Friday, February 19, 2010

My mat is ok

Last night I took Miley to the beginning agility class that Im helping to teach. At the end of class there were multiple travel planks ( for 2o/2o practice) set up in an "L" format. I put the mat in the corner of the "L" set up. We ran going "touch" , "ok", then "touch" "ok" and continued running the different planks. Then I sent her to the mat. No problem, she got right on and into a down. WhooHoo, I didnt wreck her mat.
Last night we reviewed what shaping was. We had also sent the group an article on shaping so they could understand what it was. Then we did a demonstration of "T"'s dog getting all 4 feet into the box using shaping. Wow, what a great job "T" and his dog did. The dog first was getting clicked for just looking at the box. Then putting his head in the box, then one foot, then two and then 4. The dog progressed very quickly. Within several minutes the dog had it. It couldn't have gone better especially within such a distracting environment. I think everyone there was impressed.

Im going to Savannah this weekend for a trial. My parents live very close to the trail area, so that is great. And its suppose to be warm! Lets hope they are right. My goal is to keep my dog on course and if we go off course to make her think she was right and not let her get into circling mode.

One funny thing. Miley has been breaking her stay at home. I couldn't figure out what was going on. Right before I was going to say , "ok" she would break. This morning I figured it out. As soon as she sees my mouth start to move, even before the word comes out, she is breaking. So I started proofing that this morning. Smart little bugger.

9 comments:

Sara said...

Great job on your mat work! Of course you didn't ruin it! LOL.

Good luck at your trial. Maybe you need to learn to talk without moving your lips. Good luck with that.

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

I think Miley is such a cool dog because she is so smart, she sure seems like a dog to keep a trainer on their toes because she is always thinking, she picks up on any little thing, LOL. I absolutely love her.

Do you like teaching the class, it sounds like it is really going well, are you going to be doing more teaching in the future?

BCxFour said...

Good luck at the trial!

Diana said...

Kathy,Its a lot harder to teach class then I thought. Not that I ever thought is was easy.LoL I dont feel like I know enough to be teaching classes but no one teaches agility for our club and we would like to get it going. So sometimes you do what you gata do. Our goal is to get more people involved in agility and maybe more help for our trials. Will see what happens. Diana

Chris and Ricky said...

I knew you didn't ruin Miley's mat work!!!

LOL on her releasing when she sees your mouth start to move!!! She is soooo smart!

Good luck this weekend - wish we were there to trial with you in Savannah! We need a break from the snow!

Dawn said...

Well I for one would take a class from you! We built a little teetor per your instruction, used her dog walk board and put a 2" pipe under it. The pipe sits between two bits of wood screwed under the board so it won't roll away. Katie hates it! LOL! We put bricks under one end so it wouldn't hardly move at all but she still hates it. We'll be working on that.

At the moment I'm just getting her to "touch" it. She figured out after ONE touch that it moves, and now when I ask her to touch she so gently and delicately puts her foot on it and then pulls it back fast so that she doesn't make it move. Goofy dog.

Diana said...

Hey Dawn, I dont know if you have the teeter plank on the driveway. If you do, move it to the grass or in your case the snow. It wont move as much and will be quiet. Diana

Sam said...

I'm glad that she's still okay with the mat. Good luck at the trial!

Morganne said...

Good luck this weekend. You have a great attitude!