Our journey- from 8 week old pup, to agility dog, school dog, and trickster. Training thoughts, tips and lots of problem solving, photography and general musings on owning a silly and serious paradoxical Aussie Shepherd.
I just finished this video from this week’s cik/tok training for my Silvia Trkman Foundation class… Today we had an absolute ball- we did 3 lots of figure-8s around trees that are really far apart, and she was just MOVING… it was the fastest I’ve seen her, the most confident, and the happiest doing Cik/tok. Progress, y’all!
Then we played the 2-ball tunnel game and that about wore her out. By the end of next week, I want to have a compilation video of cik/toks from next week, a compilation video of tunnels from the 2 weeks, and compilation of beginning weaves. Phew! Hopefully I can fit it all in with school going back.
I don’t look impressed, hey? Must have been a slow one.
Welcome to this week’s what-we’re-working-on
Bit of a special one this week – I’ve actually got a video for most of it! So if you feel lazy and can’t be bothered reading, you could just watch the video!
I was actually really happy with her drive in the video, into cik/cap (or cik/tok as it is now – easier to hear the difference for her) – granted, I had to be running with her to then kind of lure her around a bit, but she wasn’t looking at me, she was driving ahead. I don’t know, if at this stage, whether she’ll drive forward with speed from me standing still. But the more people I talk to and hear from, the more it seems as though really fast speed will come- it just takes time and confidence. I was speaking to my agility instructor last night and she told me that she’d been talking to these other competitors who are at the top of Victoria’s agility scene at the moment – super fast border collies – but they’d been talking about their dogs and how when they were younger, they didn’t think they’d ever be fast agility dogs, and look at them now. That gave me a lot of hope, and I can see in that video that Lumen is finally starting to run into the wrap, even if it takes me running with her a bit, that’s ok for now. Silvia Trkman said she definitely looks like she’s getting faster and I should keep doing exactly what I’m doing there. So, this morning at least, I’m feeling optimistic.
We’re working on our ST Foundation assignments, which includes the above, but also starting to do some more turns out of tunnels (also in the video). I started with her blasting through straight tunnels, then curving it a bit. On Monday I got Mallei out of the car to help proof Lumen’s stays but then decided to help her with the tunnel I would put Mal through first, then have her chase him through. This worked a charm as I could see the intensity that she was putting into her run through. Mal of course thought it was great fun – all I have to do for treats is a stupid tunnel!! Little did he know he’s helping mentor the pup! Looking at her tunnels on the video I definitely think she’s putting speed through, which is awesome and opens up heaps more training opportunities if we can have curved tunnels. I think I’ll keep starting with straight tunnels to make it fun and speedy, then curve them up.
We’re also trying to do tricks for strength, balance and/or coordination every other day at the moment, which means lots of tricks on big sofa cushions and the fit-ball, lifting legs, sitting pretty to down, to pretty again, hopping up on things (instead of scrabbling up with hind legs – lazy!), and getting confident with being on things.
We’re also starting to do a bit of hill walking while I have time off school, and of course plenty of visits to the dog-park for socialisation. I must remember to keep taking her to more busy, people-filled places like main-streets and such, but it’s difficult to fit everything in all the time.
I also plan to get some tape or material and measure out the distance between weave-poles and set up an open channel to begin teaching her how to go through independently! How exciting! I would LOVE to have a dog I can trust absolutely to weave from anywhere, without fault, no matter what I was doing. I taught Mal to weave on 10 poles, and, funnily enough, he popped out on the 10th pole about 25% of the time – I always had to babysit him as he weaved, and his entries were very limited. I’m looking forward to taking it nice and slow with Lu, showing her all the entrances, and teaching her completely independent weaving behaviour. Yay!
Lu’s serious face and posture when you say “Ready…. ready….!” with a ball in hand…
So Assignment 1 for Silvia Trkman’s foundation class is up, and in a way I’m dreading it a bit because it’s the thing we’re really not that great at, which is sends to wraps. I watch other people’s videos and their dogs dive into the wrap, whip around it, and dive out of it, full speed. I’m lucky if I get a lolling canter into it and around, and usually a sprint out. I can get more speed if I send her from a tunnel but that’s not what we’re meant to do. So I’m thinking maybe she’s a dog that just does things, but doesn’t put 110% effort in… I know she’s not a BC, I’m not going to get those low to the ground sprints, but SOME kind of enthusiasm would be nice. Maybe that will come with maturity? I hope so, because I’m feeling very lacklustre right now. And I shouldn’t judge her on this morning- she’d already been zooming around with Mal, she crashed into a wooden fence and hurt herself earlier, and I took her to a new park where we’d never worked before (very sniffy), so of course she’s not going to be her best, and I HAVE been getting some better drives into a wrap with a plastic bottle, or the hose or something, but only ever once or twice. She just doesn’t seem to get enthusiastic. Like… when I get Mal out, I say “ready… ready….” and he’s dancing on his feet, tensed up, ready to do… whatever! If I say ready to Lu (and we’ve done plenty of practise with that cue!) she tenses and looks serious, but isn’t ready to burst out of her skin to do whatever’s about to happen. I wonder if that’s experience- she doesn’t 100% trust that she knows what to do next so she has to take it easy to figure it out. I know in new situations sometimes she’ll stop, observe, walk.. stop, observe, walk… She’s a thinker. I think all the thinking is slowing her down. We’re also going to be doing some more tunnel work- I’ve been curving it gradually over the past couple of tries and I’m thinking the speed is still pretty good (as with her, it could always be better I think – which doesn’t bode well for running contacts, but that’s another story entirely) so then when she’s blasting through, I’ll start doing call to hand and turns, and maybe some obstacle discrimination with all my tunnels (fun tunnel-land!). I just think Lu is so quick and so smart that she should really excel in agility… but I’m just not seeing the best from her right now. We’ll try again tomorrow.
As part of our foundation training, I’ve gotten out my el-cheapo $37 tunnel, set it up straight, and have been working on drive and speed with Lu, then throwing in a little cik/cap at the ends. She certainly runs through and considering this is the 2nd session we’ve done it, I can already see her driving to the tunnel more. The first session she’d do it once, wrap, and then run alongside the tunnel. I also did a couple of wrap & chase around the bollard but she wasn’t really into those today. I don’t yet have a lot of drive into a wrap from a standstill so I need to work on that I suppose. All questions I can pose once the Foundations course starts in April. In the meantime I’m getting extra practise in, which is great.
I think she’s going to be a great little dog to run – she seems to really enjoy the game, mostly. It’s been so hot here, and even this morning when we were filming the video it was already creeping up to 27 degrees, hot and humid. I make sure she has a couple of swims as this seems to renew her energy but she was still pretty lackluster compared to normal – bring back the cool weather and my fast, driven, energetic dog! At least if she’ll run in this heat, she’ll run in the cool. I think I’ll keep working with the straight tunnel for a while, and using it to really get her racing to, and looking for the cik/cap or the Go! at the end… then I might start curving it and see if I get the same drive forward into the tunnel as I’ve been getting.
I also want to work on, if you do a trick your reward is play/a toy, to really solidify that idea so she knows when we play out here, that that’s the reward. Also going to keep working on collar resistance- ST said in a reply to a comment I left on her blog that she just needs to resist, not necessarily pull forward. Problem is sometimes she’ll just stand there and look at the toy bouncing around, and if I pull back, she goes backwards. In the video you’ll see she’s much more interested, even getting lifted up. Hey, if that’s what she wants to do, we can do that.
Life, iLumenated 