Nothing too sexy to see here, just some extension and obstacle commitment training. I'm using a Manners Minder gizmo at the end of the jumps then calling her back to me. My ankle's still a bit jacked up so I'm still taking it easy and no sprinting/running. Glad I don't have any races on the calendar.
Takes her a couple of reps but she figures out her striding. I lowered the jumps to 8" from 10-12" so perhaps that confused her at first. The previous session she was back to running past the jumps so I made it easier. Today I raised them to 10" and she had no issues. No video, couldn't be bothered.
Still working on weave pole training with the channels and she still sometimes runs straight to the Manners Minder and ignores the channel. She's getting better though. I went down to 6 poles so we could get more reps in. Once she's solid with taking the channel and the channel gets narrower I'll add the other poles back so she can learn to get her rhythm. I think she'll be ready to retired by the time I get her trained.
Showing posts with label Ruby training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ruby training. Show all posts
Sunday, March 05, 2017
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Dudley Fontaine Seminar and More Dog Searching
My agility club's seminar was the weekend before last and since Ruby is barely doing obstacles there wasn't much we could enter. But there was a Foundation session and a Contacts session so we got to play in new more formal surroundings and learn a bit.
I figured the Foundation session would have us sending to curved tunnels, doing tight circles around cones and wing standards, short sequences and who knows what else. I was totally wrong. For us and most of the folks there it was all about extension. The more advanced folks got the start of teaching soft turns and a front cross. But Ruby wasn't sequencing at all before the seminar and I hadn't even tried running at a single jump with her. It was all me standing next to the standard and rewarding her for taking the jump. I was thankful to have such high level help with moving on to the next step. Such a simple step and yet so big.
I used her Lotus Ball for reward and Dudley placed it a few strides after the jump while I sent her from a restrain through the standards with no jump bar. Eventually we added another jump and then some bars at 4". Then a third jump by her second turn. Then a straight tunnel to 2 jumps. Pretty sure it was 2 jumps. It took her a couple of reps each time we made it harder but she caught on pretty quickly. So happy with the little smidge. She had a good time too, didn't seem at all worried about making mistakes or the other dogs or the strange surroundings and Dudley did a great job of keeping things fun and light. Our homework is to get up to 4 jumps (or jumps/tunnels) straight in a row before trying to work on turns. My other homework is not to use my handling to keep her from running past jumps. I found myself running into her line to get her to take the jumps and not only did it not work but Dudley rightly pointed out that I don't want to have to do that in the future. Better to manipulate the training environment than your handling. I regretted this with Strummer, using my handling to make up for holes in foundation so I was thankful to have that pointed out. I'm to put down a leash or rope parallel to the line of jumps to use like a Gamble line to keep me from crowding her and I'm to move the leash further and further out to get lateral distance. All obvious stuff but it's been so long. And Strummer needed so much work with collection, we didn't spend too much time on extension. In hindsight we could/should have spent more but yeah, hindsight. It's more obvious that Ruby will need more work with extension. Small dog, small stride, not super fast, at least not yet, extension makes more sense.
Some training from yesterday. Jumps and mini tunnel (my old chute barrel) are close together due to the size of my yard but it's a start.
I think she's refusing that third jump because she's trying to figure out how to adjust her stride too late. Or maybe she's still learning how to physically jump. She doesn't have the best build for jumping with that long back. Jumps are at 10" and competition height will be 12". I did build up to this, had a few sessions between the seminar and this taped session.
One of Dudley's training techniques that I like is that you should always start with something you're sure the dog will do. I did this on previous sessions and she was easily handling the 3 obstacles in previous sessions so I felt confident starting out with them. Another training technique she (and many others) have is that you don't make it easier after the first failure. So I tried 3 obstacles again and when she failed the second time I went back to 2. I don't have a lot of room to get lateral distance so that part will have to wait until I feel good enough to take her to the training field. My training partner offered up her yard and I may take her up on it.
The Contact session was very interesting, again not at all what I was expecting. Dudley teaches a running A-frame with stride regulators and a running dogwalk using a foot target. The interesting thing is that she starts with a foot target the length of the contact zone and the only criteria is that the dog hits it. Doesn't matter if the dog leaps off of it because as long as the dog adjusts stride to hit the contact on the full dogwalk it doesn't matter to her if they leap off of it after they've hit. She also teaches a 'stop' on the dogwalk by teaching the dog to paw the end of the target board and eventually the end of the dogwalk. These cues are on a verbal eventually. Similarly for the teeter she trains the dog to paw the end. And she uses the 2 table method to teach the dog to run the teeter separate from the end behavior. I've been watching a DVD from Jen Pinder ('Sizzling Seesaws') that also uses 2 tables for the same reason but for 4 on she teaches the dogs to stop at the end with front feet not allowed to go off the board.
Ruby had a few turns at running the foot target and again I was crowding her to get her to run on the board. She'll avoid obstacles to get to the treats more quickly. I was using a small tupperware container filled with good treats this time rather than the Lotus Ball to save the time of her ripping the ball open. She did well with it, again seemed happy and not worried by mistakes.
When I came home I tried to find some videos of Dudley's dogs doing the pawing thing in competition because I was having a hard time envisioning this. She didn't have a demo dog so we had to imagine what the final behavior looks like. In the end it looks like her dogs don't really paw the end in an obvious way, not the way I was picturing anyway, but she does have nice contacts. I like the idea of a foot target for dogs that are big strided and don't have a consistent performance on the dogwalk (ie Strummer). I'm not thrilled with the idea that it's o.k. for them to leap, maybe all those years of watching for it and considering it an important criteria. But for Ruby so far she's showing no signs of leaping and is doing really well with striding on the full flat board. I elevated the board for the first time yesterday and she still did great.
We'll see how it goes but for now I don't see a reason to bother with a foot target. I'm using the Manners Minder gizmo rather than a thrown toy though. It's so much easier for me, that Lotus ball was causing all kinds of issues. Not sure it makes her run any faster either. I might bring it back, we'll see. I know thrown toys are a big part of Silvia's method but for now it's a complication and I don't see much value in it for her. But I'm keeping an open mind about it all.
On the 'Search for a Second Dog' front I've decided a good way to connect with good working dog breeders is to go to a herding trial. A quick search of the USBCHA site (the one and only herding venue that's considered a good place for testing herding ability that is worth breeding for) showed a trial up in Nunn (about 1 hour 20 minutes drive) on March 12. Unfortunately I couldn't find the arena on Google Maps so I emailed the woman putting on the trial and got a very quick response. She also sent me a better link for local trials and there's also an outdoor trial in April and another one down in Monte Vista which is sorta kinda on the way to Cortez/Mancos/Dolores area so maybe we'll take a little trip down there for more house hunting. I'm excited to go, the only herding I've seen in person was at the National Western Stock Show down in Denver many years ago. It was fun to watch but the whole Stock Show thing was a nightmare of crowds and traffic way back then, I can only imagine the hassle of it now and I haven't gone back since.
That link also lists 'Resources' for lessons and the only instructor listed is the woman I took both Lola and Strummer to for Instinct Testing. Lola was a definite no go but Strummer showed some promise, he was too young and over the top but the instructor, Cathy, said he maybe just needed to grow up a bit and try again in a few months. I did let him try again a couple of years later at USDAA Nationals and he seemed much better, the guy doing the instinct test spent loads of time with him and he was much calmer. They were using goats rather than sheep and the goats seemed calmer. The guy gave him a certificate but they were giving certificates to pretty much everybody who's dog showed even the slightest amount of interest in the goats. I dug it out and it was from the Arizona Herding Assocation and a quick Google search shows that it's under the auspices of the AKC so yeah, not very rigorous requirements. Which is fine for encouraging pet and agility folks at USDAA Nat's. to try herding for fun and something else to do with their dogs. But I never pursued it beyond, too expensive for lessons on top of agility and too far to drive. Cathy's place in Ft. Lupton was about 1 hour 10 minutes back in the day, who know what it is now with the crazy traffic we have now. But I don't know, maybe if I get a Border Collie that shows interest I might consider trying it again. Because I need another dog sport right now. Sure I do.
I figured the Foundation session would have us sending to curved tunnels, doing tight circles around cones and wing standards, short sequences and who knows what else. I was totally wrong. For us and most of the folks there it was all about extension. The more advanced folks got the start of teaching soft turns and a front cross. But Ruby wasn't sequencing at all before the seminar and I hadn't even tried running at a single jump with her. It was all me standing next to the standard and rewarding her for taking the jump. I was thankful to have such high level help with moving on to the next step. Such a simple step and yet so big.
I used her Lotus Ball for reward and Dudley placed it a few strides after the jump while I sent her from a restrain through the standards with no jump bar. Eventually we added another jump and then some bars at 4". Then a third jump by her second turn. Then a straight tunnel to 2 jumps. Pretty sure it was 2 jumps. It took her a couple of reps each time we made it harder but she caught on pretty quickly. So happy with the little smidge. She had a good time too, didn't seem at all worried about making mistakes or the other dogs or the strange surroundings and Dudley did a great job of keeping things fun and light. Our homework is to get up to 4 jumps (or jumps/tunnels) straight in a row before trying to work on turns. My other homework is not to use my handling to keep her from running past jumps. I found myself running into her line to get her to take the jumps and not only did it not work but Dudley rightly pointed out that I don't want to have to do that in the future. Better to manipulate the training environment than your handling. I regretted this with Strummer, using my handling to make up for holes in foundation so I was thankful to have that pointed out. I'm to put down a leash or rope parallel to the line of jumps to use like a Gamble line to keep me from crowding her and I'm to move the leash further and further out to get lateral distance. All obvious stuff but it's been so long. And Strummer needed so much work with collection, we didn't spend too much time on extension. In hindsight we could/should have spent more but yeah, hindsight. It's more obvious that Ruby will need more work with extension. Small dog, small stride, not super fast, at least not yet, extension makes more sense.
Some training from yesterday. Jumps and mini tunnel (my old chute barrel) are close together due to the size of my yard but it's a start.
I think she's refusing that third jump because she's trying to figure out how to adjust her stride too late. Or maybe she's still learning how to physically jump. She doesn't have the best build for jumping with that long back. Jumps are at 10" and competition height will be 12". I did build up to this, had a few sessions between the seminar and this taped session.
One of Dudley's training techniques that I like is that you should always start with something you're sure the dog will do. I did this on previous sessions and she was easily handling the 3 obstacles in previous sessions so I felt confident starting out with them. Another training technique she (and many others) have is that you don't make it easier after the first failure. So I tried 3 obstacles again and when she failed the second time I went back to 2. I don't have a lot of room to get lateral distance so that part will have to wait until I feel good enough to take her to the training field. My training partner offered up her yard and I may take her up on it.
The Contact session was very interesting, again not at all what I was expecting. Dudley teaches a running A-frame with stride regulators and a running dogwalk using a foot target. The interesting thing is that she starts with a foot target the length of the contact zone and the only criteria is that the dog hits it. Doesn't matter if the dog leaps off of it because as long as the dog adjusts stride to hit the contact on the full dogwalk it doesn't matter to her if they leap off of it after they've hit. She also teaches a 'stop' on the dogwalk by teaching the dog to paw the end of the target board and eventually the end of the dogwalk. These cues are on a verbal eventually. Similarly for the teeter she trains the dog to paw the end. And she uses the 2 table method to teach the dog to run the teeter separate from the end behavior. I've been watching a DVD from Jen Pinder ('Sizzling Seesaws') that also uses 2 tables for the same reason but for 4 on she teaches the dogs to stop at the end with front feet not allowed to go off the board.
Ruby had a few turns at running the foot target and again I was crowding her to get her to run on the board. She'll avoid obstacles to get to the treats more quickly. I was using a small tupperware container filled with good treats this time rather than the Lotus Ball to save the time of her ripping the ball open. She did well with it, again seemed happy and not worried by mistakes.
When I came home I tried to find some videos of Dudley's dogs doing the pawing thing in competition because I was having a hard time envisioning this. She didn't have a demo dog so we had to imagine what the final behavior looks like. In the end it looks like her dogs don't really paw the end in an obvious way, not the way I was picturing anyway, but she does have nice contacts. I like the idea of a foot target for dogs that are big strided and don't have a consistent performance on the dogwalk (ie Strummer). I'm not thrilled with the idea that it's o.k. for them to leap, maybe all those years of watching for it and considering it an important criteria. But for Ruby so far she's showing no signs of leaping and is doing really well with striding on the full flat board. I elevated the board for the first time yesterday and she still did great.
We'll see how it goes but for now I don't see a reason to bother with a foot target. I'm using the Manners Minder gizmo rather than a thrown toy though. It's so much easier for me, that Lotus ball was causing all kinds of issues. Not sure it makes her run any faster either. I might bring it back, we'll see. I know thrown toys are a big part of Silvia's method but for now it's a complication and I don't see much value in it for her. But I'm keeping an open mind about it all.
On the 'Search for a Second Dog' front I've decided a good way to connect with good working dog breeders is to go to a herding trial. A quick search of the USBCHA site (the one and only herding venue that's considered a good place for testing herding ability that is worth breeding for) showed a trial up in Nunn (about 1 hour 20 minutes drive) on March 12. Unfortunately I couldn't find the arena on Google Maps so I emailed the woman putting on the trial and got a very quick response. She also sent me a better link for local trials and there's also an outdoor trial in April and another one down in Monte Vista which is sorta kinda on the way to Cortez/Mancos/Dolores area so maybe we'll take a little trip down there for more house hunting. I'm excited to go, the only herding I've seen in person was at the National Western Stock Show down in Denver many years ago. It was fun to watch but the whole Stock Show thing was a nightmare of crowds and traffic way back then, I can only imagine the hassle of it now and I haven't gone back since.
That link also lists 'Resources' for lessons and the only instructor listed is the woman I took both Lola and Strummer to for Instinct Testing. Lola was a definite no go but Strummer showed some promise, he was too young and over the top but the instructor, Cathy, said he maybe just needed to grow up a bit and try again in a few months. I did let him try again a couple of years later at USDAA Nationals and he seemed much better, the guy doing the instinct test spent loads of time with him and he was much calmer. They were using goats rather than sheep and the goats seemed calmer. The guy gave him a certificate but they were giving certificates to pretty much everybody who's dog showed even the slightest amount of interest in the goats. I dug it out and it was from the Arizona Herding Assocation and a quick Google search shows that it's under the auspices of the AKC so yeah, not very rigorous requirements. Which is fine for encouraging pet and agility folks at USDAA Nat's. to try herding for fun and something else to do with their dogs. But I never pursued it beyond, too expensive for lessons on top of agility and too far to drive. Cathy's place in Ft. Lupton was about 1 hour 10 minutes back in the day, who know what it is now with the crazy traffic we have now. But I don't know, maybe if I get a Border Collie that shows interest I might consider trying it again. Because I need another dog sport right now. Sure I do.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Keeping It Local
The mountains have been getting hammered with snow so Jonny and I decided to go snow shoeing up at Golden Gate Canyon State Park, just under an hour's drive on a good day. But Saturday was not a good day. At 11:30 a.m. Boulder Canyon was already mobbed with people coming down from the Eldora Ski Resort so we made a quick detour up to Betasso Open Space, a mere 20 minutes drive. Because it was going to take a lot longer than an hour to make it through all the ski traffic. Ski Traffic! In Boulder Canyon! If that's not a sign of Too Many People I don't know what is. We got caught in Leaf Traffic this fall too. Crazy times.
Anyway, we had a bunch of snow in town too so the snow shoeing was good and shockingly the trails were quiet. I guess everyone was on I-70 or Boulder Canyon heading to and from the ski resorts.
How now Brown Cloud?
It was a beautiful, peaceful day on the trails, saw only a handful of people in 3 hours and saved ourselves an asston of driving aggravation.
Woke up on Monday and the snow was pretty much gone. The strong warm Chinook winds blew in and kept overnight temps. well above freezing and warm into the next day. Ruby needed her coat and booties on Saturday. She wasn't happy about them but she was happy to get out of the house.
Is there anything cuter than a wee dog in booties?
Her agility training is coming along. My goal is to have her sending to a tunnel, sending to a cone and doing a wrap and doing some short jump/tunnel/cone sequences before the seminar next month. And to that end I rushed her training a bit going directly from a straight tunnel to a curved tunnel. Poor thing was a bit confused. Today I set up an almost straight tunnel with a bit of a curve to it and she had no problem. Dog Training 101. How did I forget how to teach the tunnel?
Or maybe the other dogs all loved the tunnel and it was no big deal to go directly to a curve.
The weave poles are getting closer together but still not enough to cause a weave. Poor Lola, a sudden burst of unpredicted snow came. Poor me because there goes my nice dry yard. Supposed to get a bit more tomorrow, less than an inch but enough to shut down training for a day or two.
Probably a few more sessions before the poles will be close enough to cause a weave. I'm getting some 2x2's this weekend to work on entries. She still ignores the channel altogether and heads straight for the treat gizmo if I don't set her up right in front of the channel so practicing entries this way is not working. I'll work on entries with the 2x2's then try again with the channel. Hopefully the snow will melt by the weekend and I can get started on teeter training. Fun with baby dogs. Think I'll take her to the USDAA trial this weekend to hang out for a bit and pick up my 2x2's. I always have agility dreams the few nights before a trial and even though I'm not competing I still had one last night. I was going to run Ruby in the International class even though I hadn't walked the course and she still hadn't done a sequence yet. Thankfully I woke up before my run. Stupid neurotic agility dreams.
Anyway, we had a bunch of snow in town too so the snow shoeing was good and shockingly the trails were quiet. I guess everyone was on I-70 or Boulder Canyon heading to and from the ski resorts.
How now Brown Cloud?
It was a beautiful, peaceful day on the trails, saw only a handful of people in 3 hours and saved ourselves an asston of driving aggravation.
Woke up on Monday and the snow was pretty much gone. The strong warm Chinook winds blew in and kept overnight temps. well above freezing and warm into the next day. Ruby needed her coat and booties on Saturday. She wasn't happy about them but she was happy to get out of the house.
Is there anything cuter than a wee dog in booties?
Her agility training is coming along. My goal is to have her sending to a tunnel, sending to a cone and doing a wrap and doing some short jump/tunnel/cone sequences before the seminar next month. And to that end I rushed her training a bit going directly from a straight tunnel to a curved tunnel. Poor thing was a bit confused. Today I set up an almost straight tunnel with a bit of a curve to it and she had no problem. Dog Training 101. How did I forget how to teach the tunnel?
Or maybe the other dogs all loved the tunnel and it was no big deal to go directly to a curve.
The weave poles are getting closer together but still not enough to cause a weave. Poor Lola, a sudden burst of unpredicted snow came. Poor me because there goes my nice dry yard. Supposed to get a bit more tomorrow, less than an inch but enough to shut down training for a day or two.
Probably a few more sessions before the poles will be close enough to cause a weave. I'm getting some 2x2's this weekend to work on entries. She still ignores the channel altogether and heads straight for the treat gizmo if I don't set her up right in front of the channel so practicing entries this way is not working. I'll work on entries with the 2x2's then try again with the channel. Hopefully the snow will melt by the weekend and I can get started on teeter training. Fun with baby dogs. Think I'll take her to the USDAA trial this weekend to hang out for a bit and pick up my 2x2's. I always have agility dreams the few nights before a trial and even though I'm not competing I still had one last night. I was going to run Ruby in the International class even though I hadn't walked the course and she still hadn't done a sequence yet. Thankfully I woke up before my run. Stupid neurotic agility dreams.
Friday, December 30, 2016
Distractions
Nothing like some good running dogwalk OCD to distract you from the horrors of the world. It feels worse this time around because I know what I'm in for and what to watch for and how many ways it can all go so wrong.
For months I've been ambivalent about dog training, my brain and body focused on Xterra Nat's. and then Worlds and Ruby being such a Good Girl and not needing tons of training or Something To Do. Now suddenly I find myself entrenched in it, madly reviewing all my videos for all the things. Why does agility have to have so many things? And why do so many of those things have to be so big and expensive and they don't fit in my yard?
And the Running Dogwalk. Such a simple thing and yet so complimacated. Right now we've had exactly two sessions of running on a piece of astro-turf, so simple. Two sessions I used a treat gizmo, the other a Lotus Ball. Silvia's method uses a thrown toy but I never liked that idea for Strummer because of terrible worry over torn ACLs in crazy dogs chasing toys and slamming on the brakes and forever trashing knees. So for most of his training I used a remote control treat dispenser gizmo. At some points throughout his training I would use thrown toys but at the start it was all about the treat gizmo. But Silvia advises that you use a thrown toy and one that is still moving when they catch up to it because a stationary toy will encourage pouncing which will encourage leaping. Ruby is not Strummer and I'm not too worried about her slamming on the brakes but she does have bionic rear knees from knee surgery so I'm keeping a close eye on her with the toys and running and slamming on brakes.
I shot video of all 3 sessions and so far I'm much happier with the treat gizmo. This is partly because I suck at throwing and the Lotus Ball isn't like a real ball so it stops before she gets to it anyway. I tried a couple reps of waiting to throw it until she started running but those throws were some of the worst in terms of my aim and I sent her right off the mat. I've been working on her tunnel skills so hopefully I can set up a tunnel after the mat soon so she has something to drive to before her reward. But we need some more work before the tunnel is rewarding enough. For the first time today she went through the tunnel without being cued and she seems to enjoy it so I think we're well on the way.
First Session (3 days ago) (treat gizmo placed too close to the mat so she never got a lot of speed up)
Second Session (yesterday)
Third Session (today)
Perhaps I've been looking at the videos for far too long but it looks to me like she's leaping on the second and third sessions, more so on the third session with the ball and perhaps it's to do with my throwing and timing. In most reps. the ball is stationary by the time she gets to it. It seems impossible that such a little dog built as she is could be leaping. Will have to take another look at the Silvia Running Contact DVD. Or maybe I'm overthinking all of this. You think?
I've also been working on the tunnel and running through the channel weaves to the treat gizmo. She's happily running through the channel now as long as she's facing the entry straight on. As soon as I try to angle her entry she goes straight for the treat gizmo and ignores the weave poles. Going to try some 2x2 training for entries or at least to teach her to look for the poles. Wish my weave poles opened wider than a foot but oh well.
Still working on Cik/Cap and jump training. She's finally offering to jump and mostly has decent control of her rear/doesn't swing too wide. Well maybe on a rep or two but mostly she's pretty good. Time to move onto the next step.
Ruby Jumps
Haven't done anything about the teeter yet. I'm borrowing a teeter training video by Jen Pinder from my agility club library, should get it next week. In the meantime I've been shaping Ruby to walk along a plank, play on it, 2 on 2 off, etc. so she's comfortable on a plank in general. She seems fine with it so far. I had a handmade wobble board for Lola but turned it into a table and now I doubt it'll wobble due to the table edges. Guess I could make another one but I'm feeling lazy and I never felt like it helped Lola all that much in terms of the teeter. We'll see what the video suggests.
I've got Ruby entered in a seminar in February. One is Contact Foundations and I'm sure she'll be fine for that but the other sounds like there will be sequences even though it's a Foundations class so we'll see how that goes. We can always sit out the stuff that's over her head and at least I'll have some ideas of stuff to work on in the future. But sheesh, nothing like the pressure of a seminar to get your training butt in gear. Think I'll even try to get her out to the training field in the next few days to see how she does outside the backyard. Yep, nothing like silly hobbies to distract you from the woes of the world, at least for a few moments.
For months I've been ambivalent about dog training, my brain and body focused on Xterra Nat's. and then Worlds and Ruby being such a Good Girl and not needing tons of training or Something To Do. Now suddenly I find myself entrenched in it, madly reviewing all my videos for all the things. Why does agility have to have so many things? And why do so many of those things have to be so big and expensive and they don't fit in my yard?
And the Running Dogwalk. Such a simple thing and yet so complimacated. Right now we've had exactly two sessions of running on a piece of astro-turf, so simple. Two sessions I used a treat gizmo, the other a Lotus Ball. Silvia's method uses a thrown toy but I never liked that idea for Strummer because of terrible worry over torn ACLs in crazy dogs chasing toys and slamming on the brakes and forever trashing knees. So for most of his training I used a remote control treat dispenser gizmo. At some points throughout his training I would use thrown toys but at the start it was all about the treat gizmo. But Silvia advises that you use a thrown toy and one that is still moving when they catch up to it because a stationary toy will encourage pouncing which will encourage leaping. Ruby is not Strummer and I'm not too worried about her slamming on the brakes but she does have bionic rear knees from knee surgery so I'm keeping a close eye on her with the toys and running and slamming on brakes.
I shot video of all 3 sessions and so far I'm much happier with the treat gizmo. This is partly because I suck at throwing and the Lotus Ball isn't like a real ball so it stops before she gets to it anyway. I tried a couple reps of waiting to throw it until she started running but those throws were some of the worst in terms of my aim and I sent her right off the mat. I've been working on her tunnel skills so hopefully I can set up a tunnel after the mat soon so she has something to drive to before her reward. But we need some more work before the tunnel is rewarding enough. For the first time today she went through the tunnel without being cued and she seems to enjoy it so I think we're well on the way.
First Session (3 days ago) (treat gizmo placed too close to the mat so she never got a lot of speed up)
Second Session (yesterday)
Third Session (today)
Perhaps I've been looking at the videos for far too long but it looks to me like she's leaping on the second and third sessions, more so on the third session with the ball and perhaps it's to do with my throwing and timing. In most reps. the ball is stationary by the time she gets to it. It seems impossible that such a little dog built as she is could be leaping. Will have to take another look at the Silvia Running Contact DVD. Or maybe I'm overthinking all of this. You think?
I've also been working on the tunnel and running through the channel weaves to the treat gizmo. She's happily running through the channel now as long as she's facing the entry straight on. As soon as I try to angle her entry she goes straight for the treat gizmo and ignores the weave poles. Going to try some 2x2 training for entries or at least to teach her to look for the poles. Wish my weave poles opened wider than a foot but oh well.
Still working on Cik/Cap and jump training. She's finally offering to jump and mostly has decent control of her rear/doesn't swing too wide. Well maybe on a rep or two but mostly she's pretty good. Time to move onto the next step.
Ruby Jumps
Haven't done anything about the teeter yet. I'm borrowing a teeter training video by Jen Pinder from my agility club library, should get it next week. In the meantime I've been shaping Ruby to walk along a plank, play on it, 2 on 2 off, etc. so she's comfortable on a plank in general. She seems fine with it so far. I had a handmade wobble board for Lola but turned it into a table and now I doubt it'll wobble due to the table edges. Guess I could make another one but I'm feeling lazy and I never felt like it helped Lola all that much in terms of the teeter. We'll see what the video suggests.
I've got Ruby entered in a seminar in February. One is Contact Foundations and I'm sure she'll be fine for that but the other sounds like there will be sequences even though it's a Foundations class so we'll see how that goes. We can always sit out the stuff that's over her head and at least I'll have some ideas of stuff to work on in the future. But sheesh, nothing like the pressure of a seminar to get your training butt in gear. Think I'll even try to get her out to the training field in the next few days to see how she does outside the backyard. Yep, nothing like silly hobbies to distract you from the woes of the world, at least for a few moments.
Wednesday, December 07, 2016
Ruby Random Bits
Finally caught up with posts about travel. No more trips planned, happy to be done with travel. Plenty to keep me busy right here.
Started back up with Miss Ruby's training. No video yet, I've been too lazy to set up the camera. For weave training I've got my channel weaves set up with the remote controlled treat gizmo at one end and me with a bag of treats and clicker on the other end. I had to put a plank up next to the poles at first to stop her running out of the channel. Unfortunately I can only get my poles about 1' apart so the channel is very narrow to start. I was following Silvia Trkman's method which has you use all 12 poles right from the start so it was a long narrow channel for such a wee dog and she seemed very confused. So at first I stood in the channel with her just a few poles from the treat gizmo and quickly moved back. After a few days she seemed to get the hang of it so I moved the plank then a day or two later started introducing angled entries. And she immediately started running outside the channel again. Back to straight entries and last session she stopped running through the channel altogether. I'd restrain her, say 'go' and release her and she'd just stand there. I think my next move will be to go to 6 poles, that big long channel seems a challenge for her. Think I may try some 2x2 shaping as well using Mary Ellen Barry's method. I can also pony up the money for channel weaves that go wider apart. At some point I'll need new weaves anyway because my current ones have the old 21" spacing. This is o.k. for a little dog just learning but when I get a bigger dog, and at some point I will get another border collie or mix thereof, I'll need 24" spacing. But for now I'm waiting to see if I can find a used set or a good deal somewhere, no hurry.
For tunnel training I'm using an old nylon chute barrel. I bought this chute from Clean Run ages ago for Lola and when it came I realized right away it was way too long. I intended to cut it and have someone sew the ends rather than return it but never got around to it and forgot all about it. I dug it out of hiding thinking it was my small play tunnel and discovered this monstrosity.
And of course now we don't even have the chute anymore so I cut off the fabric, gave it to a friend who will re-purpose it and now I have a little mini training tunnel perfect for Ruby.
I started out using a Lotus Ball to reward her running through but again she would sometimes run around the tunnel even though it's so short. And after each rep I'd have to wait for her to run away with the ball, open it up and eat the treats. So I switched over to the treat gizmo and now after a couple few weeks she's finally running through consistently.
Jump training is also proving challenging. I'm using Linda Mecklenberg's method and we're still at stage one, just getting her to want to offer to jump. She'll sometimes run the long way around behind me to try to get the treat or dive her head under the bar. Not sure if jumping is physically difficult for her or she doesn't understand. She's still getting the hang of offering behavior though is much better with it than she was at the start of the summer. Still kind of sticky though. Shaping has never been a strength for me. I figure she's a great challenge though, best to work on my rusty skills with Ruby before I get a young dog or puppy. I think I need to learn more patience. I get fed up waiting for her to offer behavior so I'll either give up or make things easier or start luring her just so she'll do something. So progress has been slow. I've got the jump set at 12", she measures roughly 13 1/2" so she'd jump 12" in all the venues except USDAA where she'd have to jump 14" Would almost certainly put her in Performance. If we even compete.
Tight turns around a cone are moving along. She's finally doing a full circle, still working on getting multiple wraps and sometimes she'll go back to sitting down and offering nothing. She's enthusiastic about training in general, gets super excited when I gather up the training stuff to head outside and has started offering behavior more often but is still a newbie and learning about learning.
I bought a couple of winged jumps from Clean Run during their Black Friday sale but of course we got about 5-6" of snow last night and it's freezing today so no practice for a while.
It's 10 degrees and you want me to go out?
No thanks.
We did get a run in yesterday before the storm. No I didn't plan this and yes it was as embarrassing as it looks.
I also took her to Boulder County Fairgrounds to a DOCNA trial over the weekend. We went both days for a bit, hung out in the bleachers on Saturday and stood ringside on Sunday, saw some of her friends including her Auntie Joy who was happy to see her and get an update. She did great, such a novel experience for me to have a dog that sits quietly in my lap in the stands and can hang out ringside without losing her mind. Being on the trial grounds was clearly not an issue for her. Not sure what she'd do in the ring but we're a LONG way from thinking about that. For now it's all about the basics and as long as she stays happy and enthusiastic about training we'll keep up with it. Now to wait for the snow to melt.
Started back up with Miss Ruby's training. No video yet, I've been too lazy to set up the camera. For weave training I've got my channel weaves set up with the remote controlled treat gizmo at one end and me with a bag of treats and clicker on the other end. I had to put a plank up next to the poles at first to stop her running out of the channel. Unfortunately I can only get my poles about 1' apart so the channel is very narrow to start. I was following Silvia Trkman's method which has you use all 12 poles right from the start so it was a long narrow channel for such a wee dog and she seemed very confused. So at first I stood in the channel with her just a few poles from the treat gizmo and quickly moved back. After a few days she seemed to get the hang of it so I moved the plank then a day or two later started introducing angled entries. And she immediately started running outside the channel again. Back to straight entries and last session she stopped running through the channel altogether. I'd restrain her, say 'go' and release her and she'd just stand there. I think my next move will be to go to 6 poles, that big long channel seems a challenge for her. Think I may try some 2x2 shaping as well using Mary Ellen Barry's method. I can also pony up the money for channel weaves that go wider apart. At some point I'll need new weaves anyway because my current ones have the old 21" spacing. This is o.k. for a little dog just learning but when I get a bigger dog, and at some point I will get another border collie or mix thereof, I'll need 24" spacing. But for now I'm waiting to see if I can find a used set or a good deal somewhere, no hurry.
For tunnel training I'm using an old nylon chute barrel. I bought this chute from Clean Run ages ago for Lola and when it came I realized right away it was way too long. I intended to cut it and have someone sew the ends rather than return it but never got around to it and forgot all about it. I dug it out of hiding thinking it was my small play tunnel and discovered this monstrosity.
And of course now we don't even have the chute anymore so I cut off the fabric, gave it to a friend who will re-purpose it and now I have a little mini training tunnel perfect for Ruby.
I started out using a Lotus Ball to reward her running through but again she would sometimes run around the tunnel even though it's so short. And after each rep I'd have to wait for her to run away with the ball, open it up and eat the treats. So I switched over to the treat gizmo and now after a couple few weeks she's finally running through consistently.
Jump training is also proving challenging. I'm using Linda Mecklenberg's method and we're still at stage one, just getting her to want to offer to jump. She'll sometimes run the long way around behind me to try to get the treat or dive her head under the bar. Not sure if jumping is physically difficult for her or she doesn't understand. She's still getting the hang of offering behavior though is much better with it than she was at the start of the summer. Still kind of sticky though. Shaping has never been a strength for me. I figure she's a great challenge though, best to work on my rusty skills with Ruby before I get a young dog or puppy. I think I need to learn more patience. I get fed up waiting for her to offer behavior so I'll either give up or make things easier or start luring her just so she'll do something. So progress has been slow. I've got the jump set at 12", she measures roughly 13 1/2" so she'd jump 12" in all the venues except USDAA where she'd have to jump 14" Would almost certainly put her in Performance. If we even compete.
Tight turns around a cone are moving along. She's finally doing a full circle, still working on getting multiple wraps and sometimes she'll go back to sitting down and offering nothing. She's enthusiastic about training in general, gets super excited when I gather up the training stuff to head outside and has started offering behavior more often but is still a newbie and learning about learning.
I bought a couple of winged jumps from Clean Run during their Black Friday sale but of course we got about 5-6" of snow last night and it's freezing today so no practice for a while.
It's 10 degrees and you want me to go out?
No thanks.
We did get a run in yesterday before the storm. No I didn't plan this and yes it was as embarrassing as it looks.
I also took her to Boulder County Fairgrounds to a DOCNA trial over the weekend. We went both days for a bit, hung out in the bleachers on Saturday and stood ringside on Sunday, saw some of her friends including her Auntie Joy who was happy to see her and get an update. She did great, such a novel experience for me to have a dog that sits quietly in my lap in the stands and can hang out ringside without losing her mind. Being on the trial grounds was clearly not an issue for her. Not sure what she'd do in the ring but we're a LONG way from thinking about that. For now it's all about the basics and as long as she stays happy and enthusiastic about training we'll keep up with it. Now to wait for the snow to melt.
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