Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Yet more dogwalk shenanigans

I signed up for a monthly pass at the training field and my goal is to get out there at least twice a week to once and for all get this dogwalk fixed.  Set-up for today was jump-dogwalk-jump-treat gizmo all in a straight line.

The first 2 reps are two more examples of split legs but still a missed contact.  The second one was very obvious and I marked it but the first one was less so and I rewarded.  The final three reps. were delovely. Why can't the little stinker do that all the time?



It was a relatively warm morning, sunny and in the 40's, so 5 reps was about all I could get before he started getting hot.  Final stats were 3/5 (60%) hits, 4/5 (80%) for me correctly rewarding.  Next time I'll replace the jumps with tunnels.  These are much harder for him, I'm curious to see how it goes.

We also worked on some weave stuff, straight tunnel to a set of 6 weaves then a space then another set of 6 weaves.  He was perfect for a few reps of that, even with me moving with him out of the tunnel.  Next we did a few A-frame/tunnel discriminations with the tunnel being the farther away obstacle.  I worked on sending him from one jump away and he was perfect with the tunnel sends, took the tunnel once instead of the A-frame then got it right and we quit for the day.  With warmer temps. coming I'll have to get out there earlier.  Unfortunately it doesn't open until 8:30 am.

6 comments:

  1. To me it looks like he needed three tries to figure out the striding for this dogwalk, but from that point on he seems confident that he can make this work.

    It's strange how he wants to hit it with one front leg, though. Ruby does that sometimes and it makes me shiver. I tried not rewarding it, but it got him totally confused (what?! I worked so hard for that contact!). Luckily at current height he prefers to hit it with one front paw + one or two rear ones. I hope it stays that way.

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  2. Watching this is interesting - as he begins the downplank, he is drving with his head low and as he nears the bottom, his head comes up, and his tail goes up and he changes his demeanor. Not sure if it means anything, but when I watch dogs like Daisy's Solar, he seems to maintain the same composure all the way even after exiting the DW. Like maybe Strumm is anticipating some rewards or just things change after the DW. His tail does the flip up every time at the end. I dont know what to make of it, just an observation :)

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  3. Your dog really is interesting! He is working SO hard to hit that little yellow area. Almost too hard it seems! On that first one I was certain he was going to hit just based on where his first stride on the down plank landed him.

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  4. Greg, he's hilarious with that enormous tail isn't he? He flies it around all the time in all sorts of circumstances. I'm supposing his head and tail lifting could have been in preparation for the jump after the dogwalk and then the treats after the jump. Could be the jump was a foot or so too close. I do wish he'd stride through the contact like a normal dog. His dogwalk is so nice until you get to the very end. It's not ideal but I don't want to not reward because of this though, I think he'll become way too confused.

    I think hitting that contact is physically very difficult for him given his build, stride and the speed he travels at. He can't seem to figure out to shorten up his stride earlier to make it easier on himself.

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  5. I envy you being able to train outside:-)

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  6. Can't win for the weather--too cold and covered with snow, or sunny and dog gets hot too quickly. Although 40s, huh, my dogs don't seem to heat up that quickly at that range. California dogs!

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