We are very excited to that Baxter's mom, TNT Rio and Grandma Tiff (Tiffany Salmon) have been selected to represent Canada at the FCI World Agility Championships this September in Austria. In order to help get Rio and her teammates to Austria, I am please to announce the Canada Flag Tag fundraiser.
Now you can show off your Canadian pride here at home and support the team by purchasing your very own Canada Flag ID Tag and lets face it all dogs look good in red and white! Tags are only $15 and include 3 lines of engraving and free shipping. Don’t have a dog and still want to support our team – these tags make great key chains and zipper pulls too! Quantities are limited so don’t delay order today!
Click on the link below to place your order.
http://www.overtheedgeagility.com/2009CAT.html
Go Canada Go!!!
Monday, April 20, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Winter of training hard...not blogging very hard though :)
So the boys have been working very hard this past winter on skills to get ready for the summer season. I got away from blogging for some reason but as I read through the notes from November I realize that there are still things that I am doing that I said I needed to fix!! YIKES. For instance, the chopping and leaning forward when I want a front cross and I am sure that I should be reading the "relax" part for both boys. I think I better get my butt into gear for blogging again.
The good thing though is that yesterday we were back outside at home :) This is very exciting because we can start working on one-jump and weave entries again. We still have one more week in the barn before we head outdoors for the summer...can't wait.
Here is where we are at and what we have done:
Ripley:
This winter we have worked on having the jumps with two bars and it really has made a difference. What we find is that once he knocks a bar, he can have a tendency to knock more and so that leads us to believe it might be a bit of confidence that he needs. He did however debut in Starters Jumpers and has had 3 fairly nice runs. The one had no off courses but a bar down with a yps of 6.5!! He is a smoking fast boy and once he gets confidence, think how fast he will be.
We have started to concentrate on his contacts more these days. He drives nicely across the dogwalk but needs more proofing for his 2on/2off. We haven't done the frame lately but like his training partner Phe, they both seem to be hesitant on coming down nicely and seem to shuffle. We are working on a plan for that. His teeter is pretty good, he doesn't have an issue with the bang or the 2on/2off but like all these contacts, he needs proofing, proofing and more proofing!
His weaves are actually pretty good. We haven't done tons but he is pretty consistent on his entry and staying in them. Now with the better weather and being outside, we will work on challenging him to make sure he really understands them.
Baxter:
Baxter has grown up!! I don't know if it is all the time and training or that he is now 3 years old or a combo of both. It is such a treat that he doesn't scream his head off in the arena when another dog runs and you can actually see the colour of his eyes and not just his pupils. He is really liking the new Greg Derrett handling system and is starting to actually understand that I play a role in this game :) How great is that?!
His weave entries are just incredible these days, the harder they are, the easier they are for him. The problem ones are the nice easy entries, lol....who would have thought. Sadly he still uses his face to push through and has the starting of a scar to prove it :(
His contacts are good, we need to do more proofing on those and maybe look at his frame this year to see if there is a way to put less stress on that huge body of his. He is a big boy at 55lbs but is solid and lean.
His jumping has improved greatly and I can't wait to get outside to see if being on grass will help it even more. I think he is starting to use that boy-brain of his but still can get caught up in the power he has to try and bounce the un-bounceable! We pick up less and less bars in practice though and he even came away with an Advanced Jumper Q this year so far!!!
Yesterday I worked both boys on 270's in the backyard. Baxter did them great on his left lead but had more trouble on his right lead. Ripley did both sides great and never came in once. I then did a threadle in between and then next time a 270 and he did it beautiful! I have to be very conscience of where my shoulders and pointing and what my body is telling the dogs.
I also worked them both on the f/c with 1 jump using forward focus to release. Ripley is awesome at forward focus and did the f/c's beautiful. Baxter was not very tight but actually did forward focus which is not something he likes to do :)
I did some rear crosses with Ripley and he really read my cross well, I was very happy with that progress. I also did weave entries with Rip, completely straight 4 poles. He missed only 1 entry from a very hard off-side. I clocked a jump at 22" around the arc.
The good thing though is that yesterday we were back outside at home :) This is very exciting because we can start working on one-jump and weave entries again. We still have one more week in the barn before we head outdoors for the summer...can't wait.
Here is where we are at and what we have done:
Ripley:
This winter we have worked on having the jumps with two bars and it really has made a difference. What we find is that once he knocks a bar, he can have a tendency to knock more and so that leads us to believe it might be a bit of confidence that he needs. He did however debut in Starters Jumpers and has had 3 fairly nice runs. The one had no off courses but a bar down with a yps of 6.5!! He is a smoking fast boy and once he gets confidence, think how fast he will be.
We have started to concentrate on his contacts more these days. He drives nicely across the dogwalk but needs more proofing for his 2on/2off. We haven't done the frame lately but like his training partner Phe, they both seem to be hesitant on coming down nicely and seem to shuffle. We are working on a plan for that. His teeter is pretty good, he doesn't have an issue with the bang or the 2on/2off but like all these contacts, he needs proofing, proofing and more proofing!
His weaves are actually pretty good. We haven't done tons but he is pretty consistent on his entry and staying in them. Now with the better weather and being outside, we will work on challenging him to make sure he really understands them.
Baxter:
Baxter has grown up!! I don't know if it is all the time and training or that he is now 3 years old or a combo of both. It is such a treat that he doesn't scream his head off in the arena when another dog runs and you can actually see the colour of his eyes and not just his pupils. He is really liking the new Greg Derrett handling system and is starting to actually understand that I play a role in this game :) How great is that?!
His weave entries are just incredible these days, the harder they are, the easier they are for him. The problem ones are the nice easy entries, lol....who would have thought. Sadly he still uses his face to push through and has the starting of a scar to prove it :(
His contacts are good, we need to do more proofing on those and maybe look at his frame this year to see if there is a way to put less stress on that huge body of his. He is a big boy at 55lbs but is solid and lean.
His jumping has improved greatly and I can't wait to get outside to see if being on grass will help it even more. I think he is starting to use that boy-brain of his but still can get caught up in the power he has to try and bounce the un-bounceable! We pick up less and less bars in practice though and he even came away with an Advanced Jumper Q this year so far!!!
Yesterday I worked both boys on 270's in the backyard. Baxter did them great on his left lead but had more trouble on his right lead. Ripley did both sides great and never came in once. I then did a threadle in between and then next time a 270 and he did it beautiful! I have to be very conscience of where my shoulders and pointing and what my body is telling the dogs.
I also worked them both on the f/c with 1 jump using forward focus to release. Ripley is awesome at forward focus and did the f/c's beautiful. Baxter was not very tight but actually did forward focus which is not something he likes to do :)
I did some rear crosses with Ripley and he really read my cross well, I was very happy with that progress. I also did weave entries with Rip, completely straight 4 poles. He missed only 1 entry from a very hard off-side. I clocked a jump at 22" around the arc.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Nov 20th - at the barn
Another freezing night at the barn...not sure what we are going to do when Jan & Feb come :( Ripley and I started tonight by ourselves, first we did weaves. I made sure that he was calm going into them and when he entered correctly, he was flying!! I can't believe how fast that little black dog is. Next we did set point jump with the double. I did 16-22, 22-22, 22-26, 26-26, 22-26, using his holy roller as the toy, he did those jumps great. He even had a pretty good sit/stay without the vulture sit. We then moved onto a jump grid of 10" jumps set at 6' apart. He again had good sit/stays with me going back to reward at different times. I set him up about 6' back having him take one stride before entering the grid, he did this well. The last thing we did with him once Andrea got there was the dogwalk. Andrea was at the end to ensure he got his contact but she said he drove right to the target plate and was giving me some pretty good touches. We did some by himself and he did a really nice job of running the dogwalk, shifting his weight to the rear and give me good nose touches. Another really good thing is that I used the "touch" command with my hand a few times and he did them nice without biting me!
Baxter and Peso went next and we ran some of the sequences from this month's Clean Run. B had some good sit/stay's. He had some issues with coming into me with the threadle arm. We worked on this until he got it correct and his final run was beautiful!
Abbey was the last dog I worked on. First we started with the dogwalk and I couldn't believe how much faster she was along the top of the walk, so much better. She was also driving down the ramp, giving me the 2o2o contact with a seriously fast release. I realized that there was a target plate there and that it was helping her. I took the target away and she got in the yellow but it was a pretty big jump off with no 2o2o at all. I worked on this for a few more times and she really started to understand. I wonder how long it takes to do the muscle memory...Next we worked on the teeter and he is also doing this much faster. The final obstacle I worked with her was the weave poles. We only had 6 out there but I asked her to do some serioulsy hard entries. The offside was much better than the onside but she tried really hard and got some hard ones. We finished up with some jumping sequences. I have to be careful to not pull off the jumps before she is fully commited to jumping it. She did jump the single bar 16" jumps well so I feel she is ready to move up from Specials to Regualrs.
Baxter and Peso went next and we ran some of the sequences from this month's Clean Run. B had some good sit/stay's. He had some issues with coming into me with the threadle arm. We worked on this until he got it correct and his final run was beautiful!
Abbey was the last dog I worked on. First we started with the dogwalk and I couldn't believe how much faster she was along the top of the walk, so much better. She was also driving down the ramp, giving me the 2o2o contact with a seriously fast release. I realized that there was a target plate there and that it was helping her. I took the target away and she got in the yellow but it was a pretty big jump off with no 2o2o at all. I worked on this for a few more times and she really started to understand. I wonder how long it takes to do the muscle memory...Next we worked on the teeter and he is also doing this much faster. The final obstacle I worked with her was the weave poles. We only had 6 out there but I asked her to do some serioulsy hard entries. The offside was much better than the onside but she tried really hard and got some hard ones. We finished up with some jumping sequences. I have to be careful to not pull off the jumps before she is fully commited to jumping it. She did jump the single bar 16" jumps well so I feel she is ready to move up from Specials to Regualrs.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Nov 17th - at the barn
Tonight we set up the teeter, weaves and table to work on individual obstacle performance. Ripley's weaves are not what I am hoping for so we really need to get back to 2x2's. When he does them, he does them great but I would like to see it every time from all entries...(don't want much, do I?!) The table went well, I played tug with him on it when he layed down fast. When we moved onto the teeter Rip was as high as a kite! It was impossible to do the teeter bangs because all he wanted to do was jump the jumps we had set up for the handling portion of the night! So we decided to just let him do the full teeter. Andrea helped the first 3 or so and then he did 2 all by himself! He has a nice teeter which I am happy about.
After the equipment performance was done we moved onto jumping/sequencing. We had 2 bars on each jump and man was that ever better for Rip. I have a new problem now, all he wants to do is jump even without being told to!! We first started out with a serp to a 270 to another serp. We opened up the serp to help him out and he did it great. He knocked 1 bar the first turn and then went perfect for the second time. The next one we did threadle arm over and then a push through, then another threadle arm and push through. He didn't really do that well with the push throughs so I need to work on this with 1 jump to get it better. The last sequence were threadles and he did that very well. Overall the sequences were quite good for Rip and he seemed to have fun :) The final thing we did was to run them through the box to make sure they didn't flick over another bar, Rip did this well.
After the pups we brought the big boys in and did the same stuff. Baxter rocked at the weaves tonight! No matter what entry I sent him to, he nailed the entry and weaved real nice. I was very very proud of him. I then worked the teeter with him trying to get him to break the contact. I was successful on one attempt and got to correct him, he was perfect on the others. The table was good, he did the down right away.
We then moved on to the jumping sequences. The serps went really well, with Baxter keeping all the bars up and doing it right. The push through's were a bit harder as my timing was off. I need to remember to be showing the push through before he takes off from the jump prior. After working those two jumps I was able to get the timing down and he did it ok. The final sequence of threadles went well also. He really read my deceleration and came right back to my hand. The final thing I did with B was to do the run through the box. He did this well also.
After the boys I got the opportunity to work Abbey with the class. She started off with the teeter and I had her running very fast to the end with a great quick release. I added two jumps to get speed and she was flying! I worked her on the weaves after that and she rocked too. She was able to get all the harder entries from the jumps and stay in them even when I was moving away :) I was very proud of the little terrier at the weaves. Abbey also did the jumping sequences and did much better with the serps today. She still has trouble with the 270 if it is a wingless jump, with wings, she is pretty good. This was the first time that I have ever tried push through's with her and she was awesome! She really read the body movement well and jumped awesome. The threadles also went really well, she is starting to read my body position :) The exciting part of the jumping is that she was flying and did not take down or refuse any of the 16" jumps.
After the equipment performance was done we moved onto jumping/sequencing. We had 2 bars on each jump and man was that ever better for Rip. I have a new problem now, all he wants to do is jump even without being told to!! We first started out with a serp to a 270 to another serp. We opened up the serp to help him out and he did it great. He knocked 1 bar the first turn and then went perfect for the second time. The next one we did threadle arm over and then a push through, then another threadle arm and push through. He didn't really do that well with the push throughs so I need to work on this with 1 jump to get it better. The last sequence were threadles and he did that very well. Overall the sequences were quite good for Rip and he seemed to have fun :) The final thing we did was to run them through the box to make sure they didn't flick over another bar, Rip did this well.
After the pups we brought the big boys in and did the same stuff. Baxter rocked at the weaves tonight! No matter what entry I sent him to, he nailed the entry and weaved real nice. I was very very proud of him. I then worked the teeter with him trying to get him to break the contact. I was successful on one attempt and got to correct him, he was perfect on the others. The table was good, he did the down right away.
We then moved on to the jumping sequences. The serps went really well, with Baxter keeping all the bars up and doing it right. The push through's were a bit harder as my timing was off. I need to remember to be showing the push through before he takes off from the jump prior. After working those two jumps I was able to get the timing down and he did it ok. The final sequence of threadles went well also. He really read my deceleration and came right back to my hand. The final thing I did with B was to do the run through the box. He did this well also.
After the boys I got the opportunity to work Abbey with the class. She started off with the teeter and I had her running very fast to the end with a great quick release. I added two jumps to get speed and she was flying! I worked her on the weaves after that and she rocked too. She was able to get all the harder entries from the jumps and stay in them even when I was moving away :) I was very proud of the little terrier at the weaves. Abbey also did the jumping sequences and did much better with the serps today. She still has trouble with the 270 if it is a wingless jump, with wings, she is pretty good. This was the first time that I have ever tried push through's with her and she was awesome! She really read the body movement well and jumped awesome. The threadles also went really well, she is starting to read my body position :) The exciting part of the jumping is that she was flying and did not take down or refuse any of the 16" jumps.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Nov 16th - Ottawa with Tiffany
I took the boys with me for the weekend to Ottawa. On Sat night we went to flyball practice which they seemed to have fun doing. I still can't believe how happy B gets when he is at flyball, his face looks like a puppy! He got to try out the new box but was hitting too hard and not able to catch the ball that he pretty much only did a few box turns and then was done. Ripley got to do some recalls in one lane while Tiffany's Piper was in the other. He did really great coming right to the tug and not paying any attention to Pipe. They both got to come back to do chase recalls. This is much harder for both of them as it is hard to concentrate when they are chasing the dog in front. In the ed they both did great and had a fun time!
Tonight we headed over to Tiff's house for dinner and then off to the agility arena to work with the dogs. Baxter and Rio worked first on jumping sequences. Baxter had some good start line stays, was keeping most of the bars up. Things to note: I need to be less choppy and harsh with my turns. If I do it to quick and not early enough, I am making him change in the air causing the jump to come down. B was reading my deceleration by taking an extra stride but was still jumping very long once he took off! Need to work on that. The final thing is to "relax"! If I don't panic, he seems to run better...
Next Tiffany helped me with Ripley. We did a bunch of jump sequences and he did really well! I was so proud of the little guy. Things to note: Use food as rewards and/or connection instead of a toy. This keeps him from getting too high around the jumps. Use 2 bars on each jump so that he can see it better, made a big difference. Do only 1 thing at a time, ie. do not move and release him from the sit, this is too much info for him at one time. I need to go back and work his sit-stay. He did great on the bed though and stayed on it between running.
Tonight we headed over to Tiff's house for dinner and then off to the agility arena to work with the dogs. Baxter and Rio worked first on jumping sequences. Baxter had some good start line stays, was keeping most of the bars up. Things to note: I need to be less choppy and harsh with my turns. If I do it to quick and not early enough, I am making him change in the air causing the jump to come down. B was reading my deceleration by taking an extra stride but was still jumping very long once he took off! Need to work on that. The final thing is to "relax"! If I don't panic, he seems to run better...
Next Tiffany helped me with Ripley. We did a bunch of jump sequences and he did really well! I was so proud of the little guy. Things to note: Use food as rewards and/or connection instead of a toy. This keeps him from getting too high around the jumps. Use 2 bars on each jump so that he can see it better, made a big difference. Do only 1 thing at a time, ie. do not move and release him from the sit, this is too much info for him at one time. I need to go back and work his sit-stay. He did great on the bed though and stayed on it between running.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Nov 5th - Lesson day
We started with the puppies today. I need to make sure that Ripley keeps his snoot loop on at all times when he is supervised. I have to make sure that when he comes out of the crate/bed that he is engaged with me and not sniffing around etc. We worked first on a teeter type game. We had to hold the teeter at 90 degrees and then have them jump up, feeding from the front. After a few seconds you drop the teeter and expect the touch. Ripley didn't do the jumping onto the teeter well but when he was on and the drop he did really well. Next we worked on the jump grid which was 4 jumps at 10" spread 6' apart. The final thing we worked on was front crosses between 2 jumps spread at 15' apart. I need to make sure that I am moving and showing a change in momentum to get him to turn better over the jump. Make sure to reward a good one.
Baxter came out next. He was still pretty high today but again there was another dog in the training area. The first thing we worked on was jump-teeter-jump (#2), first running with them, then being laterally away from them, then a recall and finally a send. B did all of these well sticking his contacts. (I had some feedback from a friend who said I am using too many words for contacts so I tried not to say anything except the contacts name). Our next exercise was doing a tunnel-frame-tunnel sequence (#1) that we did front crosses and rear crosses on. Arlene said that B's contacts were good and he did well on the rear cross over the frame. Our final sequence was the 2 jumps spread at 15' apart. (#3) Baxter nearly killed himself trying to turn and did a wipeout. We then did just one jump and he was reading my slowing down as a rear cross. I will have to set up this in the backyard and really work this.
Baxter came out next. He was still pretty high today but again there was another dog in the training area. The first thing we worked on was jump-teeter-jump (#2), first running with them, then being laterally away from them, then a recall and finally a send. B did all of these well sticking his contacts. (I had some feedback from a friend who said I am using too many words for contacts so I tried not to say anything except the contacts name). Our next exercise was doing a tunnel-frame-tunnel sequence (#1) that we did front crosses and rear crosses on. Arlene said that B's contacts were good and he did well on the rear cross over the frame. Our final sequence was the 2 jumps spread at 15' apart. (#3) Baxter nearly killed himself trying to turn and did a wipeout. We then did just one jump and he was reading my slowing down as a rear cross. I will have to set up this in the backyard and really work this.
Nov 4th - at the barn
Tonight with the puppies we worked on weaves, jump grids, set point and the frame. We started with the weaves to make sure they were fresh. There were only 6 weaves so we worked entries at harder angles. He only gets half the entries so we really need to go back to 2x2's! The jump grids went well, using a 6' spacing, 3 small jumps to the spread. We moved the spread from 15' away back to about 19' and then back to 15'. Ripley knocked the bar down once on the double but after that he jumped really well. He focused forward to his toy well. The set point was to the hoop, like his brother, Ripley seems to really like this piece of equipment. We put the hoop up as high as it goes which we are hoping is around 26". Our final thing with the puppies was the frame, we did one laterally away - he got a great 2o2o contact with this one. The next was calling to me - this he had a bit of problems with and Andrea needed to support him. The next one was sending him over - with Andrea's help he did this pretty nice. The final one was running with him - he came off the frame the first time but nailed it the final time.
**we did all the work with the puppies on our left hand side. We need to make sure that next week we do it all on our right side**
Baxter and Peso did more of the Clean Run sequences. He had trouble getting into the weaves from the straight jump but was very high tonight. For a change, Linda had Johny Cash there so I am not sure if it is all the agility he has been doing or the fact that JC was there?! Anyway, he got a nice rear cross into the weaves which was great. He was a bit sloppy on his turns and also ignored my body language that said to serp and left to go through a tunnel! Will have to watch these.
Abbey came in to work with the class. First I worked her on the A-frame, trying to get her into a very quick release from 2o2o with a target plate. She had some nice frames but not really sure that she is fast enough. We also did some recalls between Andrea and I so I am not sure if we wore her out a bit?! We ran the same courses from Clean Run and it seemed that Abbey took down the one jump that was in the deeper dirt. I am hoping it was just the footing as she didn't have any other jumping issues. She did a nice serp over the 16" and never missed a weave entry! even the rear cross one :) Overall she was a bit slow today but really read my body well.
**we did all the work with the puppies on our left hand side. We need to make sure that next week we do it all on our right side**
Baxter and Peso did more of the Clean Run sequences. He had trouble getting into the weaves from the straight jump but was very high tonight. For a change, Linda had Johny Cash there so I am not sure if it is all the agility he has been doing or the fact that JC was there?! Anyway, he got a nice rear cross into the weaves which was great. He was a bit sloppy on his turns and also ignored my body language that said to serp and left to go through a tunnel! Will have to watch these.
Abbey came in to work with the class. First I worked her on the A-frame, trying to get her into a very quick release from 2o2o with a target plate. She had some nice frames but not really sure that she is fast enough. We also did some recalls between Andrea and I so I am not sure if we wore her out a bit?! We ran the same courses from Clean Run and it seemed that Abbey took down the one jump that was in the deeper dirt. I am hoping it was just the footing as she didn't have any other jumping issues. She did a nice serp over the 16" and never missed a weave entry! even the rear cross one :) Overall she was a bit slow today but really read my body well.
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