Handlers Class - Week 8

Practice with Gus - Thursday

Today was some box work and some practice on his sits.

Practice With Gus - Wendesday

I have started to make Gus work for everything that he gets, including meals per Debbie's request. Today we worked together for both breakfast and dinner on his jumping and moving into a sit.

Top Notch Canine Class

We worked on the following things tonight with Debbie:

1. We reviewed his progress on the jump to sit work.
2. We reviewed his work on the telephone book and rear end movement.
3. We reviewed his sit stay.
4. We used the channel weaves and how to work them with him - especially to minimize the number of repetitions.
5. We reviewed his teeter and dog walk performance and discussed what I wanted from him on these obstacles and how to train that.

Our homework:

1. He must work for all of his meals.
2. Continue to work on his come to heel using the telephone book - don't sweat the fact that he is lifting his front leg.
3. Continue with the jump to sit exercise but I need to get low with him so that his head stays down. Only treat when he is seated.
4. Continue with the control and stay work that I have been doing.
5. Continue 101 things to do with a box.
6. Open the weave-a-matics so that he doesn't have to bend much. Work on the following:Send, Run with and recall from 5', 10' and 20'. Add in lateral distance too.
7. down on the board with all 4 paws. he should be looking down and straight ahead.
   

Monday Night Handlers Class - Week 7

Tonight we worked on Gus' focus and self control. He ran with a buckle collar on and a small thin rope that would not pull down the jump bars. Gus did OK, but he still had his moments. We worked on him focusing on me when other dogs are running and getting lots of yummy cookies for doing so. His out of control crazy man act is no longer tolerated. By the end of the night he would look at other dogs for short periods and then immediately look back at me for his treat. This is huge progress for him. The set numbers start in the lower right hand side of the screen and rotate clockwise around the diagram.

Set 1: For the most part Gus did well on this set. The object was for the instructor to call out a random off course obstacle and the team was to find a way to recover and finish the course after this unexpected issue. I focused on his start line stay for this exercise and his focus on me. He was able to have all of his turns because he did not ignore me once.

Set 2: The object of this lesson was to have the dog complete the DW independently and for the handler to get into proper position to handle the serpentine of jumps that came next. Again, I worked on his focus and stays which he did very well with. I lead out enough so that I could baby sit his down contact on the DW because he does NOT yet have an independent performance on this this obstacle.

Set 3: Again I worked with Gussie on his focus. I ran him through the weaves only and rewarded him with the tunnel if he was successful.

Set 4: This exercise was from CR Nov 08. It was for practice on the FX and RX handling. As with the other sets from the night we worked on stays and focus. He was able to have all of his turns. Gus knocked lots of bars but we were pretty successful in our communications and handling of these two exercises.

Home Practice - Saturday Night

Gus and I practiced tonight his jumping. We worked on keeping his head down. Debbie had asked us to work on jumping and then immediately going into a sit position. It seemed to me that this seemed to encourage him to keep his head up because he raises his head to sit. Instead of asking for the sit after the jump I placed the treat on the ground and rewarded him down low while he was standing. I want to ask Debbie about this next week at class.

We also worked on the box game. I shaped him putting his paw on the box. It took about 10 minutes but he stuck with it the whole time and kept offering different behaviors. Of course he would offer a down when ever he wasn't sure what to do.

Beginner's Class - Week 7

Beginner's Class week 7 was a great week for Flexi! He passed all of his milestones! The first set we went too was the Teeter set. He did the wobble board on the cement cone to start with and he hopped right up there and started banging away. He had not seen the board this high before because we were at the Tucson show the last week. We also played the bang it game with the full size teeter. He loved that one too!

We then moved to the weave, tunnel chute set. He did OK with the weaves. He was trying to move the gates out of the way with his nose - it was faster! But I did not reward him when he did. He also did really well with the tunnel and did pretty well with the chute. He had a little trouble as we pulled out the fabric of the chute but he did pretty well.

We then rotated to the jumping set. There we started with the simple set point exercise. Flexi did really well with this since he has been doing this exercise for a few months at home.

The final set was the table and the stay milestone and recall to heel test. He did great here! He has a really great stay and has gotten the recall to heel and shoulder pull down pat! He is a very smart little guy!

Monday Night Handlers Class - Week 6

Well, tonight I decided that self control was my only concern with Gus right now. I spent the entire night working with him on paying attention and not being a maniac. We started at Set 3 and I made Gus be calm (and lay down) before releasing him into the weaves. I bypassed everything else so that we could focus on 12 poles at speed. As usual he did better on our last turn. When we rotated to Set 1 I required that Gus sit and look at me before I would allow him to take any equipment. Unfortunately he refused on each turn so he was not allowed to run this course. I would request that he look and sit and wait for 30 seconds. If he did not do as I asked I walked him over to his kennel and put him in there until his next turn. Of course he screamed about it but I ignored him. He needs to learn that he must remain calm enough to comply with my requests around the agility equipment. Finally we rotated to Set 2 and this time when I asked for his eye contact and a sit I got it!!! He figured out the consequences pretty quickly although I expect that we will have to revisit this lesson for months. When running Set 2 I really struggled to get into position for a front cross after jump number 5. He is just too fast for me. On the final attempt though I handled 6 to 7 with a rear cross and we were more successful than before.

Scramblers Show Day 2 - October 19

Gus only had one run today and that was a jumpers run. I spent more time today with the dogs in the tent so Flex did a lot better with the barking. Since I volunteered so much on Saturday I decided to spend more time with the dogs. The Jumpers course map is shown above. Gus did OK - only knocking 4 bars. I did a running start with him since his stays are bad right now and we took off. As he was landing after jump 2 I told him to go tunnel so of course he changed direction and headed for the number 6 tunnel. Go figure. I assumed that since he was looking directly at number 4he would head right for it and I could get into position for jump number 5 but he had other ideas. Anyway, I was able to call him off of the off course tunnel and got him back on track and over jump 3 however he knocked that one. Since I then baby sat the number 4 tunnel entrance I was not in a good position to front cross after jump 5 so he knocked that bar too. he handled pretty smoothly from 6 to 9. we ran the remainder of the course and he knocked jumps 10 and 13. He finished with a time of 27.05 sec. The course distance was 122 yds which means he ran it in 4.51 yds/sec which is really fast for a corgi (and we wasted some time with the off course bobble)! If we could just figure out how to correct his jumping issue.

Scramblers Show Day 1 - October 18

I told Gus before we left for the weekend that all I wanted for my birthday was a Q. Unfortunately I was not to receive my bday present. He did however have two pretty good runs on Saturday. The first run was a Gamblers run. He scored 19 points (18 were required in the opening to Q) and he completed the Gamble beautifully. The only reason he didn't Q was because he knocked the two jump bars in the gamble. Otherwise it was a perfect run. We attempted the DW a few times but Gus kept bailing before the contact. I was really pleased with his efforts even though we did not qualify.

As for his Snooker run he again did ok. We only scored 4 points but that was mostly my fault. He did NOT knock any jump bars! See diagram for visual assistance with this description. We took the red jump first on the lower left hand corner of the picture. He kept the bar up and we then attempted the teeter. Unfortunately Gus had a fly off on the teeter so we got no points for this one. Next we did the red jump on the lower right side of the course. He again kept the bar up! We then took the number 2 jump successfully but I was out of position and he head right up the obvious next obstacle, the AFrame. We were promptly whistled off then. I was pretty happy he Gussie's performance and not so ok with mine. I knew immediately what I should have done to keep him off of the AF but I was so amazed by his success with the jumps that I was caught flat footed and was watching him instead of moving! Bad Mommy!!

As for Flex, this was his first full blown trial weekend. On Saturday I spent a lot of time helping in the rings and at the scorer's table so he was alone in his kennel most of the day. I took him out for walks and to visit people (like Auntie Karen and Aunite Jane) but overall he struggled with having to sit quietly all day. He spent some time at the scorer's table with me and for the most part did not spend all his time barking his head off at the other competitors but he did a few times. He is doing better with men so I am pretty happy with that.

Living Room Work

I did 15 minutes of work tonight with the dogs. Five minutes was with Gus on the perch work (standing with both feet on the book). I tried to only click when he had both foot touching the book. This was a little frustrating for Gus but he stuck with it and came back to me after just a few seconds of looking away or looking for treats. We also did about five minutes of work on sits and downs. He did much better tonight on understanding the difference and giving me what I asked for.

I worked on weave entries with Flex again tonight. We did straight on off side weaves and he showed a marked improvement finding the entry almost 70% of the time. He occasionally gives me a drive by but I can call him back and he is usually successful on the next turn. I also found a new toy for Flex that I call the bungee dog. They can be ordered from the Kyjen Company (a picture of the one I got is above). I have been looking to find one of these for a couple of weeks (since Flex destroyed the one I had). Now that I have the company's name and website I can order more as he goes through them. There are a great toy that I use only for agility.

Home Practice with the Boys

Last night I worked with Gus for about 10 minutes and Flex for about the same amount of time. Gus and I worked on two exercises. The first was the phone book/perch work. I worked on getting him to place both feet on the book. He is having an issue with this because he tends to stand with one foot on the book and the other foot in the air to look up at me. I have been clicking for this because I think it is something that he does because he is short. I am going to need to stop so that we can work on the rear end movement. We did this for about 5 minutes and he stayed focused and engaged for the whole time.

Gus and I also worked on his sit work because he is not very reliable on the sit and I have trained a default behavior for him that is a down. Anytime he is not sure what to offer he gives me a down, so I want him to understand and react to the sit command appropriately. I need to get him to sit on command so that I can work on the porpoising exercises for his jump because he will not lure into a sit.

Flex and I worked on his weave entries. Both on and off side. He is getting better at the offside but he is still not as reliable off side as he is on side.

New Class for Gus

Tonight I took Gus to a new class at Top Notch Canines. It was a private lesson and the first time Gussie was seen by the instructor. It is an indoor training facility and has just opened this week. To start with we reviewed Gus' issues and then the instructor wanted to see Gus in action. Her evaluation of his performance was that he was:

1. unable to drive forward to the next obstacle because my cues were too late.
2. looking up when jumping and not putting his head in to the proper jumping position.

After an initial evaluation run we tried some jump grids which Gus was marginally successful but it was obvious to the instructor that he was keeping his head too high. Then Debbie introduced a new exercise for Gus to do at home, which is a jump grid at very low height (4"). We are to do a single jump and then go into an immediate sit. I must treat Gus very low to encourage the low head position. We also need to work on the phone book work and teach him to move his rear end in to the proper heel position.

I also need to work on 101 things to do with a box as homework. Gus shuts down when challenged so Debbie wants me to work on keeping him engaged with me by challenging him and getting him to work through it. When he disengages I am to put him into his kennel until he calms down enough to work with me.

Handler's Class - Week 5

We had only two instructors tonight so we only had 3 sets and one of them was a help each other set. For the help each other set, we had another FC drill. This exercise was very difficult for us. Getting far enough in front of Gus after obstacle 2 so that he took the correct side of 3 was almost impossible. The turn to 4 and then a FC over to 5 was pretty easy for him. I ran him at 12" most of the time and he knocked most of the bars down. I also took his turn away once for not sitting like I asked him to.

On set 3 I had Gus only doing the weaves and the A-frame. We worked on and off side weaves while on leash. By the last turn he did all 12 with speed and almost appropriate foot work.

The final set was an adaption of an AKC style jumpers course. We made a number of attempts on this course. I lead out to the broad jump and then cut diagonally across jump 3 to perform a FC between 3 &4. I then did a rear cross between 4 & 5. Gus took the turn between 5 & 6 usually wide. I also had to be careful from 6 to 7 because he was frequently taking jump 4 backwards. Keeping my arm down and getting his attention was very important to keep him off the off course jump. To finish off the course I did a front cross between 7 & 8. Although I had a tough time getting into the proper position It was still successful to complete this properly.

Fun Run - Standard

This week we did a USDAA Standard course for the weekly Fun Run. I ran Gus first. He had his typical issues - weaves, table, contacts and keeping bars up. I have to say that the sequence from 5 to 9 handled beautifully. Otherwise his first run pretty much a mess. I was definitely frustrated. For his second run

I started at the table and kept his leash on him into the weaves. We ran the rest of the course from there. He did fair on the weaves and wouldn't down on the table as usual.

For Flex's first run I just wanted to get him to do the first 4 obstacles. Unfortunately he ran off after the first jump. On his second run I made sure to treat every obstacle or every other one. He ran the whole thing but we skipped the weaves and teeter. I intended to have him run past the other obstacles but he took them. He has seen a dog walk before so I wasn't too worried but he has never seen the Aframe before. He charged right up the Aframe and got an "uh oh" look on his face once he reached the pinnacle. He continued forward and completed the frame with enthusiasm and turned around and went right back up the Aframe again. What a great dog he is!

Beginners Class - Week 5

Well Flex just blew me away with his ability and eagerness when it comes to Agility. He is doing really well with everything.



Set 3- This week Flex was again working on the Buja board and today it was on cement. He did very well and really seemed to like bouncing around on the board. The noise of the board hitting the ground did not faze him in the least. It continued to be at the lowest heights (baseball and softball).



Set 4 - Weaves & Tunnel. This week we added the full 12 poles and worked with the gates. The first time I kept Flex on lead so that he was more comfortable with the gates. He had not seen them before and I was concerned that he would panic and try and jump the gates. He did not. He got very comfortable after the first couple of turns and he ran the poles with proper foot work and enthusiasm. He also tackled the curved tunnel without any problems which was huge for him. I tried to do some advanced work with him on a sit stay and call him through the curve. That was a little tough for him still. He saw that it was a shorter path and easier to go around the tunnel in those situations. By the end he was getting it.



Set 1 - The was introducing the dogs to the jumps and since Flex already has had a lot of exposure to this he did fine on this exercise. We basically worked on getting the dogs to freely jump over the obstacle with luring them. The point was to move to the dog's jump height as quickly as possible.



Set 2 - Flat work. We were working on proofing the blind cross body line and Flex really needs work here. The exercise was to place the treat on a target and have the dog move to the treat without crossing behind you. We did this froma sit on the opposite of the treat and also walking in circles and changing directions around the treat. He did not like being corrected and was vrey unsure after I would step on the treat if he tried to cross behind me. He was a little more comfortable with this at towards the end of the exercise.

Side note: I am also trying to teach Flexi to jump up into my arms after a run. Today we worked on him placing his front feet on my knee when I place it out in front of me. He was definitely enjoying this game. Treats for something he does any way!

Wednesday Night Weave Practice

Tonight I worked with Flex on his weave entries both on and off side. He is very consistent with the onside entry (80 to 90%) success rate. The off side entries leave a little bit to be desired. His success rate on these are 40 to 50% right now. We spent more time on the off side weaves. I am resisting the urge to lure him but at times I find myself wanting to. When he misses 3 or 4 tries in a row I switch to on side so he can be successful for a few tries. I am hoping that this reminds him of what I am looking for (but I am not optimistic). Anyway, we will continue to work these at night so that I can get him consistently finding that entry no matter where I stand.

As for Gus' weaves, at home they are beautiful. He is consistently finding his entries from a variety of weird angles and completes 6 (I only have room for 6 poles inside) with speed and good foot work). He had at 90% success rate on finding his entries (out of 10 tries) and he completed all attempts at weaving successfully. He did not pop or skip any poles on any of his attempts. Good Job Gus! Let's translate that to practice somewhere else than the Living Room.

Handlers Class - Week 4

So this week I was extremely frustrated with Gus' performance. I have entered him in the up coming Saguaro Scramblers trial the weekend of October 18th and 19th. The only reason I have entered him is to get Flex some exposure to the trial environment. He continues to knock most jump bars and refuses to weave at speed. His handling is going very well.

Set 1 - I worked with Gus on this set in stages because of his weaving issues. I lead out to a position between 1 and 2 (closer to 2) and released Gus from his stay while looking over my right shoulder. He handled very well from 1 to 4 but knocked all of the jump bars. I kept him on my right from 1 to 3 and then did a front cross so he was on my left headed into the far tunnel entry. This prevented him from going into the wrong end of the tunnel. After he completed the tunnel I put him on leash and sent him into the weaves. On the first 2 turns he did not weave well even on leash but on the 3rd try he did better. I kept him off side and held the leash to make sure he completed them. After the weaves I took him off leash again to finish 6 through 9. I had him on my right side and headed to 6. If I did not move fast enough he would cut in front of me and take the off course number 8 jump. When I did move fast enough to get him out over 7 it was very difficult to get a reasonably tight turn to come back over jump number 8. Once he was over jump 8 he had a straight shot into the chute with which he had no problems.

Set 2 - This set was exceptionally difficult for us. Besides requiring a tremendous amount of speed since lead outs were not allowed, the set is mostly jumps so Gus knocked most of the bars. We also had a lot of problems going from jump 5 to the teeter. Gus continually wanted to push out wide around the teeter. Finally I tried a front cross in front of the teeter and that gave him a better approach and he was more successful. I am still not able to get in front of Gussie for front crosses on tight courses like this one.

Set 3 - Weaves, Weaves, Weaves. OMG they will be the death of him. He weaved OK (because he was a little tired) on leash. I rewarded him with the tunnel which seemed to work OK. We focused our practice to on and off side weaving for the entire set. He was doing pretty well, but did pop at pole 10 on a number of turns. He was building up some speed and having good foot work on a few of those turns. We need more practice around equipment and other dogs.

Set 4 - This set was to practice threadles and serpentine patterns. We definitely had a few handling issues with this one - again because of his speed. We performed the black square sequence first and we were pretty successful. He had nice switches and ran very smoothly. he did have a wide turn from 5 to 6 because my motion pushed him out there. This was difficult for me because I really don't know how to handle this so that he doesn't go so wide without layer the number 6 jump (which is not allowed in APHS). On the white square sequence we struggled. Handling the threadle without using RFPs with Gus was very difficult. I was constantly out of position for the number 5 jump. I need to set this up at home and see what I can do to make this work for us.

Beginner's Class - Week 4

Well, this week the dogs were introduced to some new things and Flex adapted very well.

Set 1: This is the jumping set and we continues to review the telephone book/perch work with the dogs. Actually this was the Milestone Week and Flex was being tested on it. He did pretty well with the pressure but he has a tough time with the invitation. This week they also introduced the idea of walking backwards in a circle. This was more difficult for him because he likes to be in front of me and looking at my face. The idea with this exercise was that he was to be in a heel position and walk backwards next to me. He would do a few steps at a time but either got scared because the tunnel would move (due to another dog jumping on it) or he would run into the tunnel braces. I need to practice this with him at home around a chair for now.

Set 2: This is the flat work set. We worked on restrained recalls and heel work with the dogs. Flex has been doing these activities for a long time (since I adopted him) so they were very easy for him.

Set 3: This week we introduced the Buja/Wobble board to the dogs. Flex did great with this. he had no problems with the motion at either height (baseball or softball) and was very comfortable. Even jumping up to get treats while on the board. I am looking forward to the higher heights and performing this on the cement to incorporate the noise.

Set 4: This week we continues to work on weave entries and the tunnel. Flexi has gotten over his fear of a straight tunnel. It does help him if I talk to him while he is in there. As for the weaves, he is getting the entries however, he is not too comfortable yet with the more difficult angles for his entry. I will continue to work this at home.

Flexi has also progressed with his issues with people. He is freely going up to new people when he is on leash with me. He is still hand shy but does not freak out the way he used to. In addition he is doing much better sitting quietly in his crate and he and Gus are able to share a kennel together. I am very proud of my little boy!

Saturday Fun Run - 10/4/08

So this week we ran a Gamblers course. Gussie did pretty well on his first run. He knocked all the bars but got a few of the contacts and followed my direction very well. He was successfully able to complete the gamble but knocked the jump bars while doing it. On his second run, he bit me again because I tried to move him through too much of an empty space. He gets really frustrated by that. A lot of the handlers that were running the course had trouble with the gamble. The two most common mistakes were that the dogs pull into the handler after jump 1 rather than take the correct side of jump 2. The other issues was that the handlers were not able to redirect the dogs over the number 3 jump and the dogs instead headed straight to jump 4.


Flex and I just ran a few tunnels and jumps. His zoomies were minimized by the yummy chicken that I brought for treats. I rewarded him after every obstacles or every other one. He had a tough time with the gamble too because he still comes back to me after every jump. I am OK with this right now because of his tendency to zoom, but i was still impressed that he stuck with me so well today.

Home Practice - I am sick

Well, I skipped class tonight because I am just not feeling well. I am not sure if it is because of the pollen/smog or if I am just getting a cold. No matter. I stayed home with the dogs tonight but Flex was driving me crazy (I think he was bored) so I practiced weaves for 10 minutes with him. We are working on shaping his entries but when I try to get him to be on my right side and enter the poles he always turns to the left and not the right. I tried luring him a few times but this didn't seem to work. He was also super hyped up because we tried new treats tonight. I parboiled some chicken breasts last night then chopped them up and then baked them. Flexi went nuts for them!





I did about 5 minutes with Gus on the poles too. He does fine with the poles at home so we did not practice for too long.

Practice this morning

I took Gus to the park this morning to work on his jumping. I have 5 of the Ready Jumps and they are awesome for practicing anywhere. We practiced the Set Point Exercise from Susan Salo in various iterations this morning and Gus did pretty well. He also did well on stays. I am not sure why he gets so stressed when he is asked to stay. It is surprising to me that he finds that so difficult. Anyway, we was pretty successful with the jumping - only knocking the bar 2 out of 25 attempts. On the slice set point work I did not take the bar above 10" this morning however because he was struggling with that work. We did not get to the bend exercise because I did not want to over tax him.


Check out the videos from FCI Championships and watch some awesome handling!

Beginner's Class - Week 3

This week we did the following exercises:

Set 2

• Sit/stay practice: He does very well with his sit/stay (much better than Gussie) and I am able to get 10' to 15' away from him.
• Recall to heel: Flex has been working on this for weeks with me at home so this exercise was very easy for him. He understands that he should come to the hand that I present him.
• Waltz to FX - He also has been working on this for a number of weeks so this exercise was also pretty easy for him.

Set 3 - This set is for teeter training. Flex remembered the drive across the board to the target and did it very well. While we were reviewing this exercise (with the board on the ground) I also worked on his sit/stay by leading out to the end of the board. Again he did very well. After about 5 minutes of review we introduced the board on cement blocks. I was pretty sure that Flex was going to need a little help with this modification but it did not phase him in the least. He hopped right up on the board and confidently ran across to the target. For the first couple of attempts I had the instructor leave the target on the board to ensure he understood the exercise. I was really proud of him!

Set 4 - This set is the tunnel and the weaves. Flexi is doing well with the entries as long as I stay on the onside of the weaves. If I cross over the plane to being offside he struggles with understanding what I am looking for. I really need to practice these at home with him for a little while everyday. He is getting easily distracted by the other dogs at this set. I think he may be getting a little tired by the time we get he but he is definitely showing some stress signs. We also started the tunnel introduction. Flex has been really reluctant to take tunnels so when he went right through without any hesitation I was thrilled!

Set 1 - This is the jumpers set. This week we continued with the phonebook/perch work. Flex does well with and is responding to both pressure and invitation.

Saturday Fun & Games - September 27th

This week we ran a USDAA style Snooker course and Gus did OK. His handling was beautiful and but his obstacle performance was poor. He basically knocked all the jump bars and would not weave.


For our first turn I mapped out a course that started out at the red jump closest to the tunnel. After he took that jump I sent him to the tunnel and then sent him over the jump between the tunnel and the tire. After that jump he did the tire, the final red jump and then the teeter. After the teeter he started the closing. Again, we handling this sequence very well up to the weaves, but he knocked all of the bars. On the weaves he got the entrance but pulled out and headed back towards the tunnel.


On our second turn I left his leash on and just asked him to weave. He was very amped up still and would not complete all six poles (popping out at 4 repeatedly). I need to spend time before we run to tire him out before we start. He really needs to expend the extra energy before he gets on the course. he can't engage his brain otherwise.


As for Flex, well he had the zoomies for his first run. On his second run, I kept his leash on and had him do the two red jumps and the tire between them. He did that very well! I also treated him after each obstacle which I think he really needs still.

Handler's Class - Week 2

Gus had class on Monday night and he did OK. The first we worked on was weaves and again I had Gus stay on leash to perform the weaves. He was popping out of the poles at the 10th pole repeatedly.

On the second set he was supposed to perform v-sets and RFPs to get the dogs into the correct tunnel entrance. He did very well on this exercise (Except for the dropped bars).

The 3rd set was a how would you handle this set and we had quite a few problems here. He went off course at a number of locations, specifically from 4 to 5. He kept taking the number 3 jump (backwards)rather than pull towards me for 5. He also crossed behind me on a couple of occasions going from 6 to 7 and took the off course, wrong side entry to 11. This was very unusual since Gus almost never crosses behind me. I am going to work on this with him.

On the final set he was just a bar knocking fool. In addition I was working on his sit stays so he lost quite a few turns because he refused to sit. I am trying to enforce this in class now - he must sit and wait otherwise he loses his turn. Nothing else seems to work; he must learn some self control otherwise he will never be successful in agility.

As a side note I have posted the link to the FCI World Championship Blog under the agility links. They will be posting video from the competition and course maps so check it out.

Beginner's class - Week 2

Well, Flex had his second beginners class this week and he did really well. The first set we went to was flat work and Flex has seen all of these exercises before so he did very well with this work. We worked on the sit/stay (which he was very good at - 15 feet lead outs) and the Greeting Game. He did really well at this, changing direction with me fairly quickly. The other dog we were working with was very reactive and Flexi responded very well. The final exercise we worked on was The Waltz. Again he has done the exercise many times and he responded very well.


The second set that we went to was the introduction to the plank. We shaped the performance to interact with the plank and eventually built up to walking across the plank. Flex has not seen this exercise before but he did very well. By the end he was driving across the plank to the baited target with speed and confidence.


The next set was the weaves. We have been working on shaping the weave entry already so this set was pretty easy for him. He was however getting very hot and tired so he was only able to focus for about 7 minutes. Once I lost his focus we went and got some water and I picked up his tennis ball and we played for a few minutes. This helped him regain some ability to focus so when we got to the last set he was able to work again for a few minutes.


The final set was the jump set. We were doing perch/telephone book work. Flex already knows this activity so he did very well with it. I also started to work with Flexi to place pressure on him to get him to move his rear legs away from me while keeping his front paws on the book. This is more advanced than the rest of the class but since he has been working this for a few weeks I didn't want to hold him back too much.


Overall, Flexi had a good class. I am hoping that as the weather cools he will be better able to focus for the full hour. I also think I need to work on his general conditioning because he seems to have limited endurance right now.

Saturday Fun Run

Above is the course we ran on Saturday. The areas we had difficulty with were the sequence 5,6,7,8 & 9 and also 15,16, &17. I pushed Gus out past jump number 8 repeatedly because he was jumping 7 very long. I also could not get into position to correctly perform a front cross between 15 and 16 so I was trying to rear cross 17 and Gus kept turning towards me rather than doing a rear cross.

I am not sure why I keep pushing him past the plan of the correct jumps, but I have a theory. Since I have lost so much weight and I can move faster I am able to get to positions more quickly and he is interrupting this as forward motion past the obstacle I want him to take. I will start trying to test this theory in class with him over the next few weeks. I also really want to get him out to the Pudgy Pup this Thursday night so that we can practice some independent weaves at speed on 12 poles.

Flex just wasn't interested in running this course. He was very stressed and kept leaving the course. We need to work on his zoomies.

Handler's Class - Week 1

So Gus and I started our new class last night. He moved up a level (even though he is not ready) because we need an instructor for the Tuesday night class he usually takes. There were 4 exercises that we did and we did OK. We started at set #3 which was on front crosses (FC) after the weaves. Gussie was too excited to perform the weaves properly so we just worked on his weaving with his leash on (dragging on the ground behind him). For some reason he can focus much better and perform the task with his leash on him. He did OK then. On a couple of his turns he gave me beautiful foot work and completed all 12 poles without popping. On a couple of turns he left the poles after #10.When he was successful with the poles, I let him take the tunnel which was the obstacle right after.

On Set 4 there was the introduction to the V-set. I lined him up straight to the first jump and converged on his path on the approach to the second and then cut to the right dramatically to get his path to change. The timing was off on a number of his turns because he is just so fast. Because I was left cutting right I got wide turns at jump #2 but he did not take the off course chute that was right in front of him.

Next we rotated to set 1 which was a course analysis exercise. Gus and I struggled here. Not so much on the analysis part but the execution of the FC. My timing and motion were totally off almost every time. Gus also missed his A Frame contact a couple of times too. I think part of the reason my timing was off on the cross was because I was worried about his contact performance.

Finally we went to Set 2 and worked on the send and run exercise. Gus was successful at knocking all the bars on every run. Attached is a small video of him taking a single jump in this exercise (sorry for the poor quality - it was my phone). He was really struggling with taking off at the proper point and he is not getting enough lift I think. You may need to watch the video a couple times to get a good handle on the take off point.

Practice Session

So Flex and I worked on his targeting today. He did significantly better than yesterday. I sat on the floor with him and moved the target around. By the end he was moving towards the target and noise touching it with no prompting. We practiced for about 5 minutes.

Beginner's Class with Flex

So Flex had his first beginner's class on Saturday. We were required to sit for quite a while during the overview and rules of the class. During this time I worked on Flex's focus on me, clicking when he would sit or laydown and look at me. There were quite a few other dogs their and he was definitely interested in them. Also, he did a great job of allowing other handlers come near him and touch him.



As for the other portion of the class, Flex struggled with focusing on the tasks at hand. We did some targeting work and he acted like he had never seen a target before. In addition we played the "Whiplash Game" and he was completely unable to focus with me behind him. We need to spend some time on working on his trust issues with me.

Saturday Fun Run

This was the course Gus & I ran on Saturday. It was very difficult for us. He ran the more difficult white course. Besides knocking most of the jumps and refusing the weaves we ran into a few handling challenges. First I tried to perform a front cross between jumps #6 & #7 and this pushed him off 6 going around it. I got him back on course but he again went wide around number 10 and I am not sure why. He had a beautiful rear cross over 12 to 13. I made the mistake of blind crossing the exit from the #16 tunnel to jump 17 which put me on the outside path. By doing this Gus looked seriously at the off course jump number 13. On our second run I stayed on the inside of the loop and he never looked at 13 and drove forward to 19.

Flex also run the black course. He does not yet have the forward drive so he is very dependent on me to signal each jump and also keeps crossing behind me. I am trying to correct this behavior and work on his forward momentum on course. He also had a small case of the zoomies but came back on the first run. On the second run I got the impression that he was struggling physical (his leg may have still been bothering him) so I let it go and finished up with him.

Fun Run last night

Well last night we had a Fun Run that was supposed to be "tryouts" for the upper level classes at my agility club. Well, Gus stunk the place out! He was so hyper that he could not focus on anything.

The course map is shown to the left. I lead out past the first jump and ran past #2 to perform a front cross to get him into the correct side of the tunnel. Unfortunately he completely ignored the turning cues and headed directly into the off course side of the tunnel. He then proceeded to knock the bars at 4, 5, 6, & 7. Rather than take the dogwalk he went off course to the #16 jump. Once he was back on course at 8 he did pretty well through 13 but when I pushed myself to get into position for a front cross on the landing side of 14 he pushed out around the jump. I am pretty sure that my forward body motion prevented him from seeing that jump. Anyway, once I got him back into position for the #14 jump he took the obstacle discrimination perfectly (one bright spot) and then start to herd me through the difficult path cross area from 15 to 16. At that point I was just too frustrated to continue so I pulled him off of the course. Due to lightening we were unable to get a second run, but I did put him on the teeter twice (between other people's runs) and he did the aframe/tunnel loop a few times before we put away the equipment. Those were both very nice. He had good contacts and the teeter was fast but well controlled.

In Gussie's defense he had not been to agility class at this location for over a month so his focus was way off due to the excitement of being back at this location. I also could not work on his focus with me because a number of people had questions for me and that was distracting. I need to be better about focusing on him during these pre-run periods and not allowing others to interrupt his time.

Agility Seminar Day 2

Today at the seminar Gus worked as the demo dog again for teeter, flat work and weaves. He did really well on the teeter. He got on the higher Buja board for the first time. It was approximately 6" off of the ground. At first he noticed the height but he quickly dismissed it and started to play on it. After that section was over, he continued to try to play with it. Then we moved to the full height teeter. Traditionally Gus tends to hesitate at the pivot point and jump off the end of the contact as soon as it hits the ground. We have been working on his performance a little bit this summer but not too much because our major focus has been his jumping problems. Anyway, on the first attempt he did not hesitate and went directly to the end of the board to ride it down! He did however bail off of the teeter (to the side) to avoid the board on the bounce back. I need to continue to work with him on this. We played the Bang-It game (which he loves) and the Drop Zone. I worked on rewarding the 2o/2o position with him while my assistant (Amy) simulated the bounce back of the board. This game is supposed to increase the dogs rear end strength because they should be pushing the board back down to the ground with their rear legs. Gus was definitely pushing and I think with repetition he will get this and will understand that he can control it and does not need to perform the teeter so unsafely.

We also worked the 12 poles with gates. At first he was very hesitant with the weaves because he has not seen the gates on the poles before. Once he understood that he could get through the poles, he started to drive forward with some speed. On the first couple of attempts his footwork was atrocious. Then he started to perform the bouncing through the poles and he became slightly faster. It was towards the end of the poles that he was able to make this foot work adjustment but he was making the adjustment. With more repetitions I think this performance will improve also.

Tomorrow night we will be video taping his runs at class and I will be posting them to this site. I want to see if he is able to translate the jump work that we have been doing into full speed course work. My guess is no but I want to see it.

Agility Seminar Day 1

Gus, Flex and I attended an agility instructors seminar today. Unfortunately Flex was injured on Friday morning by my other dog Izzy so he was not able to participate in most of the activities today. He is actually on crate lock down until the swelling has gone down and he is able to walk and run without limping.

Gus however spent most of the day being the demo dog on the jump demonstration. He did absolutely beautifully on the set point work. He did not knock any bars nor did he even touch them. He did numerous repetitions of this exercise. In addition, he performed the grid progression exercises. He was very successful. He rarely knocked the bars and he also had some amazing stays (up to 5 jumps out). Many people in the class who have seen Gus' jumping performance before were amazed at his improvement. He has come a long way in a short period of time. I am very optimistic that this method will help us fix his problems. Tomorrow Gus will be helping again on the weave & teeter demonstrations.

More Set Point Work

Well, tonight each of the boys worked again on their set point exercises. Tonight we did it with a double jump instead of a single. I started both of them off at low heights and then increased the difficulty for each of them on each successive jump. They both did about 20 jumps. Flex knocked the bar once (he took the double before I was able to lower it and I don't think he was expecting the depth of the jump). Gus did not knock any bars (except the stride regulator when he was goofing around). He did hit the bar at 12" the first time he saw it there, but did not touch it again afterwards. I am really seeing good take off position and leg tucking with Gus on these exercises. I am really hopefully that these exercises will improve his jumping performance.

Set Point Exercises

Flex performed 20 of these jump set point repetitions and only knocked the bar once. It was at 18" not his normal 16" jump height. Part of Susan Salo's example is to take the bar higher than the jump height and then back them down again. I only did 2 repetitions with him at the 18". I really wanted him to be successful so after the knocked bar my goal was to get him to perform it successfully and then back him down to 16" and then 14".

Gus performed the same exercise at 10", 12" and 14". He was successful on all 20 attempts. He did however audibly tick the bars on 5 of the attempts. To adjust this I brought him closer to the stride regulator for his starting position so he was not taking any steps before he got into the work area. This dramatically improved his performance. We also worked on his stay in this exercise and he only broke his stay twice. I am extremely proud of his efforts on this. He is doing a fantastic job of listening and being calm. He did show a little bit of stress with the exercise about 2/3 of the way through. I lightened up the tone of my voice and jackpotted him a couple of times which seemed to help. Classes start in 2 weeks so we will see how he does with the extra distractions and excitement.

GDA Luncheon Video

Introduction - 8/31/08

Hi! Welcome to my Blog. I have decided to start blogging my training experiences with two of my dogs who do agility with me. My older dog is Gus, a 3 year old Cardigan Welsh Corgi. I have had Gus since he was 8 weeks old but I took over training him for agility just shy of his second birthday. My younger dog is Flex, a one and a half (we think) year old Mini Australian Sheppard. Flex is a rescue and he has only lived with me since April of 2008. He has a lot of trust issues but so far is really enjoying Agility.

Right now I am trying to correct Gus' terrible jumping problems. He does everything at full speed and never learned to judge the appropriate take off point when he jumps. He routinely knocks almost half the bar on an agility course. We have been using the Set Point exercise from Susan Salo's DVD. So far this has dramatically improved his jumping in a controlled setting (no speed). We were trying the Linda Mecklenburg jump training but I found that he wasn't understanding the concepts very well. I went to the Clean Run Instructors Conference and sat in on a few of Susan's classes. Her instruction was clear, precise and based on years of experience.

Gus has been progressing very well with the Set Point Exercise. He is consistently taking off properly and clearing the jumps with out touching the bar. This exercise has also allowed me to work on his sit/stay while in front of a jump. His stays have improved quite a bit. We will continue with this exercise for another full week and then progress to the next level of her program. Flex is also working these exercises although his work area is larger then Gus'. Flex struggled with knocking the bar because he was taking off too late once the bar was raised to his regulation jump height of 16". I increased the work area by 6" and that solved the problem completely.