Class 12/13/10

Today it was pretty brisk so we worked some more jumping lines. Annie handled the course well. The first time through I tried a lead out to the tunnel -I found it wasn't necessary and it got a little ugly sending her in. She did the serp well but then flew over the A-frame missing her contact.

The next time through I ran with Annie at the beginning on the left of 1 to the tunnel and then back to the left of jump # 1 going the other direction and the opening was much better.

For handling from 14 to 15 Elizabeth suggested I cross at 14 and then try to cross again from 15 to 16. I was able to do the first cross but the second one I didn't. This can be our homework.

Class 12/06/10

We worked on some jumping exercises and more discrimination. Annie was doing the discrimination well. I needed to make sure I didn't turn my shoulders too soon pulling her to the dogwalk.

Next we did some jumping exercises. In this exercise it worked best to slide from 3 to 6 so I could get a cross in at 6 and not get a funky turn from 6 to 7.

Class 11/29/10

We introduced some discrimination. Annie was pretty good at this. I basically had to yell close and move forward up the dog walk and she'd come with me.

Class 11/22/10

We worked on some more distance tonight. We did some jumps to a hard left turn to tunnel. I learned the value of rotating my shoulders as well as keeping my feet moving.

Class 11/15

Had a good class tonight. We worked some distance exercises

First we did 3 jumps on an arc. Elizabeth showed us how we need to use our body to direct the dog. For example on the arc we want to turn the way we want our dog to go.

Next we did a layering exercise:


The trick to this was not running straight to the dog walk but waiting for the dog to come out of the tunnel to press forward. IF you stand at the dog walk, what does the dog see when it comes out? You standing in front of the dog walk....

Lastly we did a serpentine exercise which Annie did nicely. Elizabeth suggested to handle the serp with the rest of the course in mind ie if you want to end up on the far side, handle on that side, if you want to end up on the starting side..handle it on that side...be aware of where you'll want to end up...

Shows this past weekend...

Annie had a busy weekend being a JR handling dog,as well as competing in rally, obedience and agility.

First day: Open B Obedience: Heeling pattern was good. Got lost in the posts. Lost 15 points. Recall -stalled at about the drop. Retrieve over the jump couldn't have been any more unenthusiastic -hit jump. Broad jump: She did it caveletti style. Stays -A plus!

Rally: Novice-she did well - I had a brain fart and cost her 10 points.

Novice Gamble: The run went exactly as planned, how about that? I had timed it with a stopwatch and she ran it exactly as per my stopwatch. I was pretty pleased!

Second Day: Open B Obedience: A successful broad jump (our best yet in competition). Retrieve over jump -stopped to watch the agility ring before picking up the dumbell and returning. Pretty darned slow. Retrieve on the flat - pretty decent but finished by herself. Heeling figure 8 was first, and she looked spooked by one of the "posts". Got disconnected. HEeling pattern was about the same -she lagged about 10 feet behind and NQ'd. Drop on recall -decent (I messed up and found my hands in the air). Stays -another A plus!

Rally: We moved up to Advanced and she was utterly awesome. One crooked sit (which I fixed and cost us more) ..a 196! Yeah. We can do this!

And a first out of four with Kt in the Jrs novice class.

Class 11/08/10

We did some distance exercises tonight - a simple Tire, jump then left tunnel didn't prove to be so easy. Annie was being goofy about the tire jump running under it and then on the cue tunnel would hang a right to the dog walk. Elizabeth suggested I rotate my body more, and sure enough that got Annie going in the right direction.

Class 10/04/10

Finally we have wonderful weather for agility class! It's actually sweater time. I guess I missed posting about last weeks class. Let's see if I can remember some of it...

We did an exercise tunnel over a jump, hard left to dogwalk, out over a jump and then had to slice left to continue over the jump. The tricky part was cueing the dog early enough to get the last jump. Cue too early and they'd pull off the first jump, too late and they'd miss it.

We also worked on teeter, hard-left then tunnel. I had problems with Annie on that. It seems she wouldn't send on to the tunnel from the teeter, something to practice.

Class Tonight: We started off with a course which Annie ran decently. She sailed over her A-frame and I mean sailed. I'm going to have to train her to run out to a target as when I try to add distance to the A-frame, she flies. I find I have the same issue with the dog walk. On the same course, I redid my dog walk, running with her to the end and she was fine, but if I pulled up, she tended to jump off. We need to do some homework on this.

We then did some jumping exercises. Elizabeth showed us how we need to be able to stand at a jump and have the dog go behind and jump towards us. We should be able to stand in any position around the jump and direct the dog.

We practiced a moving front cross and a moving post turn exercise. I need to remember not to bend over when crossing ( why do I do that anyway??)

Agility class 09/20/10

Wow Annie has been a busy girl, 2 days of obedience and then off to agility class. Surely all this getting her out will get her distraction proofed!

Today we worked on some interesting exercises. First was jumps in a grid:

___ a ____ b _____c


___ d ____ e _____f

First we did f-c-b-f with a front cross b-f. Annie handled this pretty easily after first suprising me by running over the A-frame that really wasn't part of the picture - I think it commanded a superior view from which to look for the border collies...
A second run through went well.

We then went to b-e-d-a then send to tunnel. Annie handled this well.

We then moved on to a challenging exercise. Here's the course:



Order is jump teeter tunnel jump jump - to be run as if you were coming from behind the first jump and then continuing out on beyond it on the exit. One could cross at teeter or try to call left tunnel and layer the teeter. CAll jump on exit of tunnel, do shoulder pull to second jump.

Annie's distractions got the better of her the first time through -she didn't pay much attention to me. We tried again and it was much better. She doesn't understand left tunnel from the teeter so that can be some homework for us.

Venturing into the Obedience Ring again...

Annie earned her CD in Dec 08 and since then has not ventured into the obedience ring. We've been working on her open exercises but never actually entered a class or show n go.

Saturday we ventured to Pets West and entered our first ASCA Open A competition. A friend of ours, Rose O'hara was judging so I felt this would be a good opportunity to get into the ring and not have to worry about a judge not having a sense of humor.

When our turn came, I walked into the ring to start our heeling exercises and Annie looked confused -there was her friend Rose, why wasn't I taking her to visit her friend? Why was I asking her to sit? I asked her to heel and she just sat there rooted to the spot. Confusion pasted across her face. I turned around and asked her to heel again, and she slowly came up to me. I patted on her and told her she was fine and proceeded. She actually warmed up to it and towards the end of the heeling exercise was not doing a half bad job. I petted and loved on her.

Next was drop on recall -I very happy with her performance of this exercise (2 points). Then came the retrieve on the flat. Again she did this fairly well. If I recall correctly she gazed at the audience a little before picking up the dumb bell (4 points). Then the retrieve over the high jump. She sent out nicely and retrieved well, but came back in crooked -sitting to my right, and then did not finish very straigt (6 points). Lastly was the broad jump. She sent out over nicely but then did not come to sit in front of me-gazing away. I called and she finished (8 points).
Sits and down stays: No deductions.

So all in all not a bad first time out considering her nervous Nellie self.

Today we went to Praiseworthy Pups Show N Go. We did Open B so we didn't have to start with the heel. First was the retrieve on the flat. I threw the dumb bell and it kind of got hidden behind a post. Annie sent out but stopped in front of the post and looked confused. I sent her on past and she was happy to find the dumbell on the other side.

Her high jump was lack lustre-my throw really wasn't quite far enough. She took the jump and hit it on the way back and stopped to my right rather than fronting properly. I fixed her and then we redid this element.

The next time was much better.

Broadjump: She jumped well and fronted pretty well.

Heels: Posts were pretty good -lagged a little on the fast portion. The heeling pattern was pretty decent (I had food!).

Stays: Again flawless.

I am hopeful we can work out our kinks and get our CDX completed in the next few months...

Back to Class

Annie and I finally resumed classes with Elizabeth. It still isn't exactly cool it was 90 or so with a heat index of about 95....grrr.

A few things we practiced tonight.

1st Sequence: Tunnel to a bit of a pinwheel (2nd jump was a bit of a send, then front cross to 3rd jump. Annie performed well if not super fast.

We then did the opening part of the course which involved placing dog at quite an angle to 1st jump to set up for 2nd. Front cross after 3 before tunnel. Elizabeth showed us how she teaches her dogs to "line-up" which means focus, placing the dog between her legs. Helps to ensure dog has proper angle to jump. Lead out with a purpose. Cue dog with dog side hand. Teach dog that turning body into jump means front cross coming.

Annie did this the first time well,and then the 2nd time was focusing on dogs in other ring. Temptation was to rush cue for 2nd jump in anticipation of running to front cross. Wait til dog is comitting and go! When a front cross fails and the dog goes past, call the dog back to the cross to complete it.

Homework: Practice front cross at one jump. Place dog on sit, take 2 steps so at jump standard, release, front cross and get a wrap. Try and progressively tighten the turn.

Class 05/24

Annie-worked on a box type jump sequence. I need to practice. In over 2...270 and out over 2. I need to get in and get Annie over 2nd and then slip to the side of the 3rd to call her over the next line...

Diva: Introduced to teeter board. Board with dowel set-up on bricks. Get dog to push down board. Then enter at middle of board and go to end. Encourage crouch.

Introduced to dog walk at 1/2 height. Put on at top of down side board. Run off. Use toy to get dog to run flat. Showed how you can use wings to shape the entry and stop dog from running off edge.

Class 0412

It was a lovely night for a class. What with working so much I was pretty brain dead. We work working on front crosses. Annie was being pretty good except for being distracted on one run through by the dogs who live there. I caught her and didn't let her finish. The next run through she was distracted but worked through with me.

Diva was introduced to contacts via a plank on the ground (we'd already done this at home so it was not "new" to her).

Also did some call to hand. Put dog on stay, stand behind but beside a wing. Call dog to hand. Step behind wing some, put hand out so dog is coming to hand. Teaches dog to go to hand. Progress until you are behind the wing. Then teach dog to wrap around wing to hand.

Directionals: Teach dog left and right with a wing. Stand behind wing, start by luring the dog the direction you want it to go, click 1/2 way around, treat all the way around. Work both sides and use the command, left and right. Once dog begins to offer add difficulty by starting a little further away from the wing so that it becomes a send.

Rear cross on leash....walk with bait in both hands give dog command to turn (I use back) lure with treat, turn yourself, treat with opposite hand. Add speed.

Switch and ?: Teach dog to switch sides behind you.

Also worked on some focus work on leash. Putting dogs in circle. Put dogs on sit stay. Step a stride away. Then one person would cross the circle, and sit-stay their dog in new position. Then another would go to that persons position. Then worked it with downs. Also practiced walking dog around the circle of sitting dogs.

2020 work: If you opt for 2020 contacts do tons of target work where the dog will run to a target and keep its nose to it, until released.

Class 03/29

I had to miss my class because Rod was out of town and I took Kt skating. Kt was able to have class with Diva.

They worked on tunnels, straight and curved.

Jumping Shaping: Teaching dog to jump: Kneel down beside jump. Take some bait and lure your dog over the jump, treat when dog jumps. Then just put your hand down by jump standard (about a foot from bar) and wait for dog to offer the jump -treat when your dog does. Work from both sides of the jump. Slowly raise the bar. Diva was up to 18" in one session offering the behavior very nicely.

Kt also introduced Diva to the table. Be sure to treat on table not when dog jumps off. You want the reward to be for being on the table, not getting off of it.

Class 03/15

Annie: Started off well but then shut down. Messed up start line (went around jump). Elizabeth said I shouldn't correct her. Everything needs to be fun with Annie.

Katie and Diva; Circles, front cross, spin for rear cross, tunnel, focus forward, doggie zen

Class 2 with Elizabeth

Annie and Me: There were just 3 of us in the handling class tonight. Annie was very unfocused everything but me was more interesting. We went back to the jump sequence we worked on the first night. I think I did everything I could do wrong the first run through. We broke it up into pieces and I could see the err in my ways.

How I handled it: 1-2 -I positioned Annie perpendicular to jump one so I had to stand facing jump 2 to get her to turn. Then crossed (but she of course went deep). On to 3-4-5 and Annie was gawking into the distance (there was something in one of the pens, and her focus was not on me). I tried to pull her around between 6 and 7 but that ended up with me blocking th entry of the tunnel.

Following is the course, and the line I should have taken indicated by the notes.

Advanced Handling/Foundation

Tonight Annie and I started an advanced handling class with Elizabeth Armstrong.

First we worked on having the dog jump "into you", in efforts to teach collection. Annie does this pretty well.

Then we did a course that was laid out already and found some issues.

Ideas:V start: When there are 3 jumps in a row and you only want your dog to do 2 -set them on a V start -they will not see the 3rd jump, as they arc around back to you.

Line: Look at quickest vs easiest. In this case there were 2 jumps 180 to each other then a tunnel back to the left of the landing side of jump 1. You could wrap your dog to the left around jump 2 (quickest) vs post turn around jump 2. I tended to want to handle it as a post turn but in reality it was easier to do a wrap.

270: Annie needs work on these -she doesn't want to go deep enough in the pocket to do these well. I need to offer her support through them. Perhaps try a go on so she keeps deep, keep my arm stretched out firmly.

DIVAS Class

Katie and Diva did the foundations.

They worked on restrained recall. Elizabeth held the dog...Katie walked away, and then called her to hand.

Loose leash walking

Touch: Teach them to touch a target.

Boxwork: Feet on the box: Showed us how to shape a behavior. Only work for a few minutes at a time. If the dog is "not getting" it it is OK to encourage (not lure) by putting the dog in a position that will encourage the behavior you're looking for eg in a corner so harder to get away from the box.

Katie and Diva did great - it helped they already had touched on everything.

Obedience Class 2

Tonight Annie seemed a little brighter. She is still not retrieving over jumps like she does at home.

We worked round robin style...practiced one obstacle if they were successful, moved on. Don't keep on hammering at the same thing when they do well. Annie's recalls were awesome tonight as were her stays. Her heeling (with string) was pretty decent too.

Back to Obedience

Annie and I have resumed our obedience class. I'm not sure Annie is too happy about being back at Cathy's-she sulked most of the time we were there. Oh well, she'll get over it.

Tonights exercies: Practised throwing. We learned how to hold and throw the dumbbell (hold it by the ends not the middle).

Recall/Drop: If they're not dropping, go closer, walk toward them.

Annie's retrieves and long jump were less than stellar.
Her stays were OK (she broke when she saw me again).