Woooooooo! Love this thread.
What my crew and I are up to:
Zuma
Disc Dog Tricks (We have our first comp tomorrow!!)
-Polishing our leg and chest vaults. Most of this is just getting my throwing down.
-Flips, again need to get my throwing down but also am working on getting Zuma more comfortable with tracking the disc and flipping.
-Back stall, haven't started this one yet but have it on our radar.
-Walking weaves between the legs
-A cool super secret trick beginning with Zuma coming between my legs and then flipping out to catch a disc
Agility
-Proofing those dang weaves in a trial setting. We are working in collaboration with a fellow trainer with this one, amping our dogs up by making them watch each other in high-excitement exercises and then sending them through the weaves.
-Wrapping jumps, on on-going battle with the wide swinging girl.
Everyday Stuff
-Not guarding her crate when dogs walk past in a trial setting
-Perfecting her right pivots in heel, she currently swings a bit wide and I want it tighter.
-Building excitement into heel. She is working really well with toys now in this aspect and is no longer forging ahead. We are doing a lot of heeling and then sending her for a go around behind me to retrieve a toy.
Zinga
Herding
-She had an initial evaluation done and we set up a training plan to bring her out once a week or so until she "notices" that sheep are fun. At that point she will be off of sheep until she matures. I will probably test her with them again around 10 months or so to see where she is at.
Agility Foundation Funstuff
-Crate games! We have awesome crate games at home and are now moving them to novel places. It's tough in a new place and she is hesitant to return to her crate currently. She holds her stays very well despite the location and will only exit the crate when released. We are working on building her confidence in the crate without me in sight in new locations as well.
-Wobble boards/moving things. She looooves wobble boards and the exercise pads. We started the skateboard a couple days ago and she was not concerned about it at all!
-Targeting with back feet. She's picking up on this but we haven't really worked very hard on it yet so I can't give an accurate update.
-Tug. Tug is going very well, she hangs on for dear life and will do other behaviors on cue to be able to tug. We tug, I ask her to release and then ask for a down or hand touch and then release her to tug again. I am working on her initiating the game currently and she will for a few sessions but then will move off to chew on the toy by herself. Still a huge improvement from even a week ago!
Everyday stuff
-Heel. She has a really nice foundation for her flip finish and we are working on leg targeting. Will upload a video of this soon!
-Mat work. She is staying on the mat for a variety of distractions currently including tons of handler movement (running away from her, running in circles, jumping jacks, etc) and toy distractions including throwing the toy and releasing her to it. I am working on duration next.
-Non-formal retrieve. She is a natural at this but I think I pushed it too far too fast which has led her to not wanting to bring toys back. So we are shaping it and it's going very well!
That's it for now. Classic is continuing working on not being an A**hat and actually its going very, very well.