OUR AFRAME: I LOVE training challenges and trying to teach new things. I think that is one of the reasons why I wanted to train the 4 on the floor with Breeze for her contacts. I did not know anyone who had trained the 4 on the floor and I learned so much by teaching it, some of which has helped with the aframe we are doing now, some has helped with our 2020 we are teaching now, although we had a lot of detours with Breezes four on the floor contact.. I love Breezes contacts now. Learning by trial and error really does make the whole thing take longer. I will say that in the back of my mind up until now....I was worried that we would never get a decent running aframe, but all of a sudden I feel a new found confidence, and inside I no longer have doubts that we will get a good running aframe, now I can focus my worry on wondering if I will learn how to handle speedy Crickets running aframe ;-).
When it came time to teach Cricket some sort of contact behavior I could not resist the challenge of trying to teach a running contact on the aframe. I liked the idea of the challenge of learning to handle a course with a running aframe which I **HOPE** is doable, but it will be different from our stopped contacts of course. One instructor told me she would not recommend teaching a running aframe with a dog unless it had a "natural stride", she did not know how I would accomplish a running aframe with a border collie, either how to teach it or how to reward it or how to handle it, so of course I had to try it after that comment.
I got the Rachel Sanders Running Aframe DVD, I signed up for the Yahoo Running Contact list, and I trolled through youtubes to watch videos of other peoples training. I was suprised at all the things you had to think about, training the dog to handle turns because they will not be stopped to give you a chance to get there to handle that say if they need to turn back and go into a tunnel, it is really important where their focus is, I learned that if Cricket is paying too much attention to me she will leap off the side way too high because she is looking at me, I learned that if she sets one foot down too high she is likely to quickly to start to launch right over the contact. The other thing that is suprising is how fast it can all unravel if you do not really stick to all your criteria and evaluate what is going on.
The biggest thing I would recommend to someone thinking about running contacts is to video as much as you can, so you can really see what is happening. Recently I had a session that I thought we had a 100% success rate, I looked at the video and found that Cricket had CONSISTENTLY stuck her left front foot down on the aframe, it was happening because she had started not going far enough over the apex and so she was starting to lose her stride into the contact zone. Luckily I saw that quickly and Brittney (Cricket's breeder)helped me figure out what was going on so I could put a stride regulator (a pool noodle on pvc so I can attack it to the aframe).
We are back on track now and cooking (I think, LOL). It is all looking really good now and we have had several sessions where things are looking GREAT. For the most part I really like this method of Aframe training, although I would really like to try Sylvia Trkmans method of training a running contact,....maybe with my next dog????
I know it really seems like we are taking forever, Crickets brother did this method and has been competing for awhile, the just seemed to zip through it and has a gorgeous aframe, but guess Cricket and I do everything a little slower then some ;-) ... even if we are slow, TEAM CRICKET is going to get there and I am confident it will be beautiful so who cares if we are taking the scenic route to get there? I am doubting how much better it is for the dogs joints from a 2020, just because of the sheer number of repetitions I have had to do to teach it, ....way more then I thought,although Rachels method is supposed to limit the number of reps you need. Maybe the number of reps I have needed is related to the mistakes I made, maybe next time I would not have to do as many?
DOG WALK CONTACTS: We have been playing a lot of games with the dog walk contacts. I stuck a board on a stool in the hall and when we are rough housing I run down the hall, dodging the dogs and cats and Cricket jumps on the board and runs into position. I also moved my baby dog walk to the gate going out to the agility yard. Cricket LOVES going into the agility yard, it is one of her highest value treats, so a couple of times a day we run to the gate and play the touch game, she runs into position and then I release her into the yard to go do some training for a few minutes. I really want Cricket to understand the position and to think the position on the contact is a very fun thing ;-) .
contact board and aframe practice, and it is a red letter video,....my 150th posted video! Whooo hoooo!
I know watching other peoples aframe videos of the same thing over and over are not very exciting unless someone is doing the same training now...but if anyone wants to watch any of our other videos they are on my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/bordergirlsmom
Cricket goes to school...
Cricket got to go to agility class last night. I was not sure where our skills would be...and I had planned to do at LEAST half the class with Breeze.
Cricket actually did really well, and except for one near death incident, when I thought I could get ahead and do a front cross...(in my dreams could I get ahead, LOL) so we did crash-I even caught that on tape! Luckily I managed to stay upright so it was all good. I imagine poor Crickets life was flashing before her eyes too, LOL. OOOH forgot the other bad moment when I was getting ahold of Cricket at the ed of a run and the next gal started running...Cricket got away and chased her dog on course, yep, Cricket is pretty stimulated by other dogs running. Luckily that ended well too.
The last run of the night I ran with Breeze, it was so weird running with a baby dog all night then bringing Breeze out who I now realize is a pretty experienced dog, she turns so tightly and reads me so well....what a dream girl! I have to admit after tonight I really think Cricket is a dream girl too. Not sure she thinks I am a dream handler after tonight, sorry Crick.
The classes at our local club are CRAZY though, we started at 7:30 and finished at 10:30-how is that possible? I did not get home until 11:10, it was a long night. One of the lights was out at the yard, and it was pitch black, even with the shadows and working at night which is a first for her, Cricket was not thrown by anything, what a good girlie!
THE COURSES:a lot of running,...you can click on the map and it will enlarge so you can read the numbers ;-) if you are interested.
THE VIDEO:not the best video, I did not get most of our work, but gosh a few sequences to give you and idea and for me to look back on in years ahead to remember how my baby girl is. It was pitch black, so the video was a bit hard to see so I adjusted the colors, so it has a weird look, sorry about that. The dog barking is not my dog for a change-I have been known to have the barking dog on more then one occasion.
Cricket actually did really well, and except for one near death incident, when I thought I could get ahead and do a front cross...(in my dreams could I get ahead, LOL) so we did crash-I even caught that on tape! Luckily I managed to stay upright so it was all good. I imagine poor Crickets life was flashing before her eyes too, LOL. OOOH forgot the other bad moment when I was getting ahold of Cricket at the ed of a run and the next gal started running...Cricket got away and chased her dog on course, yep, Cricket is pretty stimulated by other dogs running. Luckily that ended well too.
The last run of the night I ran with Breeze, it was so weird running with a baby dog all night then bringing Breeze out who I now realize is a pretty experienced dog, she turns so tightly and reads me so well....what a dream girl! I have to admit after tonight I really think Cricket is a dream girl too. Not sure she thinks I am a dream handler after tonight, sorry Crick.
The classes at our local club are CRAZY though, we started at 7:30 and finished at 10:30-how is that possible? I did not get home until 11:10, it was a long night. One of the lights was out at the yard, and it was pitch black, even with the shadows and working at night which is a first for her, Cricket was not thrown by anything, what a good girlie!
THE COURSES:a lot of running,...you can click on the map and it will enlarge so you can read the numbers ;-) if you are interested.
THE VIDEO:not the best video, I did not get most of our work, but gosh a few sequences to give you and idea and for me to look back on in years ahead to remember how my baby girl is. It was pitch black, so the video was a bit hard to see so I adjusted the colors, so it has a weird look, sorry about that. The dog barking is not my dog for a change-I have been known to have the barking dog on more then one occasion.
A super easy trick taken on the road
I hope everyone is having a great Memorial day weekend.
The dogs and I have all been working hard on completing our assignments for the Sylvia Trkman Puppy 2 class. For awhile it seemed we were hopelessly behind but all of a sudden we are almost caught up. One of the tricks we were assigned is closing doors and drawers-a good prep for teeter work. This was one of the EASIEST tricks we have done. We just started with a paw touch to a rubber spatula, then held the spatula to the door once the paw touch was really strong. A few times of touching their paw to the door and closing it-all three dogs had got the idea. It is the only trick I can think of that was easy for all three of the dogs, usually a trick may easy for one or two dogs...but will be difficult for the other dog ;-).
We were also assigned doing tricks in new places. It is always fun to combine assignments and this gave us the chance to see if the dogs were generalizing the task to all sorts of drawers and doors different then the ones at home, and it gave us a chance to work with different distractions. The home center employees are always great to my dogs and did not have a problem with letting the dogs close the cabinets.
The dogs and I have all been working hard on completing our assignments for the Sylvia Trkman Puppy 2 class. For awhile it seemed we were hopelessly behind but all of a sudden we are almost caught up. One of the tricks we were assigned is closing doors and drawers-a good prep for teeter work. This was one of the EASIEST tricks we have done. We just started with a paw touch to a rubber spatula, then held the spatula to the door once the paw touch was really strong. A few times of touching their paw to the door and closing it-all three dogs had got the idea. It is the only trick I can think of that was easy for all three of the dogs, usually a trick may easy for one or two dogs...but will be difficult for the other dog ;-).
We were also assigned doing tricks in new places. It is always fun to combine assignments and this gave us the chance to see if the dogs were generalizing the task to all sorts of drawers and doors different then the ones at home, and it gave us a chance to work with different distractions. The home center employees are always great to my dogs and did not have a problem with letting the dogs close the cabinets.
Working on Handstands!
We have not finished training a handstand but we are getting there. The handstand was one of the tricks that we are doing as part of the Sylvia Trkman Puppy 2 class we are doing now. It is funny I am doing the course with all three dogs and as usual ...all the dogs learn so differently. Each dog has tricks that come easy to them and tricks that do not come so easily. Breeze is definitely the best with handstands-who would figure that with her back. Cricket is catching up and does pretty good. Liz is working with backing onto a small pillow, LOL, she is so far behind it is not funny.
I started doing this trick before the ST course by backing onto a board resting against a wall. I even painted the board with sand so it was non slip. A few weeks into the course Sylvia says to another person that working on a slanted board does not work as well because the dogs have a tendency to walk up the board and you want to encourage them to push both feet up at the same time, like a hop. DUH, wish I knew that to start out with-I was sort of doing all the wrong things, hahaha. When I read that helpful advice I started over again, first rewarding a 2o2o position, then when called off they naturally hopped back into position. From there I just kept finding higher and higher things for them to hop their back feet onto. The chairs or cat tree work well because they do not encourage climbing up with the back feet. It has been a fun trick and I hope we see it through to the point where we can fade the props. We have a good start ;-).
Here is Cricket just because she gets into her handstand practice and does not want to stop, LOL. She really is such a character.
I started doing this trick before the ST course by backing onto a board resting against a wall. I even painted the board with sand so it was non slip. A few weeks into the course Sylvia says to another person that working on a slanted board does not work as well because the dogs have a tendency to walk up the board and you want to encourage them to push both feet up at the same time, like a hop. DUH, wish I knew that to start out with-I was sort of doing all the wrong things, hahaha. When I read that helpful advice I started over again, first rewarding a 2o2o position, then when called off they naturally hopped back into position. From there I just kept finding higher and higher things for them to hop their back feet onto. The chairs or cat tree work well because they do not encourage climbing up with the back feet. It has been a fun trick and I hope we see it through to the point where we can fade the props. We have a good start ;-).
Here is Cricket just because she gets into her handstand practice and does not want to stop, LOL. She really is such a character.
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