Was 25 degrees when I left my house for practice this a.m. Don't know how cold it was in the arena, not Polar Vortex cold but Crazypants Dog Off His Head cold. We started off with lots of extension, no collection, big wide crazy turns and it didn't help that I had the course wrong in my head for the first half. Things went a lot smoother once Crazypants settled down a little and I ran the actual course which was way easier than my imagined course. Course was from this month's Kathy Keats Free Training Exercise at Clean Run. We only did Exercises 1 & 2 which was plenty given we have a 3 day USDAA trial this weekend.
Exercise #1 where I get to try a Serpentine Blind Cross (think I called it a Serpentine Rear Cross on the video, serves me
right for multi-tasking but I can't be bothered to fix it now) which I think is what the One Mind folks call a 'German Turn'. But don't quote me on that, I'm not entirely sure. Comparing the wrap at the end of the last 2 runs you can see how much tighter of a turn I get with the Ketschker (Jaako, whatever) compared to the post turn.
2014-01-08-Handling Practice Ex 1 from colliebrains on Vimeo.
Exercise #2 went a lot better though still there's one section I could have made clearer. There were no weaves in the original Kathy Keats exercise, we added those and in this exercise I tried both weave entries. I had to manage them a lot but was pleased he was able to get them and stay in the poles. For some reason he does really well with his weaves at this arena and with this particular set of poles. Of course the best smoothest entry of all happened after I turned the video off and decided to try one last time.
2014-01-08-Handling Practice Ex 2 from colliebrains on Vimeo.
Feeling good about the trial this weekend, especially the Masters Challenge courses, looking forward to those and Steeplechase most of all.
Showing posts with label Strummer handling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Strummer handling. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 08, 2014
Sunday, April 07, 2013
You Spin Me Right Round Baby Right Round
Like a record.
I was intrigued by a post by Agility Nerd about a handling move called Top Spin so I thought I give it a spin, so to speak, out at the practice field this morning. You can check out the course map and description of the move as well as some video here. Basically you use it when you want a lot of collection on a turn but not a full wrap. You turn your shoulders towards the dog like you would in an RFP, if you do RFP's, but instead of quickly turning back, you keep going in a full circle. Here's a rough sketch of the set-up I used so you don't have to go back and forth between here and Agility Nerd.
Dog goes over jump 2 on your right and as the dog commits to 3 you turn into him, or to your left, and continue in a full circle, moving in a clockwise direction.
I shot some video including some slow motion of both the Top Spin and a front cross between 3 and 4 with rear cross at the weaves. Steve's got video as well and shows an RFP and a shoulder pull with deceleration. I didn't try these with Strum because I can tell you right now that no way will he get that weave entry with just a shoulder pull/decel cue. This is largely due to his spotty weave entry skills and partly due to the speed coming out of the tunnel. And I really don't like RFP's, especially in this scenario, way too herky jerky, didn't want to try to go there with Strummer. My first choice before trying the Top Spin would be a front cross between 3 and 4. I didn't draw the full course but you turn to the left after the weaves so you want your dog on your right when he exits the weaves so with the front you either need a rear cross at the weave entry or a front or blind cross at the weave exit, none of which is a problem for us. In particular I've been practicing tough rear crosses at the entry as a method of proofing and it's helping Strum a lot with his entries and staying in.
Anyway, here's my video, shot from a different angle from Steve's video, mostly to avoid shooting into the bright glare of the morning sun. I've got examples of both the Top Spin and Front Cross in slow motion so you can see the details and the weave entry.
It took us many tries to get the weave entry with the Top Spin but this could be just as much a product of Strummer's difficulty with weave entries as it is from the handling move itself. The front cross allows me to shape the entry but even so he still missed it on one rep with the front cross. In the case of the Top Spin it could also be that I was positioned such that I was blocking his entry on the misses, hard to tell from the angle of the video.
In general I prefer the front cross because it's more comfortable and even more so because I don't have to lose that contact/connection by taking my eyes off my dog. I don't mind this during blind crosses and Ketschkers because the amount of disconnection is so small but the time it takes to spin around a full 360 degrees is significant, at least to me, and the period of disconnection felt like an eternity. And I felt like I wasted precious time and mental energy trying to find him and re-connect again and Strum seemed a bit hesitant to the point of checking in on the earlier reps. It's hard to say if this would get better with practice or if it's a problem intrinsic to the move. Also I sometimes have problems with becoming disoriented when rotating out of a front cross and losing where I am on course during a competition and for me I could see this being an issue with this move, especially in the heat of competition. Like Steve I also had issues with turning too soon and pulling him off the jump. Verbal jump cues do little to send him on over a jump if my body language is saying something else so I have to be a little 'late' if I'm using collection cues that involve facing him. Much less precision in timing involved with a front cross in this scenario. But the Top Spin looks cooler on the video so I guess if you're going for style points . . .
Probably not a move I'd use very often if ever but I love experimenting with new handling moves and I'll throw it in here and there during practice just for fun if there's occasion for it. Thanks to Steve at Agility Nerd for showing us a fun new move.
I was intrigued by a post by Agility Nerd about a handling move called Top Spin so I thought I give it a spin, so to speak, out at the practice field this morning. You can check out the course map and description of the move as well as some video here. Basically you use it when you want a lot of collection on a turn but not a full wrap. You turn your shoulders towards the dog like you would in an RFP, if you do RFP's, but instead of quickly turning back, you keep going in a full circle. Here's a rough sketch of the set-up I used so you don't have to go back and forth between here and Agility Nerd.
I shot some video including some slow motion of both the Top Spin and a front cross between 3 and 4 with rear cross at the weaves. Steve's got video as well and shows an RFP and a shoulder pull with deceleration. I didn't try these with Strum because I can tell you right now that no way will he get that weave entry with just a shoulder pull/decel cue. This is largely due to his spotty weave entry skills and partly due to the speed coming out of the tunnel. And I really don't like RFP's, especially in this scenario, way too herky jerky, didn't want to try to go there with Strummer. My first choice before trying the Top Spin would be a front cross between 3 and 4. I didn't draw the full course but you turn to the left after the weaves so you want your dog on your right when he exits the weaves so with the front you either need a rear cross at the weave entry or a front or blind cross at the weave exit, none of which is a problem for us. In particular I've been practicing tough rear crosses at the entry as a method of proofing and it's helping Strum a lot with his entries and staying in.
Anyway, here's my video, shot from a different angle from Steve's video, mostly to avoid shooting into the bright glare of the morning sun. I've got examples of both the Top Spin and Front Cross in slow motion so you can see the details and the weave entry.
TOP SPIN ii from colliebrains on Vimeo.
It took us many tries to get the weave entry with the Top Spin but this could be just as much a product of Strummer's difficulty with weave entries as it is from the handling move itself. The front cross allows me to shape the entry but even so he still missed it on one rep with the front cross. In the case of the Top Spin it could also be that I was positioned such that I was blocking his entry on the misses, hard to tell from the angle of the video.
In general I prefer the front cross because it's more comfortable and even more so because I don't have to lose that contact/connection by taking my eyes off my dog. I don't mind this during blind crosses and Ketschkers because the amount of disconnection is so small but the time it takes to spin around a full 360 degrees is significant, at least to me, and the period of disconnection felt like an eternity. And I felt like I wasted precious time and mental energy trying to find him and re-connect again and Strum seemed a bit hesitant to the point of checking in on the earlier reps. It's hard to say if this would get better with practice or if it's a problem intrinsic to the move. Also I sometimes have problems with becoming disoriented when rotating out of a front cross and losing where I am on course during a competition and for me I could see this being an issue with this move, especially in the heat of competition. Like Steve I also had issues with turning too soon and pulling him off the jump. Verbal jump cues do little to send him on over a jump if my body language is saying something else so I have to be a little 'late' if I'm using collection cues that involve facing him. Much less precision in timing involved with a front cross in this scenario. But the Top Spin looks cooler on the video so I guess if you're going for style points . . .
Probably not a move I'd use very often if ever but I love experimenting with new handling moves and I'll throw it in here and there during practice just for fun if there's occasion for it. Thanks to Steve at Agility Nerd for showing us a fun new move.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Strummer Finally Gets to Play
Poor guy, I took him out to the agility field because they had set up one of the trickier looking Masters Standard courses from last week's USDAA trial and I wanted to give it a bash. He's been out there maybe once in months and months and he was so excited when he realized where we were going, whine-moaning his head off in the car. But when I got there there were too many people so I decided to take him for a walk on the nearby open space trails and wait for the folks to leave. But he so excited for agility, he was having none of this hiking business. He was tense and stressed and kept trying to figure out how to get me to turn around and getting the leash wrapped around his neck. Stress sniffing. It was not a relaxing walk.
Forty minutes later the people had left but a new person was there and then someone else showed up and long story short, I packed up the poor wound up guy and took him home. I felt so bad for him.
So today I skipped my masters swim work out and took him back to the field. Thankfully we finally had the joint to ourselves.
This was the course:
Strum had a beautiful run on his first try, a few wide turns and a possible refusal between 11 and 12 but otherwise clean. I tried a few different handling choices to see what worked best for us. Between 5 and 6 I started off with a front cross and got a big wide turn and almost an off course at the teeter. Keeping him on my right worked the best and got the tightest, fastest line. The dogwalk was tricky, I ended up being way far down the line of the dogwalk when he came out of the tunnel, got eye contact to cue the dogwalk when he came out and did a rear cross on the flat between the dogwalk and #8 jump. Not the prettiest sight in the world but it got the job done and he got his contacts the 2-3 times I tried it.
The trickiest part of the course was between the #11 chute and #12 jump. My initial thought was to stop as he exited the chute, call him in to me a little to re-set his line then send him on his way to the jump but he came out of the chute with too much speed, standing still confused him and left me in his dust. I ended up with refusals, a run by, even a couple of times where he turned around the jump to his right because I had confused him so badly. I suppose you could front cross and bring him around intentionally but that would waste a lot of time. In the end I ran up to the jump and was standing near the jump with my shoulders facing the jump when he got out of the chute so he knew where to go and could set his line himself.
The threadle at 15-16 caused some people a lot of problems at the trial but it turned out to be really easy. A forward send after the A-frame and pretty much all I had to do was rotate my shoulders to the 16 jump, there was so much space between and the angles weren't bad at all.
I initially tried a front cross after the teeter but this caused a wide loopy turn because his teeter is so darn fast, I couldn't get ahead of him. Instead I kept him on my right and rear crossed which gave me a nice tight turn.
Very fun course, I'm looking forward to finally being able to enter Masters Standard at our next USDAA trial in March.
I took some pictures with the iPhone just for the heck of it. I felt so bad for him losing out yesterday that I stayed extra long playing with him at the field. It was in the 40's with a nip in the air but sunny and it didn't take much to have his tongue hanging to the ground.
Chilling out in the shade with his favorite chicken toy.
Worst picture ever of a jumping dog but oh well. He still cracks me up with his goofy expressions.
A splattering of snow on the Continental Divide. Snow pack is scary low.
I didn't feel so bad skipping masters because I did get up and go to boot camp and I'm still not feeling 100%, stupid head cold. Double workouts today was probably not a good plan anyway. And who can deny this face?
Forty minutes later the people had left but a new person was there and then someone else showed up and long story short, I packed up the poor wound up guy and took him home. I felt so bad for him.
So today I skipped my masters swim work out and took him back to the field. Thankfully we finally had the joint to ourselves.
This was the course:
Strum had a beautiful run on his first try, a few wide turns and a possible refusal between 11 and 12 but otherwise clean. I tried a few different handling choices to see what worked best for us. Between 5 and 6 I started off with a front cross and got a big wide turn and almost an off course at the teeter. Keeping him on my right worked the best and got the tightest, fastest line. The dogwalk was tricky, I ended up being way far down the line of the dogwalk when he came out of the tunnel, got eye contact to cue the dogwalk when he came out and did a rear cross on the flat between the dogwalk and #8 jump. Not the prettiest sight in the world but it got the job done and he got his contacts the 2-3 times I tried it.
The trickiest part of the course was between the #11 chute and #12 jump. My initial thought was to stop as he exited the chute, call him in to me a little to re-set his line then send him on his way to the jump but he came out of the chute with too much speed, standing still confused him and left me in his dust. I ended up with refusals, a run by, even a couple of times where he turned around the jump to his right because I had confused him so badly. I suppose you could front cross and bring him around intentionally but that would waste a lot of time. In the end I ran up to the jump and was standing near the jump with my shoulders facing the jump when he got out of the chute so he knew where to go and could set his line himself.
The threadle at 15-16 caused some people a lot of problems at the trial but it turned out to be really easy. A forward send after the A-frame and pretty much all I had to do was rotate my shoulders to the 16 jump, there was so much space between and the angles weren't bad at all.
I initially tried a front cross after the teeter but this caused a wide loopy turn because his teeter is so darn fast, I couldn't get ahead of him. Instead I kept him on my right and rear crossed which gave me a nice tight turn.
Very fun course, I'm looking forward to finally being able to enter Masters Standard at our next USDAA trial in March.
I took some pictures with the iPhone just for the heck of it. I felt so bad for him losing out yesterday that I stayed extra long playing with him at the field. It was in the 40's with a nip in the air but sunny and it didn't take much to have his tongue hanging to the ground.
Chilling out in the shade with his favorite chicken toy.
Worst picture ever of a jumping dog but oh well. He still cracks me up with his goofy expressions.
A splattering of snow on the Continental Divide. Snow pack is scary low.
I didn't feel so bad skipping masters because I did get up and go to boot camp and I'm still not feeling 100%, stupid head cold. Double workouts today was probably not a good plan anyway. And who can deny this face?
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
A Puzzle
Set dog up in a sit in front of entrance to U-shaped tunnel. Stand next to dog, release verbally, say 'tunnel', take a step toward tunnel entrance, indicate tunnel entrance with inside arm, shoulders and feet are pointed to tunnel entrance, eyes are on tunnel entrance. Dog flies across your feet and sails into opposite tunnel entrance. Repeatedly. This is what happened at my lesson with Joy yesterday. Repeatedly. Even Joy couldn't figure it out and she's pretty clever. Has a first place trophy from the FCI World Championships. Been teaching for a billion zillion years. Has a pretty good eye for this stuff.
I'm an enigma.
Thinking about it, it's not the first time he's dashed across my feet to the less obvious tunnel entrance. I do not send my dog across my feet. Ever. I have no video from my lesson, will have to set it up at the practice field and get some video.
I was so very happy to have a lesson with Joy, it's been years. She's overcome a multitude of tough health issues and it's amazing to see her out there again, running her dogs and teaching. It's the only lesson I've had all year other than the seminar last February so it was long overdue. I split the lesson with my training partner and I'm hoping we can do it once a month or so, at least until USDAA Nationals. I have USDAA trials the next 2 weekends and would love to finish qualifying for Nationals so the timing for a lesson was perfect.
I had a few other issues - rushing the weave pole entry, spectating at places where I should have been moving, moving at places where I should have been holding up to cue collection, using a lateral send where I really needed a wrap (ie lots of collection) and not recognizing the scenario as a wrap on the initial walk through.
I did get some good practice with rear crosses and pulled off some nice front crosses. Got a nice blind cross in too. Some serps, a back side of a jump/serp thingy - fun and challenging stuff. Was so good to have a savvy eye on me. Not that my training partner isn't savvy or incredibly helpful but it's good to have a lesson now and again.
Strum was sky as a kite, excited to see all his dog and human friends and to be practicing in a brand new place. He was so fast, seemed even crazy faster than normal, I had to run hard and we started at 7:30 a.m. and no caffeine. I had to miss boot camp for my lesson but I felt like it was plenty of intervals so I took the rest of the day off of training despite the trial this weekend.
Went to Hills & Drills this morning to make up for it, stair intervals then a couple of 400's on the track then went to masters swimming and swam in the fastest lane because my normal lane was too crowded. Don't ask me how I survived that. Lots of food and caffeine after that busy morning so I can maybe get some work done the rest of the day.
I'm an enigma.
Thinking about it, it's not the first time he's dashed across my feet to the less obvious tunnel entrance. I do not send my dog across my feet. Ever. I have no video from my lesson, will have to set it up at the practice field and get some video.
I was so very happy to have a lesson with Joy, it's been years. She's overcome a multitude of tough health issues and it's amazing to see her out there again, running her dogs and teaching. It's the only lesson I've had all year other than the seminar last February so it was long overdue. I split the lesson with my training partner and I'm hoping we can do it once a month or so, at least until USDAA Nationals. I have USDAA trials the next 2 weekends and would love to finish qualifying for Nationals so the timing for a lesson was perfect.
I had a few other issues - rushing the weave pole entry, spectating at places where I should have been moving, moving at places where I should have been holding up to cue collection, using a lateral send where I really needed a wrap (ie lots of collection) and not recognizing the scenario as a wrap on the initial walk through.
I did get some good practice with rear crosses and pulled off some nice front crosses. Got a nice blind cross in too. Some serps, a back side of a jump/serp thingy - fun and challenging stuff. Was so good to have a savvy eye on me. Not that my training partner isn't savvy or incredibly helpful but it's good to have a lesson now and again.
Strum was sky as a kite, excited to see all his dog and human friends and to be practicing in a brand new place. He was so fast, seemed even crazy faster than normal, I had to run hard and we started at 7:30 a.m. and no caffeine. I had to miss boot camp for my lesson but I felt like it was plenty of intervals so I took the rest of the day off of training despite the trial this weekend.
Went to Hills & Drills this morning to make up for it, stair intervals then a couple of 400's on the track then went to masters swimming and swam in the fastest lane because my normal lane was too crowded. Don't ask me how I survived that. Lots of food and caffeine after that busy morning so I can maybe get some work done the rest of the day.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Rosanne DeMascio Seminar
Strum and I had a fun 3 days but now I'm very tired. Saturday we had a Running Contact session then a full day of Masters Handling on Sunday and a full day of International Handling on Monday. Lots of running, lots of new handling stuff and an idea for moving forward with the dogwalk. I don't have any video, was planning on asking people to shoot at least a few sequences but kept forgetting about it or remembered too close to my turn.
Lots of international flavor to the courses, even the novice/advanced folks had some back sides of jumps if I remember correctly. It turns out it's not really a hard skill to learn and Strum and I have been getting better at it with practice. We practiced all sorts of scenarios with back sides of jumps and I feel a lot more comfortable with them now and I have exercises for practicing the basic skills for them, especially sending through a gap. I also did a lot more running backwards then I'm used to for handling threadles, wraps, pulling through a gap. And the blind crosses! I do them occasionally after tunnels, the A-frame, weave poles but pretty much never after jumps. But wow, what a useful skill for certain scenarios and so easy and natural to learn. Wish I'd had that skill for some of those courses at DOCNA Champs. Will be fun to try them out at the upcoming DOCNA trial if the course calls for them.
I also learned how to use a Ketschker turn to handle a wrap. When Marco Mouwen was here a million years ago he taught them to us and everybody was freaking out. Nobody was terribly enthusiastic about the idea of sending their dog behind them and I never saw anybody do it at a trial. It was back when I was running Cody and it turned out Cody was the one dog at the seminar that naturally did really well with it but aside from a 180 degree turn we didn't learn very many scenarios to use it and I never did see a use for it at a trial. But it turns out to be a handy thing for handling certain types of wrap scenarios and Strummer picked it up fairly easily which was surprising because generally if I face him too soon it's too much collection and he'll refuse the jump he's headed for. But he did well with it at the seminar. Will have to practice that one a bit more before trotting it out at a trial.
Another handy little thing I learned was calling his name before a straight tunnel to alert him to a tight turn coming out. At first I was skeptical about this because we already have a problem with very late commitment to tunnels and I was certain that calling his name would pull him off. But surprisingly this turned out to work well for him. I do sometimes call his name before he takes off for a jump to indicate a tight turn or convergence so it does sort of make sense that it should work and it's a consistent use of my cues.
And finally the dogwalk. My next move for the dogwalk is the dreaded stride regulator. I've been considering it and rejecting the idea for years now partly because I don't want to have to fade a prop but mostly because I wasn't sure where to put it. But Strummer was doing his extend and leap move at the seminar so Rosanne was able to see where it should go and showed me where to put it. It worked great at the seminar though, we'll see how he does out at the field and if it'll transfer to the ring.
Lots of running this weekend which was fun for me. I've been watching some European handlers on YouTube and puzzling how it is that they run so quickly and aggressively on such technical courses that you would think would require a lot of collection but now I'm starting to understand. I was tired by the end of each day and had to quit one exercise early both days. We covered a lot of ground each day and I feel like I've got more than enough to work on for the next few months. Rosanne was a great instructor, explained everything very clearly and had several different handling options for most of the handling challenges. Was interesting to see myself as well as the others in the class able to handle such difficult stuff without a huge amount of struggle. The handling seemed to come naturally without too much brain drain or over thinking, just going out there and doing. Very fun. The other attendees liked her as well, I woke up to a lot of positive feedback in my email box this morning.
And at the end of the seminar I was surprised to find out that the club was giving me vouchers for organizing the seminar, something I wasn't expecting at all and I was even more surprised at how generously they paid me. It amounted to several whole trial entries, tournaments and all! I was so excited about that. I may even be able to afford to go to Regionals now if we can qualify in time since I won't have to pay for trial entries for several months.
Normal people's normal dogs are tired after a seminar with lots of running. Strummer had a relatively quiet morning then decided a run around the yard with his watering can was in order.
What is this 'Rest Day'?
He may not need one but I do. No agility until at least the weekend or maybe even next week. I didn't make it to masters today either. I wish a couple full days of agility were not so exhausting.
Lots of international flavor to the courses, even the novice/advanced folks had some back sides of jumps if I remember correctly. It turns out it's not really a hard skill to learn and Strum and I have been getting better at it with practice. We practiced all sorts of scenarios with back sides of jumps and I feel a lot more comfortable with them now and I have exercises for practicing the basic skills for them, especially sending through a gap. I also did a lot more running backwards then I'm used to for handling threadles, wraps, pulling through a gap. And the blind crosses! I do them occasionally after tunnels, the A-frame, weave poles but pretty much never after jumps. But wow, what a useful skill for certain scenarios and so easy and natural to learn. Wish I'd had that skill for some of those courses at DOCNA Champs. Will be fun to try them out at the upcoming DOCNA trial if the course calls for them.
I also learned how to use a Ketschker turn to handle a wrap. When Marco Mouwen was here a million years ago he taught them to us and everybody was freaking out. Nobody was terribly enthusiastic about the idea of sending their dog behind them and I never saw anybody do it at a trial. It was back when I was running Cody and it turned out Cody was the one dog at the seminar that naturally did really well with it but aside from a 180 degree turn we didn't learn very many scenarios to use it and I never did see a use for it at a trial. But it turns out to be a handy thing for handling certain types of wrap scenarios and Strummer picked it up fairly easily which was surprising because generally if I face him too soon it's too much collection and he'll refuse the jump he's headed for. But he did well with it at the seminar. Will have to practice that one a bit more before trotting it out at a trial.
Another handy little thing I learned was calling his name before a straight tunnel to alert him to a tight turn coming out. At first I was skeptical about this because we already have a problem with very late commitment to tunnels and I was certain that calling his name would pull him off. But surprisingly this turned out to work well for him. I do sometimes call his name before he takes off for a jump to indicate a tight turn or convergence so it does sort of make sense that it should work and it's a consistent use of my cues.
And finally the dogwalk. My next move for the dogwalk is the dreaded stride regulator. I've been considering it and rejecting the idea for years now partly because I don't want to have to fade a prop but mostly because I wasn't sure where to put it. But Strummer was doing his extend and leap move at the seminar so Rosanne was able to see where it should go and showed me where to put it. It worked great at the seminar though, we'll see how he does out at the field and if it'll transfer to the ring.
Lots of running this weekend which was fun for me. I've been watching some European handlers on YouTube and puzzling how it is that they run so quickly and aggressively on such technical courses that you would think would require a lot of collection but now I'm starting to understand. I was tired by the end of each day and had to quit one exercise early both days. We covered a lot of ground each day and I feel like I've got more than enough to work on for the next few months. Rosanne was a great instructor, explained everything very clearly and had several different handling options for most of the handling challenges. Was interesting to see myself as well as the others in the class able to handle such difficult stuff without a huge amount of struggle. The handling seemed to come naturally without too much brain drain or over thinking, just going out there and doing. Very fun. The other attendees liked her as well, I woke up to a lot of positive feedback in my email box this morning.
And at the end of the seminar I was surprised to find out that the club was giving me vouchers for organizing the seminar, something I wasn't expecting at all and I was even more surprised at how generously they paid me. It amounted to several whole trial entries, tournaments and all! I was so excited about that. I may even be able to afford to go to Regionals now if we can qualify in time since I won't have to pay for trial entries for several months.
Normal people's normal dogs are tired after a seminar with lots of running. Strummer had a relatively quiet morning then decided a run around the yard with his watering can was in order.
What is this 'Rest Day'?
He may not need one but I do. No agility until at least the weekend or maybe even next week. I didn't make it to masters today either. I wish a couple full days of agility were not so exhausting.
Friday, April 22, 2011
AKC Finals course and more dogwalk
My practice field had the AKC finals course from the recent Nationals set up last weekend so Strum and I gave it a shot.
Here's the course.
On our first shot Strum knocked the first bar. On our second shot he ran clean to the dogwalk where I thought he made it and I stopped to reward him profusely but as it turned out it was a weird sort of miss. Then I got behind on the straight run from 17 to 20 and he took the #12 jump. I knew this would be a problem when I walked it but I couldn't see much of a way to get ahead. A rear cross at the #19 tunnel only puts you further behind and when I tried it I got the #11 jump. I checked out some videos on Youtube and there were at least one or two other handlers with fast dogs that got the #11 jump with the rear or a refusal at #20. Eventually I realized I had to trust him after the chute and run as fast as I could and finally that did the trick. A good example of that is here, Rosanne DeMascio's win in the 20" class. As an aside, she's coming to the Boulder County Fairgrounds to give a seminar on November 19-21. FRAC members have the first shot at working spots and in the past they've gone quickly so if anyone local or semi-local is interested you might want to consider joining FRAC. Anyway, she does a nice job of running ahead and keeping an eye on and connection with her dog, something I've been focusing on a lot lately for myself. I handled the rest of the course almost completely differently from her. Wish the course was still set up, I'd like to try the double rear crosses she did from after 4 to7. I did double fronts and it would be interesting to compare. The handler with the 2nd place run from the same class was behind the tunnel exit when her dog came out of the tunnel but the dog continued on a straight path to the finish. I'm guessing she used a verbal. Of the videos I saw of people with fast dogs very few people had success with that sequence if they weren't past the tunnel exit when the dog came out. This seemed to be the only challenging part of the course and only challenging if you had a really fast dog. Seems like it tested the handler's physical abilities more than anything.
The set-up at the practice field had the 1-2 jumps a bit to the left of the teeter so 3 to 4 was like a threadle in order to get a good safe approach to the teeter. I started out with Strum on my right, did forward send to 2 then a little backy-uppy between 3 and 4 to handle the threadle. A front after 4 and another front after 5. I handled 8-9-10 like a serp with a rear cross on the flat between 9 and 10 but I didn't like that much. I was standing around waiting for the rear, could have easily got a front in instead. A lot of people on the videos did a front between 8 and 9 but I didn't like that option with 8 being a tire and the difficulty of getting in there for a forward motion front cross. I kept Strum on my right all the way to the #14 tunnel. A lateral send between 11 and 12 kept him off the #20 jump no problem. Most people on the videos did a front after the weaves and I'm guessing it's so they could be in position to manage the tunnel-dogwalk turn. You see this all the time in DOCNA, sometimes in a gamble, so we've practiced this to the point where he's fairly independent and I can get a head start on the dogwalk and trust him to get on the dogwalk and manage his entrance so I stayed to the left of the tunnel entrance and had a nice head start on the dogwalk. The rest of the course was just a horse race.
This morning I was at the field bright and early in some bad winds to practice the dogwalk. I don't like putting him on the dogwalk in high winds but they weren't quite to level that I would consider dangerous, more annoying than anything. Nonetheless I did mostly backchaining from the top of the down ramp so he wouldn't get caught in a gust running full speed. We did do a couple of full dpgwalks and a few reps of backchaining from further back when the winds seemed calm.
Since the past 4 practices with the dogwalk-tunnel set up have been so unsuccessful (40%-50% success rates) I decided to stand facing the down ramp so he'd shorten his stride and start having some success. Once I felt he was going to make the contact I turned and sent him in the tunnel. His success rate for these reps was 100% (or close, I didn't go back to check) and the misses happened when I tried to fade facing him and/or added some movement. However he did have 3 hits where I was facing the tunnel or not directly facing the walk so he was starting to get the hang of it. The effect of my location/motion is obvious in the video.
I think what this shows is that I did a poor job of fading the treat gizmo and tossed toys and that the tunnel is a different challenge than a jump. Yeah, I know, DUH. But we need to work through this and I think that if he can get this then he's going to have a better understanding of what he's supposed to do. He's not nearly as sensitive to my position or motion when there's a jump so this is a good way to work on generalizing the behavior.
If I had this to do over I'd introduce obstacles after the plank from the very start of the plank on the ground. Not during the initial stages of training but after the dog was running the flat plank I'd put a tunnel. And I'd do it at each stage as well. I did most of my early training in my backyard and didn't have enough space for a tunnel. I did put a jump and that's probably part of the reason why he's so much better with jumps.
Stats:
12/17 (70%)
Again, I think all the misses were when I wasn't facing the dogwalk but we did have 3 successes with me not directly facing the dogwalk. I'm going to continue with this next week but also maybe throw in a session with a jump and some tossed toys so we don't forget that.
Here's the course.
On our first shot Strum knocked the first bar. On our second shot he ran clean to the dogwalk where I thought he made it and I stopped to reward him profusely but as it turned out it was a weird sort of miss. Then I got behind on the straight run from 17 to 20 and he took the #12 jump. I knew this would be a problem when I walked it but I couldn't see much of a way to get ahead. A rear cross at the #19 tunnel only puts you further behind and when I tried it I got the #11 jump. I checked out some videos on Youtube and there were at least one or two other handlers with fast dogs that got the #11 jump with the rear or a refusal at #20. Eventually I realized I had to trust him after the chute and run as fast as I could and finally that did the trick. A good example of that is here, Rosanne DeMascio's win in the 20" class. As an aside, she's coming to the Boulder County Fairgrounds to give a seminar on November 19-21. FRAC members have the first shot at working spots and in the past they've gone quickly so if anyone local or semi-local is interested you might want to consider joining FRAC. Anyway, she does a nice job of running ahead and keeping an eye on and connection with her dog, something I've been focusing on a lot lately for myself. I handled the rest of the course almost completely differently from her. Wish the course was still set up, I'd like to try the double rear crosses she did from after 4 to7. I did double fronts and it would be interesting to compare. The handler with the 2nd place run from the same class was behind the tunnel exit when her dog came out of the tunnel but the dog continued on a straight path to the finish. I'm guessing she used a verbal. Of the videos I saw of people with fast dogs very few people had success with that sequence if they weren't past the tunnel exit when the dog came out. This seemed to be the only challenging part of the course and only challenging if you had a really fast dog. Seems like it tested the handler's physical abilities more than anything.
The set-up at the practice field had the 1-2 jumps a bit to the left of the teeter so 3 to 4 was like a threadle in order to get a good safe approach to the teeter. I started out with Strum on my right, did forward send to 2 then a little backy-uppy between 3 and 4 to handle the threadle. A front after 4 and another front after 5. I handled 8-9-10 like a serp with a rear cross on the flat between 9 and 10 but I didn't like that much. I was standing around waiting for the rear, could have easily got a front in instead. A lot of people on the videos did a front between 8 and 9 but I didn't like that option with 8 being a tire and the difficulty of getting in there for a forward motion front cross. I kept Strum on my right all the way to the #14 tunnel. A lateral send between 11 and 12 kept him off the #20 jump no problem. Most people on the videos did a front after the weaves and I'm guessing it's so they could be in position to manage the tunnel-dogwalk turn. You see this all the time in DOCNA, sometimes in a gamble, so we've practiced this to the point where he's fairly independent and I can get a head start on the dogwalk and trust him to get on the dogwalk and manage his entrance so I stayed to the left of the tunnel entrance and had a nice head start on the dogwalk. The rest of the course was just a horse race.
This morning I was at the field bright and early in some bad winds to practice the dogwalk. I don't like putting him on the dogwalk in high winds but they weren't quite to level that I would consider dangerous, more annoying than anything. Nonetheless I did mostly backchaining from the top of the down ramp so he wouldn't get caught in a gust running full speed. We did do a couple of full dpgwalks and a few reps of backchaining from further back when the winds seemed calm.
Since the past 4 practices with the dogwalk-tunnel set up have been so unsuccessful (40%-50% success rates) I decided to stand facing the down ramp so he'd shorten his stride and start having some success. Once I felt he was going to make the contact I turned and sent him in the tunnel. His success rate for these reps was 100% (or close, I didn't go back to check) and the misses happened when I tried to fade facing him and/or added some movement. However he did have 3 hits where I was facing the tunnel or not directly facing the walk so he was starting to get the hang of it. The effect of my location/motion is obvious in the video.
I think what this shows is that I did a poor job of fading the treat gizmo and tossed toys and that the tunnel is a different challenge than a jump. Yeah, I know, DUH. But we need to work through this and I think that if he can get this then he's going to have a better understanding of what he's supposed to do. He's not nearly as sensitive to my position or motion when there's a jump so this is a good way to work on generalizing the behavior.
If I had this to do over I'd introduce obstacles after the plank from the very start of the plank on the ground. Not during the initial stages of training but after the dog was running the flat plank I'd put a tunnel. And I'd do it at each stage as well. I did most of my early training in my backyard and didn't have enough space for a tunnel. I did put a jump and that's probably part of the reason why he's so much better with jumps.
Stats:
12/17 (70%)
Again, I think all the misses were when I wasn't facing the dogwalk but we did have 3 successes with me not directly facing the dogwalk. I'm going to continue with this next week but also maybe throw in a session with a jump and some tossed toys so we don't forget that.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Agility weekly wrap-up
Had a fun handling practice this morning in the wind. I felt like I was doing o.k. and handling things smoothly, thinking about things but not overthinking. Then I got home and saw the video and realized how many mistakes there were. Oh well, I had fun anyway. We had some back sides of jumps in Exercise #1 and a threadle in Exercise #3 that took me a while to recognize as a threadle. I struggled with it a bit then realized, duh, it's a threadle and once I handled it like a threadle it was no problemo.
I probably should have stopped at the coffee shop on the way to practice, apparently I'm still a little out of it at 8:30 a.m. on a Sunday.
Dogwalk practice this week went downhill once again but I changed the set-up and expected a degradation on the behavior. I replaced the jump at the end of the dogwalk with a tunnel and this has always been a problem for Strummer. I have lots of theories about the why of it but not so many about how to fix it other than to keep at it until he gets it. These videos go back in time as you go down the post. I'm mostly posting them for myself, nothing too impressive to see in any of them. I'm hoping he starts getting it next week or I may go back to the jump just so he can have some success again. Next trial is in 3 weeks, ugh. I was so sure I'd have this fixed by now.
Friday, April 15
Stats:
8/15 (53%) total
8/10 (80%) backchained
0/5 (0%) full
Wednesday April 13
Stats:
8/12 (67%) total
5/6 (83%) low dogwalk
3/4 (75%) low dogwalk backchained
2/2 (100%) low dogwalk full
3/6 (50%) regular dogwalk
2/5 (40%) regular dogwalk backchained
1/1 (100%) regular dogwalk full
The dogwalk was lowered when I got to the training field so I thought I'd see if he would have problems with the low dogwalk. He did great and what that tells me is that he does have a good foundation. These stats aren't accurate either because I had some technical problems with the camera and I missed a good chunk of practice on the high dogwalk that did not go well. One of the more frustrating practices I've had in some time and I got a bit mad at myself for getting frustrated. Even through Friday's practice didn't go well I made sure that I had a much better attitude about it.
April 7
Stats:
5/11 (45%) total
2/5 (45%) backchained
3/6 (50%) full
This was the first time with the new dogwalk-tunnel set-up so I started out with some backchaining but it didn't seem to matter, he was still missing quite a bit. I realize now it was nearly a week until I tried again so I must have been fairly discouraged.
I probably should have stopped at the coffee shop on the way to practice, apparently I'm still a little out of it at 8:30 a.m. on a Sunday.
Dogwalk practice this week went downhill once again but I changed the set-up and expected a degradation on the behavior. I replaced the jump at the end of the dogwalk with a tunnel and this has always been a problem for Strummer. I have lots of theories about the why of it but not so many about how to fix it other than to keep at it until he gets it. These videos go back in time as you go down the post. I'm mostly posting them for myself, nothing too impressive to see in any of them. I'm hoping he starts getting it next week or I may go back to the jump just so he can have some success again. Next trial is in 3 weeks, ugh. I was so sure I'd have this fixed by now.
Friday, April 15
Stats:
8/15 (53%) total
8/10 (80%) backchained
0/5 (0%) full
Wednesday April 13
Stats:
8/12 (67%) total
5/6 (83%) low dogwalk
3/4 (75%) low dogwalk backchained
2/2 (100%) low dogwalk full
3/6 (50%) regular dogwalk
2/5 (40%) regular dogwalk backchained
1/1 (100%) regular dogwalk full
The dogwalk was lowered when I got to the training field so I thought I'd see if he would have problems with the low dogwalk. He did great and what that tells me is that he does have a good foundation. These stats aren't accurate either because I had some technical problems with the camera and I missed a good chunk of practice on the high dogwalk that did not go well. One of the more frustrating practices I've had in some time and I got a bit mad at myself for getting frustrated. Even through Friday's practice didn't go well I made sure that I had a much better attitude about it.
April 7
Stats:
5/11 (45%) total
2/5 (45%) backchained
3/6 (50%) full
This was the first time with the new dogwalk-tunnel set-up so I started out with some backchaining but it didn't seem to matter, he was still missing quite a bit. I realize now it was nearly a week until I tried again so I must have been fairly discouraged.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Handling and Dogwalk practice
Today was weave pole/tunnel day. Strum did awesome with his weave entries, I was stunned. The only one he missed was coming out of a tunnel and the tunnel was very close to the weaves so he had to collect hard and early. It took him 4 tries even though I cued the weaves verbally while he was still in the tunnel. But he finally got it, what an awesome boy.
Practice 3-10-2011 from colliebrains on Vimeo.
The exercises where from a Clean Run Backyard Dogs, I don't know which one, so I can't print them here but they were short and obvious enough you can see what's going on in the video. We added in the A-frame, what they hey, wanted to get some contact practice in. Strum missed the first one but I called it and had him redo it and he was perfect for the other reps.
Overall I could have gotten more collection in some places but I think we did a nice job and I remembered to keep my eye on him. Had a nice lateral send at the end of Exercise #3 and was able to get far enough ahead to put in a front cross after a tunnel-whee ha! I think maybe some of the seminar lessons actually sank in though I did have one botched forward send.
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Running Dogwalk
I finally looked at the video from yesterday's nightmare of a practice and on paper it doesn't sound as bad as I thought: 9/15 (60%). That's still bad but I thought it was more around 30%. Unfortunately the misses are on the full dogwalk while the hits are mostly back chaining of the down plank. I cut the video short, even I don't want to sit through 15 reps. You get the gist of what's happening. Set-up was jump-dogwalk-tunnel-treat gizmo.
Today I decided we needed some success so before handling practice I set up the treat gizmo at the end of the dogwalk for a couple reps. then replaced it with a jump for a couple more. I didn't put a jump in before the dogwalk. Technically he was 4/4 (100%) but two of the hits were high for my liking and sloppy looking. But it felt so good to have some success. I think the new plan will be to continue with the successful set-up for one more practice, start the next practice with the jump then after several good reps. replace the jump with the tunnel and see if he can maintain success.
Practice 3-10-2011 from colliebrains on Vimeo.
The exercises where from a Clean Run Backyard Dogs, I don't know which one, so I can't print them here but they were short and obvious enough you can see what's going on in the video. We added in the A-frame, what they hey, wanted to get some contact practice in. Strum missed the first one but I called it and had him redo it and he was perfect for the other reps.
Overall I could have gotten more collection in some places but I think we did a nice job and I remembered to keep my eye on him. Had a nice lateral send at the end of Exercise #3 and was able to get far enough ahead to put in a front cross after a tunnel-whee ha! I think maybe some of the seminar lessons actually sank in though I did have one botched forward send.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Running Dogwalk
I finally looked at the video from yesterday's nightmare of a practice and on paper it doesn't sound as bad as I thought: 9/15 (60%). That's still bad but I thought it was more around 30%. Unfortunately the misses are on the full dogwalk while the hits are mostly back chaining of the down plank. I cut the video short, even I don't want to sit through 15 reps. You get the gist of what's happening. Set-up was jump-dogwalk-tunnel-treat gizmo.
Today I decided we needed some success so before handling practice I set up the treat gizmo at the end of the dogwalk for a couple reps. then replaced it with a jump for a couple more. I didn't put a jump in before the dogwalk. Technically he was 4/4 (100%) but two of the hits were high for my liking and sloppy looking. But it felt so good to have some success. I think the new plan will be to continue with the successful set-up for one more practice, start the next practice with the jump then after several good reps. replace the jump with the tunnel and see if he can maintain success.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Geeking out with Agility Nerd
My training partner and I decided to give Agility Nerd's latest challenge a go. His course maps and analysis are at that link. We had to make some adjustments because the dogwalk was in the middle of the field and I don't care for those hogback broad jumps and I'm not even sure if the training field has one. So we substituted the dogwalk for the A-frame and modified the course so as not to take the one way broad jump backwards. It looked roughly thus:
I know, my handwriting is appalling. I used to have to hand draft things for work complete with nice neat lettering. I could use fancy technical drafting pens and everything. Then came computer drafting and thankfully that hand drawn stuff all went out the window. But between taking notes at the seminar and a class I took over the weekend I realize that I can no longer write. Like at all. My notes look I'd been drinking. Heavily and continuously. I wonder if kids today even learn handwriting and if they have any use for it.
Anyway, this course was a great opportunity to practice just about everything we'd worked on at the Mary Ellen Barry/Jenn Crank seminar. Forward sends, lateral sends, forward motion front cross, convergence, you name it, we got it. Except no rear crosses this time, oh well. I labeled some of them with captions on the video for those who might be interested in the types of things we worked on at the seminar.
I didn't read Steve's course analysis before going to the field because I wanted to see what I would come up with and compare to what he had to say. The only thing I didn't think to try was front crossing the teeter before the weaves. I did have some problems with Strum coming off the side during Exercise 2 and though this is a training issue if I'd carried on for the front cross I wouldn't have had the problem.
I had arrived a little early to work on the dogwalk but we only got one rep in. The set-up was jump, dogwalk, jump, treat gizmo. So I decided to put the treat gizmo 15' straight after the #9 dogwalk rather than try to work a turn. Unfortunately he jumped and I put in a mini-dogwalk training session that I omitted from the video. I'll probably put it in a separate post. Or maybe just cry myself to sleep and tomorrow is another day.
I decided to make some changes to Exercise 2 because I recognized something from the seminar that I wanted to work on. My version looks like:
I changed the threadle at 5-6-7 into a 270/serpentine type thingy. You can also do a double front cross between 5-6 and 6-7. I did it both ways at the seminar with a kinda similar set-up (though the entry to the 270 was much easier,more straight on at the seminar) and had success with both. The double front cross in this case is a more surefire/safe option but the serpentine is kinda cool. The trick is to face the #6 jump until the dog is past the plane of the jump, then you can move into serpentine position and call him in. Very cool. I also decided not to do the dogwalk so I repeated the tunnel instead. That push to the tunnel past the dogwalk was something I wanted to work on anyway since we had an off course at the last trial. The other thing about that push to the tunnel is that you want to be able to send and go quick as you can because that 12-13-14 line is a horse race. The lateral send to the #15 weaves was hard for Strum because he's still struggling with his weave entries. Does falling behind on the straightaway count as deceleration? It's a good weave entry exercise and I'll have to set it up again.
More video.
I didn't put music on the second video so I could hear my verbal cues. I did put it on the first video out of respect to my training partner who I thought maybe didn't want to be heard yelling at her dog to be quiet all over the internets. You'll notice how quiet he was on this video though, she barely had to say a word to him, such a good boy.
It was a nice cool day, temps. probably in the high 30's with a little nip in the air so the dogs were feisty and we were able to train for an hour (taking turns) without the dogs getting too hot.
Big thanks to Agility Nerd for letting us play, we had a lot of fun with the course.
I know, my handwriting is appalling. I used to have to hand draft things for work complete with nice neat lettering. I could use fancy technical drafting pens and everything. Then came computer drafting and thankfully that hand drawn stuff all went out the window. But between taking notes at the seminar and a class I took over the weekend I realize that I can no longer write. Like at all. My notes look I'd been drinking. Heavily and continuously. I wonder if kids today even learn handwriting and if they have any use for it.
Anyway, this course was a great opportunity to practice just about everything we'd worked on at the Mary Ellen Barry/Jenn Crank seminar. Forward sends, lateral sends, forward motion front cross, convergence, you name it, we got it. Except no rear crosses this time, oh well. I labeled some of them with captions on the video for those who might be interested in the types of things we worked on at the seminar.
I didn't read Steve's course analysis before going to the field because I wanted to see what I would come up with and compare to what he had to say. The only thing I didn't think to try was front crossing the teeter before the weaves. I did have some problems with Strum coming off the side during Exercise 2 and though this is a training issue if I'd carried on for the front cross I wouldn't have had the problem.
I had arrived a little early to work on the dogwalk but we only got one rep in. The set-up was jump, dogwalk, jump, treat gizmo. So I decided to put the treat gizmo 15' straight after the #9 dogwalk rather than try to work a turn. Unfortunately he jumped and I put in a mini-dogwalk training session that I omitted from the video. I'll probably put it in a separate post. Or maybe just cry myself to sleep and tomorrow is another day.
I decided to make some changes to Exercise 2 because I recognized something from the seminar that I wanted to work on. My version looks like:
I changed the threadle at 5-6-7 into a 270/serpentine type thingy. You can also do a double front cross between 5-6 and 6-7. I did it both ways at the seminar with a kinda similar set-up (though the entry to the 270 was much easier,more straight on at the seminar) and had success with both. The double front cross in this case is a more surefire/safe option but the serpentine is kinda cool. The trick is to face the #6 jump until the dog is past the plane of the jump, then you can move into serpentine position and call him in. Very cool. I also decided not to do the dogwalk so I repeated the tunnel instead. That push to the tunnel past the dogwalk was something I wanted to work on anyway since we had an off course at the last trial. The other thing about that push to the tunnel is that you want to be able to send and go quick as you can because that 12-13-14 line is a horse race. The lateral send to the #15 weaves was hard for Strum because he's still struggling with his weave entries. Does falling behind on the straightaway count as deceleration? It's a good weave entry exercise and I'll have to set it up again.
More video.
I didn't put music on the second video so I could hear my verbal cues. I did put it on the first video out of respect to my training partner who I thought maybe didn't want to be heard yelling at her dog to be quiet all over the internets. You'll notice how quiet he was on this video though, she barely had to say a word to him, such a good boy.
It was a nice cool day, temps. probably in the high 30's with a little nip in the air so the dogs were feisty and we were able to train for an hour (taking turns) without the dogs getting too hot.
Big thanks to Agility Nerd for letting us play, we had a lot of fun with the course.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Some handling practice
Nice practice session today with my training partner. It got hot in the sun even though temps. were in the 40's so we cut it short since the dogs were panting.
This is my first video with my new Flip Mino video camera. I like the small size and ease of use of it but I think it has comparable or maybe slightly worse video quality than my mini DV and it doesn't zoom out as far which is problematic for shooting my practices with a tripod. It uploads quickly but then when I put the clips into Windows Movie Maker to trim them down Movie Maker has to process them in some way and that takes a fair amount of time. The files are nearly twice the size for the same or slightly worse video quality and I'm not happy about that. I'll try it a few more times but I'm leaning towards returning it and waiting until I can afford a regular HD camcorder (and hoping my mini DV camcorder holds out in the meantime). I suppose for $114 I'm expecting too much.
This practice session went much better than last week since it was a lot easier but still had it's challenges. Weave pole entries continue to be a problem for Strummer and the one in Exercises 1 and 5 is one of the hardest scenarios for him. I was even out at the practice field this week practicing that entry. We worked at it until he finally got it.
Only one rear cross for the whole practice and I did my goofy little run away from the cross then quickly charge the other way into the cross. Joy would cringe if she saw that, she was always pointing that out to me. Strum read it o.k. but still not the way I want to execute a rear cross.
In Exercise 3 I was trying to tighten up the turn to the tunnel with a front cross and at first moved parallel to the tunnel opening which was not so very helpful. I figured it out though and it was a much nicer turn.
In Exercise 5 I should have put in a front cross between the yellow jump and tunnel. Not sure how I missed that.
In general I felt more focused than last week. Tried to focus on focusing and when I remembered to do it it worked. Hopefully some dog walk practice and a full course tomorrow.
This is my first video with my new Flip Mino video camera. I like the small size and ease of use of it but I think it has comparable or maybe slightly worse video quality than my mini DV and it doesn't zoom out as far which is problematic for shooting my practices with a tripod. It uploads quickly but then when I put the clips into Windows Movie Maker to trim them down Movie Maker has to process them in some way and that takes a fair amount of time. The files are nearly twice the size for the same or slightly worse video quality and I'm not happy about that. I'll try it a few more times but I'm leaning towards returning it and waiting until I can afford a regular HD camcorder (and hoping my mini DV camcorder holds out in the meantime). I suppose for $114 I'm expecting too much.
This practice session went much better than last week since it was a lot easier but still had it's challenges. Weave pole entries continue to be a problem for Strummer and the one in Exercises 1 and 5 is one of the hardest scenarios for him. I was even out at the practice field this week practicing that entry. We worked at it until he finally got it.
Only one rear cross for the whole practice and I did my goofy little run away from the cross then quickly charge the other way into the cross. Joy would cringe if she saw that, she was always pointing that out to me. Strum read it o.k. but still not the way I want to execute a rear cross.
In Exercise 3 I was trying to tighten up the turn to the tunnel with a front cross and at first moved parallel to the tunnel opening which was not so very helpful. I figured it out though and it was a much nicer turn.
In Exercise 5 I should have put in a front cross between the yellow jump and tunnel. Not sure how I missed that.
In general I felt more focused than last week. Tried to focus on focusing and when I remembered to do it it worked. Hopefully some dog walk practice and a full course tomorrow.
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