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 :)
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