I am happy : ) We had the fun match at our club this morning, and I did get the improvement I was hoping to see. Not that we're ready to get back in the ring yet, but he did much better today than he did at the fun match and trial last month.
Signals - He paid attention today and I didn't see the 'avoidance' behavior I was seeing at the last match and trial. His heeling was pretty good, with just some lagging on the about turn. He got the first two signals fine, but he did lose focus (or maybe I did) on the come, so I had to give a second come signal.
Articles - I stayed with the plan and only put out five articles. He got the first article pretty quickly. On the next article he was taking longer (too long I thought) and almost seemed to be avoiding it, so I went out and led him to the article. We redid that one and he went out and immediately picked it up.
Gloves - His pivot was a little short so I helped him get straight, then he got the correct glove. Moving Stand - Good!
Directed Jumping - Go-outs were straight, but sits were really slow. Both jumps were good. I jumped a little lower than normal, even though he wasn't showing signs of lameness today. I didn't want to take any chances.
Overall, I really did see improvement. We seem to have the basics down - we just need some (a lot more) precision. And we need speed!
Training notes for next week -
We are going to start working on speed. I've gotten a lot of suggestions from a group list that I'm on regarding training briskness for the ring. I'm anxious to start trying some of those ideas to see if I can speed him up.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
New practice location - fairgrounds
We finally got a break in the weather today. It was in the upper 50s, which is like a taste of spring here in Iowa. Suppose to snow tomorrow though : ( With the decent weather, we met our training buddies at the fairgrounds for some outdoor work in a new location. We set up our portable gates and jumps on an outdoor stage there. Even though it's off season for the fairs, there was still a lot of traffic and construction type equipment moving around the grounds, so this provided some new distractions from the indoor rings.
We started out with some heeling work to warm up, then did articles. The articles went well as far as working the pile and getting the correct article fairly quickly. As he gains confidence in working articles with distractions, I need to figure out a way to speed him up on the return. Once he gets the article, he just walks slowly back to me with it. If I can figure out a way to make a game of it, maybe we can get some speed. I was pleased with the glove exercise. His pivots and retrieves were good. However, we have the same problem with speed on the return with the glove as we do with articles.
I'm still taking it easy with Jackson, and even though he wasn't showing lameness today, we didn't do the jumping part of the exercise. We did do a few go-outs and worked on speeding up his sits. The first signal exercise we did, he anticipated and started going down before I gave the signal. But, that doesn't worry me. At least he knows what he's supposed to be doing - he just needs to wait for the signal. The next couple sets of signals he did fine. What we focused on today with the signal exercise is the stand. I'm finding that when we both get stopped, we're not in heel position. He is out in front of me too far. I think this is something that I need to figure out as far as my timing on giving the signal to stand.
After we finished practicing, we went for a walk around the fairgrounds. What I realized doing that was, he's not used to just leisurely walking around, smelling the grass, etc. He tends to stay in heel position as we move forward. Maybe we need more play time outdoors and less formal training? Hmmm.... something to remember as the weather warms up : )
We started out with some heeling work to warm up, then did articles. The articles went well as far as working the pile and getting the correct article fairly quickly. As he gains confidence in working articles with distractions, I need to figure out a way to speed him up on the return. Once he gets the article, he just walks slowly back to me with it. If I can figure out a way to make a game of it, maybe we can get some speed. I was pleased with the glove exercise. His pivots and retrieves were good. However, we have the same problem with speed on the return with the glove as we do with articles.
I'm still taking it easy with Jackson, and even though he wasn't showing lameness today, we didn't do the jumping part of the exercise. We did do a few go-outs and worked on speeding up his sits. The first signal exercise we did, he anticipated and started going down before I gave the signal. But, that doesn't worry me. At least he knows what he's supposed to be doing - he just needs to wait for the signal. The next couple sets of signals he did fine. What we focused on today with the signal exercise is the stand. I'm finding that when we both get stopped, we're not in heel position. He is out in front of me too far. I think this is something that I need to figure out as far as my timing on giving the signal to stand.
After we finished practicing, we went for a walk around the fairgrounds. What I realized doing that was, he's not used to just leisurely walking around, smelling the grass, etc. He tends to stay in heel position as we move forward. Maybe we need more play time outdoors and less formal training? Hmmm.... something to remember as the weather warms up : )
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Practice at club today
We were back at the club today after taking a break from training for a few days. Jackson wasn't showing signs of lameness today, but we took it pretty easy anyway. Didn't want to take the chance of overdoing it, as he still doesn't seem 100%. I've been getting referrals for holistic/alternative vet care and am hoping to get him in to see someone soon for an evaluation. I'm wondering if the jumping is what's affecting him, since it appears to be pain in his front -shoulders/legs/feet - not sure which - that results in lameness.
The agility equipment was set up in one of the rings when we got there. They have agility class tonight, but we were the only ones in the building this afternoon. Jackson really worries about agility equipment, so this was a good distraction for him and an opportunity to practice under stress.
We started off in the adjacent ring with articles. The pile was placed close to the agility equipment on the other side of the gates. He went out and started working the pile right away - all the while keeping an eye on the agility equipment. We did two sets and I was pleased with how he went to work and got all articles correct - even with the agility equipment a couple feet from the pile. The agility equipment proved to be a bit too much of a distraction with the first set of signals though. He wasn't looking when I gave the signal, so I went out and gave him a correction (collar pop) and restarted the exercise. We did signals a few more times during practice and he paid attention and got them all. We even went in the ring with the agility equipment and did some heeling and signals amongst the equipment, and he did fine.
We did the glove exercise to all three gloves. His pivots are improving and his retrieves were good. We could use more speed on the returns. Will focus more on speed after we get the basics down. We did a few go-outs without the jumps and rewarded for fast sits. Then spent some time practicing pivots and backing. His pivots and finding heel can be great when practiced by themselves, but they seem to fall apart when paired with gloves, articles or just setting up in the ring when he is stressed.
Overall, he did good with the added distraction. I'm really looking forward to the fun match at the club this Sunday. I'm hoping to see some improvement over the last match and trial.
The agility equipment was set up in one of the rings when we got there. They have agility class tonight, but we were the only ones in the building this afternoon. Jackson really worries about agility equipment, so this was a good distraction for him and an opportunity to practice under stress.
We started off in the adjacent ring with articles. The pile was placed close to the agility equipment on the other side of the gates. He went out and started working the pile right away - all the while keeping an eye on the agility equipment. We did two sets and I was pleased with how he went to work and got all articles correct - even with the agility equipment a couple feet from the pile. The agility equipment proved to be a bit too much of a distraction with the first set of signals though. He wasn't looking when I gave the signal, so I went out and gave him a correction (collar pop) and restarted the exercise. We did signals a few more times during practice and he paid attention and got them all. We even went in the ring with the agility equipment and did some heeling and signals amongst the equipment, and he did fine.
We did the glove exercise to all three gloves. His pivots are improving and his retrieves were good. We could use more speed on the returns. Will focus more on speed after we get the basics down. We did a few go-outs without the jumps and rewarded for fast sits. Then spent some time practicing pivots and backing. His pivots and finding heel can be great when practiced by themselves, but they seem to fall apart when paired with gloves, articles or just setting up in the ring when he is stressed.
Overall, he did good with the added distraction. I'm really looking forward to the fun match at the club this Sunday. I'm hoping to see some improvement over the last match and trial.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Utility class - good news/bad news
We were back at our utility class tonight. The good news - Jackson did really well on the signals and the articles. We did two sets of signals and both times he paid attention - even with the instructor he worries about standing right behind him. I think the 'tough love' is working. He's paying much better attention and I think he realizes that avoidance is not an option. The articles went well also. We're keeping the number of articles down to four and he went right to work and got the correct articles quickly. We did the glove exercise too. His pivots and retrieves were good for all three gloves.
I was really pleased with the way things were going, however, I noticed early on that he seemed to be limping a little and it got more noticeable as the class continued. That is the bad news. We didn't do the directed jump exercise because of it. I think we'll take it easy for the next couple days and see if that helps. Since this appears to be a recurring issue, I'm also going to check with some folks at the club where I train to get referrals to some specialist that deal with 'sports' injuries for dogs. Maybe it's time to get a specialist's opinion on what may be causing the problem.
I was really pleased with the way things were going, however, I noticed early on that he seemed to be limping a little and it got more noticeable as the class continued. That is the bad news. We didn't do the directed jump exercise because of it. I think we'll take it easy for the next couple days and see if that helps. Since this appears to be a recurring issue, I'm also going to check with some folks at the club where I train to get referrals to some specialist that deal with 'sports' injuries for dogs. Maybe it's time to get a specialist's opinion on what may be causing the problem.
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