Oct 30th - at the barn

Tonight was an AWESOME training night! Normally the 4 hours is so long but it just flew by and I was very proud of my pups. Thanks to Andrea and Linda, I was able to get video of both Abbey and Baxter running. The video of Abbey are on her own blog so I won't bother to put them here. It was a bit painstaking but I was very happy to get some of her.

First we started with the puppies and were doing some lead outs. I didn't think that there was any way that Ripley would ever allow for this lead out but after some shaping and use of toys for rewards (strategically thrown out by Andrea) we were able to get him to understand some of the concepts...a huge breakthrough if you ask me. We finished off with some weaves which reinforced to me that I need to get my butt back in the backyard and work those 2x2's.

Next was the big boys turn. Both Peso and Baxter did really well, I was very proud of Baxter. He wasn't turning as tight as we would have liked when the tunnel was in front of him but again with some reinforcements we were able to get some tighter turns. He nailed every weave entry which I was thrilled about and maintained some really good sit-stays.

The class usually follows the boys but because we only had 2 students come Andrea had me work Baxter for the other hour. We set up a pre-starter type course for them which Baxter also did. In between his turns he maintained really good control over himself, doing some sit-stays etc and never once barked at the other dogs (and even Peso was playing the odd time). Linda was nice enough to tape B's final run and he ran it clean! I know it wasn't anything difficult but still, he was running full out, had good contacts and kept the bars up and had a good startline :)

Our final hour was spent doing some harder courses with Abbey and Chase. Andrea figured out some other options and added weaves and teeter to the course. Abbey was being an idiot at the weaves popping the last pole to get to the frame but otherwise did some nice stuff, kept her contacts and jumped the 16" jumps really well. Andrea taped those runs which I am starting to collect now.

Soo...as you can see, great night for the Thirsks :)

Oct 29th - lesson

So today Andrea and I went to Arlene Lehman's place for private lessons. We started with the puppies first doing some gridwork, then touches and finally working on the tunnel without using any commands. The gridwork was good, Ripley was a bit off balance going in due to his vulture type sit but finished it nicely. The touches actually got a bit better. The tunnel exercise was to have Rip sit calmly beside me then release him with my body facing the tunnel. Once in, I was throwing the toy to the exit.

Homework for Ripley:
His sit-stay is better than it was but still needs to be worked on - work on less exciting places and build.
We talked about Ripley's refusal to hand touch. I need to be firm with him when he uses any teeth or vocals and I need to feed from the same hand that he is touching.
Need to find stairs or else build a plank for him to nose touch off of. *make sure to have lots of food ready and put food on target the second he does the touch. I can put tape down if he is pushing it around.
Need to work on the "it's your choice" game with food. This way he will know that food is coming and not move his head towards me.
Need to work on the tunnel entrances without verbal or hand commands.

Baxter's session went well. We started with the same grid work as the puppies. He had trouble getting into the last bounce instead he was leaping over the last two jumps together. We then moved on to a tunnel - jump - frame/tunnel/jump sequence. We did not give any commands expecting them to come out of the tunnel and take the frame as it was directly in front. If we wanted them to take the tunnel, we needed to use a threadle arm to get them off the straight line. Baxter went into the tunnel each time but was just anticipating the change but was not really coming into my arm. The final sequence we had to keep the dogs on our arm past the frame/tunnel and go past the jump then allow them to jump back over it. I needed to use treats to keep B on my arm for this.

Homework for Baxter:
Need to work on "it's your choice" game with food the same as Ripley
Need to make sure when using threadle arm to reward for coming into my arm

Oct 28th - the barn and SDC

I had such a great day with B today! I had only 3 students for the competitive class so I decided to run B in the class. I found some good courses to work on from a Clean Run magazine that I thought the group would like. We had a great time talking about different ways to handle them which was fun. B ran awesome keeping most of the bars up (only taking them down when I got in his way for crosses) and nailing every single weave entry! and this was all at major speed. I am sooo happy with him. I talked with Tracy Sklenar today about his weaves and I feel that he is definitely doing what she thinks I should be doing :) He also maintained his sit-stays and this was with other dogs playing so he was pretty charged up.

Here is a copy of what we did tonight. I did a mixture of front and rear crosses.

Prior to the class I brought Rip into the arena. He did some weaves which were good and I also worked on his jumping. I think his main issue is me running when he is jumping. I am not sure what is exactly happening but I am guessing that he is looking at me when I am running or else he just flattens. I am hoping that Arlene will help me with this tomorrow or else when I head to Ottawa and see if Tiff can see what is going on.

After agility I headed to SDC to do a bit of flyball with B and Abs. After speaking with a few people I have decided that it will do him good to get to play. He completely loves it and I could see in his face that he was having a blast. I can't believe how he hasn't done it for so many months and was a super pro at it. He is now laying beside me sleeping away like a happy healthy dog.

Till tomorrow...

Oct 27th - at the barn & home

So tonight I decided to retrain Abbey's weaves using the 2x2 method, so she is on day 1. Unlike the boys, she is not a dog that has learned to offer behaviors. For this reason she found it challenging that I wasn't telling her what to do. I had the one set open fully and was able to get back about 1' back for her to go around and wrap. On the offside she was able to figure it out pretty easy but on the onside, she was trying to weave properly. I am excited to see how this all pans out. She is doing so great these days, I would love her to have some nice entries like B is having these days.

After that I headed to the barn for a night of agility with the boys. Ripley started first with a set point jump with some physical distractions under the spread jump. He had some pretty good sit stays without being in the vulture sit so I was very happy about that. He rounded nice and drove to his toy. He then did a jump grid that was for bending. He also did well on this one too, going along the straight line quite nice. The final grid was a 5 jump set at 6' 7' 8' 9' between them, all at 6" high. He had some really nice sit-stay's and did this well. The final exercise of the day was weaves. Ripley got quite high at this point and when he did get the entry, he did well but he missed quite a few entries. It is pretty obvious that I need to work more weaves with him in the backyard. Rip was driving nice to his toys today, enjoyed the ritz crackers as his treats and had some nice "with me's". Overall - good day :) Too bad I couldn't remain still for agility with him, he seems to like that better.

Baxter was next and he did all the same exercises as Rip. He had some nice sit-stays, bends, straight lines. When we finished off with weaves I was very happy with him! He really understands to dig in to get that entry and make it into the next pole...I am sooo proud of him!! Even when he is pumped and driving hard, he is digging in. I forgot his snoot loop at home and that is something I need to remember. He has a hard time getting into and out of the arena worrying about the other animals.

Oct 23rd - at the barn

Another night at the barn, man was it cold and dirty...I think it is going to be a long winter.

I started with Ripley and it went downhill fast :( I just don't know what I am going to do with him anymore. Oh well, it has been a shitty week, so this just fits right in. The only good thing about his session was his dogwalk. He did a nice drive across the lowered dogwalk to the target plate and had some nice nose touches.

Baxter's session went much better, so that was good. We started with the double box work that Andrea organized. We started with front crosses first and B did it really nicely both directions. He kept all the bars up, read the crosses well, and kept his start line stay. We then moved on to rear crosses which B didn't do as well. He kept taking down jump 5 so with Andrea's help we worked the sequence of 3-6 and then 6-7 to keep his head down instead of watching me. We finished off with some dogwalks which he did well. One of the key things that I need to work on with him this week is to reinforce his stay without moving his front feet. If I move away from him laterally, he moves his feet and body to look at me. In order for him to find his line, he needs to stop doing this.

Here is the double box stuff we did for future reference:
After we were done with the class Andrea did a mini class for a couple of us and I ran Abbey. We worked on jumping skills which went really well. We have moved Abbey to 16" jumps now which is going well but is a bit of work for her. We started with a pin-wheel where she had me send Abbey from a distance, throwing a treat tub after jump 2 ensuring she was staying out in the pin-wheel. She did it well both ways but did need to have 2 bars on each jump.

Next we did a 180 and threadles. We started with distance on the 180 which she did well again. The threadles went well also but I have to remember to stand up straight when I turned my upper body.

Next we did 270's. Andrea threw the treat tub out to ensure that she stayed outside of the circle. It worked well and she finished off with some nice 270's without too much help from me.

The last thing we did was the dogwalk. With a target plate at the end, Abbey drove straight through to the target and maintained the contact :) I am hoping with a winter of that, that her contacts will be much more solid.

Oct 21st - at the barn

We started with the puppies first again tonight. Tonight Andrea came up with the idea that we will help each other to ensure that the puppies sit up straight at the start line. When Phe is going, I will feed her only at a nice sit until Andrea is ready to release her, and then Andrea will feed Rip. The first exercise was the set point jumping which we did with a swedish oxer. Ripley had never seen this before but he did not even think twice jumping it quite nicely. We did 2 at 10-22 x, then 2 at 16-26 x and then back to 2 at 10-22 x. Our next exercise was doing the set point type grid on the slice with a 6-16-6 jump pattern at 6' apart. We did 2 on each side and then moved it to 6-22-6 for 4 on each side. We then finished this exercise by doing 2 at 6-16-6 on each side. Having Andrea feed Ripley in a nice sit position was a GREAT help! I was very happy and it seemed like he was much more in control of his body. The final exercise with the puppies was the dogwalk. We have decided to work on less stuff each night but to make it more worthwhile and I felt it really worked. Ripley was holding a nice stay, running across quite nicely and doing a great target! I was very proud of my boy and then way he handled himself.

The big boys were next. We did the same 3 exercises with them as we did with the puppies. We had to be careful with B that he didn't look at me during the set point sessions. I have to make sure that it is his toy that I am using or else it has no value. Once we had his toy in the equation, it was very nice. For the dogwalk we also added a jump before and after the dogwalk at about 18' away. We were trying to get the dogs to drive onto the dogwalk. Baxter gave me some good contacts even when we did quick release and then tried again to fool him. We then worked on his sit-stay. He was doing a good job of sitting and staying for the whole length of the dog walk and the 2 jumps. The first couple of times when I went back to reward he self released. Andrea helped me by feeding him in place so that he didn't self release. Once he understood I was able to turn and walk back without him releasing.

Oct 19th - at home

I had taken a bit of a break with Ripley on weaving in the backyard. I put together the 4 poles and a slight opening on the first set. Ripley had some trouble remembering to go through the final two poles. Once he understood, he did some nice weaving. His entries were very nice though, so I was happy with him.

I also did some jumping with Rip. I only have 2 jumps at home right now so I used a bar on the ground, then a jump at 6" and then the third jump at 22". I started with the third jump at 12" away and continued to move it 1" at a time and then back again. Rip did a really nice job of jumping the 22", so I was happy and we ended on a happy note.

I then worked with Baxter. I did the tough entries by themselves and then I brought in 2 jumps. I was asking him to take the jump and enter at very tough angles and he did a great job! I was very happy with him. We also worked on 270's and threadles inside the 270. He kept almost all the bars up so that was great also :)

Oct 18th - Spot On Fun Trial

It was a beautiful day to head to Spot On's fun match for the day. A few of our students were there also which made the day lots of fun.

I was very proud of Baxter's performance for the day. He maintained almost all his contacts (he just missed the stop on the A-frame when they lowered it for another dog...I don't think he knew what happened but he did stop at the bottom on the grass). He got every weave entry that was a part of a course, which was great. He maintained some awesome sit-stays during the courses, even one where I was the full dogwalk away and he focused on his line. He did not bark at all when out of the car and did not flank me when we were not running the course.

Ripley got to do 2 courses. The first one was just jumps and tunnels trying to make up 21 points. I decided to keep Ripley controlled instead of letting him run amuck. I did a few threadles with him which he did really nice. I did work him over 16" jumps so that I could just concentrate on handling and not the jumping. He maintained his sit-stay but still in a vulture stance.

The bonus of the day (besides Owen winning one of the classes) is that Ripley did his first ever 12 weaves!! He at first popped out at 10 but once he got it, he did the 12 for two times.

Oct 16th - at the barn

I have been so busy, still need to write what we did that night :)

Oct 14th - at the barn

Andrea, Peso and Phoenix were back at the barn this week. It was nice to have our training partners back :)

I haven't had a chance to write my review of the night. The good/bad thing that happened tonight was the realization that Ripley just doesn't know how to jump :( The good thing is that we know there are things to teach him to learn to jump. The bad thing is that it could be many months to teach him this. We worked on the double box framework and Rip did nice going through the exercise but knocked most bars. When we took it down to 16" it was much better. Phe doesn't have any issues jumping the height but even Andrea thinks she could use some jump grid work (as does Baxter). I took a video of Andrea and Phe doing there stuff, check them out :)



I will update the blog tomorrow with what we did and how the boys did.

Oct 13th - Spot On

I decided to rent the agility field at Spot On today to see where Baxter is at with weaves in another location. There was a 2 day trial there on Sat/Sun so I knew that there would be 2 courses set up so I could run them. The first course was a Starter Standard which I ran Baxter on first. (I put a rough idea of the course...distances/locations may not be correct):Baxter maintained his sit/stay while I led out to the chute. He had a great contact on the frame and waited for his release. He nailed the weave entry and did the jump, table perfect. He had a great dogwalk contact and I sent him to 10 and was doing a front cross from 11/12 where he took 11 down. He did 12-16 perfect with an awesome teeter contact. Rick had taken a video of this and the others of the day but I deleted them by mistake :((

I decided to try the dogwalk - end again and this time I got out of his way from the front cross and he kept everything up. I then went back to do it all again and this time he had #2 down but otherwise was awesome. I couldn't be more proud of him, he didn't even think about getting in those weaves and he had a great start line.

I then brought Rip out. I decided to try to break it up and see where we got to. He did 1-3 really nice two times. I then went on to do the frame/weaves. He had a few really nice frame contacts but he is still slowly making his way into the contact and not driving down the frame. Andrea says that is how they can break their toes so I am worried about him with that. He missed the weave entry the first time but was able to get it the next time. He did have the issue about weaving all 6...I wonder how we will get to 12! lol. He did the dogwalk ok but his contact is a little less that what you would want, he likes to curl around and be off the side. He doesn't understand to drive straight and stay in that straight line. I then worked the jumps. The first time I sent him to 10 and did the front cross again from 11/12. Ripley completely missed 11 but did 12/13/14 beautiful. I tried all different ways to figure out what would work best for him. If I got in the correct position and he took the jump, we inveribly had at least 1 bar down :( I was very happy that he put some of the obstacles together, gave me sits (which he hates to do) and did contacts. I am still worried about these bars.

Next I moved over to the Masters Jumper ring. The course was still set and had 12 weaves in it (wow that judge was mean!) Here is what I remember of the course but not necessarily what the distances/obstacles were:So it took me 3 times to figure out that the best place to stand to get Baxter into the correct the tunnel of 5 and to get him to take 6-7 (he kept going to the weaves from 6 at first) was to stand at the entrance of the tunnel at 5 and show him the line of 1-4, get to be by jump 7. It worked beautiful on his forth try and did that section really nice. He consistently took 11 down when I was front crossing to 12 but he was cutting that jump so close that I wonder if it was him hitting the standard vs the bar. He nailed the weaves each time we tried (3 times) but on the one time didn't finish them?! Otherwise I was thrilled with his weaves and his start line again. He did the final line beautiful each time but usually does, lol. Overall I think the day was a great success. I think even Rick was impressed at what he saw. Now I might have to try and get to a trial to really see how he is doing. I don't know that I can wait for another 3 months..lol. I am planning to go to the fun match next weekend so maybe that will be the next test.

Oct 12th - at home

The dogs had a great time running around at my sister-in-laws place yesterday. I worked Baxter a bit on control and circle work. It was minimal but I think the boys had a good time just playing.

When we got home today, I decided to take Ripley out back as it has been a while since he has worked. First we started with weaves. I put the 6 poles straight today and they were all staked. I started with offside entries and Rip had no problem finding the entry, just didn't understand to go through all 6, popping out after 4. Once he got it, he did some amazing entries both onside and offside. I decided to put a jump in front of the weaves, and wow, he did it even better. Either onside or offside at any angle up to 90 degrees Rip was able to find the entry and go. I then added 2 jumps parallel to the weave poles. I had his jump both jumps and then turn into the weave entry, he did this from both sides. He was knocking the bar more than he ever missed an entry.

I then moved onto jumping. I am finding that the PVC jump that I borrowed from Andrea is not working for him. I know that sounds stupid but he almost always takes that jump down :( I just don't get it. He did keep them up during some hard stuff but really am worried about his jumping.

Oct 9th - at the barn

Yesterday was a rainy day so we didn't get to practice outside. I wasn't too worried about B since he did so amazing on Tue I figured he could use a break anyway. Probably true for Rip.

Tonight I headed to the barn to do an hour of practice as Andrea was still away and then an hour of class. I was being lazy and so I only took Baxter as I didn't want any barking and figured that I couldn't actually get through 2 dogs without chaos. (I know...lazy). In a way it was a good thing, it took me 15 minutes to stake in those darn weavepoles.

I found another set of sequences in an older Clean Run that I thought I would use. I figured for class I could replace the weaves with a tunnel and use them for the young group.

Here are the sequences:
Baxter's start lines were pretty good. He only moved 2 times over the session but I think he is shifting too much again. I need to think about what to do, it seems like if you give him an inch, he starts to take miles and the next thing I know...he will not hold a stay again. I just can't have that happen again.

For the first two times in sequence 1, B was not listening to my voice but might have been my body language sending him to the table instead of the weaves (those were the only two times he didn't get the entry all night!!) For his third attempt I really rotated my shoulders and he went right into the weaves.

Otherwise he ran the rest of the sequences quite nicely. He had the odd bar down and I believe he only went into the tunnel the first time on sequence 2 and otherwise did no other off courses. Overall it was a really good night with lots of success.

Tomorrow I need to get outside and work Rip. I am hoping this few days of break will have done him some good. I will work on both weaves (I don't think he is as ready as Baxter) and jumping.

Oct 7th - at the barn (alone!)

So Andrea abandoned me at the barn tonight as she is away at a seminar for a few days, leaving me all on my own (do you feel guilty now?!? lol)

Anyway, I decided that I would only take B with me as I had a very short time to train and after Rip's mind blowing experience last night, I figure he could use a night off to relax. I found some sequences in Clean Run from a few years back that I thought would be easy to set up and work on the skills we have been practicing. This was also going to be the first time that I had used the weaves outside of my backyard since we started retraining them. I didn't have 2x2's there so it was a straight set of 6. I used the food tube at the end of the weaves to ensure that B kept his head down and drove straight out (Sue's suggestion...it really works!)

Here are the sequences:
I started with the white circles on the top left and thought, well...lets see if he can get in that entry. The first try I was standing at the left wing of 11 but Baxter did not read that to come to me and went into the tunnel. The next sequence I stood between 10-11 and used my movement to bring him with me and he read this well and never doubted where he was suppose to go. It was not a very tight serp so his first time he entered the weaves after pole 2 but I went back, re-did the serp a bit tighter with him really slicing 12 and he nailed the entry, really wrapped his body and then flew through them :) I just couldn't believe my eyes. I thought, could that have been luck, so I redid that one and he did it again! I was making such a fuss over him and what an "amazing boy" he was that the barn owner came in to see what he had done :))

I then went on to do black circles which was an easier entry but with a bit of speed coming into them and again nailed them :) Next was the white squares. In the Clean Run, the person had said to use your threadle arm to get your dog over 3 and then send into the weaves with your right arm. I thought, well why not try it. For the first time EVER....Baxter barked at me! lol. I couldn't believe it and still laugh when I think of it. He still did it perfect and got his weaves.

So since he seemed to be getting these harder entries but without a ton of speed I decided to try and get some speed going and send him straight into the weaves to see if that was something he would do and so I did the white circles on the bottom right. He did it!! :)) I was so happy with him, you couldn't have imagined.

Then I thought well lets try a threadle to the weaves, did it awesome too. So to make sure I wasn't imagining it, I did the first sequence again as our final one and he nailed it for the 3rd time! He did have a few knocked bars throughout the night but I felt that our main goal was to keep him with me/connected and weave poles, which I feel was a success.

It was an awesome night (wish Andrea had been there...do you feel guilty yet?! lol) I guess all this work with B seems to be paying off, I am so proud of him!

Oct 6th - at home

So today was Baxter's 3rd birthday, I can't believe how the time flies. He was just a puppy the last time I checked and now I realize he is a big boy and Rip is almost 18 months old...yikes.

I have started to work Abbey the terrier each night too so I have been breaking up the boys sessions from part weaving the first time they come out and part jumping the second time they come out. It worked well yesterday when I worked Ripley on some jumping (lateral distance, serp arm, moving doing the serp) so I did it again. We started with jumping as the jumps were already out from last night.

Ripley was the first to come out and he was brutal! His lateral distance wasn't going well, he was knocking bars, flanking me, not wanting to sit, barking at me...just all round frustrating :( I ended up going to my happy place and getting a good 180 out of him then put him away before he could do anything more to frustrate me.

Baxter came out and rocked! I worked on his bending over the one jump back to me. We started fairly close and worked our way back about 8' and he was bending nicely over the jump can coming back. We then did some 90's with 1 stride each way then I asked him for a bounce and he did that both ways. We then worked on 270's and he was doing them really nice, he was even almost jumping jump 2 straight instead of slicing it the way he does sometimes. I also worked on call throughs between the two jumps and threadling it, he did it great! He kept all the bars up and was jumping really nice.

I set up the weaves for the next sessions. I had the same setup as yesterday with the 6 poles with 2 angled. I brought Rip out first and started on the offside entries. He must have been having boy-brain today because he just wasn't even doing this well either. He did the 6 cookies offside, took a break and then I did the 6 onside with the straight entry into pole 1/2. He did the onside better but was a bit spun out so instead of doing each side again I did a bit of playing with him and put him away for the day. Maybe the poor guy needed a break.

Baxter rocked the weaves also. I had him do entries from all over the yard, me moving, me stationary and he only missed 1. For his second sets I decided to add a jump in front and see if I could make him make a mistake. Even though he is getting great entries I worry that with speed and coming at them straight that he will still not try to get in (and lets face it, most entries are pretty much straight in with speed). I put the jump to 16" to get him to just jump it fast (plus I don't have much room for a 26" jump and 6 weaves) and get to the weaves. I held his collar and reved him up and sent him...he entered great. I did this both from onside and offside. I then took the jump to the onside entries and kept clocking it around the entry to be 90 degrees and past even. He missed a couple at the harder entry but at least entered them and then did them right the next time. I moved the jump to offside and did a bit around the clock but had less room as I moved the poles closer to the house to get them off the track of grass that they have destroyed :)

Oct 5th - at home

So today was Day 7 of our 12 day weave pole training. I had Rick come out to video both boys doing their weaves. I have moved to 4 straight poles and poles 1 & 2 at 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock, staked. This was Rip's first time doing 6 poles together since we started back at 2x2's. His first few times he did really nice entries, nice second set and then missing the third set all together. It took him about 5 times with me in my "happy place" before he got it. After that he did really well.



Baxter was next and because I thought he was getting caught up in the poles, we video taped him to see if I could figure out what is going on. From what I can see (as you can probably too) it looks like I am rewarding at the wrong time/too high?! He looks like he is more interested in leaping out to get the food than he is to finish weaving the way he is in the middle. I did the clips so you see in normal motion, then slow motion of the same clip. You can see he is really digging in and getting that entry nice, single striding but the exit is scary! When you look at it from the back that is almost even more scary...I wonder what other dogs look like from that angle. From Ripley's, it looks like the same way but he is smaller/skinnier so maybe that makes a difference. I have a few people looking at this video so I will update what others thought.



So Tiffany (B's grandma) thinks that the poles look great but that his hind end is interesting, lol. She doesn't think he is really getting caught up in the poles, but that once he is in the poles he is all "front wheel drive", with his back end just following along. She is seeing that he is launching into the poles with his hind end and then switching to it being pulled through the poles with the front end. She said his entries were great :)

My other friend Sue looked at it and she said that it looks as though he is flowing the arc of the treat (although she thinks I am doing a great job of throwing it low :)) She gave me the suggestion of using a food tube placed ahead of time that might help keep his head down. Though this could be construed as luring, she felt that it was no more than sending to the next piece of equipment. A target would not work as he could reward himself even if he makes a mistake. She also thought his entries were great :)

I will have to see what Andrea thinks and update that.

Oct 4th - at home

Well we were back at the weaves again. The ground is much drier but after we were finished the grass was pretty much all gone, yikes.

I started with B first moving the weave poles to be 4' apart, still at 1-7 angle and staked in the ground. I had 6 cookies for the first session and did offside entries. I was making him go from more of a directly looking at them angle today to see how they would do. He did only 1 error in the 6 cookies and went to his bed really nicely. I moved onto the onside entries with another 6 cookies. I was asking him to go directly at the entry, check in wrapping the pole and go through the next set. He did this nice and only had 2 errors in the 6 cookies. I decided that I would move to the next step with him so he went back in the house and I got Rip to work this angle.

Rip came out and I decided to do 3 offside and 3 onside with each session. He did the offside perfect and then only made 1 error on the onside entries. I had him sit on the bed between sessions while I broke up cookie pieces. He did another 3 off and 3 on in the next session but this time I added my movement. He had trouble with the offside and he was not coming in to 1-2 poles but flanking them. He eventually got it but I had to go to my happy place ;) He did the onside quite nicely.

I then pulled up the weaves and put them at no extra spacing in between but put them both at 1-7 angle still, staked. It was like Rip had been dying for them to go back to weave poles :) He was weaving through it great getting each of his entries on the offside side. He did have a bit of problems with onside as he was trying to wrap around pole 1 instead of entering between 1-2. I stayed in my happy place and he succeeded to do it nice. He is striding nicely though the 4 poles with his front feet. I did this in 4 sessions and then put Rip away.

Baxter came out again and I did this same setup. He did both onside and offside entries well but what I am finding is that he is still getting his backend caught up in the poles as he strides too fast with his front end. I am not seeing that all this work has helped in the way that he weaves but maybe it will still help with the entries. I think I need to get him videotaped and really watch what happens with his body.

So I decided to see if I put the whole set of 6 poles out, the final 4 totally straight what he would do. I kept 1-2 poles at the 1-7 angle still, all poles were staked. Wow, his entries were great! He didn't miss one from offside and from what I could see, he was 1 striding his front feet through but again his backend was catching poles. When I went onside I was asking for hard entries so for the odd time he would wrap pole 1 instead of entering between 1-2. Otherwise he did great on that side too.

Sooo...tomorrow I will have to talk Rick into coming outside to video tape B's weave performance. Watch for the video tomorrow :) I am also planning to work some jumps tomorrow to get that started up again. This was day 6 of the 12 for weave poles...I guess you really can teach a dog to weave in 12 days!! :))

Oct 2nd - at the barn

So we didn't do any work yesterday because it has been raining the past few days and the backyard is a mudbath :( I know that if I do weaves with the boys that it will be ruined forever and Rick would kill me, lol.

So tonight at the barn we decided to see how Rip & Phe would handle some sequencing. We actually ran the white circles first. I let Andrea and Phe go first as they have already done sequencing and I wanted to watch. We had the jumps set at 26" as we are thinking both puppies round better over them. Phe had a few issues (mostly they are both not committing to the jump until they are almost in the air...man can they both turn on a dime!). Rip came out of the crate totally spun!! I guess even though he couldn't see Phe, he knew it sounded like fun. I have never seen that dog spin like that before and I am sure if Susan was there to see this she would have killed me...spinning, flanking...what more can go wrong!

So on the white circles: His sit/stay is very crouched and he likes to angle off to the side as if he isn't going to take the jump. He did take the jump each time but missed the frame, going under it the first two times. Once he realized I wanted him to go up it (I had yet to name it so that makes it hard, lol) he went right up. He had a great contact with nice touches. The release was good into the tunnel but he did not come out tight enough from the tunnel. Redid 3-4 and was much better the second time then 5 was good. I had lots of trouble going from 6-7 though as he either wanted to cut in front/behind me to get to the frame or he would just run past 7. We have never had such a long line that he needed to run and get ahead of me to jump. He did it in the end but I felt like throwing up from all that running...man does he make you work!

Next we did black circles: I had TONS of trouble from 1-2. If I led out to closer to 2, he would run around 1. If I stayed closer to 1, he would not make it to 2. His sit/stay crouch was not helping him with the jumping of 26" bars and hit himself a few times in the back of the legs. I moved the jumps down to 22" which seemed to help him have more confidence. From 3-4 we used a threadle arm to keep them with us past the first tunnel mouth and I was using the push through from 6-7 but helping a bit. From helping him, he was actually coming off 7 looking at the correct tunnel mouth of 8.

Last one we did was white squares: Rip understood the jump-frame this time so that went nice. He again had a nice contact and I was able to put a front cross in between 2-3. He wrapped 3 nice and went right into the tunnel. Rather than chance a front cross to the frame, we did a front cross while they were on the contact of 5. Rip ran 6-7-8 really nice, I ran the final 2 jumps without using any arms.

We ended the session with some 1 jump work which was set at 12" at one side and 26" at the other to create an angle. Rip settled down and did some nice bending work and finished off with some tugging.

Baxter actually ran these sequences in Abbey's class as Peso is still off due to that bad ball catch :( Hopefully he will be ok for this weekend and will be back in 2 weeks (he is doing a seminar all next week..lucky guy!)

We did the opposite with B, so we started with the white squares: Baxter had a nice sit/stay, did a great contact on 2 where I front crossed to 3. I also was able to get a front cross in in front of the frame so I was on his right side at the contact of 5. From 6-7 I had some issues because we had left a huge horse jump out in the arena that would be like a pinwheel to these jumps and B decided to do 6 - horse jump - 7! He was the only dog all night that even looked at that jump as if it was an option!?! So I had to really make sure not to send him out and he did 7-8 really nice. He did think about the tunnel but stayed with me. He didn't knock any bars down! :)

Next we did black circles: I had some issues with B going behind my back and up the frame! I have never had him do that to me ever and he did it 3 times :( Andrea thinks it was because once I released him from 1, I was moving latterly to 3 instead of making sure he was committed to 2. Once I stayed in place and had committment, he did it great. He had a hard time staying on my threadle arm to 4 but did it. He did the 5-6-7 pretty good but was going into the wrong tunnel mouth for 8. Andrea said I needed to not move as much, making sure I get him watching me and not just running ahead. I then worked on him taking 7 and coming back to me...no tunnel :)

Last we did the white circles: B did this one really well, good contact but again went out to the horse jump. Darn dog. He came out of the tunnel at a really nice angle though so I was happy.