it, but again food in hand=very nice stop contact!!! We had 12 weaves as the second obstacle and she did them every time bar one when I released her from the far end!:) Each week I feel we are becoming more and more of a team and I'm loving it :)
Elliot:
well he now has a piece of perspex as his target and I have taught him to do a long nose touch on it but i have only been trianing this for a week and he isn't 100% at home so I wasn't sure how he would do with it at the bottom of the contact but I needn't have worried, he knows what he is doing!!! bless him! We ran him over the whole a frame and dog walk a couple of times and he ran straight to the target and plonked his nose on it :) yay :) so now it is just more work on speed over the contacts and then gradually fading out the perspex! Weaves - well he was really confident on the left with SIX!! I managed to get all the way to doing "the walk" from pole 2 but on the right he was really wobbly (my homework for this week!!) and could only do it from recall! :( Lesley then thought we would try and push him so we tried him on 10 - he was good, sadly we didn't get one that was completely right but he tried all the way along them and more of the time just mistimed the third one but then did the rest - Lesley was really happy with this as it showed he didn't loose interest in doing them, he was just shooting in to them and not pacing himself enough to do so many!! We then did a little bit of jumping with him and tried him on a spread to try and get his legs flicking back rather than hugging his belly - and it worked!! By the end we had a couple of the jumps where he properly flicked back and the others he wasn't tucking them right up to his belly!! So something else for us to work on with him :)
o dear god, y did we retrain her contacts?!?!?I now have a dog that will do contacts at any opportunity even if it means ploughing me out the way!!! She is however doing beautiful 2o2o on the bottom of the a-frame! :) Her dog walks were a little off so we worked on them - as soon as you put treats in your hand she does them wonderfully, cheeky madam. The seesaw however, hmmm......the next obstacle was the a-frame so she decided she would jump sideways off the seesaw when it was half way down!!! She did this a couple of times so we trained it, but again food in hand=very nice stop contact!!! We had 12 weaves as the second obstacle and she did them every time bar one when I released her from the far end!:) Each week I feel we are becoming more and more of a team and I'm loving it :)
Elliot:
well he now has a piece of perspex as his target and I have taught him to do a long nose touch on it but i have only been trianing this for a week and he isn't 100% at home so I wasn't sure how he would do with it at the bottom of the contact but I needn't have worried, he knows what he is doing!!! bless him! We ran him over the whole a frame and dog walk a couple of times and he ran straight to the target and plonked his nose on it :) yay :) so now it is just more work on speed over the contacts and then gradually fading out the perspex! Weaves - well he was really confident on the left with SIX!! I managed to get all the way to doing "the walk" from pole 2 but on the right he was really wobbly (my homework for this week!!) and could only do it from recall! :( Lesley then thought we would try and push him so we tried him on 10 - he was good, sadly we didn't get one that was completely right but he tried all the way along them and more of the time just mistimed the third one but then did the rest - Lesley was really happy with this as it showed he didn't loose interest in doing them, he was just shooting in to them and not pacing himself enough to do so many!! We then did a little bit of jumping with him and tried him on a spread to try and get his legs flicking back rather than hugging his belly - and it worked!! By the end we had a couple of the jumps where he properly flicked back and the others he wasn't tucking them right up to his belly!! So something else for us to work on with him :)
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Flyball training + Smart Clinic
Flyball training today was good, both dogs did some really nice box work - Jem is driving back really nicely now but keeps dropping the ball because she is to desperate to get the one I have got and Elliot now wont play with his tuggy when he has his ball however when he doesn't have a ball (so for the run backs and chasing) he drives really nicely to it - something else to work on!!
I have also had both dogs checked out by my vet and they are both being referred to the Smart Clinic in Cardiff (after seeing the results Char had with Tia and on Lesley's recommendation too). Elliot's hips have almost but not complete range of motion and she agrees his muscles are not even and he is very tender round them. Jem on the other hand has only about an inches movement in her right hip and not much more in her left!!! Both are sound though so I shall be continuing to train them until we get an appointment (and after depending on what they say!!:P)
I have also had both dogs checked out by my vet and they are both being referred to the Smart Clinic in Cardiff (after seeing the results Char had with Tia and on Lesley's recommendation too). Elliot's hips have almost but not complete range of motion and she agrees his muscles are not even and he is very tender round them. Jem on the other hand has only about an inches movement in her right hip and not much more in her left!!! Both are sound though so I shall be continuing to train them until we get an appointment (and after depending on what they say!!:P)
Saturday, 21 November 2009
Good Dogs
Back to agility training with Lesley this week :)
Jemma:
We did a grade 3/4 course and we did pretty well - knocked a few poles first time but then worked on a tricky bit involving a snake and weaves and then we did the course again and she did it all really well until the weaves where she just mistimed it slightly. She has turned into a contact menace - she goes over them at every chance she gets, little tinker!! They still need a little bit of work as she doesn't always stop when her two feet are off but just before the end and she still isn't going as fast as i would like!!
Elliot:
We discussed contacts and have decided to continue to target train them but I am going to use a piece of perspex instead of the lids so it is more see through and so hopefull i can phase it out more easily and get him just touching the grass - we took the target away at one point and he did try sort of touching the floor already so we shall be working on this more and really doing some proper back training and not push him to go over the whole thing too soon!! We also did some weaves - he did four very nicely and then we did six and he did these as well, only wrong a couple of times until we started trying to do it with me moving - we got there though with me just walking but with lesley stood at the end so he still had someone to focus on - this is something else for us to work on, me moving whilst he is doing them :)
Jemma:
We did a grade 3/4 course and we did pretty well - knocked a few poles first time but then worked on a tricky bit involving a snake and weaves and then we did the course again and she did it all really well until the weaves where she just mistimed it slightly. She has turned into a contact menace - she goes over them at every chance she gets, little tinker!! They still need a little bit of work as she doesn't always stop when her two feet are off but just before the end and she still isn't going as fast as i would like!!
Elliot:
We discussed contacts and have decided to continue to target train them but I am going to use a piece of perspex instead of the lids so it is more see through and so hopefull i can phase it out more easily and get him just touching the grass - we took the target away at one point and he did try sort of touching the floor already so we shall be working on this more and really doing some proper back training and not push him to go over the whole thing too soon!! We also did some weaves - he did four very nicely and then we did six and he did these as well, only wrong a couple of times until we started trying to do it with me moving - we got there though with me just walking but with lesley stood at the end so he still had someone to focus on - this is something else for us to work on, me moving whilst he is doing them :)
Monday, 16 November 2009
Agility Nuts - 15/11/09
Elliot only had two runs as I decided not to run him over the contact equipment as he isn't ready to do the whole thing yet (despite the fact he thinks he is!!)
Jumping:
Elliot
He was a really good boy and ended up finishing 5th :) He was only 1.67 seconds slower than the winner (21.95) and this probably had something to do with when I was pushing him over into the "wrong end" of the tunnel he was convinced he should go in the other end so we tripped over each other and then he gave me a look as if to say "what ARE you doing?!?" but then all was well again when I told him he could go in the tunnel, just the other end than where he wanted to go!! So all in all a very nice run from him (probably not from me though as I should have had the confidence to front cross where I had planned too!!)
Jemma
All was going great until we got to the top corner and as she got there a pointer in the other ring went racing into the tunnel in that corner of their ring (if that makes sense), anyway she saw it and turned into naughty flyball Jemma and went chasing after it, although was she realised it had long gone, and had a firm shout from me she came back, on course as well!! However this made me forget to front cross her as well and I stood no chance of pushing her into the opposite end of the tunnel so she got E'd :(
Agility
For some unknown reason Jem messed up her weaves despite the fact they were only the third obstacle and the two jumps before and the weave entry were in a straight line!! I don't know if it had something to do with the fact I left he and went to between the second jump and the weaves and so she was rushing too much, but anyway this made me less enthusiastic and so I completely forgot the course at the end which lead to an E - whoops!!
Time Fault and Out Agility
This time Jem managed her weaves, but I hung back and sent her from just past the first jump. She then worked lovely but second time round the course I forgot she had to do the weaves until after she had done the jump before so commanded her too late (it seems to work if I command her before the jump before them!) so she messed them up - however she finished 4th :) The judge also commented after that she had lovely contacts - the retraining has obviously paid off!! :D
Tunnel Torment
Elliot
He ran really nicely but on one of the corners I dropped my arm (I was told afterwards) and so he went under the jump - however as it was just the one I carried on and he carried on really nicely, until the second tunnel - bless him, it had all bunched up and he went in and couldn't go round the corner bit so came out, I sent him through again and it didn't work, same again but the the judge came and sorted it out and then he could do it and finished the course nicely. So again, I was very happy with him :)
Jemma
She ran really nicely, although is still going quite wide on her turns - something else to work on! She finished third on 21.345 - 2.15 seconds slower than the winner!!
Jumping:
Elliot
He was a really good boy and ended up finishing 5th :) He was only 1.67 seconds slower than the winner (21.95) and this probably had something to do with when I was pushing him over into the "wrong end" of the tunnel he was convinced he should go in the other end so we tripped over each other and then he gave me a look as if to say "what ARE you doing?!?" but then all was well again when I told him he could go in the tunnel, just the other end than where he wanted to go!! So all in all a very nice run from him (probably not from me though as I should have had the confidence to front cross where I had planned too!!)
Jemma
All was going great until we got to the top corner and as she got there a pointer in the other ring went racing into the tunnel in that corner of their ring (if that makes sense), anyway she saw it and turned into naughty flyball Jemma and went chasing after it, although was she realised it had long gone, and had a firm shout from me she came back, on course as well!! However this made me forget to front cross her as well and I stood no chance of pushing her into the opposite end of the tunnel so she got E'd :(
Agility
For some unknown reason Jem messed up her weaves despite the fact they were only the third obstacle and the two jumps before and the weave entry were in a straight line!! I don't know if it had something to do with the fact I left he and went to between the second jump and the weaves and so she was rushing too much, but anyway this made me less enthusiastic and so I completely forgot the course at the end which lead to an E - whoops!!
Time Fault and Out Agility
This time Jem managed her weaves, but I hung back and sent her from just past the first jump. She then worked lovely but second time round the course I forgot she had to do the weaves until after she had done the jump before so commanded her too late (it seems to work if I command her before the jump before them!) so she messed them up - however she finished 4th :) The judge also commented after that she had lovely contacts - the retraining has obviously paid off!! :D
Tunnel Torment
Elliot
He ran really nicely but on one of the corners I dropped my arm (I was told afterwards) and so he went under the jump - however as it was just the one I carried on and he carried on really nicely, until the second tunnel - bless him, it had all bunched up and he went in and couldn't go round the corner bit so came out, I sent him through again and it didn't work, same again but the the judge came and sorted it out and then he could do it and finished the course nicely. So again, I was very happy with him :)
Jemma
She ran really nicely, although is still going quite wide on her turns - something else to work on! She finished third on 21.345 - 2.15 seconds slower than the winner!!
Friday, 13 November 2009
Some training at Nuts
I am back home for the weekend and have managed to sneek in a lesson today :)
Jem:
She joined in the competition group and was really naughty!!! She was obsessed with doing the a-frame and wasn't really going on which meant I struggled doing a back cross at one point but she was runnig too fast for me to do a front cross, little minx!! I think that was the main prob, the lack of going on - definately something that needs working on!! She did however do the 12 weaves correct every time and did some VERY nice contacts!!!
Elliot:
Well we had a private lesson and he was a good boy. Pen mentioned about him tucking his back legs up loads but she thinks it might just be his jumping style so I think I might try some grid work with him but will still get a vet to look at him (Pen agreed, his legs feel very lop sided!!!). We also worked on me learning to actually run with him and not be scared of it going wrong and that it is better to have a fast dog that knocks the odd pole than a slow clear dog, so on Sunday I will be running my little socks off (well trying to anyway!!)!! We then did some four weaves and he did them straight off, clever little man, however when I started walking he was anticipating the toy being thrown and missing the last one. We also did a few 6 weaves and he did them too (after only getting them wrong once!!) and they were really fast too, I think we are on to a winner (hopefully!!). Now to the important bit - contacts!! We put him on the plank with the target at the bottom and let go and bless him, he drove straight to the bottom and nose touched the target! :) So I think I will go back to this method with him as he seems really clued in to it and really enjoyed doing it - I just need to proof it now!!
We have a comp on sun - will update after :)
Jem:
She joined in the competition group and was really naughty!!! She was obsessed with doing the a-frame and wasn't really going on which meant I struggled doing a back cross at one point but she was runnig too fast for me to do a front cross, little minx!! I think that was the main prob, the lack of going on - definately something that needs working on!! She did however do the 12 weaves correct every time and did some VERY nice contacts!!!
Elliot:
Well we had a private lesson and he was a good boy. Pen mentioned about him tucking his back legs up loads but she thinks it might just be his jumping style so I think I might try some grid work with him but will still get a vet to look at him (Pen agreed, his legs feel very lop sided!!!). We also worked on me learning to actually run with him and not be scared of it going wrong and that it is better to have a fast dog that knocks the odd pole than a slow clear dog, so on Sunday I will be running my little socks off (well trying to anyway!!)!! We then did some four weaves and he did them straight off, clever little man, however when I started walking he was anticipating the toy being thrown and missing the last one. We also did a few 6 weaves and he did them too (after only getting them wrong once!!) and they were really fast too, I think we are on to a winner (hopefully!!). Now to the important bit - contacts!! We put him on the plank with the target at the bottom and let go and bless him, he drove straight to the bottom and nose touched the target! :) So I think I will go back to this method with him as he seems really clued in to it and really enjoyed doing it - I just need to proof it now!!
We have a comp on sun - will update after :)
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Flyball
It was all round a really good training session day today, Elliot enjoyed finally being allowed back!!
Jem:
Box was good without ball, with ball we got some really really nice turns. I was working leaving her in a sit and then standing about a foot away from her and making her look at the box before she went and all with the other lane in her sights!!! She also did really well on the speed training - we started them chasing each other today, ie one dog went, then the next one when they were half way down (going the same way) and so on.. and then we got it tighter and tighter until the next dog was being released when the one before was just going over the first jump!! Think jem enjoyed it all bless her!!
Elliot:
Well he did nice warm ups, he also did some nice box turns when he let me set him up and let him go properly (I kept taking himself up and just kind of falling over the jump!!) Nat then got me doing the "toshy" thing - involves her letting him go and me standing by the box and then as soon as he was over the jump running away from the box calling him - Nat reckon his turns were much tighter with me doing this (I was too busy running to see!!) so it looks like we will be doing more of this and more with him really running at the box to get the speed so we can practise getting his legs high still!! With the chasing he did really well although a couple of times got a bit confused and went for the dog befores ball. We were also short of handlers and so I was supposed to pass him to someone once they had released their first dog but they forgot and so I only got a couple of seconds on him and needless to say he flew past me but then he got really confused where I was and was running round all the other dogs and then tried to go back over the jumps until eventually he ofund me, bless him!!! Nat reckons he was lengthening more over the jumps although he was still going higher than we would like!!
Jem:
Box was good without ball, with ball we got some really really nice turns. I was working leaving her in a sit and then standing about a foot away from her and making her look at the box before she went and all with the other lane in her sights!!! She also did really well on the speed training - we started them chasing each other today, ie one dog went, then the next one when they were half way down (going the same way) and so on.. and then we got it tighter and tighter until the next dog was being released when the one before was just going over the first jump!! Think jem enjoyed it all bless her!!
Elliot:
Well he did nice warm ups, he also did some nice box turns when he let me set him up and let him go properly (I kept taking himself up and just kind of falling over the jump!!) Nat then got me doing the "toshy" thing - involves her letting him go and me standing by the box and then as soon as he was over the jump running away from the box calling him - Nat reckon his turns were much tighter with me doing this (I was too busy running to see!!) so it looks like we will be doing more of this and more with him really running at the box to get the speed so we can practise getting his legs high still!! With the chasing he did really well although a couple of times got a bit confused and went for the dog befores ball. We were also short of handlers and so I was supposed to pass him to someone once they had released their first dog but they forgot and so I only got a couple of seconds on him and needless to say he flew past me but then he got really confused where I was and was running round all the other dogs and then tried to go back over the jumps until eventually he ofund me, bless him!!! Nat reckons he was lengthening more over the jumps although he was still going higher than we would like!!
Saturday, 7 November 2009
Jayphotos
At agility today we had the pleasure of being photographed by Carol from jayphotos (jayphotos.co.uk). I am looking forward to seeing the outcome on Monday and hopefully buying some of my nice pretty babies!! So how did the training go...
Elliot:
well it was quite interesting - we thought he was knocking poles because I spoke to him but it turns out he is REALLY tuned in to my body language to the point that he stopped with four feet of the ground after having taken off to take a jump, just because I had stopped to pull him round the wing - so long as i kept moving he took the jump but as soon as i stopped he stopped too, regardless of how close he was to the jump!! I think some more value for the jump is needed to get him taking them even if i am stood still!! We also discussed the fact that he has no awareness of his back end - he takes off with his front end and then jsut tucks his back legs up and hopes for the best - I am going to tray and do some ladder work (need to buy a ladder!!), jump poles in a star and the elephant trick some more to see if he can improve his awareness of his back end. I am also going to look into taking him to Smart clinic in cardiff - I am going to look more into this tonight!!
Jemma:
Her dog walk and seesaw contacts were amazing the first time, she then had a bit of a wobble and then they were good again - she flew down the dog walk straight into 2o2o :D She still shuffled down the a-frame although she did stop 2o2o. We did some work on this and she was better by the end - we discussed that the problem with it is that she knows where she needs to stop but not where she needs to brake (bit like when you learn to drive and are unsure when you need to apply the brakes and by how much to stop in the right place). She did the course really nicely - she got her weave entrance (90 degrees from the jump) every time but was missing one or two out towards the end (there were 12) apparently this was because lesley had been mean and put the next jump at an angle on the right hand side of the exit so every time she was on that side of the weaves she saw it and wanted to take it - tinker!!! We also did a little bit of work pulling her off the tunnel which she did very nicely. So all in all it was a good lesson.
I forgot to do a write up after obedience on Monday - both dogs did well, elliot started send away, something I need to work on at home as all the other dogs have done it before! Jem got up in her sit stay again - little terror!!
Elliot is back at flyball tomorrow, I shall update how it went tomorrow :)
Elliot:
well it was quite interesting - we thought he was knocking poles because I spoke to him but it turns out he is REALLY tuned in to my body language to the point that he stopped with four feet of the ground after having taken off to take a jump, just because I had stopped to pull him round the wing - so long as i kept moving he took the jump but as soon as i stopped he stopped too, regardless of how close he was to the jump!! I think some more value for the jump is needed to get him taking them even if i am stood still!! We also discussed the fact that he has no awareness of his back end - he takes off with his front end and then jsut tucks his back legs up and hopes for the best - I am going to tray and do some ladder work (need to buy a ladder!!), jump poles in a star and the elephant trick some more to see if he can improve his awareness of his back end. I am also going to look into taking him to Smart clinic in cardiff - I am going to look more into this tonight!!
Jemma:
Her dog walk and seesaw contacts were amazing the first time, she then had a bit of a wobble and then they were good again - she flew down the dog walk straight into 2o2o :D She still shuffled down the a-frame although she did stop 2o2o. We did some work on this and she was better by the end - we discussed that the problem with it is that she knows where she needs to stop but not where she needs to brake (bit like when you learn to drive and are unsure when you need to apply the brakes and by how much to stop in the right place). She did the course really nicely - she got her weave entrance (90 degrees from the jump) every time but was missing one or two out towards the end (there were 12) apparently this was because lesley had been mean and put the next jump at an angle on the right hand side of the exit so every time she was on that side of the weaves she saw it and wanted to take it - tinker!!! We also did a little bit of work pulling her off the tunnel which she did very nicely. So all in all it was a good lesson.
I forgot to do a write up after obedience on Monday - both dogs did well, elliot started send away, something I need to work on at home as all the other dogs have done it before! Jem got up in her sit stay again - little terror!!
Elliot is back at flyball tomorrow, I shall update how it went tomorrow :)
Monday, 26 October 2009
Not bad
Tonight was the dogs first time in their new classes at obedience:
Elliot
He did both his stays, he was a bit distracted a couple of times and gave the dog next to him a waggy tail but I kept talking quietly to him and managed to get his focus back. His heelwork was a different story, everytime we went near the other dogs he just wanted to play with them and he completely lost focus, however when on the other side of the room he did some nice bits (apart from when he was playing tuggy with his lead!!)! His recall was good but he was still crooked every time on his presents so we are going to not do finishes for a while and see if that helps as we didn't think it was my hands. Again retrieve was good but crooked but there was less skidding off with the dumbell!!
Jemma
She was a good girl, did her sit stay despite two GSDs being put beside her half way through (she is normally petrified of these, to the point she nearly ran into a road to get away from one!) and she did her down despite me going out of sight!! Her retrieve was nice but she didn't come in particularly straight. On her recal she got up as soon as I took a step away so I put her back, walked round her twice then away from her, then back, then round her and away again and then called her and she stayed sitting. I then did a "normal" one and she did it nicely although she isn't coming in very straight and when I try and straighten her she finishes instead - little tow rag. She did an a-recall as well which wasn't bad, she didn't get quite as close as I would have liked on the pick up but it was still pretty good bless her. At the end we did a little bit of weaving in and out of the other dogs for the heelwork and she was ok but not brill
All in all it went reasonably well I felt and am looking forward to next week!
Elliot
He did both his stays, he was a bit distracted a couple of times and gave the dog next to him a waggy tail but I kept talking quietly to him and managed to get his focus back. His heelwork was a different story, everytime we went near the other dogs he just wanted to play with them and he completely lost focus, however when on the other side of the room he did some nice bits (apart from when he was playing tuggy with his lead!!)! His recall was good but he was still crooked every time on his presents so we are going to not do finishes for a while and see if that helps as we didn't think it was my hands. Again retrieve was good but crooked but there was less skidding off with the dumbell!!
Jemma
She was a good girl, did her sit stay despite two GSDs being put beside her half way through (she is normally petrified of these, to the point she nearly ran into a road to get away from one!) and she did her down despite me going out of sight!! Her retrieve was nice but she didn't come in particularly straight. On her recal she got up as soon as I took a step away so I put her back, walked round her twice then away from her, then back, then round her and away again and then called her and she stayed sitting. I then did a "normal" one and she did it nicely although she isn't coming in very straight and when I try and straighten her she finishes instead - little tow rag. She did an a-recall as well which wasn't bad, she didn't get quite as close as I would have liked on the pick up but it was still pretty good bless her. At the end we did a little bit of weaving in and out of the other dogs for the heelwork and she was ok but not brill
All in all it went reasonably well I felt and am looking forward to next week!
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Clever little Jembe
Well her contacts today were so much better, it was really nice to see, her dog walk was especially good - she really drove down to the end, was very nice to watch. On her a-frame she was again much quicker but she is still going a little bit slower than I would have liked, Lesley says this is just because she knows she has to stop and she is just working about the best point to do it so she gets the right postition to get her sweeties - bless her. We also looked at her tunnel and jump and she seems to knock the pole when I am in front and she is rushing because when I hang back she doesn't do it - so for now I just need to calm things down round tunnels and just get her to think again and not use them quite so much to get in front of her, but hopefully we can gradually work back up to this. We then finished with a little course which she did quite well - she didn't get the weaves jsut because I didn't trust her enough to do them, but when I did she did them bless her :) There was a little slip up with the jumping but totally my fault (it was a grade 3 course - excuses excuses I know but nevermind!!)!!
Elliot didn't go today because he has had a massage and been signed off "work" for a week and a half, he also had another fit this morn so he wouldn't have gone anyway bless him.
Lets hope flyball goes as well tomorrow
Elliot didn't go today because he has had a massage and been signed off "work" for a week and a half, he also had another fit this morn so he wouldn't have gone anyway bless him.
Lets hope flyball goes as well tomorrow
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Our second week at woodspring ...
... and we all get moved up a class - this means jem is now in the top class and elliot the one below it :)
Well this week he wasn't quite as focused in his heelwork - apparently everytime i do a turn he jumps sideways - possibly because i am likely to have trod on his toes (im a very unbalanced mummy!) and also because i pause so the movement isn't flowing - definately something that needs work!! His recall was good, his sit was much straighter the second time too :) His retrieve was also much better. Oh and he managed both the sit and down stay (with only a little verbal encouragement from me when the dog next to him was fidgeting) but i still kept him on lead and prob will for a while so he learns he cant get away with getting up!!
Again jems heelwork wasn't as good as the week before but we did it as a class and i hate doing this as i feel i can't go at my own pace/correct the bits i feel need correcting. She got up on only one of her recalls so an improvement from last week but she wasn't overly straight on her presents. On her second retrieve she did a really wonderful present and the whole thing was i think one of the best i have seen her do! Now the most exciting part of our night was doing the scent (something she has never done before!) - I didn't even think she would pick a cloth up so while everyone else was having a go I encouraged her that this was the right thing to do. There were 4 tiles laid out and the cloth was between the third and fourth. Now I was going to take her off lead but go down with her but thought i would see what happened first so I just told her to find it and off she trotted straight to the cloth picked it up and brought it straight back!!! She did then drop it at my feet and refuse to pick it up again or sit but hey I was impressed enough that it didn't matter!!! It has also given me the bug to start training her to do it - I shall be cutting up an old sheet at the weekend!!!
At the flyball demo on Sunday Jem ended up having to run because asher couldn't run (long story and for which I am very sorry!!!), so Nat ran elliot (who was as good as gold!!) and I got jem - she only ran across once but then I always made sure she went slightly before the other team (no it wasn't cheating!!) so as to try and make sure she was ahead and she definately seemed better towards the end so i was quite pleased with her (we were however in the blue lane so her good side but hey ho :) )
As for agility training - Elliot has done four weaves tonight for the first time and Jem has got the hang of stop so all in all its prooving to be a good week so far!!!
Well this week he wasn't quite as focused in his heelwork - apparently everytime i do a turn he jumps sideways - possibly because i am likely to have trod on his toes (im a very unbalanced mummy!) and also because i pause so the movement isn't flowing - definately something that needs work!! His recall was good, his sit was much straighter the second time too :) His retrieve was also much better. Oh and he managed both the sit and down stay (with only a little verbal encouragement from me when the dog next to him was fidgeting) but i still kept him on lead and prob will for a while so he learns he cant get away with getting up!!
Again jems heelwork wasn't as good as the week before but we did it as a class and i hate doing this as i feel i can't go at my own pace/correct the bits i feel need correcting. She got up on only one of her recalls so an improvement from last week but she wasn't overly straight on her presents. On her second retrieve she did a really wonderful present and the whole thing was i think one of the best i have seen her do! Now the most exciting part of our night was doing the scent (something she has never done before!) - I didn't even think she would pick a cloth up so while everyone else was having a go I encouraged her that this was the right thing to do. There were 4 tiles laid out and the cloth was between the third and fourth. Now I was going to take her off lead but go down with her but thought i would see what happened first so I just told her to find it and off she trotted straight to the cloth picked it up and brought it straight back!!! She did then drop it at my feet and refuse to pick it up again or sit but hey I was impressed enough that it didn't matter!!! It has also given me the bug to start training her to do it - I shall be cutting up an old sheet at the weekend!!!
At the flyball demo on Sunday Jem ended up having to run because asher couldn't run (long story and for which I am very sorry!!!), so Nat ran elliot (who was as good as gold!!) and I got jem - she only ran across once but then I always made sure she went slightly before the other team (no it wasn't cheating!!) so as to try and make sure she was ahead and she definately seemed better towards the end so i was quite pleased with her (we were however in the blue lane so her good side but hey ho :) )
As for agility training - Elliot has done four weaves tonight for the first time and Jem has got the hang of stop so all in all its prooving to be a good week so far!!!
Saturday, 17 October 2009
A-sit agility
We had our first lesson today at A-sit with Lesley (www.a-sit.co.uk - her blog is in the list to the right), heres how it went:
Jemma:
We started with a course (grade 4/5!!) just so Lesley could see how we were doing overall - I was pleased with how jem did, there were only a few little bits that went wrong but for saying we are only grade one i was really happy with her. We then worked on those little bits and then did the whole thing again, much better :D We then chatted about the way forward with contacts with both dogs. As Jem never seems to have really cottoned on to the nose touch thing we are going back to the beginning with her and teaching her "stop" ie 2o2o - this is the method she was first taught and is basically what i get her to do in competition, she is just really confused so the plan is to go back to the beginning and just retrain the 2o2o so she fully understands it and to save confusion have changed the command from touch to stop!! My homework is to find a plank from somewhere (I have no stairs) so I can work on it :)
Elliot:
I have decided to the same thing with his contacts as with Jemmas as he has really lost it with the target and I feel he is the sort of dog that will always loose it when the target isn't there - we shall see how it goes, although he did throw himself to the bottom of the a-frame after only 2 repitions!! We did a little bit of work on his weaves - this is my main homework with him - we just tried him with them straight to see what happened - it was very interesting, he understood he was supposed to go side to side but he didnt "see" the poles and so kept going in and out of random ones. We then took him down to four poles and after only a few goes he was definately getting there - I just need to dig my poles out of the shed and do them three times a day for just five minutes - hmm, lets see if i can manage that this time (I have been told to do this on numerous occasions lol!!) We also tested his wait to see if it is the word go or my body movement he responds to - it seems to be the word luckily!!
I just need to actually watch my bridging the gap dvd and do some of the work on there!!
We have a flyball demo tomorrow, I have never done one before so it should be interesting, although it is only Elliot that gets a go - Jem is still too naughty!!
Jemma:
We started with a course (grade 4/5!!) just so Lesley could see how we were doing overall - I was pleased with how jem did, there were only a few little bits that went wrong but for saying we are only grade one i was really happy with her. We then worked on those little bits and then did the whole thing again, much better :D We then chatted about the way forward with contacts with both dogs. As Jem never seems to have really cottoned on to the nose touch thing we are going back to the beginning with her and teaching her "stop" ie 2o2o - this is the method she was first taught and is basically what i get her to do in competition, she is just really confused so the plan is to go back to the beginning and just retrain the 2o2o so she fully understands it and to save confusion have changed the command from touch to stop!! My homework is to find a plank from somewhere (I have no stairs) so I can work on it :)
Elliot:
I have decided to the same thing with his contacts as with Jemmas as he has really lost it with the target and I feel he is the sort of dog that will always loose it when the target isn't there - we shall see how it goes, although he did throw himself to the bottom of the a-frame after only 2 repitions!! We did a little bit of work on his weaves - this is my main homework with him - we just tried him with them straight to see what happened - it was very interesting, he understood he was supposed to go side to side but he didnt "see" the poles and so kept going in and out of random ones. We then took him down to four poles and after only a few goes he was definately getting there - I just need to dig my poles out of the shed and do them three times a day for just five minutes - hmm, lets see if i can manage that this time (I have been told to do this on numerous occasions lol!!) We also tested his wait to see if it is the word go or my body movement he responds to - it seems to be the word luckily!!
I just need to actually watch my bridging the gap dvd and do some of the work on there!!
We have a flyball demo tomorrow, I have never done one before so it should be interesting, although it is only Elliot that gets a go - Jem is still too naughty!!
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Woodspring Obedience
Well last night was our first night at our new obedience club (we have moved house) and I was prepared for the worst - Elliot had lots of new dogs to try and play with and Jemma can get stressed in new environments quite easily, well here is how it went:
Elliot:
We started with stays and i kept him on lead - he was gd in the sit but tried wondering a few times in the down. his heelwork was really really good for him - he only got really distracted once and did some really nice turns. His retrieve and recall were good but his presents are always wonkey to start but then he always corrects himself - just need to get the nice sit first time!!! i was really chuffed with him, he did really well for saying i havn't done any since may - maybe it was the sausages!!
Jemma:
well what can i say, she was a bit of a star - i think it was the combination of sausage and the fact i was actually doing something with her bless her - her heelwork was amazing - really tight turns, kept with me and in a really nice position all the time - even in the heel free - there wasn't even a hint of worried jemma!! she did her sit stay as well although i told her she was a good girl through out and oddly enough she looked happier when i was walking round the room than when i was just stood opposite her - there is obviously something about this that worries her. The only bit she did that was typical Jemma was getting up when i left her for the recall both times - tinker!!
So all in all I was extremely pleased with both of them, lets hope they are as good next week!!
Elliot:
We started with stays and i kept him on lead - he was gd in the sit but tried wondering a few times in the down. his heelwork was really really good for him - he only got really distracted once and did some really nice turns. His retrieve and recall were good but his presents are always wonkey to start but then he always corrects himself - just need to get the nice sit first time!!! i was really chuffed with him, he did really well for saying i havn't done any since may - maybe it was the sausages!!
Jemma:
well what can i say, she was a bit of a star - i think it was the combination of sausage and the fact i was actually doing something with her bless her - her heelwork was amazing - really tight turns, kept with me and in a really nice position all the time - even in the heel free - there wasn't even a hint of worried jemma!! she did her sit stay as well although i told her she was a good girl through out and oddly enough she looked happier when i was walking round the room than when i was just stood opposite her - there is obviously something about this that worries her. The only bit she did that was typical Jemma was getting up when i left her for the recall both times - tinker!!
So all in all I was extremely pleased with both of them, lets hope they are as good next week!!
Saturday, 10 October 2009
Very belated Becketts Farm write up!!
I dont currently have a fully working laptop or the internet at home, hence the week late update!!
This was my guys first flyball competition since the starters comp in may and finishing training about a week after that!!
Well it was Elliots first open, after having only done the one starters and wow, what a clever little man, he didn't put a foot wrong all day. He was a joy to run - no silliness on the line, just stood leaning into his harness ready to go but no jumping around or barking. At one point he turned of the box very wide but still made the choice to come back down over the jumps :) His box was really inconsistant which i think is only to be expected seeing as it was so long since he had done any training!! He also wasn't as fast as I thought he would be, only doing about 4.7-4.8 (the same as jem!!!!) but Nat reckoned it was just because he needs to build his confidence and that to start with he wasn't accelerating till he was past our line of dogs but then towards the end of the day was doing it earlier and earlier - it was also his first time going from 40 foot!!!
As both dogs were in the same team it involved Nat running Elliot for me when I was running jem but then when Jem was out I ran Elliot - it got extremely confusing but Elliot didn't seem to mind and ran just as well for us both bless him!!
Well Jem was only supposed to be doing warm ups and perhaps the odd run, however jive sadly injured herself on the last leg of the first race!! So this meant Jem and Fraggle had to run!!! Well in the blue lane Jem was good, she was always looking at the other lane and quite often just sort of stumbled up to the box and got the ball - twice she came off the box and decided to chase the other lane, but she only went to the middle between the two lanes and then made the choice to come back over our jumps, she did miss out the first jump after the box out tho but hey this was a big improvement from before!!! In the red lane though she did a beautiful full run in the warm up and the other lane were racing at the same time, however once we raced she just went over one jump then chased the other lane - when she got back to me I took her straight make to the car - she sulked all the way back but we have got to try something, there is no point letting her do it again as if the other lane aren't racing she does it fine. When we were in the red lane Fraggle took over so it was all ok :) and then when we went back in the blue lane was when she did one of her half way to the other lane runs.
Overall I was really pleased with her because there was noway i expected her to end up doing that much racing and she was a lot better than before. It also gives us an idea of what we need to work on in training - hopefully it will only take a few more trips to the car to make her realise she doesn't get away with being naughty!!
Nats blog will give a more detailed account of the whole weekend - http://natsdogs.blogspot.com/ - :)
This was my guys first flyball competition since the starters comp in may and finishing training about a week after that!!
Well it was Elliots first open, after having only done the one starters and wow, what a clever little man, he didn't put a foot wrong all day. He was a joy to run - no silliness on the line, just stood leaning into his harness ready to go but no jumping around or barking. At one point he turned of the box very wide but still made the choice to come back down over the jumps :) His box was really inconsistant which i think is only to be expected seeing as it was so long since he had done any training!! He also wasn't as fast as I thought he would be, only doing about 4.7-4.8 (the same as jem!!!!) but Nat reckoned it was just because he needs to build his confidence and that to start with he wasn't accelerating till he was past our line of dogs but then towards the end of the day was doing it earlier and earlier - it was also his first time going from 40 foot!!!
As both dogs were in the same team it involved Nat running Elliot for me when I was running jem but then when Jem was out I ran Elliot - it got extremely confusing but Elliot didn't seem to mind and ran just as well for us both bless him!!
Well Jem was only supposed to be doing warm ups and perhaps the odd run, however jive sadly injured herself on the last leg of the first race!! So this meant Jem and Fraggle had to run!!! Well in the blue lane Jem was good, she was always looking at the other lane and quite often just sort of stumbled up to the box and got the ball - twice she came off the box and decided to chase the other lane, but she only went to the middle between the two lanes and then made the choice to come back over our jumps, she did miss out the first jump after the box out tho but hey this was a big improvement from before!!! In the red lane though she did a beautiful full run in the warm up and the other lane were racing at the same time, however once we raced she just went over one jump then chased the other lane - when she got back to me I took her straight make to the car - she sulked all the way back but we have got to try something, there is no point letting her do it again as if the other lane aren't racing she does it fine. When we were in the red lane Fraggle took over so it was all ok :) and then when we went back in the blue lane was when she did one of her half way to the other lane runs.
Overall I was really pleased with her because there was noway i expected her to end up doing that much racing and she was a lot better than before. It also gives us an idea of what we need to work on in training - hopefully it will only take a few more trips to the car to make her realise she doesn't get away with being naughty!!
Nats blog will give a more detailed account of the whole weekend - http://natsdogs.blogspot.com/ - :)
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Wiccaweys
Time Gamblers:
Jemma:
To give her enough of a run up I had to set her up right at the edge of the ring but this meant she had a few wires to go over, of course as these jumps are kennel club height they are slighlty higher than she is used to - I don't know which of these was the cause but she knocked the first pole! I can't really remember what happened after that but I know it didn't go quite to plan, although from what i can remember she did good contacts (cant remember about the weaves though!!)!!
Elliot:
Well as there were weaves and contacts in this we didn't really stand much chance - but hey he had fun :)
Jumping:
Jemma:
The weaves were at an awkward angle straight after the tunnel and so she didn't see them and messed about. I think she then missed one of the jumps and I carried on so she got Ed
Elliot:
We missed out the weaves and went to the next but one jump but he did exactly what I asked of him :)
Helter Skelter:
Jemma:
She clunked a pole and then missed the last jump - tinker
Elliot:
YAY!!! Our first CLEAR!! Quite apt I feel that it was at the wiccaweys show. I so wanted him to go clear that I really concentrated on what I was doing instead of running fast so he finished on a time of 20.231 with the winner doing a time of 16.484. So was quite a plodder but hey it was clear - next time I will be brave and run faster. The other thing was that I could tell he enjoyed every single minute of it!!
Agility:
Jemma:
For some reason she didn't turn when I asked her to so she ended up taking the wrong jump - tinker!! She did do her 6 weaves straight off though so that was good :)
Elliot:
Well contacts meant it was all a big game - I did however put him back on the end of the a-frame and he did a very nice two on two off.
Circular knockout:
Jemma:
Again she took the wrong course, I probably could have done with a fake front cross as it was at the point when she needed to turn in from having run all the way round the edge!!
Elliot:
I had to run and get him out the car when they called him in so I was very rushed and so after the first jump he kind of went a little bit in the wrong direction as I wasn't where I wanted to be so not his fault at all. However he did the same thing as Jem at the end - you would have thought I would have learnt from jemma!! However in this I ran a lot quicker than in the helter skelter and he ran faster too :)
Wiccaweys only class:
Elliot again jsut had fun in this class as there were contacts and weaves - bless him!!!
I don't know what was wrong with Jem but she didn't do very well at all. However I was a little bit off colour and didn't feel I worked her properly - I kind of left it all up to her and was just generally not really with it!! My biggest achievement with elliot was that he worked really well at all the jumping parts, working away from me well and even more importantly he stayed with me and in the ring despite them just being roped off and there being a lot of people and dogs watching relaly close to the ring! :)
Jemma:
To give her enough of a run up I had to set her up right at the edge of the ring but this meant she had a few wires to go over, of course as these jumps are kennel club height they are slighlty higher than she is used to - I don't know which of these was the cause but she knocked the first pole! I can't really remember what happened after that but I know it didn't go quite to plan, although from what i can remember she did good contacts (cant remember about the weaves though!!)!!
Elliot:
Well as there were weaves and contacts in this we didn't really stand much chance - but hey he had fun :)
Jumping:
Jemma:
The weaves were at an awkward angle straight after the tunnel and so she didn't see them and messed about. I think she then missed one of the jumps and I carried on so she got Ed
Elliot:
We missed out the weaves and went to the next but one jump but he did exactly what I asked of him :)
Helter Skelter:
Jemma:
She clunked a pole and then missed the last jump - tinker
Elliot:
YAY!!! Our first CLEAR!! Quite apt I feel that it was at the wiccaweys show. I so wanted him to go clear that I really concentrated on what I was doing instead of running fast so he finished on a time of 20.231 with the winner doing a time of 16.484. So was quite a plodder but hey it was clear - next time I will be brave and run faster. The other thing was that I could tell he enjoyed every single minute of it!!
Agility:
Jemma:
For some reason she didn't turn when I asked her to so she ended up taking the wrong jump - tinker!! She did do her 6 weaves straight off though so that was good :)
Elliot:
Well contacts meant it was all a big game - I did however put him back on the end of the a-frame and he did a very nice two on two off.
Circular knockout:
Jemma:
Again she took the wrong course, I probably could have done with a fake front cross as it was at the point when she needed to turn in from having run all the way round the edge!!
Elliot:
I had to run and get him out the car when they called him in so I was very rushed and so after the first jump he kind of went a little bit in the wrong direction as I wasn't where I wanted to be so not his fault at all. However he did the same thing as Jem at the end - you would have thought I would have learnt from jemma!! However in this I ran a lot quicker than in the helter skelter and he ran faster too :)
Wiccaweys only class:
Elliot again jsut had fun in this class as there were contacts and weaves - bless him!!!
I don't know what was wrong with Jem but she didn't do very well at all. However I was a little bit off colour and didn't feel I worked her properly - I kind of left it all up to her and was just generally not really with it!! My biggest achievement with elliot was that he worked really well at all the jumping parts, working away from me well and even more importantly he stayed with me and in the ring despite them just being roped off and there being a lot of people and dogs watching relaly close to the ring! :)
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Last week in notts :(
Well this week was my last two agility lessons in notts :(
Elliot:
Well when he tried weaves again straight, first time he flew threw them all and did them perfectly!! After that he went back to how he was, he keeps missing 3-4, it is very odd because every time he does it wrong this is where he goes wrong!! The plan is to take him back to channel weaves, with them on the tape and jsut really re-inforce these - we shall see how he gets on bless him. We did some flick flack work and he did really well, got it in an instant :) His jumping has also improved, although he started going under jumps again but we got this sorted quickly enough - little tinker!! With his contacts we will be working on some techniques from bridging the gap - once pen has watched it and let me know what i need to do- the basic principle being to proof the sit so that the stay on the end of the contact is proofed (i think!!) !!
Jemma:
I will be doing the same work with her as elliot on her contacts. her weaves are really coming on - she is getting better at her angles, we shall be working more on these!! She is also reading my body language a lot better, especially the middle arm which is good :) My aim is for her to win us out of grade one in the next year so fingers crossed!!
Elliot:
Well when he tried weaves again straight, first time he flew threw them all and did them perfectly!! After that he went back to how he was, he keeps missing 3-4, it is very odd because every time he does it wrong this is where he goes wrong!! The plan is to take him back to channel weaves, with them on the tape and jsut really re-inforce these - we shall see how he gets on bless him. We did some flick flack work and he did really well, got it in an instant :) His jumping has also improved, although he started going under jumps again but we got this sorted quickly enough - little tinker!! With his contacts we will be working on some techniques from bridging the gap - once pen has watched it and let me know what i need to do- the basic principle being to proof the sit so that the stay on the end of the contact is proofed (i think!!) !!
Jemma:
I will be doing the same work with her as elliot on her contacts. her weaves are really coming on - she is getting better at her angles, we shall be working more on these!! She is also reading my body language a lot better, especially the middle arm which is good :) My aim is for her to win us out of grade one in the next year so fingers crossed!!
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Agility Nuts 23/08/09
Jumping:
J: well, she was of on one again, doing her own thing and so I made her sit three quarters of the way round and start again, she listened much better for the end, monkey!!
E: Sadly I missed the end of the large class with elliot as I had to go meet someone. This was quite annoying as there were no weaves or anything he couldn't do in it. I did however run him NFC at medium and he would have been eliminated because in a long stretch between jumps he took one at an angle that he wasn't supposed to because he is always so eager to be doing something and so looked for the nearest jump and took - tinker!! Other than that he ran really nicely and I was very pleased with him :)
Agility:
E: well i took him in the practice ring first and did quite a few a frames with the target and he did them really really nicely, however in the ring he just flew off the a frame so i put him on again and he did the same thing again so I took him out the ring because I dont want him to get away with taking the p*** like that, little terror!!
J: she ran really nicely except she went back to her old self on the aframe and dawdled down!! she still got a third place with a time of 33.00 (the winner was 29.2) :)
Gamblers:
E: He did really well bless him, I just made him do jump tunnel jump tunnel jump tunnel etc and then took the gamble which he did - he only had 4 points less than jem bless him and came 12th :)
J: we did weaves a couple of times - she did them nicely once in them - her angles really need work now as all weekend she didnt come out of 6 once when she was set up almost straight!! :) She ended up coming 9th :)
TYOL Jumping:
J: we got round about one and a half times I think but then she did something that shocked me so much i just stood there aghast for a while - she wondered off to see the people near the edge of the ring!!! what she was doing and why she did it i don't know - something else she best not do again!!
E: bless him, he really enjoyed himself but sadly knocked the 6th pole (his first of the weekend!!) but I tried to work him to the end but I think he was a bit confused as I didn't really know where i was sending him bless him!!
So all in all I had an amazing weekend and was really pleased with how they both ran!! I bought I picture of them each this time as it was jem a year on and it was elliots first comp - looking at them though I discovered elliot really does have an odd jumping style - he crosses his front paws and tucks his back ones up and crosses them as well - jumping grids are for practicing with both dogs me thinks :)
J: well, she was of on one again, doing her own thing and so I made her sit three quarters of the way round and start again, she listened much better for the end, monkey!!
E: Sadly I missed the end of the large class with elliot as I had to go meet someone. This was quite annoying as there were no weaves or anything he couldn't do in it. I did however run him NFC at medium and he would have been eliminated because in a long stretch between jumps he took one at an angle that he wasn't supposed to because he is always so eager to be doing something and so looked for the nearest jump and took - tinker!! Other than that he ran really nicely and I was very pleased with him :)
Agility:
E: well i took him in the practice ring first and did quite a few a frames with the target and he did them really really nicely, however in the ring he just flew off the a frame so i put him on again and he did the same thing again so I took him out the ring because I dont want him to get away with taking the p*** like that, little terror!!
J: she ran really nicely except she went back to her old self on the aframe and dawdled down!! she still got a third place with a time of 33.00 (the winner was 29.2) :)
Gamblers:
E: He did really well bless him, I just made him do jump tunnel jump tunnel jump tunnel etc and then took the gamble which he did - he only had 4 points less than jem bless him and came 12th :)
J: we did weaves a couple of times - she did them nicely once in them - her angles really need work now as all weekend she didnt come out of 6 once when she was set up almost straight!! :) She ended up coming 9th :)
TYOL Jumping:
J: we got round about one and a half times I think but then she did something that shocked me so much i just stood there aghast for a while - she wondered off to see the people near the edge of the ring!!! what she was doing and why she did it i don't know - something else she best not do again!!
E: bless him, he really enjoyed himself but sadly knocked the 6th pole (his first of the weekend!!) but I tried to work him to the end but I think he was a bit confused as I didn't really know where i was sending him bless him!!
So all in all I had an amazing weekend and was really pleased with how they both ran!! I bought I picture of them each this time as it was jem a year on and it was elliots first comp - looking at them though I discovered elliot really does have an odd jumping style - he crosses his front paws and tucks his back ones up and crosses them as well - jumping grids are for practicing with both dogs me thinks :)
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Agility Nuts 22/08/09 - Elliots first day at his first agility competition!!
Snakes:
J: Well Jem was in a funny mood and got round the course in a funny haphazard way but ended up going clear and got a second - she was 1st until the last dog ran!! Jems time was 22.04 and the winners 19.97 - just shows how much jem was messing about!!
E: Hmm, he was a cheeky monkey and went over the first two jumps and then ran - in the direction I was going, just round all the jumps!! I stopped him when he got silly, sat him and we started again and then he did the next two, had a bit of a run off and then I kind of got him over the end - not a great start but at least he didnt just bomb off and ignore me!!
Agility:
J: Well, I am not really sure what happened here, but we managed to get ourselves eliminated - I think she was just far too overexcited and not really concentrating - and then she didn't stop on her dogwalk so I took her back and made her do the whole thing again and she did it well then :)
E: As predicted the contacts were too much of an excitment and so he just did them and then bombed off :( we did however do the jumps in the middle nicely after i set him up again!! Little tinker!!
Jumping:
J: she was on one again and just bombed off at one point, once I got her back she did something she has never done before - she barked at me!!! This something I don't want to encourage and if she does it again I will take her out - this time I just got hold of her and made her sit before she went again. What a little terror!!
E: WOW is the word to some this up!!! If there had not been weaves in this course he would have been clear with a time in the 34s!! He didn't run off once and did all the jumps, after the other two courses I was really amazed and really pleased but I had made a conscious effort to make sure I ran this properly and made sure I worked every single jump and didn't just leave him or expect him to do any of it, and it worked!!
Power & Speed:
J: lovely lovely contacts!! :) and lovely lovely jumping ----------> 2nd place :) I was much happier with this 2nd as I felt she deserved it more :) Her time was 21.29 and the winner 21.24 so it was really close!!!
E: we were eliminated as I didn't do the weaves with him - he bombed off the end of the a frame, slowed on the end of the seesaw, came of the dog walk but put himself back on sideways!! :S He did the long jump and spread nicely though and then did the jumping nicely, only ran round one jump at the end of the straight bit, before the tunnel (think i said tunnel too early!!) but other than that he was really good :D
Pairs:
J: Took a few wrong jumps because I tried to do a front cross in the middle of a box and she went over on an angle and not the jump straight on - not really sure why!!
E: A little star again, sadly he ran round one of the jumps but I was still really proud of him!!
Its a knockout:
J: Got 4th place out of about 32 :)
E: sadly missed out a jump again - I have just started seeing a trend here bless him!!
Something I have just realised now I have got to the end of this and havn't mentioned Jemmas weaves - this shows me how far she has come, she did them fine in both courses (agility & power/speed) but that I didnt feel the need to comment on this fact is amazing :)
J: Well Jem was in a funny mood and got round the course in a funny haphazard way but ended up going clear and got a second - she was 1st until the last dog ran!! Jems time was 22.04 and the winners 19.97 - just shows how much jem was messing about!!
E: Hmm, he was a cheeky monkey and went over the first two jumps and then ran - in the direction I was going, just round all the jumps!! I stopped him when he got silly, sat him and we started again and then he did the next two, had a bit of a run off and then I kind of got him over the end - not a great start but at least he didnt just bomb off and ignore me!!
Agility:
J: Well, I am not really sure what happened here, but we managed to get ourselves eliminated - I think she was just far too overexcited and not really concentrating - and then she didn't stop on her dogwalk so I took her back and made her do the whole thing again and she did it well then :)
E: As predicted the contacts were too much of an excitment and so he just did them and then bombed off :( we did however do the jumps in the middle nicely after i set him up again!! Little tinker!!
Jumping:
J: she was on one again and just bombed off at one point, once I got her back she did something she has never done before - she barked at me!!! This something I don't want to encourage and if she does it again I will take her out - this time I just got hold of her and made her sit before she went again. What a little terror!!
E: WOW is the word to some this up!!! If there had not been weaves in this course he would have been clear with a time in the 34s!! He didn't run off once and did all the jumps, after the other two courses I was really amazed and really pleased but I had made a conscious effort to make sure I ran this properly and made sure I worked every single jump and didn't just leave him or expect him to do any of it, and it worked!!
Power & Speed:
J: lovely lovely contacts!! :) and lovely lovely jumping ----------> 2nd place :) I was much happier with this 2nd as I felt she deserved it more :) Her time was 21.29 and the winner 21.24 so it was really close!!!
E: we were eliminated as I didn't do the weaves with him - he bombed off the end of the a frame, slowed on the end of the seesaw, came of the dog walk but put himself back on sideways!! :S He did the long jump and spread nicely though and then did the jumping nicely, only ran round one jump at the end of the straight bit, before the tunnel (think i said tunnel too early!!) but other than that he was really good :D
Pairs:
J: Took a few wrong jumps because I tried to do a front cross in the middle of a box and she went over on an angle and not the jump straight on - not really sure why!!
E: A little star again, sadly he ran round one of the jumps but I was still really proud of him!!
Its a knockout:
J: Got 4th place out of about 32 :)
E: sadly missed out a jump again - I have just started seeing a trend here bless him!!
Something I have just realised now I have got to the end of this and havn't mentioned Jemmas weaves - this shows me how far she has come, she did them fine in both courses (agility & power/speed) but that I didnt feel the need to comment on this fact is amazing :)
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Bloody wind!!
Jemma:
We did some jumping lane work with her, which she did ok on, eventually, bless her, despite the wind keep knocking the jumps down!! She also did some nice 12 weave work and then we finished off with some tight course handling work - I am really looking forward to the weekend, we should have fun!!
Elliot:
He did a lot better on his contacts, he didn't bomb off the end of any of them which is definately a step in the right direction :) He also did some work on 6 straight competition weaves, and did them well whilst I did a straight recall, but as soon as I moved slightly to the side he kept missing out the middle two - v odd!! We did some jumping lane work with him too and he was ok, although he kept trying to take the last two jumps as one for some reason and then went under a few of them towards the end - we put the height back down to where he had got them right so he didn't learn to do them wrong!!
For the weekend my plan is as follows:
Call him to me and work him past the weaves
If he misses a contact by just flying off the end I will make him do it again - the whole thing, if he does it again I shall take him out the ring
If he stops on a contact but doesn't wait for me to release him I shall carry on as he does this in training so it is something I know needs more work
I shall start him off at an angle, especially if there is a tunnel/contact in sight as I dont want to risk him going under
If he goes under just one jump I will carry on, if he goes under 3 I will take him out as I dont want him to learn to do it
MOST IMPORTANTLY - TO HAVE FUN AND ENJOY RUNNING MY DOGS!!!!
We did some jumping lane work with her, which she did ok on, eventually, bless her, despite the wind keep knocking the jumps down!! She also did some nice 12 weave work and then we finished off with some tight course handling work - I am really looking forward to the weekend, we should have fun!!
Elliot:
He did a lot better on his contacts, he didn't bomb off the end of any of them which is definately a step in the right direction :) He also did some work on 6 straight competition weaves, and did them well whilst I did a straight recall, but as soon as I moved slightly to the side he kept missing out the middle two - v odd!! We did some jumping lane work with him too and he was ok, although he kept trying to take the last two jumps as one for some reason and then went under a few of them towards the end - we put the height back down to where he had got them right so he didn't learn to do them wrong!!
For the weekend my plan is as follows:
Call him to me and work him past the weaves
If he misses a contact by just flying off the end I will make him do it again - the whole thing, if he does it again I shall take him out the ring
If he stops on a contact but doesn't wait for me to release him I shall carry on as he does this in training so it is something I know needs more work
I shall start him off at an angle, especially if there is a tunnel/contact in sight as I dont want to risk him going under
If he goes under just one jump I will carry on, if he goes under 3 I will take him out as I dont want him to learn to do it
MOST IMPORTANTLY - TO HAVE FUN AND ENJOY RUNNING MY DOGS!!!!
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Champs and Agility
Well, the champs didnt go quite to plan as they didnt have singles/pairs so I only went for the afternoon but the teams did really well, winning division 2!!!
Onto agility training today:
Jemma:
I was very pleased with her today, we worked on doing course, with lots of handling practice for me, we also had twelve weaves out and she did really well, both with entrances and doing them independently :) Her drive on her contacts was much better too, I think this weekend should be good with my little star :)
Elliot:
Hmm, well, I tried an agility course with him and he flew all his contacts, and refused to go in the cloth tunnel, naughty boy!! We soon sorted the cloth tunnel out :) His main issues with his contacts is that I have mostly been behind him whilst training and so as soon as I go to move in front of him he comes off the end of the contact, after some work these were better although not as good as I would like yet. He did all full height jumps though and didnt run under any of them :) And he did the long jump and spread without any problems at all :) His weaves we good, we got him down to straight again, lets see how it goes tomorrow :) I have yet to decide on my plan of action for him at the competition at the weekend - his first one :)
Onto agility training today:
Jemma:
I was very pleased with her today, we worked on doing course, with lots of handling practice for me, we also had twelve weaves out and she did really well, both with entrances and doing them independently :) Her drive on her contacts was much better too, I think this weekend should be good with my little star :)
Elliot:
Hmm, well, I tried an agility course with him and he flew all his contacts, and refused to go in the cloth tunnel, naughty boy!! We soon sorted the cloth tunnel out :) His main issues with his contacts is that I have mostly been behind him whilst training and so as soon as I go to move in front of him he comes off the end of the contact, after some work these were better although not as good as I would like yet. He did all full height jumps though and didnt run under any of them :) And he did the long jump and spread without any problems at all :) His weaves we good, we got him down to straight again, lets see how it goes tomorrow :) I have yet to decide on my plan of action for him at the competition at the weekend - his first one :)
Thursday, 13 August 2009
A better day!!:D
We had a much better day today which was good!!
Jemma:
She got her weaves right every time today apart from one which is a definate improvement. Her contacts were much better too, we worked a lot on her drive, we now need to work on it with me crossing behind because that seems to really slow her down. Not much else to say, apart from that I was just generally really pleased with her!!
Elliot:
I used his tuggy as a reward after his weaves instead of food and whether it was that or something else but he did really well, he was flying through them and we got him back down to just on the tape!! He did quite well on his jumping although started running under a few jumps, pen worked out this was when I ran forward to tray and get in the right place to do a front cross and took my eye off him and dropped my arm slightly. This meant it was always one on a corner as we were doing some close jumping work. What we did on his contacts was good too, although the first time we did the a-frame in a course he literally flew over the top, he must have been over a foot above it and consequently there was no chance he could stop on the bottom (he did however touch the white bit!!)!! So all in all a good day for him too!!
Next thing on the agenda for us is the flyball champs on sun, although neither of them are competing in the teams I am hoping to do singles and pairs with them :)
Jemma:
She got her weaves right every time today apart from one which is a definate improvement. Her contacts were much better too, we worked a lot on her drive, we now need to work on it with me crossing behind because that seems to really slow her down. Not much else to say, apart from that I was just generally really pleased with her!!
Elliot:
I used his tuggy as a reward after his weaves instead of food and whether it was that or something else but he did really well, he was flying through them and we got him back down to just on the tape!! He did quite well on his jumping although started running under a few jumps, pen worked out this was when I ran forward to tray and get in the right place to do a front cross and took my eye off him and dropped my arm slightly. This meant it was always one on a corner as we were doing some close jumping work. What we did on his contacts was good too, although the first time we did the a-frame in a course he literally flew over the top, he must have been over a foot above it and consequently there was no chance he could stop on the bottom (he did however touch the white bit!!)!! So all in all a good day for him too!!
Next thing on the agenda for us is the flyball champs on sun, although neither of them are competing in the teams I am hoping to do singles and pairs with them :)
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Good and not so good week
I started hydrotherapy with both dogs a few weeks ago to help improve their fitness. Well neither of them are particularly impressed - the first session Jemma realised in the supportive harness she didnt actually have to swim to stay afloat so next time she went in the h-harness and now has to swim, although she often tries to chew through the lead that is attaching her!! Well this week she actually managed two minutes in the pool swimming up and down after her ball before she tried to escape and had to be clipped in again, cheeky monkey!! Elliot just doesn't really like it, and starts off splashing a lot but soon settles down and swims quite nicely!! So thats for the good news, now for the not so good part, agility today.
Jemma:
Well in the hour she only managed to do about 3 different rounds and that was it!! It was quite warm so she kept disappearing but also she was really into just wondering off and sniffing and rolling. She then wasn't particularly switched on and so kept going wrong. We also discovered that we need to do more work on her weaves when they are an almost straight entrance but in a long line of jumps as she doesn't check herself very well and ends up missing the two middle weaves!! She did do some very nice contact work though - got to find a positive bless her. Although as Elliot had a rubbish day too maybe it was something I wasn't doing right subconsciously, just hope im not getting ill!!!
Elliot:
I really don't know what has happened to his weaves, we went back out to two inches and he did them brilliantly, all 6 straight off, then tried him back down to 1inch and it all went wrong again!! When he gets it wrong he then looses interest completely. The plan is to back to where it gets it right and get him really confident and then just gradually move them in quarter of an inch at a time!! He did ok on his jumping too but ran under a few and his contacts again were ok. He did do the tyre in a course though. :) So he wasn't bad but nothing was really great.
Hopefully we will have a better day tomorrow!!
Jemma:
Well in the hour she only managed to do about 3 different rounds and that was it!! It was quite warm so she kept disappearing but also she was really into just wondering off and sniffing and rolling. She then wasn't particularly switched on and so kept going wrong. We also discovered that we need to do more work on her weaves when they are an almost straight entrance but in a long line of jumps as she doesn't check herself very well and ends up missing the two middle weaves!! She did do some very nice contact work though - got to find a positive bless her. Although as Elliot had a rubbish day too maybe it was something I wasn't doing right subconsciously, just hope im not getting ill!!!
Elliot:
I really don't know what has happened to his weaves, we went back out to two inches and he did them brilliantly, all 6 straight off, then tried him back down to 1inch and it all went wrong again!! When he gets it wrong he then looses interest completely. The plan is to back to where it gets it right and get him really confident and then just gradually move them in quarter of an inch at a time!! He did ok on his jumping too but ran under a few and his contacts again were ok. He did do the tyre in a course though. :) So he wasn't bad but nothing was really great.
Hopefully we will have a better day tomorrow!!
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Raining again!!!
Jemma:
We need a bit of jumping lane work and she was rubbish bless her!! This is definately something we need to do more work on as she is really rubbish at judging the jumps and just tends to run and then throw herself over them!! We then did some contact work and she was loads better with the target at the bottom and me revving her up, she even did a really a good seesaw!! We then did some work on weaves and she did really well, I am so chuffed that we seem, touch wood, to have cracked them, for now anyway!!
Elliot:
We put him over the jumping lane to start and he did really well, flew over all the jumps at full height. The lead out is still something that needs working on but at the moment I am not that concerned about it as at the competitions I am likely to go with him as I dont want to loose him off the start line!! We did some weave work and he is now on straight weaves!! I just need to work on them over the weekend to get the walk etc because today I just did recall. We then finished on some a-frame and dog walk work, he was better than on monday but if I run he likes to just carry on running off the end of the contact, although if I tell him touch he does tend to stop, so although improved he still needs lots of work!!
We need a bit of jumping lane work and she was rubbish bless her!! This is definately something we need to do more work on as she is really rubbish at judging the jumps and just tends to run and then throw herself over them!! We then did some contact work and she was loads better with the target at the bottom and me revving her up, she even did a really a good seesaw!! We then did some work on weaves and she did really well, I am so chuffed that we seem, touch wood, to have cracked them, for now anyway!!
Elliot:
We put him over the jumping lane to start and he did really well, flew over all the jumps at full height. The lead out is still something that needs working on but at the moment I am not that concerned about it as at the competitions I am likely to go with him as I dont want to loose him off the start line!! We did some weave work and he is now on straight weaves!! I just need to work on them over the weekend to get the walk etc because today I just did recall. We then finished on some a-frame and dog walk work, he was better than on monday but if I run he likes to just carry on running off the end of the contact, although if I tell him touch he does tend to stop, so although improved he still needs lots of work!!
Monday, 3 August 2009
Poorly Pen
Pen was poorly today so paul trained us.
Jemma:
We just did loads of course work today, I seem to be getting a lot better at working out the best way to handle things which is good!! There were lots of contacts in the courses today so I trained them but I wasn't really happy with them. She still isn't really driving to the bottom as much as I would like, we shall have to work on this!!
Elliot:
Another step on the ladder- we had the jumps at full height today and he went over them all, apart from a couple of times at the beginning he went under the one before the dog walk but we seemed to sort this. We put the contacts in courses for him too and he did well, I don't feel the nose touch is really ingrained in him yet and certainly feel this needs a lot more work, as I think this is where I will loose him in a competition. We did a little bit of weave work with them on the tape and he wasn't getting them 100%, i get the feeling he has got bored with doing them as after each go he wanders off and I have to really work to get him back, hmmm, mayb i need to find some more exciting treats!!
Jemma:
We just did loads of course work today, I seem to be getting a lot better at working out the best way to handle things which is good!! There were lots of contacts in the courses today so I trained them but I wasn't really happy with them. She still isn't really driving to the bottom as much as I would like, we shall have to work on this!!
Elliot:
Another step on the ladder- we had the jumps at full height today and he went over them all, apart from a couple of times at the beginning he went under the one before the dog walk but we seemed to sort this. We put the contacts in courses for him too and he did well, I don't feel the nose touch is really ingrained in him yet and certainly feel this needs a lot more work, as I think this is where I will loose him in a competition. We did a little bit of weave work with them on the tape and he wasn't getting them 100%, i get the feeling he has got bored with doing them as after each go he wanders off and I have to really work to get him back, hmmm, mayb i need to find some more exciting treats!!
Thursday, 30 July 2009
A bit less rain!!
Elliot:
We started on his weaves, he went back a little bit, we worked on the weaves on the edge of the tape and it took him a while to get there, we then tryed to push him to straight but realised we pushed him a bit much so we have decided to spend the next week just really working on him with them on the tape and get that really strong before then trying them straight!! It was still a bit wet to try putting his jumps up but he did really well, he only ran under one jump when we first started and then he jumped them all :) at this stage i am happy if he knocks them because at least he is trying to jump them and not going under!! We worked again on distant and close bits and he did really well!! We then finished on a little bit of a-frame work, he is fine if I hang back but as soon as i speed up or am forward of the end he runs off so this is what we need to really work on!!
Jemma:
More course handling work today and we both did very well, I was getting a lot better and working out how to handle courses which is good. Jem is however having huge difficulty with pull throughs so this is something i need to do a lot of work on!! She did really well with her weaves though, although I still feel we need more work on the REALLY difficult entries, although I know we are a long way off these in courses. W e didn't do any contact work with Jem today but hopefully will next week when the weather is better!!
Think thats it for today!!
We started on his weaves, he went back a little bit, we worked on the weaves on the edge of the tape and it took him a while to get there, we then tryed to push him to straight but realised we pushed him a bit much so we have decided to spend the next week just really working on him with them on the tape and get that really strong before then trying them straight!! It was still a bit wet to try putting his jumps up but he did really well, he only ran under one jump when we first started and then he jumped them all :) at this stage i am happy if he knocks them because at least he is trying to jump them and not going under!! We worked again on distant and close bits and he did really well!! We then finished on a little bit of a-frame work, he is fine if I hang back but as soon as i speed up or am forward of the end he runs off so this is what we need to really work on!!
Jemma:
More course handling work today and we both did very well, I was getting a lot better and working out how to handle courses which is good. Jem is however having huge difficulty with pull throughs so this is something i need to do a lot of work on!! She did really well with her weaves though, although I still feel we need more work on the REALLY difficult entries, although I know we are a long way off these in courses. W e didn't do any contact work with Jem today but hopefully will next week when the weather is better!!
Think thats it for today!!
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Rain, rain and more rain!!!
Well today it rained A LOT!! but that didn't stop me, I still went training!!
Jemma:
We spent all lesson just working on different more difficult jumping courses. She did quite well, it was mainly me that struggled with working out the best way to handle the courses and then getting where i wanted to, especially with the ground being slippy (that was my excuse anyway!!). I think this is definately what we both need more work on, especially me, I want to get the handling techniques etc really sorted in my head ready for when I go back to bristol so i dont end up forgetting it and confusing both me and my dogs!!!
Elliot:
My little boy is really improving and enjoying himself, its great to see. I can't believe what he did today; 6 weaves ......................... in a straight line!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it, I am so chuffed!! Tomorrow we are going to try him on the competition uprights!! We also did jump work, we did both long distance work and close work and he is getting really good, I can work quite a distance from him, the turns are the bits that need more work. Tomorrow we are going to try to put a few jumps at full height and just see what happens!!
I shall update tomorrow on how everything goes!!
Jemma:
We spent all lesson just working on different more difficult jumping courses. She did quite well, it was mainly me that struggled with working out the best way to handle the courses and then getting where i wanted to, especially with the ground being slippy (that was my excuse anyway!!). I think this is definately what we both need more work on, especially me, I want to get the handling techniques etc really sorted in my head ready for when I go back to bristol so i dont end up forgetting it and confusing both me and my dogs!!!
Elliot:
My little boy is really improving and enjoying himself, its great to see. I can't believe what he did today; 6 weaves ......................... in a straight line!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it, I am so chuffed!! Tomorrow we are going to try him on the competition uprights!! We also did jump work, we did both long distance work and close work and he is getting really good, I can work quite a distance from him, the turns are the bits that need more work. Tomorrow we are going to try to put a few jumps at full height and just see what happens!!
I shall update tomorrow on how everything goes!!
Saturday, 25 July 2009
Before I get in more trouble!!
I didn't realise how long it had been since I last posted and got in trouble for it last night so thought I best actually write something!!
I have had quite a few agility lessons since Lansdown, I just kept forgetting to update, so I will try and give a quick catch up and then remember to update properly after my lessons next week!!
Jemma:
Jem is now doing 12 weaves perfectly 90% of the time and 6 100% of the time once she goes in. We have been working on angled entries and she is getting pretty good at them and also on actually working the weaves in a course as up until now I have always worked them as a separate task. We are also retraining her contacts to try and get her to really drive to the bottom, on both the dog walk and a-frame she dawdles on the way down so we are doing some work clicker training (amazing for Jem I know!!) the nose touch at the bottom. We are also practising more difficult courses in terms of the handling, definately something that needs work as she has suddenly started deciding she knows the best course and not only that but she has started going behind me, something that she has never done before and something that I feel shows a fudamental flaw in the training I have been doing with her as I feel this is something she should know never to do!! I shall be working on this with my own jumps once it stops thundering and the bird scarer in the next field shuts up!!!
Elliot:
He has come on a really long way since I last updated. He is now doing weaves down at 2inches and i can walk on either side and cross behind him and after another session I think he will be ready to go down to 1inch!! He is also now jumping a height in between medium and full and seems to be enjoying it more - the main thing we need to work on with this is the lead out, if I go too far then he runs under the first one, little tinker!! We are also starting to do more sort of courses with his jumping just to try and improve his (and my) understanding for positional cues and body language with regards front crosses etc. He has improved a lot though! As regards contacts, he has learnt to do the seesaw in a week, and he is really driving over the dog walk and a-frame and 80% of the time does the nose touch straight away at the other end!! I can't wait till the 22nd Aug - his first competition - it should be interesting!!
Well thats it for now but I promise I will try and remember to update after each lesson now!!
I have had quite a few agility lessons since Lansdown, I just kept forgetting to update, so I will try and give a quick catch up and then remember to update properly after my lessons next week!!
Jemma:
Jem is now doing 12 weaves perfectly 90% of the time and 6 100% of the time once she goes in. We have been working on angled entries and she is getting pretty good at them and also on actually working the weaves in a course as up until now I have always worked them as a separate task. We are also retraining her contacts to try and get her to really drive to the bottom, on both the dog walk and a-frame she dawdles on the way down so we are doing some work clicker training (amazing for Jem I know!!) the nose touch at the bottom. We are also practising more difficult courses in terms of the handling, definately something that needs work as she has suddenly started deciding she knows the best course and not only that but she has started going behind me, something that she has never done before and something that I feel shows a fudamental flaw in the training I have been doing with her as I feel this is something she should know never to do!! I shall be working on this with my own jumps once it stops thundering and the bird scarer in the next field shuts up!!!
Elliot:
He has come on a really long way since I last updated. He is now doing weaves down at 2inches and i can walk on either side and cross behind him and after another session I think he will be ready to go down to 1inch!! He is also now jumping a height in between medium and full and seems to be enjoying it more - the main thing we need to work on with this is the lead out, if I go too far then he runs under the first one, little tinker!! We are also starting to do more sort of courses with his jumping just to try and improve his (and my) understanding for positional cues and body language with regards front crosses etc. He has improved a lot though! As regards contacts, he has learnt to do the seesaw in a week, and he is really driving over the dog walk and a-frame and 80% of the time does the nose touch straight away at the other end!! I can't wait till the 22nd Aug - his first competition - it should be interesting!!
Well thats it for now but I promise I will try and remember to update after each lesson now!!
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Lansdown Agility comp
Agility
I stupidly left Jem a little bit too close to the first jump so she knocked the first pole :( she got all her contacts though bless her, then for some reason despite her running straight at the weaves when I told her weave she span round to look at me but then when i turned her around again she did all 6 perfect first time :) i then span her round a corner too tight and she knocked another pole but then she finished nicely
Jumping
We didn't have enough time to walk this course but it was a nice up and down course. Jem did TEN weaves first time straight off with no funny business beforehand, it was such a joy to watch :) she sadly then knocked a pole as she came out of the tunnel so finished on 5 faults. I was really pleased with her round :)
My plan now is that I want to really work on Jems jumping as pole knocking seems to be our biggest problem at the moment, although I still want to work on her contacts, especially the a-frame. Jumping grids will be our plan for our next lessons (if of course my trainer agrees!!:P)
I stupidly left Jem a little bit too close to the first jump so she knocked the first pole :( she got all her contacts though bless her, then for some reason despite her running straight at the weaves when I told her weave she span round to look at me but then when i turned her around again she did all 6 perfect first time :) i then span her round a corner too tight and she knocked another pole but then she finished nicely
Jumping
We didn't have enough time to walk this course but it was a nice up and down course. Jem did TEN weaves first time straight off with no funny business beforehand, it was such a joy to watch :) she sadly then knocked a pole as she came out of the tunnel so finished on 5 faults. I was really pleased with her round :)
My plan now is that I want to really work on Jems jumping as pole knocking seems to be our biggest problem at the moment, although I still want to work on her contacts, especially the a-frame. Jumping grids will be our plan for our next lessons (if of course my trainer agrees!!:P)
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Weaves
The weather was hot again today so the dogs did half an hour each, twice, instead of an hour each.
Elliot:
We did some jumping work and realised we really need to work on his forward drive (still!) as I was trying to back cross him after going round a corner and he kept just looking at me and going round the jump and doing all sorts of crazy things bless him, I think he was struggling a bit in the heat though. After his break we did some weaves work - we put him back to 3 inches and planned to work on "the walk" but it took us ages to get there as he kept not doing the weaves right when i was releasing and pen rewarding and then he kept wondering off and getting confused. Eventually we managed to do it with me going from the 5th pole on the right and 3rd on the left. We then did a few minutes of tyre work and he picked it up straight away,
Jemma:
We worked on her angled weave entrances today and on me working the weaves as part of a course and not as a seperate item within the course. Towards the end we were doing really well with Jem getting the entrances and doing all the weaves correctly and me remembering to move when she was in the weaves and not just watch her. I also improved my flowing arm movement and slowly got rid of the flickly flying arm I like(d) to do. I was really pleased with Jem, she really seems to understand the weaves now, we shall see what sunday brings!
Elliot:
We did some jumping work and realised we really need to work on his forward drive (still!) as I was trying to back cross him after going round a corner and he kept just looking at me and going round the jump and doing all sorts of crazy things bless him, I think he was struggling a bit in the heat though. After his break we did some weaves work - we put him back to 3 inches and planned to work on "the walk" but it took us ages to get there as he kept not doing the weaves right when i was releasing and pen rewarding and then he kept wondering off and getting confused. Eventually we managed to do it with me going from the 5th pole on the right and 3rd on the left. We then did a few minutes of tyre work and he picked it up straight away,
Jemma:
We worked on her angled weave entrances today and on me working the weaves as part of a course and not as a seperate item within the course. Towards the end we were doing really well with Jem getting the entrances and doing all the weaves correctly and me remembering to move when she was in the weaves and not just watch her. I also improved my flowing arm movement and slowly got rid of the flickly flying arm I like(d) to do. I was really pleased with Jem, she really seems to understand the weaves now, we shall see what sunday brings!
Monday, 22 June 2009
Todays lesson
It was really hot and muggy today so the dogs got hot and tired quite quickly bless them.
Elliot:
We got him down to 2inches on his weaves as he started just barging the 3inches, we also did more contact work and he is very good on the table/seesaw plank combo and when just doing the down plank of the dog walk but when doing the whole dog walk he seems to forget to touch the target, a a few more good clicker training sessions and hopefully this will improve! We also did some jumping work, and realised that we need a little bit of work on our long straight jumps and then front cross as if I leave it too late to start running he ends up rasing me and then not reading my body language that he needs to turn. We got there in the end though bless him.
Jemma:
We did some work on flick flacks and spreads, two of our problems from the weekends and I think with both it is just practise, the flick flacks mainly on the right-side and the spreads simply because she has only really seen them in competition and never trained them. We then did some weaves and she did brilliantly although she did make us chuckle a lot as after practising them a few times I was then meant to do a course that pulled her off the weaves first time (into a tunnel) and then sent her on to them later on, just to try and build up some speed before them and three times in a row I turned and called to direct her into the tunnel and she just went straight past me, into the weaves and did all six to the end and then looked most confused as to why I was so far behind her and facing the other way!!! Bless! We then decided so as not to loose her new found love of the weaves we would alter the course so I didn't have to pull her off them. We are going to have a weave challenging course out for us on wed apparently and possibly might try her on 12!!
Elliot:
We got him down to 2inches on his weaves as he started just barging the 3inches, we also did more contact work and he is very good on the table/seesaw plank combo and when just doing the down plank of the dog walk but when doing the whole dog walk he seems to forget to touch the target, a a few more good clicker training sessions and hopefully this will improve! We also did some jumping work, and realised that we need a little bit of work on our long straight jumps and then front cross as if I leave it too late to start running he ends up rasing me and then not reading my body language that he needs to turn. We got there in the end though bless him.
Jemma:
We did some work on flick flacks and spreads, two of our problems from the weekends and I think with both it is just practise, the flick flacks mainly on the right-side and the spreads simply because she has only really seen them in competition and never trained them. We then did some weaves and she did brilliantly although she did make us chuckle a lot as after practising them a few times I was then meant to do a course that pulled her off the weaves first time (into a tunnel) and then sent her on to them later on, just to try and build up some speed before them and three times in a row I turned and called to direct her into the tunnel and she just went straight past me, into the weaves and did all six to the end and then looked most confused as to why I was so far behind her and facing the other way!!! Bless! We then decided so as not to loose her new found love of the weaves we would alter the course so I didn't have to pull her off them. We are going to have a weave challenging course out for us on wed apparently and possibly might try her on 12!!
Sunday, 21 June 2009
Agility Nuts 21/06/09 - We did it!!
Jumping:
Well due to a silly mummy Jem was eliminated - she went in to the weaves at full pelt and cracked her shoulder on the last one but did do them all correctly, however I thought she had missed the gap between 3 and 4 so made her do them again and this time she did miss that gap, she got it right again on the third attempt and then worked very nicely but did knock a pole. Next time I will pay more attention to what she is actually doing bless her!!
Take Your Own Line Agility:
A brill round and not only did she go clear but she also came FIRST!!!! Our first one (our highest up till today was a third!) so I was very proud of her bless her, hopefully it is the first of many!! Time - 22.26.
Agility:
Firstly she missed the contact on her A-frame - naughty girl. There was a flick flack in this and she completely ignored my "middle arm" so I set her up two jumps further back and tried again, this time she came in but then went out of completely the wrong jump but we tried to carry on and it didn't work so we decided to head straight to the end but I forgot where that was!! We managed to do the A-frame with a proper contact and then managed to get her over the last jump bless her!
Clockwork Tunnels:
We got half way round very nicely and then went in the wrong tunnel and then despite trying to carry on she kept going in the wrong tunnel and gonig the wrong way bless her but we some how made it across the finishing jump.
Pay on the Day Jumping:
She went clear but there were other fast little dogs so she ended up finishing fourth but rosettes only went to first place.
So 3 eliminations and a first, what a day!!
She is now 22 out of 48 in the league!
Well due to a silly mummy Jem was eliminated - she went in to the weaves at full pelt and cracked her shoulder on the last one but did do them all correctly, however I thought she had missed the gap between 3 and 4 so made her do them again and this time she did miss that gap, she got it right again on the third attempt and then worked very nicely but did knock a pole. Next time I will pay more attention to what she is actually doing bless her!!
Take Your Own Line Agility:
A brill round and not only did she go clear but she also came FIRST!!!! Our first one (our highest up till today was a third!) so I was very proud of her bless her, hopefully it is the first of many!! Time - 22.26.
Agility:
Firstly she missed the contact on her A-frame - naughty girl. There was a flick flack in this and she completely ignored my "middle arm" so I set her up two jumps further back and tried again, this time she came in but then went out of completely the wrong jump but we tried to carry on and it didn't work so we decided to head straight to the end but I forgot where that was!! We managed to do the A-frame with a proper contact and then managed to get her over the last jump bless her!
Clockwork Tunnels:
We got half way round very nicely and then went in the wrong tunnel and then despite trying to carry on she kept going in the wrong tunnel and gonig the wrong way bless her but we some how made it across the finishing jump.
Pay on the Day Jumping:
She went clear but there were other fast little dogs so she ended up finishing fourth but rosettes only went to first place.
So 3 eliminations and a first, what a day!!
She is now 22 out of 48 in the league!
Saturday, 20 June 2009
Agility Nuts 20/06/09 - 5 Fault Day!!
Jumping:
For some reason Jem got over excited and didn't see one of the jumps and so did a funny little twiddly bit getting us 5 faults, she finished 13th - 23.41s (w=20.60)
Tunnel Torment Agility:
Brill round but again she got over excited and did a twiddly bit (tis v odd as I am not aware she has done this before!) again getting us 5 faults - time was she was exactly 3 seconds faster than the winner and finished on 5th - 27.75!!
Helter Skelter:
The first and only course of the day with weaves in! They were second from the end and she did all 6 perfect first time sadly she then knocked the higher pole on the spread the last obstacle so another 5 faults - I thought she would do this as we havn't really trained spreads so definitely something we need to work on bless her. Pen was judging this one and gave us a judges special because it was the first time that in competition when I told Jemma weaves she actually looked straight at the weaves and was focused on them and doing them right bless her - hopefully we will get more weave practise tomorrow - that is something I never thought I would say!!! She finished 13th - 29.54 (w=27.98)
Agilty:
She did very nicely in this one but knocked the second to last pole so yup you guessed it giving us another 5 faults. She did this (and pos knocked the spread) because I knew we were going clear and so went go go go to try and speed her up that bit and i think that by doing this she did up the speed but kind of forgot what she was doing and so didn't pick her feet up enough bless her. She finished 12th but again in this course she would have been first on her time - 23.25, 1.06s faster than winner.
In pairs we paired up with a lady we didn't know and she went first and went clear but then forgot to take the baton, jem went clear until the last jump which she ran round, I think because I assumed she would take it and didn't work her properly right to the end so yet again we had 5 faults!!!
Its a knockout she went out in the first round bless her.
For some reason Jem got over excited and didn't see one of the jumps and so did a funny little twiddly bit getting us 5 faults, she finished 13th - 23.41s (w=20.60)
Tunnel Torment Agility:
Brill round but again she got over excited and did a twiddly bit (tis v odd as I am not aware she has done this before!) again getting us 5 faults - time was she was exactly 3 seconds faster than the winner and finished on 5th - 27.75!!
Helter Skelter:
The first and only course of the day with weaves in! They were second from the end and she did all 6 perfect first time sadly she then knocked the higher pole on the spread the last obstacle so another 5 faults - I thought she would do this as we havn't really trained spreads so definitely something we need to work on bless her. Pen was judging this one and gave us a judges special because it was the first time that in competition when I told Jemma weaves she actually looked straight at the weaves and was focused on them and doing them right bless her - hopefully we will get more weave practise tomorrow - that is something I never thought I would say!!! She finished 13th - 29.54 (w=27.98)
Agilty:
She did very nicely in this one but knocked the second to last pole so yup you guessed it giving us another 5 faults. She did this (and pos knocked the spread) because I knew we were going clear and so went go go go to try and speed her up that bit and i think that by doing this she did up the speed but kind of forgot what she was doing and so didn't pick her feet up enough bless her. She finished 12th but again in this course she would have been first on her time - 23.25, 1.06s faster than winner.
In pairs we paired up with a lady we didn't know and she went first and went clear but then forgot to take the baton, jem went clear until the last jump which she ran round, I think because I assumed she would take it and didn't work her properly right to the end so yet again we had 5 faults!!!
Its a knockout she went out in the first round bless her.
Thursday, 18 June 2009
Another really good one :)
Elliot:
Lots of contact work for my little man - we started with the table with the see-saw plank leaning up against it, to build up his drive and target work. He really improved on this and was doing really well and we manged to greatly reduce the number of times he played "tiddly winks" with the disc, little toad. We then went on to the dog walk and back trained this until we did a couple of full dog walks with me geeing him up before hand and he had real drive to the target at the end and was actually touching it and not just running on. I shall do some work on this at the competition at the weekend in the practise ring to try and keep his focus. We also did a little bit of seesaw but he kept jumping of the side at the bottom so we shall work on this more next week. His weaves - wow!! - we did three lots of four inches (me releasing and pen rewarding) and then put them down to three inches and did the same thing and he got it right first time little smarty pants. We then did some with me recalling him and he was good until we did it with me on the left from the fifth weave. We shall be working more on his three inch weaves next week. We finisehd on some back cross work with four jumps and eventually we got there bless him, part of the problem was me trying to get to where i thought was the right position but because he is a speedy little demon I was turning WAY to late so he was running round the jump, once I sorted myself out he did very well. I have a feeling I will need my running shoes on when we get to competition!!!
Jemma:
More weave work for my little girl and she did super duper bless her. The only times she got it wrong was when she offered the weaves when I wanted her to do something else bless her. We did the weaves with a couple of jumps before hand and then put them in a course (twice!!). I am really excited about the competition at the weekend and just hope that I can remmeber exactly what I did today and do the same thing in the hope of enabling jem to get it right bless her. We also did some flick flack work which she was really good at when doing them on my left but not so good when doing them on my right, I really need to work on her focus on the right as for some reason it is REALLY bad comapred to on the left!! Think that was it for Jem as we did lots on the weaves and she got really tired bless her.
Lots of contact work for my little man - we started with the table with the see-saw plank leaning up against it, to build up his drive and target work. He really improved on this and was doing really well and we manged to greatly reduce the number of times he played "tiddly winks" with the disc, little toad. We then went on to the dog walk and back trained this until we did a couple of full dog walks with me geeing him up before hand and he had real drive to the target at the end and was actually touching it and not just running on. I shall do some work on this at the competition at the weekend in the practise ring to try and keep his focus. We also did a little bit of seesaw but he kept jumping of the side at the bottom so we shall work on this more next week. His weaves - wow!! - we did three lots of four inches (me releasing and pen rewarding) and then put them down to three inches and did the same thing and he got it right first time little smarty pants. We then did some with me recalling him and he was good until we did it with me on the left from the fifth weave. We shall be working more on his three inch weaves next week. We finisehd on some back cross work with four jumps and eventually we got there bless him, part of the problem was me trying to get to where i thought was the right position but because he is a speedy little demon I was turning WAY to late so he was running round the jump, once I sorted myself out he did very well. I have a feeling I will need my running shoes on when we get to competition!!!
Jemma:
More weave work for my little girl and she did super duper bless her. The only times she got it wrong was when she offered the weaves when I wanted her to do something else bless her. We did the weaves with a couple of jumps before hand and then put them in a course (twice!!). I am really excited about the competition at the weekend and just hope that I can remmeber exactly what I did today and do the same thing in the hope of enabling jem to get it right bless her. We also did some flick flack work which she was really good at when doing them on my left but not so good when doing them on my right, I really need to work on her focus on the right as for some reason it is REALLY bad comapred to on the left!! Think that was it for Jem as we did lots on the weaves and she got really tired bless her.
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Clever Jembe
Agility today:
Elliot
We did lots of handling work (using front crosses) - I need more confidence in him/we need to work on him doing turns with me at a distance so that I can move and get in the right positions for front cross. I also need to do more change of arm work just to really ingrain it in him. I also need to learn to MOVE - I like to stand and "admire my handiwork" as pen put it - ie when he has gone into the tunnel I stand and wait for him to appear out the other end before moving, i did improve on this though towards the end!! I also need to work on the jumps in a step shape with him working it as a straight line. We then did some weaves, starting on 4inches and after spending five minutes of him keep getting it wrong, once he got it right the once he got it right everytime bar i think once out of 20ish. We then moved them into 3inches and he got very confused and it took us lots of work, going back to 3 weaves and then four but then we couldn't get him to do six and he was just getting stressed and confused so we went back to 4inches and he did 6 of them right three times straight off!! Funny little dog. Tomorrow it will be contact work, backcrosses and weaves.
Jemma:
Well what can I say, what a little star. It was weaves we worked on today and wow, she got them wrong only twice out of over 30 I would of thought. She was brill, we went straight for doing 6, me recalling her, then recall over my shoulder from 5,4,3 then 2 then walking with her then me jogging then running with her. We then did bent tunnel, weaves and she was brilliant - once her excitement levels built up we found her problem, she got the entrance and exit every time but kept loosing her footing and missing the gap between 3 & 4. We then put the weaves as obstacle 15 in a course (after the tunnel), and the first time she lost her footing, the second time of doing the course however she did them perfectly (i hung back slightly) and then completed the course nicely too. We then put them after the cloth tunnel, as we hadn't done cloth tunnel weaves before we started doing just these two. To start she kept coming out of the tunnel and doing the jump she had in the course before, i then recalled her through the weaves from the tunnel exit - brill. I then tried recalling her through the tunnel and weaves - haha, bless her, she kept running round the tunnel and then doing the weaves perfectly, after she had done this about 5 times we took out the jump that was causing her the problem and I ran with her doing cloth tunnel, weaves and called her to me as she came out the tunnel and then sent her into weaves, just to straighten her up. This worked well so we then went on to do the course. She did the weaves really well but I did the same as with elliot and kept "admiring my handiwork" but once I stopped doing this we got round this course brilliantly. I was very proud of her today, I just hope she continues to go in this direction with her weaves :)
Elliot
We did lots of handling work (using front crosses) - I need more confidence in him/we need to work on him doing turns with me at a distance so that I can move and get in the right positions for front cross. I also need to do more change of arm work just to really ingrain it in him. I also need to learn to MOVE - I like to stand and "admire my handiwork" as pen put it - ie when he has gone into the tunnel I stand and wait for him to appear out the other end before moving, i did improve on this though towards the end!! I also need to work on the jumps in a step shape with him working it as a straight line. We then did some weaves, starting on 4inches and after spending five minutes of him keep getting it wrong, once he got it right the once he got it right everytime bar i think once out of 20ish. We then moved them into 3inches and he got very confused and it took us lots of work, going back to 3 weaves and then four but then we couldn't get him to do six and he was just getting stressed and confused so we went back to 4inches and he did 6 of them right three times straight off!! Funny little dog. Tomorrow it will be contact work, backcrosses and weaves.
Jemma:
Well what can I say, what a little star. It was weaves we worked on today and wow, she got them wrong only twice out of over 30 I would of thought. She was brill, we went straight for doing 6, me recalling her, then recall over my shoulder from 5,4,3 then 2 then walking with her then me jogging then running with her. We then did bent tunnel, weaves and she was brilliant - once her excitement levels built up we found her problem, she got the entrance and exit every time but kept loosing her footing and missing the gap between 3 & 4. We then put the weaves as obstacle 15 in a course (after the tunnel), and the first time she lost her footing, the second time of doing the course however she did them perfectly (i hung back slightly) and then completed the course nicely too. We then put them after the cloth tunnel, as we hadn't done cloth tunnel weaves before we started doing just these two. To start she kept coming out of the tunnel and doing the jump she had in the course before, i then recalled her through the weaves from the tunnel exit - brill. I then tried recalling her through the tunnel and weaves - haha, bless her, she kept running round the tunnel and then doing the weaves perfectly, after she had done this about 5 times we took out the jump that was causing her the problem and I ran with her doing cloth tunnel, weaves and called her to me as she came out the tunnel and then sent her into weaves, just to straighten her up. This worked well so we then went on to do the course. She did the weaves really well but I did the same as with elliot and kept "admiring my handiwork" but once I stopped doing this we got round this course brilliantly. I was very proud of her today, I just hope she continues to go in this direction with her weaves :)
Monday, 15 June 2009
Its been a while
I have had my uni exams the past month so the dogs training has sadly taken a bit of a back seat but now they are over the training is back on!:)
We have been home just over a week now and have had a couple of agility lessons. Jemma had an amazing lesson doing weaves, we started on four and then did four space four and then decided to do six. She only got it wrong twice i thing in the whole training session doing them!! I have also done some handling work with her and she did well with that too, it was mainly me that needed to remember how to handle rather than her how to follow my body language!!
Elliot also did really well and remembered everything. The value work I did with the one jump has really helped him, he now takes jumps of his own free will, something he never did before, however this hasn't translated as much as I had hoped so I think now we need to do lots of work on building my distance from the jump sideways to help us. His contacts have sadly gone backwards I feel so we need to do some more work on this. His weaves are also greatly improving, he is down to 4 inches now and next time we are going to take him down to 3 inches and put a jump in front I think. Tonight I took him to a group lesson as he is VERY friendly towards people and dogs at the moment I having only ever trained him in private lessons I worry that when I get him to a competition I will loose him as he will find the atmosphere more exciting than working. It turned out that when doing jumps he wasn't bothered at all about the other dogs, however when doing contacts he couldn't concentrate at all and just kept watching what else was going on. I think in a competition our problem will come if I go wrong in a course or loose him because then he will loose his focus and notice the other dogs/people and i can see him doing a runner. At least we now have a better idea of how to go forward with his training.
Well I shall leave it at that for now and update after every lesson I have now I have more time!!
We have been home just over a week now and have had a couple of agility lessons. Jemma had an amazing lesson doing weaves, we started on four and then did four space four and then decided to do six. She only got it wrong twice i thing in the whole training session doing them!! I have also done some handling work with her and she did well with that too, it was mainly me that needed to remember how to handle rather than her how to follow my body language!!
Elliot also did really well and remembered everything. The value work I did with the one jump has really helped him, he now takes jumps of his own free will, something he never did before, however this hasn't translated as much as I had hoped so I think now we need to do lots of work on building my distance from the jump sideways to help us. His contacts have sadly gone backwards I feel so we need to do some more work on this. His weaves are also greatly improving, he is down to 4 inches now and next time we are going to take him down to 3 inches and put a jump in front I think. Tonight I took him to a group lesson as he is VERY friendly towards people and dogs at the moment I having only ever trained him in private lessons I worry that when I get him to a competition I will loose him as he will find the atmosphere more exciting than working. It turned out that when doing jumps he wasn't bothered at all about the other dogs, however when doing contacts he couldn't concentrate at all and just kept watching what else was going on. I think in a competition our problem will come if I go wrong in a course or loose him because then he will loose his focus and notice the other dogs/people and i can see him doing a runner. At least we now have a better idea of how to go forward with his training.
Well I shall leave it at that for now and update after every lesson I have now I have more time!!
Saturday, 9 May 2009
South Cotswold Obedience comp
Jemma:
I had her ball in my pocket for the novice and gave it to her after the first bit of heelwork and then not until the end. She worked very nicely, I was very happy with her. In the stays she lay down after 49 & 47 seconds, a huge improvement on the 12s from the last couple of times!! This time I really geed her up whilst I was waiting, saying ready ready ready and want your bally and then as everyone gave the last command told her she was a good girl instead of saying sit again. This is obviously the way forward, we just need to work on those extra few seconds!! In the beginners i wound her up with her ball first and then put it in on the table. I felt she worked really well, there were a few wide turns and she sat really crooked on the retrieve present. But apart from that I was really happy with her, she lost 10 over all (3 on the stay) and was in a run off for fifth but was then pushed out of the rossettes, nevermind, there is always next weekend!! :)
Elliot:
I trained his stays, just outside the ring, he was very distracted and kept sniffing the floor and just getting up to wander off, good job he was on his lead :) I also trained his heelwork, just doing the on lead part and then a bit more on lead. I discovered yesterday that I have inadvertently taugth him to stare at the sky and not at me, hence the fact he wanders off, even if I have his ball he stares at the sky and not at the ball. At least this gives us something positive to work on, rather than just his concentration :)
Looks like I am doing to have a busy week!!
I had her ball in my pocket for the novice and gave it to her after the first bit of heelwork and then not until the end. She worked very nicely, I was very happy with her. In the stays she lay down after 49 & 47 seconds, a huge improvement on the 12s from the last couple of times!! This time I really geed her up whilst I was waiting, saying ready ready ready and want your bally and then as everyone gave the last command told her she was a good girl instead of saying sit again. This is obviously the way forward, we just need to work on those extra few seconds!! In the beginners i wound her up with her ball first and then put it in on the table. I felt she worked really well, there were a few wide turns and she sat really crooked on the retrieve present. But apart from that I was really happy with her, she lost 10 over all (3 on the stay) and was in a run off for fifth but was then pushed out of the rossettes, nevermind, there is always next weekend!! :)
Elliot:
I trained his stays, just outside the ring, he was very distracted and kept sniffing the floor and just getting up to wander off, good job he was on his lead :) I also trained his heelwork, just doing the on lead part and then a bit more on lead. I discovered yesterday that I have inadvertently taugth him to stare at the sky and not at me, hence the fact he wanders off, even if I have his ball he stares at the sky and not at the ball. At least this gives us something positive to work on, rather than just his concentration :)
Looks like I am doing to have a busy week!!
Saturday, 2 May 2009
FLYBALL!!!!
Well...
Bristol Babies:
Bonnie, Elliot, Chelsea and Jamie all did really well, all raced brilliantly with no-one having any wobblies. Elliots box was rubbish, he was only putting two feet on!:( Nat went in on a couple of the warm ups and stood at the side to remind him what to do and he did well in these and ok in the first run of the leg but was then rubbish again. This is something that is going to take lots of work but I am not quite sure how I am going to tackle it on my own over the summer, I will have to consult my trainers on this one!! He didn't look at the other lane at all though and came straight back to me. He was however a LOT slower on the return that on the way out, again something I am going to have to get some help with for how to improve it over the summer!! I got the hang of change overs though and was told they were very tight, I did however only get one light, at that was on the last race when we were losing and I knew I had pushed it! Anyway, overall we came 2nd in the division, only losing one of our races, to the division winners, and their time was 20.46s!!
Bristol Bouncers:
Jemma, Lacey, Luna, Fraggle and Keri also did really well. Fraggle was really tired though and so it was REALLY good that Sarah let us borrow keri for the day so he could have some rests. Jemma, well, there were good and bad points as with Elliot. She didn't go for any of our team (only had a little wabbly when Nat came in with Keri and forgotten not to say ready ready ready!! :p ) which is a good improvement for her, I had her to oneside of me and not between my legs so I could run with her and really encourage her forward. We were going from 25feet as well which was a huge improvement from the 5feet we used to go from!! now, when it comes to the other lane, hmmm, well she didn't do what she did last time and run to the netting to bark at the other lane. However she did a LOT of looking at them and consequently a lot of the time ran straight in to the box without looking where she was going (consequently she did rubbish box turns!!), she did then remember what she was doing and came back with the ball. I also had a second ball, something which I only started in training and I am amazed at the difference it has made in her - In one race I forgot the ball in the first leg and lacey did a perfect change over, the next leg I had the ball and lisa did exactly the same release with lacey but was REALLY late so I shall be definately using a second ball all the time in future!! Anyway, overall they won the division, so a smashing little team with a time of 20.10s.
So all in all a good day and thank you to our trainers!! :)
Bristol Babies:
Bonnie, Elliot, Chelsea and Jamie all did really well, all raced brilliantly with no-one having any wobblies. Elliots box was rubbish, he was only putting two feet on!:( Nat went in on a couple of the warm ups and stood at the side to remind him what to do and he did well in these and ok in the first run of the leg but was then rubbish again. This is something that is going to take lots of work but I am not quite sure how I am going to tackle it on my own over the summer, I will have to consult my trainers on this one!! He didn't look at the other lane at all though and came straight back to me. He was however a LOT slower on the return that on the way out, again something I am going to have to get some help with for how to improve it over the summer!! I got the hang of change overs though and was told they were very tight, I did however only get one light, at that was on the last race when we were losing and I knew I had pushed it! Anyway, overall we came 2nd in the division, only losing one of our races, to the division winners, and their time was 20.46s!!
Bristol Bouncers:
Jemma, Lacey, Luna, Fraggle and Keri also did really well. Fraggle was really tired though and so it was REALLY good that Sarah let us borrow keri for the day so he could have some rests. Jemma, well, there were good and bad points as with Elliot. She didn't go for any of our team (only had a little wabbly when Nat came in with Keri and forgotten not to say ready ready ready!! :p ) which is a good improvement for her, I had her to oneside of me and not between my legs so I could run with her and really encourage her forward. We were going from 25feet as well which was a huge improvement from the 5feet we used to go from!! now, when it comes to the other lane, hmmm, well she didn't do what she did last time and run to the netting to bark at the other lane. However she did a LOT of looking at them and consequently a lot of the time ran straight in to the box without looking where she was going (consequently she did rubbish box turns!!), she did then remember what she was doing and came back with the ball. I also had a second ball, something which I only started in training and I am amazed at the difference it has made in her - In one race I forgot the ball in the first leg and lacey did a perfect change over, the next leg I had the ball and lisa did exactly the same release with lacey but was REALLY late so I shall be definately using a second ball all the time in future!! Anyway, overall they won the division, so a smashing little team with a time of 20.10s.
So all in all a good day and thank you to our trainers!! :)
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Nearly there
Today was Elliots last training session before his first competition at Stockbridge next weekend. I can't say he did great, his boxes were all over the place, when he does full runs he doesn't really think about what he is doing and just puts two feet on the box!! I have brought home a jump to get him doing swimmers turns over it without the box again, just to remind him what he needs to do and to try and stop him being lazy!! My main worry with him for the competition next week is that with all the excitement he will completely forget his turn on the box or that he will find the other dogs all highly exciting and run over to the otherside when he has finished.
Jemma did lovely turns on the box and ran ok, she really steams back to me but we are still aving a few issues with her going out. We found she is better if I stand with the other dogs so she can see them, rather than right near the start gate (she tends to run round me to go bark at them if I do this) but on one of her runs she decided to have a go at Luna when I let her go so she got shut in the car for the next two runs and when she came out again Carol stood further to the side with Luna and so she only had Fraggle to run past and he doesn't bark or anything and she did a couple of really nice runs. My main worry with her for the competition next week is releasing her at the right time because it depends on how much she looks at the other dogs as to how long she takes to get to the line so judging when to let her go is going to be tricky!!
Jemma did lovely turns on the box and ran ok, she really steams back to me but we are still aving a few issues with her going out. We found she is better if I stand with the other dogs so she can see them, rather than right near the start gate (she tends to run round me to go bark at them if I do this) but on one of her runs she decided to have a go at Luna when I let her go so she got shut in the car for the next two runs and when she came out again Carol stood further to the side with Luna and so she only had Fraggle to run past and he doesn't bark or anything and she did a couple of really nice runs. My main worry with her for the competition next week is releasing her at the right time because it depends on how much she looks at the other dogs as to how long she takes to get to the line so judging when to let her go is going to be tricky!!
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Bits & Bobs
I have mainly been working on being able to clicker training both dogs!!! Even my little Jem has managed to get over her fear of clickers thanks to a lot of persistence from me and I can even use it now to actually train her!!
I went to the downs today to do some obedience with them. I trained Jem using her ball and instead of looking confused like normal she was super excitable and kept jumping about and not really concentrating, I perservered with her though and got some nice bits out of her. I did a retrieve with her and she was really naughty, she just ran off sniffing and then didn't really want to work but I pulled her through it and I then put the ball in my pocket (rather than in my hand) and did some heelwork with her and she worked really nicely. She really is and odd little dog bless her, it is really hard to judge when I need to "tell her off" and when i need to encourage her more because sometimes one will work and sometimes the other and there seems to be no real correlation as to when it is which of them that will work!! bless her!!
With elliot I literally just stood on the downs and clicked him everytime he chose to look at me and not at the cars/people/bikes and occasionally I got a few steps of nice heelwork out of him but with him at the moment the main issue when outside is getting his attention so that is all i need to work on when outside for now.
I then did a stay with them and put elliot really close to keri (one of my friends dogs) and he did it until i went back and then he got up so i put him back and left them again, this worried jem and although she had done her stay to this point she then lay down!! They both did the down, again though elliot sat up when i returned - something i really need to work on. He did stay down even though two bikes went past though!!!
On thursday I went agility training at Blaise with Nat and we did lots of one jump work with Asher and Jem to get them really understanding change of arm=change direction, and Jem did quite well at this, I was pleased with her. We then did a few bits with 4 jumps and the weaves, Jemma's weaves were okish i guess, i just need to do lots of work now on her doing them with me moving, I think I need to take myself and just have a weave session with her one day, don't know when though!! With elliot I just did jump focus work with him, sending him over the jump from different angles and throwing the tuggy, he loved it although I still think I need to find a better way of rewarding his jumping and building up the value as he still occasionally ran round the wing. Nat helped me do some 6inch channel weaves with him, he was brilliant on the recalls and then I managed to do "the walk" from the second pole from the end (of 6) no worries, he struggled when I pushed it to the 3rd so I jsut went back to the 2nd :)
Thats it for today, a flyball update after training tomorrow!! :)
I went to the downs today to do some obedience with them. I trained Jem using her ball and instead of looking confused like normal she was super excitable and kept jumping about and not really concentrating, I perservered with her though and got some nice bits out of her. I did a retrieve with her and she was really naughty, she just ran off sniffing and then didn't really want to work but I pulled her through it and I then put the ball in my pocket (rather than in my hand) and did some heelwork with her and she worked really nicely. She really is and odd little dog bless her, it is really hard to judge when I need to "tell her off" and when i need to encourage her more because sometimes one will work and sometimes the other and there seems to be no real correlation as to when it is which of them that will work!! bless her!!
With elliot I literally just stood on the downs and clicked him everytime he chose to look at me and not at the cars/people/bikes and occasionally I got a few steps of nice heelwork out of him but with him at the moment the main issue when outside is getting his attention so that is all i need to work on when outside for now.
I then did a stay with them and put elliot really close to keri (one of my friends dogs) and he did it until i went back and then he got up so i put him back and left them again, this worried jem and although she had done her stay to this point she then lay down!! They both did the down, again though elliot sat up when i returned - something i really need to work on. He did stay down even though two bikes went past though!!!
On thursday I went agility training at Blaise with Nat and we did lots of one jump work with Asher and Jem to get them really understanding change of arm=change direction, and Jem did quite well at this, I was pleased with her. We then did a few bits with 4 jumps and the weaves, Jemma's weaves were okish i guess, i just need to do lots of work now on her doing them with me moving, I think I need to take myself and just have a weave session with her one day, don't know when though!! With elliot I just did jump focus work with him, sending him over the jump from different angles and throwing the tuggy, he loved it although I still think I need to find a better way of rewarding his jumping and building up the value as he still occasionally ran round the wing. Nat helped me do some 6inch channel weaves with him, he was brilliant on the recalls and then I managed to do "the walk" from the second pole from the end (of 6) no worries, he struggled when I pushed it to the 3rd so I jsut went back to the 2nd :)
Thats it for today, a flyball update after training tomorrow!! :)
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