Sunday, October 14, 2012

Weave pole and things


Im still working on Java's weaves.  We are getting closer but if I try to close the poles she pops out.
Here is were we are at. Dont watch the whole thing. Its all really the same. Once you have seen the first couple , you get the idea.



The more mistakes she makes the slower she gets.   Im having a problem adjusting these poles. I can only get them so close and then they have to be straight up. So I ordered some new ones. I made these. The new ones will fold in half so I can take them different places.

The other thing Im struggling with is teaching rear crosses.  She just isnt getting and  when I was working her, she just refused to move forward or jump. The jump was only set at 8 inches.  So we went back inside the house for me to figure things out.  I went out later with Miley. So I could change dogs up  and use Miley to keep Java wanting to work.  I tried several things to try to teach a rear cross. 
I tried the first set up with throwing a toy  to the left toward the tunnel. It sorta work but didnt help her understanding. The I tried the second one, where she had speed taking the jump. This allowed me to move more into her path as she took the jump.  So I think I'll try this one a few more times and hopefully she'll start really understanding it.  Ive had a lot of trouble getting Java to understand what I want when teaching her things. She likes treats but its over the top crazy for them like Guiness and Miley. And she dosent like to be wrong. She quits working if she is wrong to many times and not even if they arent in a row.  Keeps me thinking. Then I watched my weave pole video. Look how many times  I do a rear cross. Lots!  So a rear cross into the poles is different then on a jump. Ive probably been confusing her. Poor dog.
Stephanie came home this weekend just for 24 hours. It was nice. I think she was  a tad home sick. She picked up a bunch of clothes. We went shopping and out to lunch. It was nice.

Ive been really tried lately and havent been walking the dogs. But this weekend I walked them both days. I dont know how Java got that grass wrapped around her nose. She and Miley were playing chase and she slid into some grass and flipped around. I just caught the picture in time before they took off running again.



Some how Java got into a bunch of stickers but not Miley. It was a long walk back to the car with Java stopping every 2 minutes to try to pull the stickers out.  There were just to many for me to try and get them out. ( I did try). I had a brush at the car that worked much better.

Then we came upon this squirrel. Poor thing. Something must  have gotten him. He seemed ok, lively and eating, he looked terrible.
Sorry its blurry. I was using one hand with a long lens. I should have used my other hand to hold the camera still. Plus it was in the shade.

I ran into the friend at the park today, she helped me teach agility foundation classes for the club. She had her 3 big dogs with her. Java growled a couple of times. I could tell she thought this was very bad. But she didnt keep her dogs back. She kept letting them step into her space. I worked with Java by treating, saying yes for being calm and looking at the dogs. Then she took her dogs off leash. Why did she do that??  She is a very nice person but I think she thinks all dogs are friendly and like other dogs. Java is fine unless a dog gets in her face.   Java has been around a lot of dogs. As long as they dont care about her she seems fine.  She been at a house with 12 other dogs running around and was fine. So Im not sure what it is about the park that sets Java off. I work on it every time I go.

7 comments:

Sara said...

Each dog sure likes to challenge us, huh? Java's weaves look good, she'll get it. I think it's great that you are throwing in rear crosses now, while she's still learning the weaves, that way she gets used to it.

That poor squirrel. I wonder what happened.

Love the butterfly photo! Looks like something you'd see in Birds 7 Blooms magazine.

Anonymous said...

Marron did not get rear crosses either, still our week point actually. I came across an article in Clean Run back when we were first starting out that at least got the concept across. It teaches the dog "left" and "right" while they are next to you, basically a rear cross on the flat. Then you tell them "jump, left" or "jump, right", first using just a jump standard, then progressing to full jump height. This finally made sense to her. The article probably ran sometime in 2007. I don't need verbals for rear crosses any more, but I definitely need LOTS of forward cues to get them to commit to the jump (Spy included, though I didn't have to teach her left and right).

Chris and Ricky said...

I was going to ask if Java understands rear crosses on the flat?

Helen said...

Beckett took a while too. I trained him on 2 by 2's and channel weaves. When I put them straight, he would miss the going between pole 2 and 3. I had to leave that one kicked out for such a long time, I was getting worried I had messed him up by training two systems.

Right now, we're having issues with rear crosses to tunnels. He missed a Master Standard Q and his MAD title because of 2 refusals caused by spinning when I tried to rear cross. Guess we need to do more work on that the next little while.

manymuddypaws said...

i wonder if the reason she "gets" the rear cross into the weaves but not a jump is that she is driving ahead to something in the weaves- I didn't see in the video but a manners minder or something like that??

When we teach rear crosses we do it on the flat first, and then add a jump in. Often throwing something over the bar to encourage the dog to drive forward. Does that make sense?

vici whisner said...

Rear crosses are very hard to do in drills. You've got to get the dog driving out in front of you and sometimes that is difficult with only one jump. I recommend Nancy Gyes Alphabet Drills book. There are a number of short easy sequences to work rear crosses. Good luck!

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

I love that picture with the leaf on Javas nose, how did she do that? Lol ;-).