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.

Class and 270's

I went to class on Sunday. We did the set ups in the Clean Run Exercise sourcebook 2 , pages 44-45. The one I had the most problem was the middle one on page 45 ,the dark circles, seen below.


I couldnt get the 270 from #5-#6. I either pushed her out to the tunnel or pulled her around jump #6. Ugh! I tried a post turn with no change of side or lateral motion landing side from cross. I didnt try the option below ( from Clean Run magazine Jan. 2009 page22.)


This one, take off side front cross, may have worked for me.Ill try that another day. So today we practiced 270's. I just set up the square box of jumps. We were getting the 270's but she kept dropping the bar. It would be the bar marked #2 in the above set up even thought I wasnt doing a take off side front cross. So I had to stop and just take one jump and reward for keeping the bar up. Then add a little bit of motion and c/t for keeping the bar up. Finally we were able to run the whole thing with keeping the bar up and we stopped at that.

For some reason Miley was acting really weird after class. When I finally got her in the car she was acting terrified. Im not sure what was going on. She settled down after a few minutes. Maybe it was the blowers on the A/C system in the car. I had them on full blast trying to cool the car down. I guess I wont do that again. I took her to see the Chiro after class. She seemed ok there. She flinched once when she touched her back but then didnt do it again. May have been a fluke. She told me just to keep and eye on her.

No much else going on. To hot to really do anything. Ive been trying to upload pictures from my phone to this blog but it isnt happening for some irritating reason.

Killer Kourse

I went to the contact and weaves class last night. Meagan set up a couple of courses for me to run with Miley. I don't think I ran them right one time.

I was suppose to front cross between #4 and #5 and then rear cross after she went into #6. I kept messing up the front cross. Then when Miley would get into the weaves, she popped one pole early and took the off course into the tunnel entrance #12. It was at first my fault because I was to far forward of the end of the weaves which was cuing the wrong tunnel entrance. You needed to hang back a little but she still kept taking the off course tunnel entrance. We finally had to move the tunnel entrance so she couldn't see the opening . Then she finally came to me and got into tunnel #7.

Here was the next course. I messed this one up too. I kept cuing extension over jump #6, so she was way wide going to the teeter. And I did it again going over #11. That time was really bad because she needed to turn tight to get back into the weaves. I don't know where my brain was.

Guiness had his Control Unleash class. He just cracks me up. When in class you would never know this dog has any issues. He seems perfect. I need to take video while walking at the park. Silly dog. We worked on "incoming". Its what you tell your dog when another dog is coming to get into his face. We took our dogs, one by one, into a gated area. Meagan would bring her dog by the gated area. When she did this, you would tell your dog, "incoming" and start giving him treats. The dogs were kept different distances from the gate and she would either walk or run her dog past the gate, depending on the dogs comfort level. We also work on sending the dogs to the mat. The dog first had to go around a stanchion and then you added your mat. You want to practice more and more distance and multiple mats to send your dog to. This can help when at a class. If you dog is stressed or maybe going to become reactive you send them off to their mat. Guiness just cant get the hang of the mat. So I'm just using his soft crate and that worked much better.

The ride home last night was a white knuckle ride. Once I got to the highway it started raining. It poured down rain and lightning all the way home. The kind of rain where you cant hear the radio because its pounding so hard on your car. It was hard to see and you had to drive pretty slow. I just followed the people in front of me. I was so happy to get home last night. An hour and 15 minutes of that was stressful.

Cake for breakfast

Yep, that's what I had today. Actually I had cake and ice cream. We usually go out to dinner for birthdays but I was going to class so we went out for lunch. Then I left for class at 3pm to get to class by 5pm. So no time for cake. I didn't get home until 10:30. Cant eat chocolate cake then or I wouldn't be able to sleep. So I had it for breakfast and it was great!

I took a private lesson before class last night. We worked on Miley's jumping. We set up jump grids. You could really see were Miley got comfortable coming down the line. Her jumping and strides got better the further down she went. Also she was jumping head down. Miley is still young and her jumping will improve as she gets older and starts to get it. She did drop the first bar though. Sometimes she does this at trials too. Meagan told me to set her up different distances to the first bar ( at home) and see what works best for her. I have been setting her up to close to the first bar. She doesn't have enough time to get up to speed and then think about were to take off by the time she gets the to bar. After dropping the first bar, the next time Meagan told me to point the first bar out to Miley. So I did that and Miley had the funnest look on her face. Like, "What the heck is she doing now". Then I walked to the end. She didn't drop the bar but she was also set back 10 feet from the first bar.

Next was the contact and weaves class. I love this class. Its a drop in class. I think there were 4 people there. She sets everyone up in there own area of the field. Then everyone gets different things to work on depending on what your dog needs. So you are working and other dogs are working right around you at the same time. Its a great concept to me. Helps your dog keep focus on you while other things are going on. Miley did really well. Only missed one weave pole entrance out of probably 10. She did have some problems. Ran around the table and didn't want to get on. Ugh!! So I need to back chain the table. We worked on 3 jumps to the table. And back chained this and it worked really well. So what do you think happened when we did a different sequence with the table. She ran around it. SO I need to work on back chaining to the table. And take the table to different places. Make the table rewarding.

Below is one of the sequences I was to run with Miley. Our problem was front crossing after the weaves to the jump (# 3 to #4). She kept running in front of me to jump #5. I had to get a treat out and after the front cross give her a treat next to me and then send to jump #4.

What have I been doing.

I haven't really blogged much this week. Ive posted pictures but not much else. The first half of the week , I gave Miley a break. All the trial work, she deserved a break. I have been walking the dogs at the park. Guiness has been acting weird. Earlier and earlier in the walk he is refusing to walk on. I'm not sure what is with that. He doesn't look like anything is wrong with him. Ive been walking the flat park. I made him keep walking anyways.

On Wednesday I went up to North Carolina for a some classes. It was pouring down rain in Columbia when I left and let up right before getting off the exit for the class. Didn't rain at class at all. I was shocked. I took both dogs out of the car when I got there. They seemed fine. Then I put Guiness up because it was time for Miley's class. ( contacts and weaves) This is a small class and we work in separate parts of the field. Meagan sets up what you need for your dog. First we worked on Mily's weaves. She did really well. There were a few missed entries but it gives me something to work on. We had trouble with #10 to #11 weave pole entry.

The course was renumbered and it started over a jump and then a call to heel into the weaves. Miley had a lot of trouble with that. Something else to work on. We also worked on contacts. Miley stopped on the contacts. But when Meagan had me back up with Miley still in the 20/20 position , then I would run by. She self released. Something else to work on.

Next it was Guiness CU class. When I got him out of the car and walked him he was limping and stopped to bite his foot. I looked at it , couldn't find anything. He still couldn't walk. Looked at it again, brushed the bottom of it. He still couldn't walk on it. I took him into this fenced yard so I could lay him down. I moved his foot around and it was weird. It had a cracking feeling to it and something was moving that shouldn't have been. I moved it around some more and all of a sudden all that weirdness went away. I felt normal. He got up and began to get the zoomies. He was so happy and excited. He was so crazy, running , dashing barking, that Miley was scared. She hid under my legs while Guiness went crazy. After that everything was fine. The CU class was good. I need to work on Guiness going to his mat and making him work longer before getting treats.

In a few days it will be my birthday. My husband wanted to get me a new camera. A HD camera. So Ive spent the last two days playing with cameras. One, my computer isn't fast enough for HD stuff. I'm trying one right now, its a Samsung HMX-H100. So far all of the cameras that Ive tried I cant use Quicktime. My computer isnt fast enough so the video is jerky. ( I have the upgraded QT for HD) I really like QT when viewing my videos because of the slow motion stuff. Anyway, the samsung is good and cheap ( relatively) All the software is on the camera. You just plug it in and start. You can edit the video on the camera, which I like. O'course I'm really slow at it. My casio, I can edit fast, like those kids you see texting on their phones. I'm not sure the vidoe is as clear and sharp as I thought it would be. I did upload one video on youtube. ( it directly loads from the camera software to youtube, nice feature)

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This is in regular HD and I can go one level higher in the HD. Maybe I will try that tomorrow.

Lesson and class

First of all, I tried for the last 24 hours to try and download a video. But it just isn't happening. So now on to something else.
I finally got to a private lesson and and class. I figured if I was going all that way for a class, I might as well do a lesson. Miley has been dropping a lot of bars lately. "M" watched her her do some jump grids and she felt that Miley had good form over the jumps. She is using her back end to propel herself over the bar. She feels that Miley just wants to run fast and isn't realizing she is dropping bars. She set up a jump grid program for me to work on with Miley.

Then I had her watch me do serpentines because those weren't going well either. Well, I was standing to far back from the jumps and giving Miley to much room, which was giving Miley the wrong information about where to jump too. Plus I had her set up straight at the jump, instead of sideways.

Then she watched Miley weave. She felt that Miley's weaving was good. I need to work on entries more. When I'm moving the jumps around the clock into the weave poles, I'm moving them to much for a young dog. I need to only move them inches at a time.








Next she had me walk this course and run Miley. I don't know why but I did a come to heal from #1 to #2 , then when she came out of the tunnel I had her kinda come to heal againto jump #3 and then I rear crossed her going into the tunnel #4. So when she came out of the tunnel I was behind her and my call to the next tunnel was late. So she came straight out of the tunnel heading toward the a-frame. "M" told me to run it again, and this time use post turns. This got me ahead of Miley coming out of tunnel #4 ,so that I could direct her better to tunnel #5. It work so much better than what I did. But I still pushed her off her line a little going to tunnel # 5. This is a good reason why I need to go to classes. I never would have thought of that. It amazed me how much better that little change helped the dog. (I know Im easily amazed). That was the end of the private lesson. After the lesson, Miley kept going up to "M"'s 6 month old puppy that helps guard the sheep. Miley wanted to play. So "M" got her Jack Russell puppy out, but Miley wouldn't play. So "M" got out her boarder collie puppy. Miley almost played but didn't. I guess she felt is was safe to try to play with the dog behind the fence as long as they don't get to close. Funny dog.



Next was the class. Only one other person came to the class. We worked on the circle of death. Serpentines and threadles. Then we ran this little sequence.





we ran it a bunch of different ways. Miley did really well except for a few times while jumping over the broad jumps, half way across she would give herself some more lift by pushing off one of the middle planks. She wants to fly I think. The other thing I need to work on is having the dog come out of the tunnel, she crosses in front of me and then takes one of the side jumps. So a rear cross. I hope that makes sense. All in all it was a good class.

class

So I finally made it to a class. I think its been about 2 months since I last was there. Class was suppose to be Thursday night. Its pretty far away but now about 45 min. closer since she opened a second class at a closer location. I was stuck in traffic for about 20 min. and only moved about 1 mile. I'm sitting there thinking I'm going to be late. Traffic finally clears and I come over the hill and what do I see? Black skys with lighting bolts. Great, no class. So I turned around. Two hours in the car for nothing. But the instructor decided to give privates and semi-privates on Saturday. So I signed up. It was a very good lesson. I need to keep a small notebook in my pocket so I can write things down. I tried to write everything down when I got to the car, but I'm sure there are things I forgot.

Things noted by the instructor I need to work on or fix:

Start line stays. When I set Miley up at the start line she is scooting backwards just a little. "M" ( the instructor) feels this could be a problem because at many trials the first jump is close to the fencing. She may scoot back into the fence and then develop other issues. Also it may change her line. I think its because I set her up at the start and just tell her to "wait" . She can choose to lie down or sit. I notice that when she lies down , is when she scoots backwards. "M" thinks I should line her up between my legs. I may do this , I'm not sure. Only because Miley likes her space and this may not go over well with her. I may need to have more specific criteria at the start instead of just wait. I will work on both and see which goes better.

Pinwheels: I'm crossing to late which is causing Miley to go wide. I'm watching her to see if she is going to do her job and then the info she needs to keep going is not there. She needs the cue before she takes the jump and even when she lands on the jump before. I really need to work on this. I think that is why she drops so many bars. I'm giving her late infor and she is trying to do what I want. Like turning while going over the jump. (This is not stuff I recognized myself, "M" told me) I need to learn to watch her feet and where she is landing.

We also worked on serpentines. Again, I was late giving her the information she needs. But I think I have a better understanding so now I can work on it. All in all it was a great lesson. I learned a lot. "M" said Miley was looking really good and much improved from the last time she saw us. So that makes me happy.

Miley now is in 6 straight up weave poles. The mistake I made with Guiness was not teaching entries at the same time as teaching the poles. I hope Ive done a better job with Miley.

We are still working on the a-frame. We are up to two jumps and then jump in the box. (Rachel Sanders method). As soon as I put to much movement when going to the box, she jumps over it. So we are working on that. I will try to post video of it and maybe someone can give me some suggestions.

Guiness is cone free!!! What a happy dog. Miley is happy too because now Guiness is playing with her. When he was wearing the cone, he wouldn't play. Miley resorted to chewing on the end of the plastic cone to try to entice him. But it didnt work. He is done with the antibiotics too. Now the hair just needs to grow back. Below is a picture of Guiness back. Do you see the light strip of hair across his shoulder blades? Ive shaved him 3 years in a row and have never seen this before. Do you think its just because he is getting older? He is 4 years old. Hummmmm, its defiantly weird.