What are you working on?

Yes, this. Lol. Recon and I have been working on catching short, low throw discs for foundations. I have very little idea what I'm doing, but I'm not letting him jump or chase them down, and I hope to be able to compete some day. I trained with a half time performance frisbee team for a while last year so I'm just playing back stuff Bill Camp taught me.

Sir is in agility currently and we're working on building his drive and concentration around other dogs.

I've been spending a lot of time with Frag perfecting our sloppy, beginner "heel work" for Rally. Lol

Yep that's how I cued it too and I just don't understand why that is SO AWESOME to the dogs lol. I would cue for a right finish while heeling sometimes just to mix it up and she would go all the way around me (I kept walkin straight) and that was okay but then when I did a 180 too and we met and started walking together the other way it was like we had, according to Kim, just executed this awesome prank. Every time. Cracked me up.

Squash loves that turn to death, too. The AKC rally sign where you do two in a row makes him SO jolly. WE ARE DOING IT!!! :/

No, yer all wrong!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCY1CPiQqoc&feature=share&list=UUrEJXFn4Y5qlEZSGLlchvsA
At 1:05, it's the closest I can find. She's not heeling with Raika but I'll see if I can find the original video later.

So, that... vs the usual pivot where the dogs front leg stays with yours and it's STILL an about turn but they move their butt. Like this at 0:50,
http://youtu.be/9sDTlex_yUc

Well yeah we were talking about an entirely different turn, not your front vs back pivot.

I'm confused, you're looking for the dog to turn on its hind legs without touching the front to the ground?

The idea of keeping their shoulder with your knee is the Schutzhund turn but they should be on all four. lol

Wait, do you mean they are pivoting on their back feet or their front feet? IPO pivot is supposed to be on the front...I think you are saying a pivot on the back feet?

The front should stick with your feet and their rear should rotate. I don't know anyone that trains a turn rotating the front?

Plenty to still work on but I decided to drop the leash and see where we are. I'm frustrated no one else came today because I really need to work his group heeling but I figured I would share my run through.

[YOUTUBE]http://youtu.be/JTaDEJRE9b8[/YOUTUBE]

(I obviously have no idea what I am doing with adding videos)

The video is just a white square for me!

SADNESS! Me too.

Hmmm..

Trying again:

[YOUTUBE]JTaDEJRE9b8[/YOUTUBE]

http://youtu.be/JTaDEJRE9b8

For the unschutzhundy he is missing his sit on pause which we've somehow lost lately, his sit is creepy out of motion which is due to too much work on his down out of motion, and his finish on recall is wonky(this was a first but at least I see it now). I would like more pizzaz in heeling but he was a bit off after we tried desensitizing him to the clatter stick and I really need to go back and completely retrain him if I want a better heel which feels daunting at best.

I went looking for this thread prepared for how depressing it would be and it exceeded my expectations. I miss that dog.

We're working on sending Phelan to a target right now. Adding distance and reliability. He's a bit confused because of hand targets and luring, when I direct him he looks at my hand to be sure it's not a trick (or a tug, we're really into tugging on flesh right now) but he'll get it. He's a smarty.

[YOUTUBE]ro3hgoxXJuE[/YOUTUBE]

I know how hard it is to come across old vids and how meaningful and cathartic it is to train your new pup. Phelan looks great - great engagement and work ethic can tell he is just pure joy to play with

My mission for tomorrow... take some video of Quinn heeling. It's finally coming along.

It may not look like much, but this is what Gabby and I did this evening! Downs still aren't very comfortable for her, so we don't work on them often, but I'm so proud of her for doing them! Also, placement of reinforcer is my saving grace for teaching those leg weaves. I still need to remember to be more specific about my release word(s). I never cued that we were done... oops.


[YOUTUBE]k9rmF3Tu8X8[/YOUTUBE]

http://youtu.be/k9rmF3Tu8X8

[YOUTUBE]d4o46qtD30s[/YOUTUBE]

http://youtu.be/d4o46qtD30s

Go Gabby Go!

Mostly we're working on focus and not being an asshat. Watson has regressed in obedience classes lately and has the attention span of a gnat. Can adolescence end soon, plz?

We're also working on "sleep" (I think that's what I want to call it) which is basically "play dead". I never did get "roll over" completely on cue, but I think laying on his side is a more useful activity, so we're working on that.

Continuing with Nosework classes and trying to get a reliable alert. We did some blind hides the other day and I was able to call alerts correctly by reading his body language, but he wasn't giving me a strong signal the way he has started to do with boxes. He also refuses to lift his nose from the floor to search directly above his head, so we should probably work on that.

And our first agility class starts in 3 weeks! Watson will either be awesome, or a hot mess. He's usually much better in a class environment at things that involve movement, vs things that require standing still, so I'm hopeful. He also has more rear end awareness than he did the last time we tried any sort of obstacles, so I hope he's more confident.

Phelan is so stinking cute!! And so still and thoughtful for a baby!

Gaby looks awesome! Go leg weaves!

Zinga is working on moving into the front position, never really taught her that. She's also working on not spazzing out during heel for a toy reward, that's going rather loudly. Frustrated koolie likes to tell you when she's frustrated. She's also working on positions, specifically not flinging herself into a sit or a down if I hesitate too long to tell her she's right. Also, stand. Never taught her a stand.

Otherwise, both girls are in agility bootcamp. So that's always fun. Gearing up hardcore for trial season!

Gabby is really stinking cute, I can see why she's staying.

We're starting Sloan go-out and I am going to train it with a target, I think. There are several ways and we may add a placed toy on the target occasionally but I figure I'll give this a shot to start. This phone books criteria previously was a rear foot target for contact training so she's a bit annoyed I'm changing things on her by asking for a front foot target.

[YOUTUBE]9SdfP3S8pDU[/YOUTUBE]

Also, Sloan is in a back-to-basics camp right now. She's been allowed for a while now to get by with minimums and her engagement could use work. We're worked on reforming her heel, reminders on eye contact (NO, staring at the ball won't get you anything), the ever present bark on command, and blind searches. Phew.

It's so funny how stand is just kind of... forgotten! I definitely didn't even think about it with Siri until very recently. So I'm making a point of at least reinforcing stands with Gabby!

Also, Phelan is seriously adorable. Good grief is he cute!

Well.... it wasn't really forgotten. I can physically put her in a stand and she'll stay for her start line. We do this a lot actually, she doesn't like to sit at the start line so I'll just sort of set her where I need her and she'll stay standing until I release. But that's agility and totally not an actual stand like you need it for positions in mondio. So ya. I'm going to shape the crap out of that stand.

Front is going awesome! I'm using a contact trainer plank as a sort of pedestal. She's moving into a nice close, straight front position on the plank from any direction now. Adding the cue and moving it off the plank next. Oh and I just wanted to share a small dog moment. She can't rest her chin on me with her head up like I wanted because she's too short. I was clicking for touching her nose to me and now I've ended up accidentally shaping a crotch nose punch as she's moving into position. Not even like a straight on nose punch, but like all up in my business because she's so dang short.

I started to use the clicker in conjunction with a toy reward for heel and that's going SO MUCH BETTER. Silly KPA grad, clickers are always the answer, I can't believe I can never remember that. She can keep focus no problem and isn't so grabby at my pants leg anymore (love how once I can properly communicate to her, her frustration stops). I've also moved my left hand position from my stomach (traditional obedience) to dropped at my left side on the outside of her head (well kind of, she's short so it's over her head but still). No problem with that transition.

I've only threw up my hands in frustration and said "Farking obedience" once this week! I think I'm growing up.