Agility training

SaraB

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It's tough because we can't just ask them if they want to keep playing... agility would be a lot easier if we could just have logical, rational conversations with our dogs...
Pretty sure even if Zinga could talk there would be no logical, rational conversations. Illogical, irrational is what she's all about.
 

Beanie

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Pretty sure even if Zinga could talk there would be no logical, rational conversations. Illogical, irrational is what she's all about.
Payton would yell everything. Volume permanently stuck on 11. He might be logical and rational... just really, really loud.
 

SaraB

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Payton would yell everything. Volume permanently stuck on 11. He might be logical and rational... just really, really loud.
You: "Payton, I understand that you are excited to play agility, but I need you to hold that start line stay so that we can run the course together."

Payton: "I COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND. I DON'T LIKE SITTING THOUGH SO IF YOU COULD POSSIBLY MOVE A LITTLE QUICKER OUT TO THAT JUMP, I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT. ALSO, I WANT SNAUSAGES. ALL THE SNAUSAGES. ONLY IF YOU THINK IT'S APPROPRIATE THOUGH. SNAUSAGES."
 

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I'm pretty sure Gusto would give me a rational, logical soliloquy on how I'm stupid and shouldn't be doing anything the way I'm doing it and by the way it isn't his fault that someone spilled cheerios in the footing.

Meg would be great to talk to at this point in her life. A few years ago she would have whined like an 11 year old girl and asked to go back home and sleep on the couch instead. Now I think she would just mock me. I told her after she got her ADCH that there were no more rules and she could do whatever she wants and I wouldn't get upset. She likes to flaunt that and jump her contacts or pop out of her weaves to play bow now. I'm still not mad and she get her Nutter Butters and hugs and kisses, but I think she's trying to figure out what it will take to break me :p
 

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You: "Payton, I understand that you are excited to play agility, but I need you to hold that start line stay so that we can run the course together."

Payton: "I COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND. I DON'T LIKE SITTING THOUGH SO IF YOU COULD POSSIBLY MOVE A LITTLE QUICKER OUT TO THAT JUMP, I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT. ALSO, I WANT SNAUSAGES. ALL THE SNAUSAGES. ONLY IF YOU THINK IT'S APPROPRIATE THOUGH. SNAUSAGES."
More accurate than you could possibly imagine.
Except instead of holding the start line stay it's more like "When I release you I really need you to promise you'll actually take the jump in front of you. I mean really the fastest way from point A to point B is OVER the jump, not around it, so really. Over the jump. Over. It's not a trick. I promise. Over."

Payton: OKAY BUT ARE YOU SURE IT'S NOT A TRICK BECAUSE I THINK IT MIGHT BE A TRICK AND THE CORRECT ANSWER IS TO GO AROUND THE JUMP AND NOT OVER SO I'LL GO AROUND THE JUMP JUST TO BE SURE IS THAT OKAY?

I think not only does he always shout but he talks in really fast run-on sentences.
 

Laurelin

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Ok, confessional now....

I didn't get video our last trial because I thought that would make me too nervous. I'm already nervous about getting video this trial. Which is funny because I had zero ring nerves, lol.
 

Beanie

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Get video! You don't have to post them, but it's good to have. That way you can really see what you are doing and take a look at what the dog is doing too. With Auggie and Georgie it's easier, in the heat of the moment I can still get a fair handle on what they are doing, looking at, et cetera. With Payton it's a lot like slinging a fast moving wrecking ball around the course and I really don't have time to think about it, so I need the videos to look at after the fact.

One thing that sort of changed my perspective on videos was Dave Munnings YouTube channel. He posts his non-Q runs. He even has a video of working at a seminar where he posted all the clips of the dog being naughty at the end. So I'm like okay, this guy competes at a crazy high level and wins national competitions, and not only does he still have mistakes happen on the course, but he uploads them to YouTube for everybody to see. If HE can post this stuff, so can I. It's not like he's one of those people out there claiming his dogs NEVER make mistakes, they NEVER do this and NEVER do that. No, his dogs screw up and he still posts it! And judging by his Facebook page, he still walks away thinking his dogs did something great, even with mistakes. It's a mentality I want to learn from. So I'm faking it until it sinks in, LOL. I'm going to project the hell out of that mentality when I'm at a trial, no matter what happens. Every run will be great, no matter what happens. Even if I would really prefer to throttle Payton.

Of course Munnings can always be like "Yes well I win national competitions so you can take your comments and shove it," and my only defense is "Yeah well Payton sleeps on my bed at night and not yours so boo to you!"


It also still bothers me that I have no video of one of the greatest runs I had with Auggie. I really, really wish I had it on video. So I will always try to get video now. I've decided if I don't have anybody there to video I'll just set up my tripod and record that way, just so I have it. You never know what will happen.
 

JacksonsMom

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Ok, confessional now....

I didn't get video our last trial because I thought that would make me too nervous. I'm already nervous about getting video this trial. Which is funny because I had zero ring nerves, lol.
Lol, I get the same way when I'm taping things, I always get more nervous because I'm thinking about how we look, or how I look, or whatever. I also for some reason get more nervous in class-type settings when the trainer and other students are watching me lol.

But... get over it. Because I wanna see Mia and Summer do a run! ;)
 

JacksonsMom

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Get video! You don't have to post them, but it's good to have. That way you can really see what you are doing and take a look at what the dog is doing too. With Auggie and Georgie it's easier, in the heat of the moment I can still get a fair handle on what they are doing, looking at, et cetera. With Payton it's a lot like slinging a fast moving wrecking ball around the course and I really don't have time to think about it, so I need the videos to look at after the fact.

One thing that sort of changed my perspective on videos was Dave Munnings YouTube channel. He posts his non-Q runs. He even has a video of working at a seminar where he posted all the clips of the dog being naughty at the end. So I'm like okay, this guy competes at a crazy high level and wins national competitions, and not only does he still have mistakes happen on the course, but he uploads them to YouTube for everybody to see. If HE can post this stuff, so can I. It's not like he's one of those people out there claiming his dogs NEVER make mistakes, they NEVER do this and NEVER do that. No, his dogs screw up and he still posts it! And judging by his Facebook page, he still walks away thinking his dogs did something great, even with mistakes. It's a mentality I want to learn from. So I'm faking it until it sinks in, LOL. I'm going to project the hell out of that mentality when I'm at a trial, no matter what happens. Every run will be great, no matter what happens. Even if I would really prefer to throttle Payton.

Of course Munnings can always be like "Yes well I win national competitions so you can take your comments and shove it," and my only defense is "Yeah well Payton sleeps on my bed at night and not yours so boo to you!"


It also still bothers me that I have no video of one of the greatest runs I had with Auggie. I really, really wish I had it on video. So I will always try to get video now. I've decided if I don't have anybody there to video I'll just set up my tripod and record that way, just so I have it. You never know what will happen.
That's so true! And a good point!
 

JacksonsMom

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So Jackson rocked his weaves at agility today, I was very happy. We're still spacing them apart a bit, so he's still sort of running straight down the middle (excuse my terms still, I still am learning the correct ones lol) but he's got a nice little butt wiggle turn going on now and we kept making them closer and closer and he was just looking fantastic, actually was starting to ... well, 'weave' lol. The other dogs there are still having to have them far apart.

He does tunnels just fantastic. The other little dog is hesitant with curved tunnels still, Jax really loves the tunnels though. They're his favorite.

We also worked on wrapping a jump tighter and he also did great with that. I lack coordination when it comes to switching hands. I think sometimes I forget I have a right AND left hand :rolleyes: so I tend to confuse Jackson when a piece of food is in one hand and he follows that. So I worked a lot on ME today. Honestly that's the #1 reason I love the classes is because of my stupid mistakes. The dog is usually not the problem. lol. I love the trainer pointing out to me what I'm doing wrong, things I wouldn't even think of.

We did a bit of contact and target work today too off the dog walk. I'm glad I took another beginner/intermediate class for that reason ... our very first agility class was more so one of the 'fun' ones, so we did not do a lot of foundations, and then we jumped into intermediate after that. So even though Jackson knows most of the equipment it's a new thing to be learning these contacts and doing target work etc.

Always happy with my boy. He's always so good in class, and picks up things so quickly.
 

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The first trial where I had a video camera and had people tape, Meg (my little qualifying machine) didn't Q the entire weekend, except in the one class where I forgot to hand off my camera. Imagine how long it was before I started having people record me at trials again!

Oddly enough, while I hate having my picture taken or anything like that, I don't really care about the camera when I'm running. I don't really even think about it I guess. I had a few stress moments when I first started my online class, because I felt self conscious about posting a video, but once it was up and responded to, I stopped worrying at all.

And yes, taping is wonderful. Sometimes it makes it clear what went wrong ("why in the world were my feet pointing that way?!"), sometimes it makes you feel amazing to see a great run, and sometimes you realize that what felt terrible really, really isn't that bad. I had a few runs where I lost Gusto to sniffing for a bit, and I would have sworn it was 30 seconds or more, and when I watched it...like 10 seconds. Max.
 
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I have not had any of my trials this year video taped as I went to them by myself. When my sister was coming, we taped each other and you can sure see what went on in the ring. I love looking back at them and see what mistakes we used to make. I have a real problem remembering to use both my arms as I ran Remmy right up through Advanced with no classes. Now that he is in Masters in everything but Snooker, I am taking classes to try and correct that.

Some of our best runs were non Q's.
 

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I always go to trials by myself. Maybe I can get someone to film anyways.

Considering entering a TDAA trial Dec 1st just for the one day. Not 100% sure yet. Looks interesting but much tighter courses and the people I've watched online have much slower dogs than I do. Could be a disaster but the schnauzer people here keep telling me I should try it.

We did weaves today and made some real progress. I'm discovering that actually practicing weaves makes a huge difference. Go figure. Summer is still derping with the open channel. I think her problem is that she reads me so much instead of focusing on obstacles so her idea of weaving is to flail about around the poles in whatever way she thinks makes sense.

I broke out some guides and that was a disaster. Summer thought they looked like fun to jump over. So then I took the guides off because I'm pretty sure Summer thought weaves + guides = new obstacle.

So.... I'm setting up a 2x2 and we're working jump then through the 2x2 then jump through 2x2. I have no clue what I'm doing with her. She's very frustrating with the weave poles, haha. Of course her extreme handler focus seems nice in everything else because she is so easy to handle.

Mia's got 6 closed weaves now on the left side! YAY. Right side are still slightly open. Right entrances are kind of iffy. She is really figuring out the idea though and I got her weaves through shaping with the clicker. No speed yet and I have to really decelerate on approach but hey.... it's a start. I freaking suck at weaves so I'm happy that she's happily doing them. So far I am still clicking and treating quite a bit. We need speed and independence. I think we can get there with her as she's very obstacle focused and her default once she figures out a behavior is to do it faster and faster and faster.

My goal is an AKC trial in early january.

Our first few attempts with Mia though were disasters. It's the first real cold day and she had MAJOR zoomies.

Still practicing in the front yard and still getting people staring, watching, and pointing. Trying not to be self-conscious about it haha.
 

yv0nne

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Briar& I running a sequence from the Justine seminar ..don't judge us too harshly. It was my first time running my boy in over a month. And it is two really shitty sequences. Filled with missed stop contacts, jeans that are too big, early front crosses& weird push/ blind crosses. Oh well. Here's to improvement!

[YOUTUBE]Wyv-A5XVUi4[/YOUTUBE]

And here's Penny's turn. She wasn't really feeling it but I made her do it anyway because I'm a terrible mother and she has to learn I AM HER GOD. Just kidding. But she did have to try each sequence once& then she was free to be a barking distraction to Briar. It doesn't look terrible in the video ..but man, my handling looks so bad. I'm blaming it on the fact that I've been just doing tiny sequences with Penn& had no fast, focused dog in my world for the last 35 days!

[YOUTUBE]Q7vsAiLxbZY[/YOUTUBE]
 

DJEtzel

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I've been really crunching on weaves and contacts lately. Recon's teeter is AWESOME and I took a huge leap and registered him with CPE for an early nov. trial... we're going to day of show one or two classes I'm thinking, since I can't enter before closing due to registration times for CPE - Recon just turned 15 mos so I had to wait to register and yeah. Our trainer/coworker is the secretary so she was all but demanding I go. XD And I got an advance on my paycheck from my boss to register him and enter. So we're debuting! Frag will probably enter a few classes as well, I'll make sure I have someone there to record us! (read- funny crash/burn bloopers!)
 

yv0nne

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You guys will rock it! Make sure to get video ..I always find that the most entertaining& iinteresting thing! I post even my worst, worst videos because I think it's hilarious.

Side note: I started an agility blog. My latest post? Jess Martin love. Anyone else have one?
http://copperchaos.wordpress.com/
 

Beanie

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Payton went under the tire today in his standard run, twice. He did this in Indy too.

On our way to get dinner we were next to a Menards.


So what is happening right now? I bought a piece of irrigation tubing and a roll of yellow duct tape and I made my own tire and we're practicing it in the hotel room.

I sent a photo to our trainer and she texted me back "Ha! You're drunk and you made your own tire!"
And I said THAT IS PRECISELY WHAT IS HAPPENING because I'm totally drinking
 

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