Thursday, March 31, 2011

Training and trialing

Last weekend was three days of AKC. Because of his injury, Summit is behind in qualifying for AKC Nationals. This time last year he already had the six QQ's needed. This year, we have not gotten a single one yet and we didn't get them last weekend either. But we had awesome runs and he won Standard and FAST on Friday, I sent him off course in Jumpers that afternoon. Saturday second place in Standard, won FAST again, and two bars in Jumpers. Sunday won Standard (no FAST offered on Sunday) and dropped second to last bar in Jumpers. The dropped bars in both Jumpers classes were located in the same area of the ring where the ground was churned up and very deep. After his Jumpers run on Sunday, I scribed the next class and the judge said to me, "Nice run too bad about the bar; it is really deep back there and if you had run at the top of the class, he probably wouldn't have dropped the bar."

This weekend we have a two day USDAA trial and still need two Steeplechase and one GP leg for Nationals.

Soleil is doing very well with her training and I will post some video soon. She is now doing the full height teeter. She is driving ahead of me to run to the end and shifting her weight back as the plank drops. We are beginning to do a little proofing of the end behavior. I am going to start RS's drills to proof the release (on the flat) in preparation for proofing the end behavior on the teeter.

We started DJS this week. She is offering to jump the bar at 14 inches. Last weekend she was measured by a VMO (unofficial measurement) and she is 13 3/4" tall. I think she will definitely stay under 14".

We are playing on the table again. The verbal "table" has become a cue to have a rough game of tug. I enjoy pushing her back and revving her up and then saying, "Taaaaaaaaaaable" as I race her to the obstacle and play tug. Not asking for a position yet.

She is still running a low dogwalk and is close to 100 percent. However, I have decided to put a stop on the end. I will still have her run it for another month at the low height to maintain confidence and speed (I did this with Summit). Once I have the 20/20 on cue and proofed on the travel plank, I will raise the dw and backchain.

Here are the videos from last weekend...
EX. B FAST - 1st place with 80 points, 30 seconds



Standard - 1st place, 35 seconds



Jumpers with weaves - wrong end of tunnel. It was a stronger push than I anticipated and Summit didn't read it.



Saturday Jumpers with weaves - two bars (I actually caused the last one by moving too suddenly into him as he was over the bar). Would have been 1st place. I love his independent weaves!



Saturday Standard second place - we lost all the time on the dogwalk. Almost every dog bailed the dw at the end to take the wrong end of the tunnel. I should have trusted my dog but instead i way overhandled the contact (direct eye contact, shoulders turning into him, outside arm), poor boy didn't know what I wanted. You can see he's confused.



Saturday Ex. B FAST - First place with 78 points, 29 seconds
So I am not sure if I "broke" an APHS rule ;-) Did I cue my dog to diverge or did I send to a non-turning obstacle. My plan was to run a straight path along the gamble line and use the obstacle name for the aframe and see if he would figure it out - he did!



Sunday Standard - first place, 34 seconds
That little stumble at the end.... I momentarily forgot where I was going and was moving towards the chute when I suddenly realized, "Wait, we already did the chute!"



Sunday Jumpers with weaves - one stinkin' bar.





6 comments:

Elayne said...

Oh no, you gave up on the running dogwalk? She was doing so well.

Fingers crossed for you that you get the tournaments you need for Nationals. Still plenty of time but it's always nice to get those out of the way.

See you this weekend.

Morganne said...

I found that I didn't enjoy training it. I found it repetitive and boring. I also don't think the criteria is very clear to the dog. Although I could create an environment where Soleil was 100 percent, I don't think she was learning anything specific and I like going in the ring confident that all my obstacles are trained independently.

Diana said...

Sorry about the running dogwalk. But really, I think dogs can win without it, esp. your dogs! Great runs, I really like the first one posted. Good luck this weekend!

Chris and Ricky said...

Loved all these runs with Summit! He seems to be on fire since coming back from his injury. He looks really good!

You know what? We didn't talk about what to do with the cone. I assume that you fade it. Because we started the exercise with a wing gate and then went down to the jump standard and then the cone.

Kathy said...

I'd like to talk about the teeter training. Are you training 4-on? Can't remember what you're doing. I'll have to email you.

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

whoops, I was looking and my origional comment I posed days ago did not seem to post, whoops. I am sure it was FULL of wisdom and humor, and one of my best comments, LOL, but what happened? Hey I have been watching lots of videos and reading all sorts of articles and posts and watching lots of peoples training and whew....it does seem like quite a LONG time intensive project, I am not sure if I would want to do it if I thought I could-and with my dogs and my running abilities, well, it would not be well advised to be sure. Soleil and youwill do fanatastic with what ever contact you deceide to do-you seem to have a pretty Can Do attitude so what ever you go with will be GREAT!