Liz's New Class
So I found a new class to take Liz to. The goal: just working around other dogs and helping her develope confidence and learn how to control herself around other dogs and people, and I felt like somewhere other then agility would help her do that. So I went to class, the instructor is named Lynne, and we had it ok'd that if the class was too far off my training philosophy we would just do our own thing around the other dogs. Soooo I was very pleased with the first class and I was very pleased with Liz. The first thing they do in the class is an hour of free play with all the dogs. I was very leery about that, but it seemed very well supervised and they didnt seem to put up with any dogs being rude, so I deceided to let Liz try the group. She did great, she was nervous entering the group but quickly settled in. She did her little nervous zoomie but the instructor did not let the other dogs chase her or pack up, so Liz quickly settled in. Of course Liz did the complete fence check, LOL, some things never change. After an hour the dogs were very quiet and had really burned off a lot of their energy. So during the class the only thing that I wasnt totally on board with was the fact that the class was almost an hour of behaviors that it seems like asked a lot of concentration from the dogs. It wasnt broken up with some sort of exercise where they did some faster movement to break it up. maybe because of the free play first, or ??? but, Liz did really well even though it was so a lot of concentration. I did stop between exercises and play with her,and she was relaxed enough to tug and get really wild, but she was a trooper. So there were a couple of interesting exercises. One was an exercise where the instructor had meat, good steak and tried to lure Liz attention away from watching me with eye contact, she made sure Liz was not able to get the treat and then I would give her a really good treat when she looked back at me. By the end of the evening she could hardly get Liz attention even when she brought dogs right by her and when she would stroke Liz's tail or poke her gently. It was pretty neat. Then there was a lot of work with the dogs all sitting right next to each other doing sit stays, and there were some exercises where the dogs would all walk with attention on their owners while they walked very close to dogs coming at them and everyone walking by each other almost crashing. It reminded me of some of the control unleashed parallel games, or some of the work I have done in reactive dog classes. The class is a long way away, which is a pain but I think this is really going to mesh well with our training goals, so we are going to sign up for a session. I think I will bring another dog next week though to rotate into the class if the concentration gets to be too much for Liz, I do not want to push it to where she goes over the edge, but she did remarkably well. The funniest part of the class was the other students came in and I didnt see any treats or toys, they must have just had handfuls of food in their pockets or I just didnt see their "stuff". I walked in with my plastic bag FULL of toys and food. I had my little mix of rollover, natural hot dogs, kibble, kong tots, roast turkey breast and ham. Then I had a package of pastromi I was trying out, which was a hit, I used that for the attention game that class started out with, then I had liverworst that I used at the end of the class when it was getting harder for Liz to pay attention (I got my fingers bit a few times for that one, guess that was a hit), then I had string cheese for the stay work. I guess I took the instructor seriously when she told me to bring my best treats, LOL! I had several toys, all her favorites, so those were in my bag. Anyway, I felt a bit freakish walking in with all my gear.
Working the Levels
YIPPIE, we are having a blast working the training levels http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/traininglevels/
Chloe, Lizzie and Breeze have successfully completed all the tests for Level 1 and will begin work on Level 2 today. They have a lot of the behaviors down but there are holes in our training, LOL, imagine that.
Cherry is progressing well on Level 1 and is getting the hang of the game.
Chloe, Lizzie and Breeze have successfully completed all the tests for Level 1 and will begin work on Level 2 today. They have a lot of the behaviors down but there are holes in our training, LOL, imagine that.
Cherry is progressing well on Level 1 and is getting the hang of the game.
Living for the weekend
I spent saturday at the Driven Dog trial in Fillmore. It was the perfect day for a trial, the temperature was just right, it was really nice sitting under the trees, just felt like the perfect place to sit and enjoy the day. I ran into some people I know who were set up next to some people I really enjoy talking to, so there was a lot of really great conversation and visiting. There were some courses with a lot of places that were difficult so I could sit and watch how people handled them - what worked and what didnt. The really interesting thing was there were a lot of places on the courses that the Linda M handling system I am trying to learn would have worked well so I was really trying to watch those places to see how others handled those. I brought Cherry and I brought Breeze because Breeze doesnt get out as much as Lizzie lately, it always just seems more important to get Liz out. The day ended with a great Mexican restaurant in Fillmore and some more good company, so it was a very nice day, and I was ready for that!!
Sunday was a day of training. I am going to work on some more obedience training with all my dogs. I think that it will be really good especially for Liz to help learn to handle her excitement and stress levels working around other dogs. I am going to take her to a class and I am also working on the Training Levels. Training levels is a yahoo group that is really fantastic. http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/traininglevels/
They offer support and instructions for doing just some all around positive training. There is a little bit of tracking, obedience, agility, etc.... The behaviors are split into levels to break down training them so you start out with very easy parts of the behavior you want to teach and then each level builds on the complexity. They say that if you get to level 3 or 4 you have all the behaviors your dog will need to be a very nice pet, be easy to live with and you will know how to work with your dog. IF you get to level 7 your dog will have enough behaviors that with 3-4 weeks work in your specialized area you will be able to do what ever type of activity you want to do with your dog. I believe they are also adding on some new levels very soon. http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/%20Dog1/levels.html
This is Susan Ailsby's site that has a lot of the descriptions and basically a free book that explains how to teach the behaviors. Anyway, it is really great and I like how they explain how to teach the behaviors and how they are broken down, and it is FREE for goodness sake. So I am going to take Lizzie for a class so she can work around other dogs but I am also working on the levels at home.
We had a great training session today and I had a great training partner today, so we got some good work done for agility and for obedience with Liz, Cherry, and Breeze. The biggest thing I learned today was Liz who was doing wonderful recalls between myself and my friend, just lightening fast recalls with tons of confidence and done very happily-when we added a dog just sitting where Liz would have to pass him to do the recall-all of a sudden Liz lost a lot of her confidence and was a bit worried with her recall. We have done a recall class and we did a lot of recalls where the dogs would recall past the other dogs sitting at the side, but today that was a stressful thing for Liz. Anyway, as soon as we finished, which we kept that short because she did lose some confidence, Liz took off on a zoomie run, which it has been a long time since she did that, so it was just interesting to see how the increased stress affected her, I learned a lot about my girl today.
It was a very nice weekend and I was once again hit with the realization that a lot of time friendship and support comes from places I dont normally expect to find it. I also feel very grateful for the people that really do support me and have been so willing to help me and to build me up when I need it.
Sunday was a day of training. I am going to work on some more obedience training with all my dogs. I think that it will be really good especially for Liz to help learn to handle her excitement and stress levels working around other dogs. I am going to take her to a class and I am also working on the Training Levels. Training levels is a yahoo group that is really fantastic. http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/traininglevels/
They offer support and instructions for doing just some all around positive training. There is a little bit of tracking, obedience, agility, etc.... The behaviors are split into levels to break down training them so you start out with very easy parts of the behavior you want to teach and then each level builds on the complexity. They say that if you get to level 3 or 4 you have all the behaviors your dog will need to be a very nice pet, be easy to live with and you will know how to work with your dog. IF you get to level 7 your dog will have enough behaviors that with 3-4 weeks work in your specialized area you will be able to do what ever type of activity you want to do with your dog. I believe they are also adding on some new levels very soon. http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/%20Dog1/levels.html
This is Susan Ailsby's site that has a lot of the descriptions and basically a free book that explains how to teach the behaviors. Anyway, it is really great and I like how they explain how to teach the behaviors and how they are broken down, and it is FREE for goodness sake. So I am going to take Lizzie for a class so she can work around other dogs but I am also working on the levels at home.
We had a great training session today and I had a great training partner today, so we got some good work done for agility and for obedience with Liz, Cherry, and Breeze. The biggest thing I learned today was Liz who was doing wonderful recalls between myself and my friend, just lightening fast recalls with tons of confidence and done very happily-when we added a dog just sitting where Liz would have to pass him to do the recall-all of a sudden Liz lost a lot of her confidence and was a bit worried with her recall. We have done a recall class and we did a lot of recalls where the dogs would recall past the other dogs sitting at the side, but today that was a stressful thing for Liz. Anyway, as soon as we finished, which we kept that short because she did lose some confidence, Liz took off on a zoomie run, which it has been a long time since she did that, so it was just interesting to see how the increased stress affected her, I learned a lot about my girl today.
It was a very nice weekend and I was once again hit with the realization that a lot of time friendship and support comes from places I dont normally expect to find it. I also feel very grateful for the people that really do support me and have been so willing to help me and to build me up when I need it.
Class in Acton Oct. 17, 2008
OK, I know very few other people will be interested in our little class, but it was just full of great stuff for me. I have lived the last two years learning to appreciate the small steps forward and lately we have had giant strides, so while they do not look huge to others....for us here, they are what we have worked for for two years and it is just so exciting.
WELL, had a great class last night, first off Liz, Breeze, and Chloe all were on the field in crates and all of them did really well while watching the other ones work. I was so proud of them all. Chloe looks like she is all ready for the trial in Woodley Park next weekend, she was doing the broad jump well-we havent worked with that recently, and she didnt get bothered with the panel jump-and I am not sure when she last saw one of those. I am going to have to stay a little closer to the teeter then I have wanted to lately, because that is the one obstacle when I get a certain amount of distance away from her she is bailing off, and I will have to start retraining some distance, and we are going to have to start working on a little stronger contact behavior with the Aframe. The 2O2o is hurting her and so she is avoiding it, and we havent really trained a running contact, and when she just is encouraged to run through she is getting to look like I think she is going to start leaping off.
Lizzie is starting to understand motion better. As far as her jumping when she is doing a jump with collection she has a beautiful rounded jumping style and kicks her legs out back-it is very nice. When Liz is doing a jump that requires her to use speed going up to it and needs extension she is sort of lifting her legs up and more into her stomach, but she still is clearing the jump well, but it is definately not as nice a style. Then when she is doing some real extension she sometimes picks up her legs to her stomach she seems to take a minute to figure out what she is supposed to be doing so she knocks the bar. All in all she is getting the game, and think she is going to be awesome. We are avoiding the contacts issue for now and I will revisit that in a couple of weeks, but for now,....we are going to cut down some pressure for Liz and for me.
The really exciting thing is that at the end of our private lesson I was able to put Liz on the table which was at a horrible entry angle to the weaves, I was able to release her and she got the entrance, and completed the weaves, quickly and confidently and then continued to a jump WHILE THE NEXT CLASS WAS ARRIVING. This was probably one of the first times she could stay on task with that sort of distraction. She looked at the people and dogs arriving, she knew they were there and she CHOSE to continue playing with me, YIPPIE!!! During the class our first exercise with Lizzie as a circle where if you went one way I had to stop before the second jump, and then when you reversed the direction you are running past the jump. Liz was reading that wonderfully. At first I tried to do the sequence with Liz on leash and Alicia told me to take the leash off and of course Liz was ready for that leash to come off before I was apparently and did absolutely fine off leash. I was also able to take her off leash for a three obstacle sequence with the other dogs standing around, and she had plenty of chance to run off but she is choosing to stay with me. The biggest difference I am seeing now is she is getting really excited and deceiding agility is more fun and exciting then running off. Have I said lately how much I just love this little girl? It is just so sweet and exciting to see her blossoming every week, and to know how much work she and I have done together for all this time. She has been the hardest dog I have ever had, but also the most fun and I certainly have learned more from her then any other dog I have known.
Breeze made her come back to lessons. She was so happy and excited. It was very obvious she was rusty and she got tired, but she looked sound and looked great. Breeze is so much fun to work with, she is the dog that lets me work on my handling, and she just is patient with me and is always ready and willing to play the game. I love watching how happy working makes her.
Even Cherry got to get into the class and was working as the "demo" dog to show some teeter games. Good girl Cherry was having so much fun and was more then happy to show how much she likes the teeter.
SOOOO.....while all of my doggies were working on pretty basic stuff, it was such a great lesson, followed by such a great class, everyone was doing really well, everyone is making really good progress, the class is made up by such supportive people with such neat dogs, is there any better way to spend the evening? All I could ask for is a bigger car more easily fits crates, treats, manners minders, toys, planks, water, me and four dogs. LOL.
WELL, had a great class last night, first off Liz, Breeze, and Chloe all were on the field in crates and all of them did really well while watching the other ones work. I was so proud of them all. Chloe looks like she is all ready for the trial in Woodley Park next weekend, she was doing the broad jump well-we havent worked with that recently, and she didnt get bothered with the panel jump-and I am not sure when she last saw one of those. I am going to have to stay a little closer to the teeter then I have wanted to lately, because that is the one obstacle when I get a certain amount of distance away from her she is bailing off, and I will have to start retraining some distance, and we are going to have to start working on a little stronger contact behavior with the Aframe. The 2O2o is hurting her and so she is avoiding it, and we havent really trained a running contact, and when she just is encouraged to run through she is getting to look like I think she is going to start leaping off.
Lizzie is starting to understand motion better. As far as her jumping when she is doing a jump with collection she has a beautiful rounded jumping style and kicks her legs out back-it is very nice. When Liz is doing a jump that requires her to use speed going up to it and needs extension she is sort of lifting her legs up and more into her stomach, but she still is clearing the jump well, but it is definately not as nice a style. Then when she is doing some real extension she sometimes picks up her legs to her stomach she seems to take a minute to figure out what she is supposed to be doing so she knocks the bar. All in all she is getting the game, and think she is going to be awesome. We are avoiding the contacts issue for now and I will revisit that in a couple of weeks, but for now,....we are going to cut down some pressure for Liz and for me.
The really exciting thing is that at the end of our private lesson I was able to put Liz on the table which was at a horrible entry angle to the weaves, I was able to release her and she got the entrance, and completed the weaves, quickly and confidently and then continued to a jump WHILE THE NEXT CLASS WAS ARRIVING. This was probably one of the first times she could stay on task with that sort of distraction. She looked at the people and dogs arriving, she knew they were there and she CHOSE to continue playing with me, YIPPIE!!! During the class our first exercise with Lizzie as a circle where if you went one way I had to stop before the second jump, and then when you reversed the direction you are running past the jump. Liz was reading that wonderfully. At first I tried to do the sequence with Liz on leash and Alicia told me to take the leash off and of course Liz was ready for that leash to come off before I was apparently and did absolutely fine off leash. I was also able to take her off leash for a three obstacle sequence with the other dogs standing around, and she had plenty of chance to run off but she is choosing to stay with me. The biggest difference I am seeing now is she is getting really excited and deceiding agility is more fun and exciting then running off. Have I said lately how much I just love this little girl? It is just so sweet and exciting to see her blossoming every week, and to know how much work she and I have done together for all this time. She has been the hardest dog I have ever had, but also the most fun and I certainly have learned more from her then any other dog I have known.
Breeze made her come back to lessons. She was so happy and excited. It was very obvious she was rusty and she got tired, but she looked sound and looked great. Breeze is so much fun to work with, she is the dog that lets me work on my handling, and she just is patient with me and is always ready and willing to play the game. I love watching how happy working makes her.
Even Cherry got to get into the class and was working as the "demo" dog to show some teeter games. Good girl Cherry was having so much fun and was more then happy to show how much she likes the teeter.
SOOOO.....while all of my doggies were working on pretty basic stuff, it was such a great lesson, followed by such a great class, everyone was doing really well, everyone is making really good progress, the class is made up by such supportive people with such neat dogs, is there any better way to spend the evening? All I could ask for is a bigger car more easily fits crates, treats, manners minders, toys, planks, water, me and four dogs. LOL.
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