My new camera redeemed itself a bit. I shot some video on Sunday of more dogwalk practice and the difference in video quality from my old mini DV is significant.
Practice from 1-23-2011, shot with Flip Mino (8GB, 2 hour, 2nd generation)
Practice from 1-19-2011 (previously posted), shot with Canon mini DV
In order to really see a difference you have to change the setting on the You Tube player from 360p to 1080p HD on the first video. The other video will only go up to 480p. I'm assuming You Tube does this so people with slower internet can still watch stuff. I'll have to try a similar experiment with my Vimeo account.
When I created the Flip movie in Movie Maker I used the HD setting, something I didn't do when I created the handling video because I was scared the file would be too big since it was so much longer. The file size for the first video is 56,850 KB and the length is 1:21 minutes. The second video from the mini DV camera is 17,505 KB and the length is 1:07. The handling video from the other day that was created using what I thought was a lower quality setting is 181,434 KB and 2:33 minutes but it had music and titles and the running contact video didn't, not sure if it matters but I suspect it does.
I'm not sure how well the Flip will work in my yard because of it's limited zoom range. I may have to climb on my roof to set it up. Could lead to some interesting video anyway. And some funny stares from the neighbors. Looks like we'll finally have weather warm enough for me to paint my dogwalk by the end of the week and my hinges should arrive by Friday so I may be in business by this weekend.
As for Sunday's practice we was pretty much 100% for reps with the treat gizmo, even with a jump at the end of the walk then the gizmo and pretty much all misses for reps without the gizmo and me running with a toy. I persisted and got one nice rep. in then quit. At least I know what my problem is, thanks so much to my observant reader for pointing it out.
I'm glad you found your problem. Now to the solution :)
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I feel very lucky that I can train with Silvia, but it isn't a silver bullet for Ruby's running contacts. His performance can be strong for a few sessions and then I change one little thing and he can be just crazy for many, many more sessions.
Of course everyone has to put the work in and face their training demons but it sure does help if you have the watchful eye of an expert to steer you straight ; )
ReplyDeleteNot very many people in my area are training a running dogwalk. There's only one instructor that I know of that's trying it for the first time and she's struggling with it just the same as me. I think the numbers will increase though and hopefully the training ideas (and shoulders to cry on) as well.
Yes, it definitely helps. She points things out to me that I wouldn't notice otherwise.
ReplyDeleteSilvia will start with internet based classes (puppy/tricks and handling) in February and if there will be enough people asking for a running contacts class I think she might be persuaded to offer that in the future as well.