MORE VIDEOS!
This is the next step of Crickets Box for the Aframe running contact. I was actually pretty shocked how good she did. I edited for time but I did not edit out any mistakes, I think that was our first 100% successful training session, weird, hope it was not a fluke!
This is just to show you all where we spend three nights a week training. Can you believe they do swimming when it is 34 degrees outside and the kids are using an outdoor pool. On the last clip Cricket is looking back to the area where the kids are swimming. I have to say that the kids swim for 1 hr 45 min three times a week in the night and a session on Saturday morning and it sure seems like a long time now that it is so cold. I was so cold it was hard to get the mechanics of training right my fingers were freezing...There used to be LOTS of joggers and people walking their dogs, but strangely enough I have the park mostly to myself which is a bit eery! Breeze was also working doing some recall practice, and Lizzie and I took a long walk practicing heeling but those practices were in the areas where the lighting is not as good so they did not get filmed.
Cricket's test!
Well, have to admit that I really am enjoying "homeschooling" Cricket. I really enjoy teaching obstacles and know how I want to teach things and I really like being able to go as slow or as quick as Cricket and I want to go and being able to concentrate on what we want to focus on.
The downside is that right now gosh it feels like a jambled mish mash of skills. It would be nice to have a class that would break things down into small bite sized pieces every week and not have to worry about having a plan, LOL, but right now it just seems every time I turn around I think of something else that I really feel we should work on.
We took some time out to work on some tricks, just some fun shaping and that really reminded me how Cricket likes to work. Cricket will keep working and working and be very happy, but shaping some tricks I really realized how much better Cricket does with short sessions with really high rate of reinforcements...she will work forever, but she really learns so much faster if I do not get greedy when we are training. So I am getting more strict with myself and taking my stop watch out to remind me to keep the sessions really short and sweet.
One of the things we are working on is the Running AFrame so this is some of our beginning box work, I am checking to see if I think Cricket really understands to look for the box and to pounce into it with all four feet.
Breeze was back at the vet last week. The vet is pretty sure her back is the cause of all the problems but it is at a place that is hard to strengthen with just exercise. She had thought the back issue would heal much more quickly then it has, so she is going to have us continue with weekly laser treatments and she says that for awhile we might only be able to do weaves once a week with Breeze....which is fine.
Luckily though she does feel Breeze will be able to over come this and do fine again...so I really liked hearing that. The vet does not think it feels like Breeze has disc disease although she did say that if this is not treated correctly this is this type of injury that could become chronic and lead to disc disease, so as far as I am concerned if we have to keep Breeze out from weaves and really tight turns until spring, that is fine by me.
For now it is weekly vets appointments, since it is the Christmas season with the busy schedules, crowds, and the bills Christmas brings, LOL, not exactly the best time of the year for that....but when is a good time?
The downside is that right now gosh it feels like a jambled mish mash of skills. It would be nice to have a class that would break things down into small bite sized pieces every week and not have to worry about having a plan, LOL, but right now it just seems every time I turn around I think of something else that I really feel we should work on.
We took some time out to work on some tricks, just some fun shaping and that really reminded me how Cricket likes to work. Cricket will keep working and working and be very happy, but shaping some tricks I really realized how much better Cricket does with short sessions with really high rate of reinforcements...she will work forever, but she really learns so much faster if I do not get greedy when we are training. So I am getting more strict with myself and taking my stop watch out to remind me to keep the sessions really short and sweet.
One of the things we are working on is the Running AFrame so this is some of our beginning box work, I am checking to see if I think Cricket really understands to look for the box and to pounce into it with all four feet.
Breeze was back at the vet last week. The vet is pretty sure her back is the cause of all the problems but it is at a place that is hard to strengthen with just exercise. She had thought the back issue would heal much more quickly then it has, so she is going to have us continue with weekly laser treatments and she says that for awhile we might only be able to do weaves once a week with Breeze....which is fine.
Luckily though she does feel Breeze will be able to over come this and do fine again...so I really liked hearing that. The vet does not think it feels like Breeze has disc disease although she did say that if this is not treated correctly this is this type of injury that could become chronic and lead to disc disease, so as far as I am concerned if we have to keep Breeze out from weaves and really tight turns until spring, that is fine by me.
For now it is weekly vets appointments, since it is the Christmas season with the busy schedules, crowds, and the bills Christmas brings, LOL, not exactly the best time of the year for that....but when is a good time?
more celebrations-and a recap of what Cricket has been up to!
Cricket before her GOTTCHA DAY:
Today is my birthday and we just celebrated Crickets GOTTCHA DAY!!! I met my little pumpkin in person when I picked her up from the airport the Friday before Thanksgiving last year.
I had never got a dog I had not been able to cuddle and pick before, and at the time I had not met any of the dogs from Hillcrest where Cricket came from.
ON the day I went to pick Cricket up I had to wait for HOURS for her to get to the cargo area so I could pick her up. When they let me go back to get her I will never forget that first site I had of her, with her little freckles looking anxiously out of the crate. She was so cute, not how I thought she would look but sooo cute.
I grabbed the crate and put it in the car, I had staked out a nice grassy area and had brought an xpen so I zipped to the grassy area and got my xpen set up and went to let Cricket out to potty. Poor puppy was covered in Diarrhea, her mat was soaked. Cricket was not going to go on the ground, she snuggled and cuddled into my neck and would not move for about five minutes. As soon as she felt like someone was going to take care of her she got down and started tugging. It was like she was ready to begin the new chapter of her life.
WHAT ARE WE WORKING ON NOW?
I have been very bad, I have lots of videos of our work but a lot of it just seems so boring, even though I think it is huge stuff for us ;-). I am also doing a lot of work at places while my daughter is swimming and that is when it is pitch black so the videos are not great because of that.
Our big things are we are working on the box for a running Aframe. I thought Cricket was ready to start putting the box in a grid...but yesterday she started acting like the box was a broad jump and jumping over it. I reviewed my tapes and I think she was doing that when I stand in the forward position and I think she was reading my position as an extension cue and got a little excited. I think I also was rewarding with just a little too much oomph and forward a little further and put those all together and I think it just excited her too much-she was doing so well and it was really suprising when she started the leaping. ANYWAY, think we will be ready to put the box into grids VERY quickly, but of course I want to make sure the behavior of pouncing in the box is very strong first.
We are working on the 2020 for the dog walk. I have been using parts of Susan Garrett's stair work to teach the position. I go a couple of times a day to a real estate office with stairs outside, and I think that is really helping get a nice pounce into position and a nice weight shift, I am experimenting with the technique Rachel Saunders did in her Clean Run articles where the 2020 is taught without a nose target-she says that helps the dog focus on the position and not confuse that the behavior is just the target/nose touch, and I can deliver treats a little higher up to encourage the weight shift off the shoulders, and then do some dropping food on the ground to reward to encourage a straight position-VERY different then how I taught Chloe the 2020-the last time I worked with that position. I am also working with Elicia Calhoun's on the Board teaching Cricket to body target on a board just big enough for her so she gets a lot of body awareness about where she should be-she is a super star with that work. We are ready to put her 2020 onto the dog walk now that we have the position down and now that the teeter is pretty much trained--we will probably put the position on the dog walk in the next day or two by back chaining.
The teeter is marvelous, I used the Wendy Pape teeter video to break down the teeter into the end behavior, getting her used to the height, learning to square herself up for the entry, so her teeter is looking good.
The Cik/cap turns are very cool, it has really helped us work on object discrimination without the agility obstacles so we can get that really fast, happy before we add in obstacles. I think that cik/cap work is doing really great things for developing object focus and confidence.
As far as handling I have been working through the Linda M jumping book and series of articles and yesterday Cricket was able to do a full little sequence and considering we have not done a lot of actual sequences, she is amazing so far at reading everything.
Of course we have been working on sends to the tunnel and table and around the world with the tunnel, she does really well with all of that and it really helps when we are learning new sequences because I can stick a table or tunnel to help get some fantastic drive forward using them like giant targets.
I am feeling a little scattered and like we have so many things going at one time that I am looking forward to the weaves....but want to get the aframe box work to a grid first. I am going to do the 2x2, and am considering using a few of the variations from the recent Mary Ellen Barry article about 2x2 training in Clean Run. She does a lot more entry work at the 2 pole stage, which seems like it might develop a little more value for that entry and those first poles which are so crucial.
Anyway, I will try to get some video soon. Today for my birthday Breeze and I are heading down to the vet. Hopefully I can find a new park or place where Cricket, Breeze and I can do a little work/play and of course we will have to stop at the doggie boutique ....think it will be a good day.
Cricket at six months:
Today is my birthday and we just celebrated Crickets GOTTCHA DAY!!! I met my little pumpkin in person when I picked her up from the airport the Friday before Thanksgiving last year.
I had never got a dog I had not been able to cuddle and pick before, and at the time I had not met any of the dogs from Hillcrest where Cricket came from.
ON the day I went to pick Cricket up I had to wait for HOURS for her to get to the cargo area so I could pick her up. When they let me go back to get her I will never forget that first site I had of her, with her little freckles looking anxiously out of the crate. She was so cute, not how I thought she would look but sooo cute.
I grabbed the crate and put it in the car, I had staked out a nice grassy area and had brought an xpen so I zipped to the grassy area and got my xpen set up and went to let Cricket out to potty. Poor puppy was covered in Diarrhea, her mat was soaked. Cricket was not going to go on the ground, she snuggled and cuddled into my neck and would not move for about five minutes. As soon as she felt like someone was going to take care of her she got down and started tugging. It was like she was ready to begin the new chapter of her life.
WHAT ARE WE WORKING ON NOW?
I have been very bad, I have lots of videos of our work but a lot of it just seems so boring, even though I think it is huge stuff for us ;-). I am also doing a lot of work at places while my daughter is swimming and that is when it is pitch black so the videos are not great because of that.
Our big things are we are working on the box for a running Aframe. I thought Cricket was ready to start putting the box in a grid...but yesterday she started acting like the box was a broad jump and jumping over it. I reviewed my tapes and I think she was doing that when I stand in the forward position and I think she was reading my position as an extension cue and got a little excited. I think I also was rewarding with just a little too much oomph and forward a little further and put those all together and I think it just excited her too much-she was doing so well and it was really suprising when she started the leaping. ANYWAY, think we will be ready to put the box into grids VERY quickly, but of course I want to make sure the behavior of pouncing in the box is very strong first.
We are working on the 2020 for the dog walk. I have been using parts of Susan Garrett's stair work to teach the position. I go a couple of times a day to a real estate office with stairs outside, and I think that is really helping get a nice pounce into position and a nice weight shift, I am experimenting with the technique Rachel Saunders did in her Clean Run articles where the 2020 is taught without a nose target-she says that helps the dog focus on the position and not confuse that the behavior is just the target/nose touch, and I can deliver treats a little higher up to encourage the weight shift off the shoulders, and then do some dropping food on the ground to reward to encourage a straight position-VERY different then how I taught Chloe the 2020-the last time I worked with that position. I am also working with Elicia Calhoun's on the Board teaching Cricket to body target on a board just big enough for her so she gets a lot of body awareness about where she should be-she is a super star with that work. We are ready to put her 2020 onto the dog walk now that we have the position down and now that the teeter is pretty much trained--we will probably put the position on the dog walk in the next day or two by back chaining.
The teeter is marvelous, I used the Wendy Pape teeter video to break down the teeter into the end behavior, getting her used to the height, learning to square herself up for the entry, so her teeter is looking good.
The Cik/cap turns are very cool, it has really helped us work on object discrimination without the agility obstacles so we can get that really fast, happy before we add in obstacles. I think that cik/cap work is doing really great things for developing object focus and confidence.
As far as handling I have been working through the Linda M jumping book and series of articles and yesterday Cricket was able to do a full little sequence and considering we have not done a lot of actual sequences, she is amazing so far at reading everything.
Of course we have been working on sends to the tunnel and table and around the world with the tunnel, she does really well with all of that and it really helps when we are learning new sequences because I can stick a table or tunnel to help get some fantastic drive forward using them like giant targets.
I am feeling a little scattered and like we have so many things going at one time that I am looking forward to the weaves....but want to get the aframe box work to a grid first. I am going to do the 2x2, and am considering using a few of the variations from the recent Mary Ellen Barry article about 2x2 training in Clean Run. She does a lot more entry work at the 2 pole stage, which seems like it might develop a little more value for that entry and those first poles which are so crucial.
Anyway, I will try to get some video soon. Today for my birthday Breeze and I are heading down to the vet. Hopefully I can find a new park or place where Cricket, Breeze and I can do a little work/play and of course we will have to stop at the doggie boutique ....think it will be a good day.
Cricket at six months:
Happy Gottcha day Breeze!.
Well, it has been FOUR YEARS since I brought my beautiful, fluffy little blue merle bundle of joy home. I named my cute little bundle of Love ASH which was her litter name-her litter was named smoke names because she was born in the early morning when there was a fire very close to the ranch she was born at. I loved the name ASH but then thought if I was mumbling....judges might think I was swearing at her,....so I chickened out and named her Breeze.
The journey my little Breezie and I are on is a long winding road and as so many journeys it is not at all the journey I had envisioned when I picked up little Breeze for the ride home from the ranch four years ago. I guess it is the journey that was meant for us, and I have learned an awful lot with Breeze by my side, so guess I can not complain too much, except for an occasional rant and expression of frustration in my blog ;-), I do wish some things were different but I love having Breeze in my life, and all in all it has been a great journey.
SAME SONG SECOND VERSE....NOT AGAIN
I can not imagine what it must feel like to read my blog....because I get tired of saying once again....Breeze got hurt in class. I just find it so ....unbelievable to be typing that again. I really thought she was feeling better after her last treatment and she looked so much better and actually got the weaves the last three days....the first time she has looked really good since the start of last summer.
Tonight in class, her weaves had some really bizarre striding, I could see it as I ran, but by the sixth pole she could not maintain the striding and SLAMMED her hip into the pole-bending the pole-like a big bend in it. Breeze SCREAMED-a sound I never want to hear again. Of course I walked her out but she was obviously hurting, and JUMPING and trying to go back in the weave poles-Breeze really is a nut and doesn't care how much it hurts, she wants to go!.
When I saw how funky her striding I should have pulled her out, but number one it happened so fast I was just watching and trying to figure out what she was doing and number two she is just doing such weird strides part of me doesn't know how much I just have to let her go and figure out how it is best for her to move her body. Up until then the last two days her weaves were so gorgeous. Breeze is an excellent weaver if she feels good, but that is sure where her discomfort is showing.
I do not know what to do with her anymore, she gets her chiro and acupuncture treatments every month to six weeks and has for years, I do tons of core exercises and rear end stuff, I make sure to warm her up and walk her out after exercises and we do a lot of massage and stretching. I use her Back on Track jacket, she is on Adequain and lots of supplements, but the vet feels that things are catching up with her and now we are seeing more injuries and compensation further up her body from how she compensates for what goes on with her hips.
I am wondering if I need to just let her work on jumping and take a break from the weaves until spring. Her vet does not want me to quit with her because she wants her joints moving and working, but I am thinking maybe it has to be without the weaves until it warms up. Except for weaves and the aframe Breeze looks so good, she is running nice, she is jumping beautifully, she is reading all the new moves we have been working on and she is so happy. Well, after tonight she is really limping but I am thinking that is that huge hit she took to her hip, that was so nasty.
To tell you the truth I sort of really just wish we could get our last Q for her open title and then maybe it is getting time to retire her from trialing. Not sure we would be able to get a q because of the weaves.., and I know Breeze really does not give a durn if she finishes her title, and it will not improve her life any.....so I am going to have to do some thinking and more talking with the vet when we go on Tuesday. I could give it a try and not practice weaves and just see how she does in a trial, or do some USDAA jumpers....or just make peace with just having fun with my girl-although the vet keeps encouraging me not to stop agility with her, but guess we can do agility without trialing, I just wish someone could give me some answers.
I would quit in a minute if any of the vets said I should and I ask every time I go in, but both our vets keep telling me that for her mental health and keeping her joints working they do not think I should just quit, although gosh even talking about wanting that last Q makes me feel so guilty.
The journey my little Breezie and I are on is a long winding road and as so many journeys it is not at all the journey I had envisioned when I picked up little Breeze for the ride home from the ranch four years ago. I guess it is the journey that was meant for us, and I have learned an awful lot with Breeze by my side, so guess I can not complain too much, except for an occasional rant and expression of frustration in my blog ;-), I do wish some things were different but I love having Breeze in my life, and all in all it has been a great journey.
SAME SONG SECOND VERSE....NOT AGAIN
I can not imagine what it must feel like to read my blog....because I get tired of saying once again....Breeze got hurt in class. I just find it so ....unbelievable to be typing that again. I really thought she was feeling better after her last treatment and she looked so much better and actually got the weaves the last three days....the first time she has looked really good since the start of last summer.
Tonight in class, her weaves had some really bizarre striding, I could see it as I ran, but by the sixth pole she could not maintain the striding and SLAMMED her hip into the pole-bending the pole-like a big bend in it. Breeze SCREAMED-a sound I never want to hear again. Of course I walked her out but she was obviously hurting, and JUMPING and trying to go back in the weave poles-Breeze really is a nut and doesn't care how much it hurts, she wants to go!.
When I saw how funky her striding I should have pulled her out, but number one it happened so fast I was just watching and trying to figure out what she was doing and number two she is just doing such weird strides part of me doesn't know how much I just have to let her go and figure out how it is best for her to move her body. Up until then the last two days her weaves were so gorgeous. Breeze is an excellent weaver if she feels good, but that is sure where her discomfort is showing.
I do not know what to do with her anymore, she gets her chiro and acupuncture treatments every month to six weeks and has for years, I do tons of core exercises and rear end stuff, I make sure to warm her up and walk her out after exercises and we do a lot of massage and stretching. I use her Back on Track jacket, she is on Adequain and lots of supplements, but the vet feels that things are catching up with her and now we are seeing more injuries and compensation further up her body from how she compensates for what goes on with her hips.
I am wondering if I need to just let her work on jumping and take a break from the weaves until spring. Her vet does not want me to quit with her because she wants her joints moving and working, but I am thinking maybe it has to be without the weaves until it warms up. Except for weaves and the aframe Breeze looks so good, she is running nice, she is jumping beautifully, she is reading all the new moves we have been working on and she is so happy. Well, after tonight she is really limping but I am thinking that is that huge hit she took to her hip, that was so nasty.
To tell you the truth I sort of really just wish we could get our last Q for her open title and then maybe it is getting time to retire her from trialing. Not sure we would be able to get a q because of the weaves.., and I know Breeze really does not give a durn if she finishes her title, and it will not improve her life any.....so I am going to have to do some thinking and more talking with the vet when we go on Tuesday. I could give it a try and not practice weaves and just see how she does in a trial, or do some USDAA jumpers....or just make peace with just having fun with my girl-although the vet keeps encouraging me not to stop agility with her, but guess we can do agility without trialing, I just wish someone could give me some answers.
I would quit in a minute if any of the vets said I should and I ask every time I go in, but both our vets keep telling me that for her mental health and keeping her joints working they do not think I should just quit, although gosh even talking about wanting that last Q makes me feel so guilty.
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