Sessions 11 and 12. We went out to the farm this morning and everyone had a good run. They were pretty pooped most of the day, but we did get in a couple of sessions this evening. It's pretty exciting, you can actually see her starting to bend now!
Session 11
Session 12
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Weaves Day 5 (Friday)
Thursday was a write off completely for me, so OhLa got a rest day. I brought her out on Friday for a session with the weaves, I turned the poles in a wee bit more than day 4. Only one session on Friday, I had a lot of catching up with life to do so she got to play chuck-it instead! (Which she loves)
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Weaves day 4
Morning session
I moved the poles to the middle of the yard instead of at the one end.
Afternoon session
I staked the poles, moved them a little closer and turned them a little.
Evening session
I left the poles the same as the afternoon.
I moved the poles to the middle of the yard instead of at the one end.
Afternoon session
I staked the poles, moved them a little closer and turned them a little.
Evening session
I left the poles the same as the afternoon.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
2 x 2's day 3 (or 2.5 depending on how you look at it)
Here are sessions 5 and 6 on the weave poles. I'm really happy with her drive, looking ahead for the poles, and going for the toy. It helps that I worked today and she's been cooped up in her crate! I need to work harder on her looking for the first set of poles, this is my fault for not rewarding enough inbetween the two sets. I also love the barking when she doesn't get the toy, I shouldn't encourage it at all because I'm sure her mom doesn't want a barking dog on course but if she could swear and say "what the f&*#" when she doesn't get her toy I'm sure she would!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Here we Go!
Session one
No video, forgot the camera sorry! I took OhLa to the indoor training centre and worked on shaping running between the two poles using the clicker and food. Dropping food in the grass is not such a great idea so we had to go indoors for that one.
Session 2
Came home, gave her a rest and then did the same exercise in the grass with no clicker and a toy instead.
Session 3
Two sets of two. Working the arc and rewarding in between the two sets 50 percent of the time. I didn't do very well at that! Note to self. :) Time to start staking the poles as well.
Session 4 was the same as session two, but with me rewarding in between the poles more often. I also switched from a toy to a food tube for reward as she was quickly losing interest in the toy and going off to sniff and eat grass. Sadly, I bumped the camera when I hit the record button and the whole session was a lovely picture of the top of the neighbours shed!
No video, forgot the camera sorry! I took OhLa to the indoor training centre and worked on shaping running between the two poles using the clicker and food. Dropping food in the grass is not such a great idea so we had to go indoors for that one.
Session 2
Came home, gave her a rest and then did the same exercise in the grass with no clicker and a toy instead.
Session 3
Two sets of two. Working the arc and rewarding in between the two sets 50 percent of the time. I didn't do very well at that! Note to self. :) Time to start staking the poles as well.
Session 4 was the same as session two, but with me rewarding in between the poles more often. I also switched from a toy to a food tube for reward as she was quickly losing interest in the toy and going off to sniff and eat grass. Sadly, I bumped the camera when I hit the record button and the whole session was a lovely picture of the top of the neighbours shed!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Getting ready for weaves
Now that we have some rear end awareness, a toy that Ohla really likes (her favorite ball stuck in a sock) and some shaping practice we are about ready to train weaves. Someone commented to me yesterday that I should do the 12 poles in 12 days with her, just to see if I can do it. I'm tempted, for sure! Not sure if I want to really challenge her like that though. Maybe that's a cop out, who knows? It took me a lot longer than that to teach Heidi! I'll keep you posted!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Surfing Safari
I did some more video tonight of OhLa's teeter work. I apologize, the videos are all out of order!
Step One is the Wobble Board (a certain someone knocked the camera askew, wonder who that was????!!)
Step 2 is the Bang game from the previous post
Step 3 is run the plank. As you can see in the video she isn't quite running with gusto yet. I'd like to see her have more confidence with running straight to the end and hanging off before I start letting the board drop. Also, I could be using way better treats, she was just getting plain kibble tonight. Some hot dogs may be in order!
Step 4 is to surf the teeter
Step 5 is Hup hups, hop on the raised board and nose touch
Step 6 is to put it all together! We're not quite there yet, but soon!
I was at a seminar not that long ago where the presenter said "expect more, get more." With OhLa that has proven to be very true, I have progressed a lot of steps really quickly with her and challenged her early. It is really working, she is the type of dog that has no problems being wrong, she can accept failure and try harder to figure things out without getting weird. On the other hand, she runs into things like a bull in a china shop, she has no sense of boundaries!
Step One is the Wobble Board (a certain someone knocked the camera askew, wonder who that was????!!)
Step 2 is the Bang game from the previous post
Step 3 is run the plank. As you can see in the video she isn't quite running with gusto yet. I'd like to see her have more confidence with running straight to the end and hanging off before I start letting the board drop. Also, I could be using way better treats, she was just getting plain kibble tonight. Some hot dogs may be in order!
Step 4 is to surf the teeter
Step 5 is Hup hups, hop on the raised board and nose touch
Step 6 is to put it all together! We're not quite there yet, but soon!
I was at a seminar not that long ago where the presenter said "expect more, get more." With OhLa that has proven to be very true, I have progressed a lot of steps really quickly with her and challenged her early. It is really working, she is the type of dog that has no problems being wrong, she can accept failure and try harder to figure things out without getting weird. On the other hand, she runs into things like a bull in a china shop, she has no sense of boundaries!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Presents, Poking, and Contacts
Greetings from OhLa! If OhLa could talk she would say "Squeeeee!!!!" Her morning ritual consists of waking up with the sun (oh yes, 0530 is such a fun time to be up!)and bringing me presents and then poking me in the face with them. Such lovely sharing! Her favorite is generally socks, but if I don't take the lovingly delivered sock (cause gee, maybe I am sleeping?!) she brings me all kinds of presents. Like my shorts, my shirts, toys, and this morning I was privvy to a fork she stole off the counter. What a nut. She loves to show you what she's got. Take for example this afternoon I was cleaning out the flowerbed. She brought me a clump of dirt and poked me with it. How much more thoughtful can you get? :)
We did a little a-frame work today. I've ordered a touch-it to experiment with. http://www.nosetouch.com/touch_it.htm I've been thinking about these for a while, I figure it can't hurt to tune up the girls before regionals and maybe work with Heidi and Sobe as well as OhLa. Anything that is efficient and saves me time is good in my books! The only way you can have and train nine dogs and work is by being efficient in your training!
We did a little a-frame work today. I've ordered a touch-it to experiment with. http://www.nosetouch.com/touch_it.htm I've been thinking about these for a while, I figure it can't hurt to tune up the girls before regionals and maybe work with Heidi and Sobe as well as OhLa. Anything that is efficient and saves me time is good in my books! The only way you can have and train nine dogs and work is by being efficient in your training!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Hand Targets
Here's a little video of OhLa doing her hand targets. She is working on keeping repeating nose touches despite distractions. She only gets rewarded if she nose touches without looking at the hand with the food in it after each touch.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Flat!
Here's OhLa doing her supa fast downs. Just a couple to show you her potential! If she does rally later she'll have a great moving down!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Walking on walls
Last night in class we worked on a few things, and I took away some homework. We had to show off a newly shaped behaviour, so I showed off OhLa's "head down."
Then we worked on figure eights around posts, working on the dog staying beside you on either side and not cutting behind you. She did pretty well in the not cutting behind me part, but on left turns she wants to run out ahead of me. She cut me off every time! So that will be a work in progress for this week.
Next we worked on a sit stay, walking out about twenty feet, dropping the toy, and then releasing the dog to the toy. OhLa's sit stay is improving, but I find that I don't trust her much. I don't feel like she has understanding in that department, and since that is something that will carry on through everything in her career it is definitely worth me putting some time and effort into working on it.
Finally we started wall walking. Sound strange? Yep! It is a rear end awareness exercise, you teach the dog to put their back feet up on something, then up the wall into a hand stand. It sounds strange, and it is, but it's a great muscle builder and a stunning parlor trick to boot!
Then we worked on figure eights around posts, working on the dog staying beside you on either side and not cutting behind you. She did pretty well in the not cutting behind me part, but on left turns she wants to run out ahead of me. She cut me off every time! So that will be a work in progress for this week.
Next we worked on a sit stay, walking out about twenty feet, dropping the toy, and then releasing the dog to the toy. OhLa's sit stay is improving, but I find that I don't trust her much. I don't feel like she has understanding in that department, and since that is something that will carry on through everything in her career it is definitely worth me putting some time and effort into working on it.
Finally we started wall walking. Sound strange? Yep! It is a rear end awareness exercise, you teach the dog to put their back feet up on something, then up the wall into a hand stand. It sounds strange, and it is, but it's a great muscle builder and a stunning parlor trick to boot!
Monday, May 10, 2010
The camera has arrrived, now how do I use it?!
I've got some video of OhLa playing fetch with Marty yesterday, now I just have to figure out how to get it on here! It is too big to upload directly on here so I'm putting it on youtube, but then how do I get it into here? Questions questions questions......
In the meantime, I did start OhLa's 2x2 weave training on Saturday. I'll head back out to the training centre today and see what I get (and maybe catch some video of it too!), see if she remembers. I shaped going through the poles with food then transferred to a toy on Saturday. She kind of got it, but I'm not convinced she understands, but OhLa seems to be the kind of dog that needs to think about it for a day or two before she "gets" stuff so we'll see.
Okay, so i am trying the "embed" feature. Fingers crossed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v55JOANQU4
In the meantime, I did start OhLa's 2x2 weave training on Saturday. I'll head back out to the training centre today and see what I get (and maybe catch some video of it too!), see if she remembers. I shaped going through the poles with food then transferred to a toy on Saturday. She kind of got it, but I'm not convinced she understands, but OhLa seems to be the kind of dog that needs to think about it for a day or two before she "gets" stuff so we'll see.
Okay, so i am trying the "embed" feature. Fingers crossed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v55JOANQU4
Friday, May 7, 2010
Musings from this week
I spent last weekend at a dog trial in Armstrong BC. Lovely venue, great people as always, nice trial, yucky weather! Here I thought I was going to the sunny Okanogan, NOT! One day I will be able to buy a nice camp trailer with a bathroom and a furnace, but not today. Sigh, the back of the truck it is for this group!
OhLa came with us so I could continue her training while away in new environments and so I could be sure to keep an eye on her. I learned a few more important things about her over the weekend that were interesting. One, she is an excellent traveller. She does her business with no fuss, which is really nice. Two, she has terrible leash manners! I had her on a flexi for potty breaks and I'm quite sure my right arm is a little longer than my left now! Too bad for her though that she is stuck with me, I have ways..... She walks beautifully on a sense-ation harness. Ha! She is also obsessed with eating grass right now, not sure what that is all about but perhaps she was a cow in her former life. She is getting her greens via kelp in her meals so maybe she is just enjoying the lovely spring offerings for the novelty of it.
We worked on hand targets, sits, downs, and stays while we were away. All near the outdoor ring and inside the barn. She did great, not so sure about lying down in the dirt at first but once she got used to it she was offering downs like a pro in the dirt. :)
We also successfully shaped a back up this week. It's great, she can back up quite a long ways! We also started working on circle work which she is pretty good at, and I've introduced the travel plank and the target plate.
We start contacts and weaves class next week, so we need to be prepared! My goal for this weekend is to introduce her to the 2x2 weaves and the tunnel.
OhLa came with us so I could continue her training while away in new environments and so I could be sure to keep an eye on her. I learned a few more important things about her over the weekend that were interesting. One, she is an excellent traveller. She does her business with no fuss, which is really nice. Two, she has terrible leash manners! I had her on a flexi for potty breaks and I'm quite sure my right arm is a little longer than my left now! Too bad for her though that she is stuck with me, I have ways..... She walks beautifully on a sense-ation harness. Ha! She is also obsessed with eating grass right now, not sure what that is all about but perhaps she was a cow in her former life. She is getting her greens via kelp in her meals so maybe she is just enjoying the lovely spring offerings for the novelty of it.
We worked on hand targets, sits, downs, and stays while we were away. All near the outdoor ring and inside the barn. She did great, not so sure about lying down in the dirt at first but once she got used to it she was offering downs like a pro in the dirt. :)
We also successfully shaped a back up this week. It's great, she can back up quite a long ways! We also started working on circle work which she is pretty good at, and I've introduced the travel plank and the target plate.
We start contacts and weaves class next week, so we need to be prepared! My goal for this weekend is to introduce her to the 2x2 weaves and the tunnel.
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