Rain, Rain go away!

    Yup, its been raining a lot!!  For 3 days.  Im over it.  And today is my last day off. Tomorrow its back to work. Ugh!!  Would have been nice to have one last nice day. Oh well, what can you do.
Java is still on rest. Well , no running or jumping. She is allowed leash walks.  She goes back next Monday to get an ultrasound. Im really hoping she is healed.
     Ive been doing a couple of on line classes. One is with Denise Fenzi, "Sensational Stays".  I really want Java to stay at the startline and on the table and teeter.  I hope this helps. I already found a hole in my training with this program. Now Im trying to fix it.  The other class is a learn on your own, with Kathy Keats, "Perfect Timing". Which well all know I don't have. Im trying to fix this. I think my biggest problem is not being able to watch my dog while I run.  I cant catch the mistake happening before its to late. Then we go off course. 

This is Miley running a course on last Wednesday.



She looks ok.

Yesterday I drove up to a UKI trial that was 2 hours away. They had posted on FB that if it was raining, it would be moved down the street to under cover. The whole time Im driving, its raining. I keep praying they are going to move it. Everyone is different in what they think is acceptable surface to run on. I wont run my dogs in the rain. Dogs slip all the time. One slip, they pull a muscle or something happens, and your dog can be out for 6 months to a year. Its just not worth it to me. But Im not saying anything against anyone who wants to run their dog in the rain or on wet surfaces. You know you dog best.  I got up there around 7am and stopped at a McDonalds.  I checked FB, they hadn't posted anything.  Ugh, I was worried. It was just misty outside. I drove to the site. The field was full of water and they decided to move to trial site. Yay!! We had to load up  jumps, tunnels, sandbags, contact equipment and other things in the vans. Took it to the trial site and unloaded and set up. It went quickly. I think we had it set up by around 9am. 
It was a nice small trial.  I think under 20 people ran.  It was  nice. Set up a course, run. Set up the next course, run again.  It was nice practice , with lots of different courses.  I could have never set up that many courses in a day , by myself, to practice.   Miley did well. No broken start lines. Yay!! But no Q's either. But that's ok.   She had some nice runs with just little mistakes by me. Again, I don't see things going wrong until its to late. Well , except for the last run. I was able to save a few things there but she dropped the last bar.
The footing felt ok. It was some kind of dirt/ saw dust type surface. It was fluffy but easy to walk in.  It seemed the bars were dropping easily.  Miley dropped the last bar several times. Weird. She doesn't usually do that.  I think it was the surface. After watching the video, I think she just didn't get the lift she thought she was going to get. The last run, I knew she was going to drop the bar, because when she took off to jump, her back end didn't lift off the ground. It was weird.   Still , we had a good time. Everyone so friendly and nice. Everyone worked together to keep things going.



So you can see she is jumping a little different than how she did on Wednesday. It had to be the footing.  I wonder if its something your dog just has to get use to?

Life

Sorry I havent been posting much.  Since work started its been crazy. Ans its been raining so much I havent been working the dogs.  Java is still recovering from her spay, sorta .
I took Java and Miley to my class on Tuesday. It was the last session for that class. I got there early to work on things with Miley and Java. We were the only ones in the building. We had been there about one hour, when someone came in. They stood in the doorway of the room I was in and were just watching. All of a sudden Java just started growling at her. Ugh.  I had no idea why she did this.  She has been going to this building since she was a puppy. So I had to give the lady treats and  she gave  them to Java. Then Java was fine. But then someone else came in and she did the same thing. Ack!!  Again, the treats. And she was fine. After that, lots of people started coming, the class people and dogs came in, she was fine with all that. But then class ended. Everyone in class left. There were two people left in the building that wanted to work there dogs. One had a sheltie. I was putting some stuff away and had to go into the big back room and that sheltie was back there with its owner. Lying down near the door way but not that close.  I had Java and Miley on leash. Java went crazy barking and growling. I never got her over it either. What the heck is wrong with her?  The lady was very nice and said we could get together  sometime to see if we could fix it. I know Ive been in the building  with her and her dog before. I know Java didnt act like that. Very disturbing and upsetting to me.
Ive been working on running contacts with Miley. (Im tired of fighting her about the 2o/2o at trials. If she wants to run, lets run) It was going great until the splinter thing. Now she cant seem to hit the contact zone on the carpet at all. It could be she was just to excited after not working for a while. I have no idea.   But Ive also been shaping the rear leg stuff that Syliva Trkman has you do when training running contacts. I was trying to get Miley to target the small disc with her back feet. If I put them in the open floor, she just couldnt figure out what I wanted. So then I put the next to a wall. She kept back up and touching them. So I thought she had it. But if I moved the disc away from the wall, she didnt know what I wanted her to do.  She just would spin and act all crazy. So today I put them in the middle but the baby gate was behind them. It was leaning on the corner of a dresser. (I had never put the gate away after the puppy left).  I thought it wasnt a wall and the gate is kinda open.  Well I didnt  teach her what I wanted. She had other ideas. Silly dog. I didnt teach this. I guess the gate , thats plastic, has these open holes that were just right for her feet to climb.



I think Im going to have to work all weekend to try and catch up on things. Im so stressed out at work. So many kids are already coming the the nurse. Today I saw 37 kids. Then I gave 20 medications on top of that.  Most of kids that came didnt need to come to the nurse. So because of this I cant get all the paperwork stuff I have to do, done. I need to get these papers to the teacher and bus drivers that tell them what to do if something happens to a kid. Like if a kid has a seizure  in class. I did already get all the plans for the diabetics to them. But there are lots of kids with serious health issues at school this year. I want to make sure I did what I was suppose to do.  The teachers are aware of all the student's condition but I need to get that paperwork done. Im so stressed and worried about it.  Then I have kids the just bring me there medication. Nothing else. A kid brought me  an epi-pen. "Here, my mom wanted me to give this to you". What the heck. It didnt even have his name on it . And of course no paperwork. I need  a doctors order to give this. So do I make the kid take it back home? He isnt suppose to have medication in his backpack. But Im not suppose to take it like that. What do I do?  He is just a kid. So I took it and will now have to get  all the rest fixed. But I need time to do it.   See, stress. Sorry to complain.  I just feel like crying. I wanted to spend the weekend doing dog things. But I guess not. It will all be better once I feel like I have things under control.

Video

Sorry the camera angle in the beginning was bad and I didnt notice. Here is the video I promised.



I think Miley took off to early to make that jump. Its hard to see because of the angle I set the camera at. When I ran it again  I notice I didnt drive to  the 3rd  jump like I did when she crashed the jump, I became more careful. I thought I ran it just the same.  LOL , funny how you think you did something but the video doesnt lie.

Practice and other stuff

I took Miley out to the field to practice tonight.  We only practice in the yard a couple of times and we did struggle today.  I had the jumps at 16inches which is why she probably looks like she is jumping differently.  Why are they at 16?  Tomorrow Im going to an AKC trial.  I entered ISC jumpers.  Thats an international class and she has to jump 14inches.  So this week when we practiced I used 14 inches but at the field we can only set either 12 or 16. So I put them at 16.   It  was harder for her and I didnt worry when she dropped a couple of bars.  I  did like that I could get some distance from her in the weaves.



I also entered Excellent jumpers. Will see if we can stay on course. LOL

Now about my back. It was feeling fine until Wednesday. I had decided I needed to become fit. So I was going to add hopping, skipping and sprinting to my walks. So I did some skipping and just a few hops because I need work on that, and I did some sprints. I felt fine that day but the next morning my back was killing me. Its kinda weird. Sometimes it feels ok and then it feels terrible. I can run without a problem but picking up the jump bars on the ground, hurt my back. Hmmmm. Im not sure what to do.

I went to a School Nurse Conference on Friday night and Saturday. Friday night was on the legal aspect of school nursing. Well, that scared the crap out of me. It made me want to quit my job. LOL Today was on diabetes and bullying. The diabetes stuff was very interesting. Wow they are doing some great research and getting ready to put it into human trials. It has to do with insulin producing cells and putting them into the pancreas. That would be so wonderful if it works. The two ladies sitting in front of me were so rude. One sat there reading a catalog ( clothes, purses luggage ect..) and the other did sudoku. Why did they even come if they didnt want to learn anything?

I'll let you knew how tomrrow goes.  Keeping my fingers crossed we can stay on course.

skip again

So now Im obsessing over the skipping and its makes me cringe every time I see it. Ugh! The only good thing, if there can be a good thing, is I go back to work at the beginning of next week. So at least I didnt have to sit around with her on rest all summer. That would have been a huge drag.

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She had blue painters tape hanging from her belly that you see in the slow motion part of the video. She woke up at 5am. I let her out and fell back asleep on the couch. When I woke up she had blue tape all stuck to her chest. I didnt see the blue tape on her underside until after I filmed this.

Our appt. is today at 2pm for the x-rays and the go from there. Hopefully I cant get all the diagnostic stuff done before returning to work.

Class and other things.

I know these pictures arent great but I took them last night on the way home. It was about 10:30pm and I was beat. The sky looked awesome and I pulled off on several exits to try and take pictures. But the exits kept having all the trees and I couldnt see the sky. So I finally found an exit where I could still see the sky but there were still those traffic lights. Sorry, I was just to tired to try another exit. And then I either over exposed them or under exposed them,. Ugh. It was irritating.

I went to class last night. I did the novice class and the masters class. We did the Karen Holik exercises in Feb.2010 Clean Run. It was funny, in the novice class where the sequences were more open she drops at least one bar every run. And sometimes she dropped more. It was frustrating. The masters class where the sequences were tighter , she didnt drop bars. Weird. I worked the novice class with that bunny toy and the masters class with treats. I really didnt see any difference in her excitement level. I would really like to be able to use toys more in training. So Im going to work on that some more. Here is one sequence we did. I hope Meagan doesnt mind me posting this. I cant edit it because it was done with my phone.
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We are still working on crate/table games. We are now up to level 4. I know its taking us a while but I wanted to make sure I was getting the drive to the table that I wanted.

Ive given up on the running a-frame. The July 4th trial I thought maybe we were on the road to actually getting it. But this last trial her a-frame was a disaster. Im tired of trying to figure it out. I know its probably better for her but the constant running the a-frame can not be good even if its low. Plus I really think she needs to stop on both the DW and the a-frame because she cant seem to separate the two.

Lastly, Im taking Miley to the vet tomorrow. She has been doing this weird skip when we walk at the park. Its really not that noticeable, but I can see it. Ive spent lots of time video taping her walking trying to get it. I have a few short tapes that demonstrate the skip. I cant post it because its on my phone and I didnt flip the phone sideways so when it post to youtube, its sideways . Ugh. Also that she dropped so many bars last night at class has me worried. And lastly, she right back leg keeps making this cracking sound when she jumps on the couch or ottoman.

Practice for fun

( I changed the title to the post so I didnt sound so negative)

I took Miley to the field for a short practice. I used the course map from Kathy's blog ( Agility Adventures). We had lots of problems. I had a hard time keeping her off that off course jump after the first tunnel. She would just coming flying out and take the jump even when I started saying her name when she just went into the tunnel. I back chained it but when I tried to put it all together , she would go off course again. I think we might have gotten it once that I got on video. Then I pulled her off #9 a couple of times. She had great weaves but for some reason was leaving the teeter early. Plus some other mistakes. It was weird , I felt so tired and winded running. I have a sore throat today, hopefully that doesn't turn into a bad sickness. Tomorrow I leave for Tampa. My daughter is already there visiting my brother's family. My plan for the trial is not not let her get on the table the first two days. I just want smooth runs with no craziness. Then if I get that , on the last day I try for the table. The weather is looking better. Wednesday , no rain and in the 70's. Thursday and Friday, small chance of rain and in the 60's. So that is looking better.

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Yesterdays lesson

I managed to fit in a lesson with all the other things Ive been trying to get done. First we worked on rear crosses. I need to cue earlier to tighten them up. Then we work a course with my nemesis of tunnel entrances. The first part of the course was a wrap jump , weave poles , jump , tunnel. The jump is off set from the tunnel entrance, so you really had to pull back to get her to get into the correct tunnel entrance. I couldn't get it at all at the beginning of class. But Meagan let me try it one more time when class was done, and we got it. WhooHoo!
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Show and go

We drove up for the show and go this morning. When we got there it was 30 degrees out. Just a bit chilly. The ground was frosty. What I didn't expect was how slick the ground was . Poor Miley slipped at least 3 times on our first run. She slipped all through the weaves. When we got to the a-frame my head just couldn't think and couldn't remember what I called the a-frame. So my poor dog is zigging and zagging trying to figure out where to go. She got right on the table. She again slipped and her front feet fell off but she got back on.


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Then we tried Snooker. I thought I understood what to do, but after they whistled, I realized I didn't. You didn't have to leave the course if they whistled, you could just keep going. Then find out what happened at the end. I did my 3 red jumps and a color but after the tunnel I took a jump that I wasn't suppose to take because I was to start the closing sequence. Oops. ( I couldn't get the video edited so that guy is on the video. I hope he doesn't mind. Think he will be mad?)


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I had another standard run. This time I changed the way I ran it. I wanted to make the table harder and some of the tight turns easier so she wasn't slipping all over the place. She took two jumps and was running to the table and was going a little wide from me and missed the table. Then started a big circle around me. I caught her and put her on the table. From there I ran another sequence to bring her around to the table again the same way. She jumped on and off the table. I caught her again and put her on the table. Then we finished the run. Why did she get right on the first run and not this run. Im not sure. It wasnt a straight shot like it was the first time. Maybe that was it.
I only signed up for 3 runs but I felt I couldn't leave on that. So I asked if I could run again at the bottom of the 12's. They said yes. So I ran her again the same way.
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She still jumped on a off. So I'm not sure I fixed anything.

Crash and burn

I'm finally feeling better. I went back to work today and made it through the whole day. I really wanted to go up to Charlotte for lessons tonight but I just didn't want to take a chance of another relapse. So instead I went to the training field. I set up the "Box Drills with C-shaped Tunnels" that was in last months clean run. We did pretty well. A few wide turns that required me to decelerate a lot, almost to an abrupt stop , to get her to come in and take the closer jump. Not sure what that was all about. Then she ran the course and she fell head over heels. When I slowed the video down, she took off way to early. There was no way she was going to clear the jump and fell into it.

She seemed to be ok. I had her run it again and she ran clean. We did the weaves twice and they looked good. Then also did a few jumps to the table. No problems there. Well, not today anyway.

I'm not sure I'm going to facebook anymore. I just don't think its my thing. If no one reads my blog , that's ok. I'm writing more for myself as a journal. ( Its still nice when people comment)

I signed up for a couple of lessons with Karen Holik. She will be here after our trial. To bad its not before. But that's ok. I hoping to use the next two trials just as practice. I'm not really feeling very confident out about abilities right now.

Im going to post a better run too. That way you dont think Im a complete idiot. O,yea dont forget to lower the volume because Guiness is barking.

Good practice

I took Miley to the field yesterday. It was cloudy outside and felt great. Not hot and humid like it usually is. We had a great practice. I'm planning on setting up one jumpers run and one standard run a week. So yesterday I set up the jumpers run. It was a course map from an excellent course last year. She ran well. I tried to remember that she is looking at my feet when running.


It wasnt perfect but I was still happy with it.

Practice

Today I took Miley out to the field to train. I really just wanted to run a course. I set up the course above. I decided to run it and not stop no matter what. I tried to act like I would at a trial. It didn't go well. At the start line, I threw the leash and she released into the tunnel. Oops. ( More training). Then I didn't give enough forward momentum and she didn't carry on to jump #5. So then I was out of place, didn't front cross after #6 , nore after the teeter, so she didn't get in the weaves. Oops, Oops and Oops. But I wanted to keep going to see if I could get back on track. After many problems at the weaves we go back on track and finished the rest of the course. This is kinda what happens to me at a trial. I get out of place and things fall apart. I still didn't handle is well. I probably shouldnt show you the video but hey you have to show the good with the bad.

practice june 27, 2009 from Diana Krause on Vimeo.

Her teeter seems better. I worked it before running her. I watch Meagan the other night work with someone on their teeter. She had the bottom of the teeter on the table. You have someone hold the dog while you go to the end of the teeter. You call the dog to you while holding the teeter and slowly lower it. Then treat them when the teeter hits the ground. Then release. So we did this a few times and then took the table away. So far , so good.

I never talked about Guiness's control unleashed class. One of the things we worked on was holding a treat in your hand so your dog can see it. When you dog looks away from your hand to your face, click and treat. Guiness couldn't do this at all. That says some thing. Maybe that part of our problem. Ive been working on this at home with him and Miley. Miley took longer than I thought before she looked at me. But after that first time, she got it pretty quickly. Poor Guiness took forever to look at me. I think 3-4 minutes, maybe more. He would give me downs and sits, then stare intently at my hand. I kinda had to cheat and move my head a tad, then he finally looked at me. We have lots of work to do.

O'yea at practice today, no skipping down the contacts. WhooHoo!!

Rear Crosses

Ive been working on my rear crosses with Miley. I really want them to be tight and they are not. Karen Holik teaches rear crosses the same way that Meagan was trying to teach me. I think I'm getting close to understanding how to teach it on the flat. The video is a jump sequence that I have not been able to do with Miley. You can see we still have work to do but she is at least able to run the sequence.

I tried not to use rear crosses at the last trial because I always seem to cause her to drop the bar. I really need to use rear crosses because I don't seem to be able to make a front cross in time. I want her to be able to do the rear cross even if I'm right there and need to send her in front of me. I also want her to take the jump even if I push slightly into her line.

AKC trial , 2nd day

This was the jumpers course for today. It seemed really hard to me. I should have just run it like I normally would have but I was worried about her going off course like yesterday. ( sorry the course map is weird and a little blurry, but I was to lazy to scan it in and just to a picture of it. The judge's name is C. Kean) Now also remember that sometimes things look different when you actually walk the course. So I was worried about her after jump 3, that she would take the double in front of her( which would be the back side of #16) To prevent this I was planning a front cross between 3 and 4. It didn't seem that hard when I walked it as long as I was in the correct place doing the cross.(normally I would have just post turned 3 to 4 ) Well here is what happened. I put Miley in the tunnel and the ran to blind cross the tunnel to get out in front of her so that I could make the front cross in time. Well, when she came out of the tunnel , she must have saw me taking off down the line. I'm not sure if she was just trying to speed up or if she was looking at me and not really looking at the triple that was in front of her. But she crashed the triple The person who ran after me, said she took off way to early to clear the jump. And because I was so flustered that she crashed the jump ( she seemed ok, she got up and started running again) that I lost my concentration and was in the wrong place to cross. When I crossed , the jump was right in front of me and I had to jump it. There was nothing I could do. After I got myself back together , the rest of the run was beautiful. I will post the edited run here. I cut out the beginning because I hate seeing it and feel it is all my fault. Someone was wearing a shirt today that said, "great dog, slap the handler". I should have been wearing that. The judge did tell me she probably wouldnt put a triple after the tunnel again. Another dog slammed into the side post of the triple. I watched a lot of the excellent group, which had to same begining, I didnt see any prolbems. So it was my fault.

Someone came and talked to me about my contacts. She said that sometimes when you put pressure on the dog, to try and make them stop, it actually makes them jump the contact. So maybe that is why she jumped even higher up yesterday. When I looked at the standard course for today, it started tire to the dogwalk. I started thinking that I never put pressure on her to stop at home. We practice with me running by. So I thought I would give it a try. My plan was to do just the tire to the dogwalk and then leave the course no matter what happens. If she stopped, have a party. If she doesn't stop, well we are leaving the ring anyway. ( not in a bad way, just run out of the ring. ) When it was our turn, I did just that. Tire to the dogwalk. I didn't feel like I slowed down on the dogwalk. Miley took a huge jump of the dogwalk. So we ran out of the ring. She did go over the A-frame when we left ( oops) . I didn't see what she did. But I was told she had a nice running a-frame. Go figure. It must be me , huh? Karen Holik was at the trial this weekend. She said, I slowed while miley was going over the dogwalk. But after seeing her, she feels Miley still doesn't understand her job. So lots of training.

Miley handling

This was a set up I did today with Miley. Keep in mind we really haven't practice for a couple of months. She did pretty good. My handling needs help. I don't like the arm flinging thing I'm doing. Its very choppy looking. Its probably confusing to the dog. She did drop some bars, but the were all on crosses. I did more than what is on the video. I first did the set up that is from clean run March of 09. Its the Power Paws Drills, Seminar Sets by Nancy Gyes, set number 3. In the end I change the bottom of the sequence to be a pinwheel. ( not on video) One thing I noticed that I did was try to rear cross after the jump to turn her into the pinwheel. You wouldn't rear cross in front of the jump the dog just took. So I let the dog go by and then rear crossed. I don't know why I did that. I didn't even realize that is what I did until I watched the video. I know I also did that at the trial in January , with the same results. The dog didn't understand the cue. Ugh! I will have to watch that.

My computer is still having problems. The audio device keeps deleting its self. Plus other problems. I may have to send it in to be fixed. I probably wont get much practice in the next 5 days, its suppose to rain everyday. I hope they are wrong. On Sunday I may go up to North Carolina and watch the AKC agility nationals. It wont be that close again for a long time.

Miley Practice

So Ive been trying to decided if I should jump Miley at 16 inches in USDAA. She measured 13 3/4 at the last trial which means she jumps 16 for Championship. I could just do performance and keep her at 12. In AKC she will be allowed to jump 12. I don't want to over stress her body by jumping 16 but after watching her today and looking over the tapes, she seemed ok. The bars were at 16 except maybe one. I have also been obsessing over her weave poles. Mostly entries. Ive been trying to work around the clock and its boring and she goes slow. She never goes slow. I went to bed last night and the last thing I remember thinking about were weave poles and it was the first thing I thought of this morning. Ugh!! I'm contemplating doing 2 x 2 weaves. But I don't want to confuse her. It looks like you can get great entries but maybe that's only if your a great trainer. I talked to Kathy at Agility Adventures( see her blog on my blog roll), and she said its a great way to teach weaves. She is going to go back to reteach her other dogs with this method. Any opinions? ( o'yea, Its raining again)

Miley's first USDAA trial

This was the BRAC trial that was in Fletcher , North Carolina. On Saturday we had to get there early so Miley could be measured. Measuring was suppose to start at 7am. I think it started about 7:15am. There was probably 100 dogs that needed to be measured. It lasted until 9am or maybe is was 9:30. So our ring started about 1 1/2 hours late. Our first run was Gamblers. She did the first a-frame contact and the first dogwalk contact but then didn't stop for the 2nd dogwalk contact. Otherwise it looked great and she did a great job. I always find it funny that when Im running the course I feel like I'm running. But when I watch the video , I don't look like I'm running at all. Hmmmm. We took first place. Luckily a couple of people ( "M" was one of them) were looking out for me because it wasn't posted in the book that goes to USDAA. But they got if fixed so I would get credit for the run.

Next was our standard run. She did a great job. Such an improvement over our last AKC standard run. Did the a-frame , great table, great teeter and fantastic weave poles. She didn't stop again for the dogwalk. Both times this happened I was behind her. So that is something I will have to work on. After the dogwalk was jump, chute to the tunnel. As soon as I saw her go into the tunnel I took off running because I wanted to get in front of the teeter( that where the teeter game comes in handy) But she must have saw me out of the corner of her eye and she pulled back out of the tunnel. I guess I could have put her back in but I really try not to correct my dogs on course. So I just kept going. Then I'm not sure what I did to cause this but she back jumped the last jump. I think I didn't keep up my momentum and it caused her to pull off the jump. We didn't qualify but it was still a great run.

On Sunday we did the jumper run. She did great. I think the course time was 39 seconds and she did it in 19 seconds. But once again when I look at the video it seems slow. She had a nice run and took 1st place. We didn't stay for the gamblers run at the end of the day. I wasn't feeling good and I really didn't want her practicing not stopping on the dogwalk. So we went home and we were happy.

Our practice today

I know that practice didn't look that good but it didn't feel terrible. On the last part of the video you cant see the last pole pop out because of the tree. I think I'm going to lay off the weave poles for a few days and work on handle skills for the next several days. I took Miley to a friends house again yesterday and the weave pole thing started again. She has channel weaves. Maybe Miley just doesn't like them. I didn't use a toy today but yesterday I traded a toy and food a couple of times with out problems.

Miley's 2o/2o and rear crosses

Ive been having a very hard time with the 2o/2o board. Miley just doesn't get it if I just stand there and vary my position. So I decided not to use it any more. I'm going to just train her on the contacts. Its not like I don't have the contacts in my yard. So this video is of me and Miley doing the 2o/2o. I did put a clear target at the end of the dogwalk. The only time I baited it was the very last run because we were starting all the way at the other end and I wanted to make sure she stopped. Anyone can give me their opinion of what I'm doing and what you think. I know on the last run , one of her back legs was off the side of the dogwalk.

The next thing Ive been working on is rear crosses. I haven't been very successful with them when there is more than on in a row. I think I've messed up my dog by having to many failures and it has slowed her down. I worked today on putting her in a sit and then stepping behind her to check for a head turn . I wanted to make sure she was reading the rear cross. And she did it correct every time both ways. But when I ran her in the yard she would get the first rear cross but not the second. I think I made her unsure of herself because she kept head checking me. And then when I had her run a straight line of jumps, I beat her to the end. Not good. So after that we did a lot of play and running just a couple of obstacles with lots of rewards. I'm not going to work on the rear cross stuff for a while and give it a break. I want to get her confidence back up. How dumb am I????????

new way to teach 2o2o

Well, I've been trying to teach this 2o2o now for about a month. And she is just not getting it. If I try to move my position at all she curls off the board on the side. I have also been doing a little work with a hit-it board. She really likes the hit -it board. She will drive to the board, hit it and move on. So that got me thinking. And Ive decided to teach the 2o/2o this way. ( Sorry "M" ) Im using a target and will fade that after I think she really understands her job. This is the third day Ive been teaching it this way and Im having much more success. She seems happier too. (Im trying to up load the video. )