Agile Trek

Switzerland - Wengen to Wengernalp to Kleine Scheidegg

2010-07-22T23:08:00.000-04:00

After recovering from our plane trip, the next day we did our first hiking trip. We decided to keep it simple and hike directly from our hotel in Wengen.

We found the signs leading to the trails within a block of our hotel. How easy is that? There are trails that are allowed for mountain bikes (in red) and hiking trails (in orange). Each trail lists a town (or destination, sometimes not even a town), and the hours/minutes to get there. For us non-Swiss, the hours an minutes are quite a bit faster than actual hiking time. They also don't account for stopping to admire the views.

Our first hike we headed off to Wengernalp, followed by Kleine Scheidegg. The trail starts out right in town on a paved road. This is considered a carless village, but some of the locals do have cars. So, the total hike is supposed to 2:45, but really will take quite a bit longer. Glen started swearing while we were just walking in town, before we got onto a non-paved trail. Even the roads were super steep. Everything is up. There is very, very little level hiking. We had to stop periodically to catch our breath. This is a view looking back at the town.

After we got out of town, the trail switched to gravel. Its a wide gravel path, which sounds easy. But it wasn't - we just kept going up & up. Glen is tired but is still smiling:

On the hike, we walked through a herd of cattle. We were surprised at just how loud cowbells were. They constantly make noise, as the cows were constantly grazing. Anyways, it is really a one in a kind sound listening to cowbells of all different pitches clanging.

This is what we came to Switzerland for:

Wengernalp is small. I think the town is 1 hotel/restaurant, and 1 train station building. It has a train stop. We stopped at the hotel restaurant. I had a alpen cheese sandwich with fruit. The waiter was funny and charming. A good place to stop for sure. Here is a sign (marking elevation) to mark our arrival:

On to Kleine Scheidegg. This is smaller than Wengen but larger than Wengernalp. It is a very touristy tiny town, as it is where you catch the train to get to Jungfraujoch, a must see on everyone's trip. So, I wasn't impressed with Kleine Scheidegg, except that it is a train station we found ourselves at frequently. There was very little place to sit in the shade in the town, which was something we wanted to do to rest. It does have a gorgeous view looking up to the mountains though.

I was worried that we would miss the meadows of wildflowers in Switzerland, since we were going in the summer. There were hundreds of varieties of flowers though, and they were everywhere. Yellow, pink, purple, orange, white, all jammed together - it was amazing how many flowers there were everywhere.

Did I mention this was an amazing trip?

Switzerland - arriving in Zurich, Trains - Saturday

2010-07-20T22:49:00.000-04:00

The flight to Switzerland is hard. We started in Albany due to dog boarding, and flew to Philadephia. The Albany airport was great. Small airport, really nice service. The airport parking shuttle van actually saw us in the parking lot, drove over to our car where we were unloading, and loaded our bags into the van for us. Wow! And parking there was cheap. A much nicer experience than Newark. Oh, and the Albany airport has free water.

It appears that every flight to Zurich is overnight, so Philadelphia to Zurich is an 8-9 hour overnight flight. I don't sleep in planes, plus there is a 6 hour time difference. We landed at around 8:30 in the morning, after getting no sleep. So, I can't say I enjoyed Zurich, because I was exhausted from no sleep. Zurich was also hot. I remember being soo thirsty while there - and not being able to get enough water down me. Not to mention the shock when you see how much water costs to buy. There were no water fountains in the Zurich airport to fill up our water containers. And you have to pay to get into the bathroom. The bathroom is called "McClean." Okay - so that is very tacky. So basically, no cheap or free water. I can't tell you how much we spent on water that first day, but it was outrageous.

The first thing to do after arriving and spending tons of $ on a small amount of water, is to get a train ticket. There is a major train station right at the airport.Train tickets are very expensive, but essential. The first ticket we got was from Zurich airport to Wengen. There are several train changes on the way. So, you can basically get off at any stop, and then get back on the same day to continue your journey.

We decided to go into downtown Zurich (Zurich FB stop I think its called), which is 1 or 2 stops away from the airport. Once there, we had to find luggage lockers. That was hard. Glen eventually used his German in order to ask. Its not difficult to get around by trains once you figure it out. In the begining we had issues, but by the end of the trip we were experts. So, after locking up our luggage (about $8), we took a walk in downtown Zurich by the river. We saw some famous churches in Zurich, a rowing race, and some wild river sports. But, I was just hot & tired.

We wanted to stop at Hiltl, Europe's oldest vegetarian restaurant, which is in Zurich. We got there when they opened their lunch buffet, and had some Indian and Swiss food. Restaurant gets a thumbs up!

After lunch, we got on a train - oops - we got onto first class by accident. So, we discovered afterwards that the trains have numbers on them. 1 or 2. We got on a 1 train, instead of a 2 train. The ticket collector let us slide. We also got on a "quiet" car. Certain cars are designated to be quiet - no cell phones, no loud talking, no music. It was quite comfortable and quiet, which was nice, since I was exhausted. So we continued from Zurich FB to Bern to Interlaken to Wengen eventually.

Wengen was cooler (hurray!), and in the mountains (hurray again!). As soon as you get out of the train station, there are arrow signs pointing to the various hotels in town. We found ours, and headed to it. It was probably only 1/3 of a mile away, but moderately steep. Which we discovered was very typical! Once at the hotel we drank tap water from our bathroom. Thank dog.

We stayed at Hotel Baren, which I can't recommend enough. I would stay there again in an instant. It is a small hotel run by a husband and wife. Glen spoke to the husband (the chef) about dinners again (vegan & vegetarian). Every meal that was cooked for us was awesome. We had 4 course vegan/vegetarian dinners prepared for us every night, and everything was tasty! The owners speak English well. Actually, pretty much everyone in Switzerland speaks English well!

Then we were off to bed....exhausted.....

Photos from Zurich:
Vet office?
28 foot clock face
Blue lady at the train station that protects travelers
Zurich waterfront

Switzerland - debuffed

2010-07-19T07:56:00.000-04:00

The incredibly versatile buff. What is a buff you ask?

Its a simple tube of fabric that has a million uses. The main use is as a headband - though even as that, it can be styled 30+ ways. Okay, so when I try different styles, it looks like I'm wearing a burka. Or I'm a cancer patient. They even have buffs for dogs now.

So, I own 2 buffs, and brought one to Switzerland. Used it to keep my hair out of my face while hiking. Glen and I decided to try the First Flieger, a zipline. It lasts 45 seconds, with speeds up to 85km/hour. You fly down a mountain, and come to a wrenching stop. I wasn't scarey to me, except for the stopping part. It feels like you are going to crash into the building at the end, as you don't slow down gradually. They sent our backpacks down in their own seat :) They don't allow you to wear hats on the ride. I found out why - my buff flew off on the trip down. Oops. So, then I needed a new buff. I convinced Glen to get a buff too, as he has developed an allergy to sunscreen on his neck. So, he needed a buff as neckwear. Luckily, almost every reasonably sized town has at least 1 sporting goods store. Wengen, population of 1,000, has 3-4 sporting goods stores. That is 1 store per 333 people. Well, Wengen can support 5,000 tourists in the summer, so 1 store per 1,500-2,000 people. And all of the sporting goods stores sell buffs! What luck! So we found Glen a masculine dark grey buff, and I got a new pink & white buff. Yeah!

Switzerland - boots

2010-07-18T11:20:00.000-04:00

Back from Switzerland!

I decided to take an older pair of hiking boots (Lowa) rather than the newer pair I bought. I didn't have time to break in the new pair due to my plantar fasciitis keeping me from hiking for 6 weeks before our trip. It would have been bad to get a blister there if my new boots were not broken in. My older Lowa boots are "podiatrist approved" - but I get another pain in my foot which was never really analyzed by the podiatrist I saw for my plantar fasciitis. Its a joint pain I guess, which seems to get aggravated the more walking I do. It happens in sneakers too. The reason I bought new boots in the first place was to see if a stiffer sole would eliminate the joint pain. Unfortunately the stiffer sole comes with a much heavier boot. Heavy boots are not as fun as lightweight boots.

We arrived in Zurich on a Saturday, and travelled to Wengen on Saturday afternoon after eating lunch at Hiltl, Europe's oldest vegetarian restaurant. Just walking from the train station to the hotel in Wengen (maybe 1/3 mile), I got heel soreness. After feeling better for 3 weeks, it just took that much to set it off again. The walk was hilly (of course!), so that seemed to do it. I did end up having heel soreness for the whole trip, but I ignored it. I was very careful - if I felt any twinge of fascia tearing, I slowed way down. I only got that feeling twice. So, the good news is that I got all the hiking I wanted to in.

I bought 2 new things for the trip, which I didn't properly try out beforehand. I have synthetic hiking socks (several pairs), and only 1 pair of sock liners. Before the trip, I decided to buy 2 pairs of SmartWool socks. I was reading that they are not itchy, and that you can wear them multiple days without them smelling. Since weight is always an issue when hiking/packing, this sounded good. I decided to get new sock liners - so I could wear clean sock liners under them every day. Sock liners are good for preventing blisters. Well - about the socks not itching - they make ME itch. My skin is sensitive, and yes, I tried wearing them without sock liners, and spent an hour scratching myself. I also wore the sock liners under them - and when I got back I had welts on my calf from the cuff. Ouch. I was reading reviews of sock liners, and everyone liked the kind I got - one of the reasons was because they don't slip. Well, they don't, but the welts rather sucked. So I ended up wearing the extra synthetic socks I brought, and just washed them every night. Now I'm stuck with several pairs of ouchy sock liners.

Trek serpentines

2010-06-25T20:52:00.000-04:00

Tonight we practiced serpentines.

I have to remember to:

Say his name when he comes in over a jump. I usually just say jump, but I'm going to try to switch to say his name.

Do not get too far ahead. Think about making eye contact between the stantions to help invite him over the jump.

Toilet Facilities

2010-06-24T23:12:00.000-04:00

Haha...did I get your attention?

I like to visit other places that are different than where I live.
Glen and I were talking about toilet facilities tonight.

California Ansel Adams Wilderness Area - We used shovels to dig holes, and snow & leaves. Mosquitoes would bite your bum.

Scotland, Isle of Skye - You were often being watched by sheep....

Peru - had to pay for toilet paper, and rarely did you get a toilet with an actual seat.

Switzerland - I'll let you know, but from what I've heard, might be dated, but likely free toilet paper and real seats :)

Walk intos...

2010-06-21T22:27:00.000-04:00

This week our training sessions have been short. It's been hot.

Have some good exercises from camp to work on. So, all we've been doing lately is exercises, no courses. We've been practicing walking into recalls to heel. Then jogging into them. Also extension recall to heel on the flat.

Took Trek for a short 1 hour hike yesterday. Bad idea. It was in the mid-80's and when we reached the top of the mountain, he just lay down and was panting super hard. He didn't want to drink. So we brought him into some shade, and just sat there until his breathing started to slow down. Poured water on his belly. He really doesn't do well in the heat. Which is why we aren't trialing this month.

CSA

2010-06-17T08:11:00.000-04:00

We got our first share yesterday from the CSA farm we belong to. Everything looks great. Had raw sugar snap peas, and braising greens sauteed with garlic and olive oil last night. Yummm!

Biking

2010-06-02T23:12:00.000-04:00

Biked 17 miles on Saturday, 32.5 miles on Sunday. Monday we took a road trip to REI (love the place - we spent 1 1/2 hours there and had to leave because it closed). Tuesday, an hour of weight training, and Wednesday spinning. Used my new bike shoes for spinning - that was cool. Practiced clipping in a bit on the spin machines. Then went home, and tried on my bike - this time I could do it! Finally, it doesn't take 10 minutes to get 1 foot clipped in. Tomorrow body sculpting. If I can't hike, at least I can get in shape for hiking. Bought a new cyclocomputer at REI & got it all installed yesterday. I read reviews and found one that was reviewed well on multiple sites. Its a wired one, rather than wireless, since I found that the wired ones got better reviews. I hate wires (pet peeve), but I really, really want a cyclocomputer that works. Its motivating to see how many miles I've biked. My friend was using her IPhone GPS and an app called EveryTrail to track our weekend ride. What a cool tool. Except she complains the battery dies after 4 hours.

Only training Trek around 5-10 minutes a day. He doesn't like the heat, and its hard for me to break up his training into multiple sessions a day because of work.

Tired....

2010-05-27T20:00:00.000-04:00

Was low energy today. Went to body sculpting class tonight. OMG, I'm weak. I guess at some point I will get stronger. I was too exhausted to train the dogs this evening so I just hit balls for them until they were too pooped. Tomorrow the plan is to bike again.

Biking

2010-05-26T23:20:00.000-04:00

I went to the podiatrist today. No hiking for 2-3 weeks, which is really a drag, especially with a 3 day weekend coming up. Lots of stretching, icing, and Naproxen. Weather was in the 90's today. Trained Trek for around 5 minutes, and he just had enough. So, I figure biking is safe for my feet. I biked for 12 miles today. My quads are still tired from spinning & hiking, so I was happy that I got that much done.

Trek Masters Pairs Practice

2010-05-25T22:22:00.000-04:00

This is 1/2 a pairs course from Saturday. Trek was very slow at the trial, had a refusal for the weaves and the last jump. As a result, we were way over time.

So we set it up at home. What a difference in speed at home! Tonight he was zippy. How do I get that focus & confidence at trials? Maybe I should take him to some matches this summer.

So, at home I worked on 2 things:

The ability to leave him in a stay and run out to a nice lead out position.
A front cross versus a pull versus a rear cross between 5 & 6.

Things I was happy with:

Speed!
Start line stay (had a few breaks at first, but improved greatly)
He never once considered the wrong side of the tunnel

The rear cross between 5 & 6 is ideal:
It is a more efficient path for the dog
It sets up the weave entry better

But, I find a hard pull into a rear cross difficult!
He had a lot of confusion in practice.
Here are some of our better tries.

CRCD:

Begin Course Designer
Version 3
For a free viewer, go to www.coursedesigner.com/viewer
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End Course Designer

Hiking today

2010-05-23T23:04:00.000-04:00

I decided not to trial today. I slept in, which I really needed.

Since I now had a free day, Glen found a new hike for us to try. We hiked in Fahnestock Park, on the Perkins/Fahnestock/Cabot/Charcoal Burners trail. It was an awesome trail. It was a 4 hour hike, which was good, because we are trying to build up more endurance before our trip to Switzerland. The longest hike I want to do in Switzerland is 6 hours (doesn't include rest time). We took Moxie with us today. There were 3 ponds on the trip. Moxie got to take a quick swim at 2 of them. She was thrilled. We only saw 2 other groups of people on the trip, which is also really good. Moxie got to spend most of the hike off leash. The hike only crossed one private dirt road (oh, how I would love to live there). Besides the ponds, we also hiked a long way along a creek. The hike had a lot of variation in terrain, which made it interesting. Ponds, meadows, woods, creeks, hills, level. The trail went through some private property at one point...OMG. There was a newly being built horse stable (24 stalls) and riding arena (to me a dog training arena). Then a little further away, the house it must belong to - a multi million dollar mansion. What a location. A mansion in the middle of meadows & woods, no neighbors in sight, and very peaceful. I will need some more promotions!

We will definately do this trail again.

Trek Teeter Training

2010-05-23T21:18:00.000-04:00

Today I worked on Trek's teeter. We've trained it so many different ways, he is sure to be confused. So, at this point we are doing a 2o2o. I worked on some today. The first one he ran. That seems to be a pattern, both at trials & in practice. Actually in practice, I could get him to break quite easily. So, I think I need to go back & review Rachel Sander's DVD, and start working through the exercises with Trekker. I worked on them before, but I would get stuck in perfectionism.

Moxie Jumping at 16"

2010-05-23T10:57:00.002-04:00

Here is Moxie's standard run from yesterday.
She knocked 1 bar, and went around 2 jumps.
Moxie is around 4 1/2 years old.

Contact Trial

2010-05-22T19:41:00.000-04:00

I ran Moxie at 16" in PI. What a hoot! She was so happy to be there. She Q'd. I also ran her in PI Standard, where she took down a bar, and went around some jumps.

Trek -

Held it together in gamblers, but didn't get the gamble. He trotted through his dogwalk contacts.

Masters Standard - a difficult course. He was stressed. Weave issues.

Masters Pairs - again, stressed. Weave issues. Didn't take the last jump.

Steeplechase - weave issues, and then I just became flustered. I excused ourselves.

Masters Jumpers - absent. Decided to go home & go hiking. But, as we were getting ready, our power went out, so that blew that plan.

Trek and I are not ready for Masters. I haven't entered any more trials, and I'm thinking I won't put him in anything until September. Part of it, is we need to work on skills for Masters, so that we are both confident. He stresses so easily. If I make a handling error, I'm just not super smooth when trying to continue on, so even if I'm not fixing it, he surely knows we've made a mistake. This makes him slow down, or just not focus. At home, he's much more focused. At trials, I just don't feel the same connection with him. So, we just need some more training, and some more time to grow up.

The time off for trialing will give us more time for hiking & getting fitter.

Nutmeg Trial

2010-05-16T16:44:00.000-04:00

Day 2 of our trial.

Open Standard - Trek Q'd and got a 2nd place. The first place dog was over 20 seconds faster than him though. Trek was slow. His weaves were very slow, and he didn't want to do down on the table. He was even slow going through a tunnel.

Novice Fast - I planned a simple path, not a lot of points. He didn't Q, because he did a 1 hit aframe in the send. He missed his weave entry & I did fix that.

Open JWW - His weaves were painfully slow. He went around a jump on a turn, and then just sort of wandered off and sniffed. I called him, and finally got him back to me. So, we missed around 1/3 of the obstacles on the course. I didn't fix anything - I just tried to continue to run the course & get him back to me. We did end the course together.

PCOTC trial

2010-05-15T16:04:00.000-04:00

Today we went to one of our 2 akc trials for the year. It hasn't started out well. The open JWW course was hard. I chose a bad handling strategy I think, or I executed it poorly. Trek crashed into a jump and took down a wing. He was okay. The rest of the run didn't go so well either.

So, last night I heard growling in the kitchen. I went to check it out. I found both dogs in the kitchen and the dog food bin open. I don't know if 1 or both dogs overate. Last night Moxie had diarrhea. Today, before his second run, Trek had diarrhea (3 times). Actually right before we went in the ring (the dog before). Poor guy. I ran him in Novice Fast. I did a very straightforward low point value course, but enough to qualify. He did fine - not super fast, but fine. I decided to leave after that and skip Open Standard. He's obviously not feeling good, so I thought it would be just better to go home.

Open Standard Practice

2010-05-13T21:42:00.000-04:00

Today we trained on an AKC open standard course for the second day. Glen didn't get home early enough from hiking to videotape us. I came home really late from work. Trek was soooo happy when I took him out to train. He was really fast and confident tonight. Working on courses for 2 days helps. He is just patterning, but if it helps his confidence, that seems like a really good training session.

He was a one hit wonder on the aframe over and over again. I couldn't find my box, so I just rested a pvc bar on a slat. That fixed the problem. I then alternated between having the bar there, and not having the bar there. He was doing 100% success rate that way. I guess he needs some reminders.

Trek Excellent Standard Practice

2010-05-12T08:03:00.000-04:00

This is a course I found from Carol Mount. It was a hard course for the level he's at. We worked on it for 2 days, and on day 2 we were successful. I really like his attitude & speed in this video.

Things we had problems with:

Push 2->3 is weak. We went back and reviewed.

How to handle the opening sequence. Getting him to take #4, and still get a front cross in, which I felt I needed.

1 hit aframes. He is taking the aframe with a lot of extension, and I'm running full ou to signal the tunnel after the aframe. This caused a lot of 1 hits.

Tunnel dogwalk discrimination. He always chooses the dogwalk in this type of discrimination by default. It's something we are working on. It is very hard to cue this with proper motion as I'm behind. So, I run as fast as I can, and rely on a verbal. Its just something we need to keep working on.

Not self releasing when doing a front cross after the teeter. Sometimes he did great, a couple of times he self released.

Lateral motion in the weaves. A couple of times he popped out too early. This is just something we have to maintain. He's actually very good at this.

Pinwheel to dogwalk tunnel discrimination. Okay, this time he wanted to take the tunnel...after all I wanted him to take it before, right?

Smooth approach to tunnel after dogwalk. Tried as a pull (hard to do, since if you pull too far, he thinks I want the chute), and as a front cross (safer but slower).

Trek Steeplechase Practice

2010-05-09T22:19:00.000-04:00

Yesterday & today we worked on a steeplechase course that Trek had previously qualified on. We had a lot more difficulty at home, than we did at the trial. The first problem we had was the lead out push from 2 to 3. Several times he cut behind me. We soooo have to go back and work on these. Pushes are a weak skill. I also had problems with him breaking the startline. This is the same thing I see at trials. Hmm...is he that stessed at home, or maybe I'm just misreading why he is doing this. He broke several times - usually he would trot around the first jump and head towards me. I took him back every time. The last thing was his aframe & the rear crosses after the aframe. We did get 1 hit aframes 50% of the time. Sometimes I would verbally mark and stop. Other times I would verbally mark and continue. I'm not sure if I should always be continuing or what. The jump after the aframe was slightly offset, so it sort of looks like I'm shaping a rear cross. I'm not sure if this is considered shaping, as I have to show motion towards the jump before doing the rear cross. I think I was turning my shoulders too early, and sometimes he pulled off the jump. I also had the other extreme, where he didn't know which way to turn after the jump. I found that I needed to stay farther away laterally from the aframe to start, and this really helped.

Ow....

2010-05-06T22:15:00.000-04:00

I tried spinning for the first time yesterday. Okay, so its not as fun as outdoor cycling, but it's more fun than elliptical. Did an hour long spinning class. This morning it was tiring just standing. My quads are like jello. The weird thing was that the class didn't really make me out of breath at all. It just taxed my quads. But, it feels like one good way to get in shape for hiking. So, next week I'll try to go to class twice. Today I only did upper body weights. No cardio. But, I did get home in time to do an hour hike with Glen and the dogs. For the first time I took both dogs and let them both off leash. Moxie wore a pack, and Trek was naked. This was much harder than hiking with only one dog. As I suspected, they wanted to race each other. At times I just had to call the dogs, they'd coming running back for a quick pet or treat, and then race off again. ACK. It was not relaxing. Next time, 1 dog.

This weekend we plan to do a 5 1/2 mile hike & a 4 mile hike. Have to build up gradually. I also want to take my bike out and go for a short ride once this weekend.

Day 2 of zigzag

2010-05-04T21:36:00.000-04:00

Same straight line of jumps today. 10 times, missed first jump once. That means he at least made 80% success rate, so its time to move on. Tomorrow if we train, I'll start spreading them. Hoping to hike tomorrow evening.

Got my new minivan today. For some reason even though they are both Siennas, this one feels bigger. Wondering about what do do with the floor. On my last one, I put a blanket in the back, and periodically wash it. I'm thinking maybe of getting cheap carpet from Home Depot and cutting it to size. It would give a better fit, but wouldn't be washable.

Zig Zag work

2010-05-03T20:37:00.000-04:00

Today I introduced Trek to the zigzag exercise of Linda's. A tunnel send and then run like crazy down a line of 5 straight jumps. And this was after I already went to the gym and did 50 minutes of cardio. We did 5 times each side. He missed the first jump a few times, so I had to make sure to look him in the eye through the stantions so that he saw it. I think I've asked Linda about this when I was doing it with Moxie, but I don't remember what she said. Anyways, Trek can beat me to the end even though I send him to the tunnel from 20' away. So he can be fast. I think this will be an excellent exercise for him for learning responsibility to take jobs. I'll do them in a straight line again tomorrow, as I want to be more confident on the convergence from the tunnel to the first jump.

Other than that, all we worked on was contact end positions.

I also trained Moxie on contacts tonight - just working on her not peeling. Moxie was so happy to work.

Ace Trial - Trek got a gamble

2010-05-02T16:43:00.000-04:00

This weekend we were at Ace. The weather was hot - between 85 and 90 degrees. Trek doesn't perform well in hot weather unfortunately. I noticed this last summer when training him. So, in none of our runs did the two of us stay connected for the whole run.

Saturday:

Masters Snooker - Q, ran out of time in the closing. 37 points

Advanced Pairs - Trek was clean, partner had an off course.

Masters Standard - Trek would not run. He took the first jump, didn't take the second jump. I continued on to the third obstacle, the tunnel, which he took. I could not get him to take any more obstacles. I had to excuse ourselves. The judge asked me afterwards what happened. I had to explain that sometimes he just shuts down.

Grand Prix - Broke the start line. He started wandering off. He wasn't breaking it to take the first jump. Anotherwards, its not a drive issue, its a stress issue. I knew if he started out this way, chances were I would have problems getting him to work, so I pulled him off.

Steeplechase - Got through it, but I think we missed around 5 obstacles. I just kept going, trying to get him back on course. Again, the missing obstacles was a stress thing, not a skill issue.

Sunday:

Advanced Gamblers - Q, new AAD title! I can't say the opening was pretty, but we got our points. He was trotting throught he dogwalk contact, whereas he is supposed to do a 2o2o, but that is pretty normal behavior at trials. This was a straightforward gamble, and it's one that he has missed before (same closing), so I'm glad he got it.

Masters Jumpers - Broke the start line and started wandering again, took him off course, because I figured he wasn't in working mode.

Masters Standard - Broke the start line to take the first jump, and I decided to let him run, because at least he was showing an interest in working. Missed a weave pole entry, and I think missed a dogwalk contact.

So, I'm trying to never correct him on course, except for missed weave entries & start lines. And we have a party after every run. I think I'll limit trialing to every other weekend now, maybe less. That will give me some more time to go hiking.

Now that I have an awesome movable dogwalk, Glen is complaining about our aframe. It is heavy and has no wheels. Maybe its time to order an aluminum aframe. The waiting list is over a year now, by which time the planks on my existing one will probably be ready to replace. Glen said he can't replace the planks again on my existing frame, because of the way it was constructed. He's fully replaced them once, and had to drill brand new holes in the frame to do it.

Houses

2010-04-29T20:39:00.000-04:00

This link makes me drool:

http://www.exclusivelyequineproperties.com/properties/index.htm

Unfortunately, I don't have a spare 1.5 million, and they are too far from work.

Weather was nice today, and got some training in. Nice to spend the evening with the dogs. We reworked the steeplechase course we did before, and worked on a part of a masters standard course. I also practiced one gamble, since that is obviously a skill he's weak at.

Mildred Pierce

2010-04-29T00:16:00.000-04:00

Glen's first day as an extra is tomorrow. He is so excited. He has to show up at 7:30 am. We drove by the set this evening. It was pretty cool. There are lots of old cars (1930's) parked around town. Many of them had drivers (extras I assume) hanging out inside the cars in costume. They transformed the facade of some of the local buildings. It looks like the filming is being done on a single block. There are several huge trucks parked in the area for wardrobe, etc. I'm hoping Glen gets to be in a scene with Kate Winslet, and that it is actually used in the final footage.

I bought a new Sienna tonight. Unfortunately it hasn't arrived yet. It has AWD which I'm excited about. I love my old 2001 Sienna, but it will be nice to get it replaced, as it is starting to feel very, very old.

Trek Steeplechase Practice

2010-04-27T22:17:00.000-04:00

I set up a course from last weekend's Steeplechase. At the trial, I remember two problems. Popping out of the weaves (I didn't fix this, because I knew he was already stressed), and something in the closing where he pulled off on a rear cross.

I set up the course at home, because I wanted to clean it up. We had more problems at home than at the trial. Other than a couple of loopy turns, and going into the wrong end of the tunnel a couple of times after doing it right several times, our biggest problem was the sequence from the tunnel to the aframe. The second jump after the tunnel was supposed to be a broad jump, but I just used a regular jump. I'm guessing this caused it to run much differently at home than at the trial. The broad jump would have created more extension, giving me more time. I think I did a lateral send over the broad jump. And it worked absolutely beautifully. A lot of people were afraid to do this, but it was just lovely and smooth. At home, what a mess! The jump before the aframe requires a super tight turn to get the aframe. He kept thinking I wanted the jump on the other side of the aframe. Then we went to the other extreme, by missing the jump before the aframe. Yuck. In the final clip I finally get it with an ugly front cross. He was not so happy because we kept failing, and started slowing down. I do have to try to reward just as much after those failures, because he is responding well to my motion.

Mildred Pierce

2010-04-26T22:31:00.000-04:00

Glen had his fitting today for Mildred Pierce. They found a suit for him to wear, which he said looked sharp. They also gave him a haircut (1930's style cut), which he doesn't like, because they shaved off his sideburns. But hair grows back soon enough. They were not filming today, because of the rain. He is not needed tomorrow either.

No training or hiking today because of the weather.

K9 Logix Trial

2010-04-25T18:44:00.000-04:00

This weekend we headed off to the K9Logix trial, with all my stuff piled into my Prius (which is definately not a dog show car).

Saturday:
Advanced Gamblers - no luck
Advanced Standard - Q, 2nd place, new Advanced Standard title
Grand Prix - broke his start line (distracted/stressed), pulled him off
Steeplechase - can't remember, but I think it was a 1 hit aframe
Advanced Pairs - distracted/stressed, couldn't get him to do the weaves.

Sunday:
Advanced Standard - Q, 1st place, bonus leg
Masters Snooker - OMG, I had such a bad plan, poor dog, he had no idea what I was doing, slowed way down, only got through 3 in the closing
Masters Jumpers - He went around 2 jumps. It was a lateral send with a parallel approach. He went past the jump and around the next one.

It was nice to be outdoors this weekend spending time with my dog. There were some competitors who I saw get upset with their dogs. One was so bad, that the judge E'd her. I just feel lucky to have a dog that is alive and healthy, that I have the opportunity to trial with. When I got Moxie, I had very high goals for her, and that didn't work out. Since I've gotten Trek, I haven't really had any big goals for him. Jenn asked me once what my goals were for him, and I didn't have an answer. Goals? What goals? Sure, I plan on getting an ADCH with him eventually, but I am not trying to put any pressure on him. I was very good this weekend about not correcting mistakes (except for weaves poles & pairs because I feel obligated for pairs).

New running total:
3 Advanced Jumpers
4 Advanced Standard
2 Masters Snooker
2 Advanced Pairs
0 Advanced Gamblers
1 Steeplechase
0 Grand Prix

Lots of News!

2010-04-21T20:47:00.000-04:00

Glen was chosen to be an extra in the Mildred Pierce HBO movie. He will be going for a fitting on Monday, and the remainder of the week he is supposed to show up for work. How exciting for him!

My new dogwalk from Atomic Agility arrived today, and yes, it is mammoth. Its been almost a year wait to get it. We spent the evening unpacking it and setting it up. I think I would still want 2 people to move it - moving one outdoors is a little bumpier than moving one indoors on matting. The dogwalk is awesome though. Very well made, and should last forever. Trek's dogwalks are sure to improve now.

We took my minivan to the shop & they did say the transmission is not good. Which unfortunately means that it is time to replace it :( It has 187k miles on it, so its had a good long life.

This year we had landscapers come to do a spring cleanup. Wow, was that worth it. It would have taken us forever what they got done in 1 day. I want to buy some flowering vines (maybe morning glories) to plant along my fence line. I did that last year, and it did help with privacy. Glen doesn't care what the neighbors think of our agility equipment in the front yard, but I do. We had the landscapers rip out some pachysandra (which was also protecting a healthy patch of poison ivy), and replace it with grass. This will give me a few extra feet of dog training space. I have a full course set up in my yard right now! We partially fenced off the grass seed areas so that the dogs won't race through them.

I didn't get much training in today - to busy with car and dogwalk stuff.

Trek Training and Vacation

2010-04-20T22:59:00.000-04:00

So, I was thinking about a vacation next year to Morocco. Then I read the U.S. government's safety information about Morocco, and knew that Glen would never agree to go. It just seems like a really interesting place to visit. So, I'm still looking into ideas for 2011's vacation. I was also thinking of the Torres del Paine circuit in Chile, but Glen thinks it might be too strenuous.

This week we are getting lots of car repairs done. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my minivan doesn't need a new transmission, because I'm hoping it will last another year. It has 187k miles. I've had a couple of very scarey nights due to not being able to see well when driving it. The plastic on the headlights looks yellowed and scratched up. This is really affecting night vision. So, those are getting replaced. I can't wait.

My new dogwalk is arriving tomorrow!!! I told Glen where to set it up.

Today we practiced a Masters Standard course from the BARK trial. We didn't run the course, since we're in Advanced Standard, but I figured it would be good to start training Masters level standard courses.

I have to really watch Trek and count his hits. Maybe I should start doing it aloud. It is very challenging for me. I'm pretty good at recognizing a clear 1 hit, but some of his 2 hits are a little tricky for me to see, as they aren't clear pounces. I believe Linda prefers striding to pounces, but I'm not sure why. I can see his hits clearly with a box, but without the box, I'm pretty bad. My aframe is painted a single color, which Jenn thinks is good. I'm thinking 2 colors would help me count hits better.

We ran obstacles 1-6, then stopped because of the missing dogwalk. I found that I was late in my lateral motion for 4, and had to concentrate on starting it earlier.

8-10 is the chute to a table. I have to replace my chute fabric (I actually bought a replacement last fall, jst have to find it). So, I just set up the barrel. The rear cross to the table was very awkward. I'm thinking if I had the obstacles preceding it, it might have been smoother.

I spent some time shaping automatic downs on the table again today. They are still slow, but I got a higher down percentage today. When running the course, he was not wanting to down. This has not been a problem at trials luckily.

From the table we have an awkward angle over a jump to the teeter. He knocked the bar the first time. I don't mark knocked bars at this point. He missed his weave entry his first try (just blew past them, didn't attempt them). After that all his entries were good. I used a lot of lateral motion in the weaves to get ahead. We did it 5 or so times. The video shows the one time he popped out too early. He knocked the jump after the weaves once. I was rotating on the landing side and he has to collect. The main time I see him knock bars is on a turn. He sometimes does tight turns in extension somehow, and the bar comes down. Sometimes he might be hitting the upright. He reads the turns well (lateral send), but and can get a very tight turn, but not use relative collection.

Trek Practice

2010-04-19T20:14:00.000-04:00

My new dogwalk didn't arrive today. Very disappointed - I was so excited to try it out. Nervous about setting the mammoth in my front yard for all the neighbors to see.

We practiced a Masters Standard course today (sans dogwalk). A small part of it (right after the missing dogwalk), I couldn't figure out how to handle. Bummer. I don't want to post a question on Linda's forum yet, until I try it with the dogwalk.

Besides that, we focused on aframe, teeter, and table training today.

1. From a table, be able to do an aframe / tunnel discrimination. He did much better at this today. Only the first time was he unconfident. After that, his confidence increased and he was consistantly correct. I didn't show a lot of motion, so this is only 1 variation of doing this discrimination.

2. Shaping an automatic down on the table. His automatic down is not as strong as Moxie's. So I just worked on getting him to offer jumping up onto the table and going into a down. He was good about offering jumping onto the table. He downed around 50% of the time, and stood the other 50%. I let him get away with standing on the table a lot over the winter, because it was snowy. Now I'm paying the price.

3. Worked on a 2o2o teeter. I've decided this will be his criteria. We worked on jumping into position from the side. And then I worked on walking into pulls/pushes at the end.

4. WOrked on me being running ahead of him while he's on the aframe. He has to do 2 hits. I did't count his success rate, but at least he got it some of the time. I always had him do 1 obstacle after the aframe before rewarding. If he didn't get it, I said oops, and immediately aborted.

I tried jumping Moxie a little yesterday. That was a disaster. 3 jumps to an aframe. She consistantly knocked 1-2 of the 3 jumps every time. She broke a jump cup. I was sad. I want to spend some time doing stuff with her, and we can't just practice weaves for 1/2 hour. So today, I let her do part of Trek's course. I dropped the bars to 16". She did really good actually. Only 1 bar came down. I mean, she was jumping with lots of extension, there was not an ounce of collection in her running, but at least she was not hurting herself. So, maybe I'll continue to do a little of this every night. If she continues to be okay, I'd consider entering her in performance in the fall for an occasional class. I'd have to see if her jumping at 16" improves or gets worse with practice. Her jumping at 22" is getting worse and worse. It is really sad to see her jump now, as she never used to jump like this. It seems like every few months there is a noticeable disintegration in her jumping. Last fall she competed a little. Now, I wouldn't consider entering her in a trial at 22" because of how bad it is.

BARK trial

2010-04-18T18:16:00.000-04:00

This weekend we went to the Bark trial. Its at a new site. I thought the site was pretty nice, even though it was indoors. It was on astroturf. Both dogs and humans ran well on it. The inside was tight, but not too bad. Parking was good. I stayed at a LaQuinta 30 minutes away. The hotel had a Dunkin Donuts a mile away, and a Whole Foods 3 miles away. That works great for me. I will definately go back to this trial/hotel again.

Progress made this weekend:
Trek didn't shut down
Trek's weaves were awesome

Things to work on:
Contacts!

I decided as I mentioned, not to baby his weaves. His weaves were awesome. I used a lot of lateral motion and he stayed in. He made every weave entry this weekend. I believe that has to do with him staying more connected with me in general this weekend. Less stressed.

Saturday:

Steeplechase - he had a beautiful run, with nice weave entries, and stayed in the poles while I moved downstream. Unfortunately, I got a 1 hit aframe.

Master Snooker - well, I got a 1 and a 7. Oops.

Advanced Jumpers - Q, finished his Advanced Jumpers title. Nice run.

Advanced Gamblers - jump dogwalk jump. Thought he'd be able to get it, but he came in rather than take the last jump. I messed up my timing too. I finished my opening 1-2 seconds early and lost his momentum. He also visited the judge before we started the gamble.

Advanced Standard - this was his worst run of the weekend. We think there may have been a dog in heat in the ring. 2 dogs before us, another dog lost its brain and started teeth chattering. Trek, before we went in the ring, started shaking like crazy, and looked very aroused, like he wanted to chase a dog. I had no dog. So, the run didn't go well, and I aborted it early. Can I send Trek to the vet to be re-neutered?

Sunday

Advanced Gamblers - jump tunnel jump. Had to layer - a teeter was parallel to the tunnel. I thought I set him up okay, but again we lost momentum.

Advanced Standard - flyoff on the teeter (me doing a push off the end). I moved strongly lateraly while he was on the dogwalk, and he jumped off the side. And he might have had a 1 hit aframe. Other than that, the run was beautiful. So obviously, we have some contact training to do.

Masters Snooker - this was a hard course. Both the opening and the closing. I'm very proud of Trekker. We chose a conservative course - two 5's and one 6. But we got through the whole course including the 7 in the closing. Lots of people were getting whistled off. Unfortunately, he had a 1 hit aframe in the opening, so we lost out on those 5 points. So we Q'd, but I doubt we got a super Q, even though most teams were not doing well.

Weave Proofing and Masters Standard Practice

2010-04-15T22:57:00.000-04:00

At our seminar with Jenn, she talked a little bit about proofing. There were some people at the seminar who said their dogs were consistant in certain skills in training, but not at trials. She asked them what kind of proofing they did, and most had not done much.

I decided to do some proofing of Trek in the weaves today. Here is one of the tougher proofs we did. He did awesome. Moxie is a huge distraction for him. I always had him run before Moxie. Next time I'll have him weave behind her, but I don't know if he could handle that. Moxie is pretty bomb-proof in the weaves once she gets in.

We also practiced a Masters Standard course. I skipped the dogwalk in the middle of the course. My new dogwalk is being shipped tomorrow.

Trialing

2010-04-14T22:57:00.002-04:00

So, Trek stresses out about the weaves at trials. He blows by them a lot, and when he's in them he slows down to a crawl. I handle them very conservatively at trials, to help him be successful. But, at home, I handle them very differently. I do not run next to him in the weaves at home. I'm either moving laterally, or racing to get ahead of him. So I was thinking...I wonder if my handling them conservatively is stressing him out. I know he slows down because he is afraid of making a mistake. Maybe he sees my handling him so conservatively, and thinks that I'm worried about him making a mistake, so he has to be extra careful. Just a thought. Maybe at this weekend's trial, I'll experiment in one run and handle them like I trust him, and see if that improves his speed.

I felt exhausted tonight (the downside of going to the gym right before coming home), so did very little with Trek. We practiced a Masters Standard course (minus the dogwalk). He ran fast! I like speed, so its nice when I get that out of him. His speed is different than Moxie's speed though. Moxie was always frenetic. Trek's speed is very smooth. I think all of his aframes were 2 hits today too. He did blow by the weave entry the first time, but after that, hit it every time. This weekend's trial is still indoors. Maybe the following week we move outside.

Here is a video of some table practice with Moxie from before. She does an automatic down on the table. Jenn was talking to the pre-novice group at her seminar about automatic downs on the table, and practicing sends, recalls, and runby's with your dog. This is all stuff I started teaching my dogs when working with Diane, so Moxie has this down pat.

Grand Prix practice

2010-04-13T21:14:00.000-04:00

I set up the Grand Prix course from the last trial. My dogwalk is dead, so I skipped the first 6 obstacles of the course. I'm getting a really nice dogwalk this month!!!! I am super excited.

So, I didn't handle this course well at the trial. I slid and fell before the dogwalk, and it just went downhill from there. I'm wondering if bad handling decisions cause him to shut down more. At the trial, I decided to do a front cross before the aframe. It was awkward. At home I did a pull, and it was so much smoother. I then had a really wide turn on the jump after the aframe at home as a result. I worked on it so that I got it tighter (he might just be patterning though, so I'm not sure if my handling actually improved). At the trial I babysat the weaves, because he has been stressed about the weaves in a trial situation. That put me behind later. At home, I used lateral motion while he was in the weaves, so I could get ahead. At the trial I tried to front cross between the 2 jumps after the tunnel (it was a chute at the trial). Oh my...that was ugly. Even though he wasn't fast at the trial, I just wasn't far enough ahead to do that smoothly. No wonder he was stressed. So at home, I tried it as a rear cross. Its a slice of a rear cross, and its a skill I haven't worked on with him (though we did try one at my last lesson with Jenn). Well, in practice, it worked great, every single time. He never pulled off of the jump, and he turned beautifully after the rear.

If I'm going to change courses in the yard, I do it after I'm done training, which is usually when it starts to get dark. I think I need a flashlight. I set up tomorrow's course - Masters Standard from the same trial - which we didn't run, because he's in Advanced Standard.

Y Agility Trial

2010-04-11T15:35:00.000-04:00

Today, someone told me Trek looks tired. He is really just stressed. I played ball with him after one of his runs, and he was perky.

So, it turns out we did get 2 Q's yesterday. We got an Advanced Pairs Q, even though my friend's dog knocked 2 bars. And we got a Steeplechase Q.

Today, he got a Masters Snooker Q (ran out of time while doing the 7 in the closing), and an Advanced Jumpers Q.

So, now he has:
2 advanced standard
2 advanced pairs
2 advanced jumpers
0 advanced gamblers
1 masters snooker
1 steeplechase
0 grand prix

I spent some time today at the trial, shaping tricks for really good meat. I tried to keep a loose leash on him when he was around other dogs. He growled at one male dog that I let him meet - it was an in your face border collie, and he didn't feel comfortable. Otherwise he was fine with all of the dogs he met.

One really positive thing about the weekend - I didn't watch his aframes (any of them), but he never got called on a single one, so I assume all of his aframes were 2 hits.

Y Agility Trial

2010-04-10T18:13:00.001-04:00

I got 5 minutes of training in with Trekker yesterday. Goal was to keep him happy, which I did.

Today we went to Y Agility.

Steeplechase - he did pretty well, got a refusal for a jump on a forward send, and I fixed it

Grand Prix - not so good. Popped out of weaves, fly off on teeter, walked through dogwalk contact, etc.

Advanced Gamblers - I was happy with my opening plan, and we ended right where I wanted. But the gamble required layering and was too tough for him.

Advanced Standard - Was clean until the last jump. He went around it. I brought him around to retake it. Not a good idea. I had problems backing him up enough to give him enough room. He ended up jumping between the bars on the last jump. People thought it was funny, but to me I just saw it as Trek shutting down. When he shuts down he goes underneath the bar. His weaves were super slow too. He wanted to be right, so he slowed way down in the weaves. I supported them the whole way, but he was still stressed.

Advanced Pairs - Slow but clean. Our partner was not clean

Goal for tomorrow - no fixing mistakes.

Off to go hiking...

Hiking

2010-04-08T21:18:00.000-04:00

So, we have a summer trip to Switzerland, and I've been working on getting in shape. I'm working out at the gym 4 days a week. Each week I up my cardio by 5 minutes a day. So, I'm up to 40 minutes of cardio a day. Then I do weights with whatever time I have left. The plan is to work up to 60 minutes of cardio. Any more than that is too boring. At least if its done inside.

But, the cardio is helping with hiking. We've started trying to go for an hour hike a couple of evenings a week. I've noticed that each time, I'm less out of breath climbing the tough hills. I've decided to take some weekends off from trialing in May and June so that we can get some longer hikes in before our trip.

Moxie has to get in shape too! With her lack of training over the winter, she has gotten plump. Not fat, but not the fit thing she used to be when I trained her all the time. I think Trek might actually have faster ground speed than Moxie, because I have been training him over the winter. So, I've been taking Moxie on our hikes, and I have her wear a pack. I put bottled water (small) in the pack, so that she carries her own water, and hopefully burns a few more calories.

I am doing some training of Moxie in the yard. Mostly non-jump stuff. I still don't think I'll be competing with her again, but she loves to work, and its fun to work a fast dog. I almost want to have a third dog - something that is between Moxie & Trek. Moxie's speed & Trek's good jumping skills.

So, Trek is continuing to shut down in training. Ack. So, I need to work on his weaves, because he is having problems making entries at speed. He will just blow past them, rather than rock back onto his rear to make the entry. Sometimes he was making the weave entry, but lieing down in the middle of the poles. I tried to make it easier for him, by just setting him up at the jump before the weaves, so he has less speed. Then major party when he gets it. I just have to keep him happy. His speed was actually okay the past couple of days in the yard - but the stress thing was still there. He was even stressing when I left him at the start line. His ears went flat against his head, and he broke his start line several times, just to get up and come to me (not taking any obstacles).

Out of the Barn

2010-04-06T22:13:00.000-04:00

So, we've finished training at the barn for the year, and we just finished with 4 days with Jenn at Skyline. Today we started training in the yard. I set up a course late last night so it would be ready for me when I got home from work today.

It was a warm day, though 66 degrees by the time we trained. I forgot that Trek doesn't like warm weather, and 66 is warm for him. Argh. He stresses at indoor trials because of dogs being so close I assume, and he is poopy when he's outdoors and its warm. I ran him around 7 times on 1/2 a course. We are finally practicing standard courses. Well, he started just lieing down. He went around the teeter multiple times, went around the weaves multiple times, lay down in the middle of the weaves. I gave him a break, wored Moxie and then brought him out to work on his dogwalk. He kept trotting over the end...no brain.

I was also thinking he only stressed around other dogs. But, we had a couple hours of private lessons yesterday (spread apart), and he stressed then too. Out of those 2 hours, I probably only worked him for an hour, as I spent the other hour just talking. He stressed at the lesson too. He was running slowly, and at a certain point was going under jumps rather than taking them. So, I need to work on his motivation. I'm thinking Trek should go back to working for all his food.

So, one thing Jenn was advocating - teach a trick a week until your dog is around 1 year old. So, your dog should accumulate 50 or so tricks. I worked on shaping Trek to do a "back" tonight. So...tricks #1-2.

Both dogs know:
1. Shake (on verbal)
2. Nose touch to hand (on hand signal)

Moxie knows:
3. Weave between legs (going forward)
4. Down with head on floor (on verbal)
5. Beg (sit on haunches)
6. Dance (stand and spin)
7. Handstand
8. Rollover
9. Eyes (put foot over eye) - tends to be spazztic)
10. Learning to walk on my feet (going forward)

Trek knows:
3. Nose touch to toy (rubber udder toy)
4. Stick legs up in the air (no cue)
5. Shake head (no cue)

Casting Call

2010-03-28T14:22:00.000-04:00

Glen said most people showed up to the casting call in jeans. He said only a handful of people wore suits and fedoras. He did say hundreds of people showed up. Bummer. They need 150 extras. I'm hoping he gets a spot. He is growing his beard back for now. He won't find out for 3 weeks I think. They took people in groups and photographed faces only. He got 2 photos, 1 with the hat and 1 without.

Not hiking this weekend. Its kind of cold and dreary today. Plus I have a lot to do. Our yard needs some spring clean up - get it ready for agility training. Tomorrow is my last rental of the barn for the winter. After that I'm back to training in the yard. I sent an email today to check on when my new dogwalk will be ready. I ordered a full size one, but there is a long waiting list.

AKC nationals today. I'm not watching...just too much to do. I looked at some of the courses though.

I am starting up contact practicing again. I think they will improve a lot now that we are going to train them regularly. I'm going to start setting up standard courses in the yard too soon.

Mildred Pierce

2010-03-27T10:33:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I heard about a movie being filmed locally that needed 150 extras. I told Glen about it, because Glen is a movie fanatic, and has secret fantasies of being in a movie. I told Glen, and he decided to try.

Today is the day you show up to see if they can use you. Men are supposed to have a 1920's look. Glen has no idea how people dress when they go for a casting call. He shaved off his beard/moustache a couple of days ago. He did this before once - and I was so disturbed, because he looked like a different person. That was back when he was interviewing for jobs, and felt that for some companies (e.g. IBM), facial hair wasn't conservative enough. It was a little easier for me this time. Unfortunately, his face was quite red and blotchy from shaving irritation. I put moisturizer and makeup on him this morning (hey, turns out his skin tone matches mine - what luck!) in order to try to hide the redness. He was looking pretty awful before it. Hopefully it hides his skin irritation enough. No blush or eye shadow ;) He decided to dress in a suit, and bought a fedora. I hope after all this effort, he actually gets to be an extra. If he doesn't, the moustache & beard are being grown right back. Yeah! The filming is being done in April. I tried to psyche him up for it by saying they probably need some men his age - and that most people his age wouldn't be available, because they have real jobs.

Trek must be really unhappy about the whole Glen thing. I'm not sure which part. But, this morning he was sitting on Glen's chair, shaking for half an hour. Glen has left now, and Trek is feeling better.

Awesomepaws Seminars

2010-03-25T08:04:00.000-04:00

Linda Mecklenburg's seminars are open for sign up. I've decided to splurge and go out for 4 days in June. The first 2 days will be easy, but hopefully will be low stress for Dude, and will help ease him into days 3 and 4.

I was thinking I should only trial him 3 out of 4 weekends a month. That way we can do something else like hiking on the other weekend. Glen and I have talked about driving up to New Hampshire to hike in the White Mountains.

I felt frustrated in a recent training session with him, and I know its a carryover from our recent trial. Getting frustrated with him is counter-productive, so at that point, I should just stop. His training has been going so well. At the training session he was having problems with a front cross at the end of the weaves (a skill we've practiced). I had him repeat it multiple times, letting him fail every time. Soooooo not a good idea. We are training tonight, so my goal for this evening is to keep him successful and happy and unstressed!

Paws In Motion Trial

2010-03-21T21:09:00.000-04:00

This weekend I took Trek to the Paws in Motion trial. I was excited because he has been doing so well in her training. Well it didn't go as well as I was hoping.

I don't like driving to NJ. Traffic sucked. I hate driving over the GW bridge - its just a stressful way to start the weekend. The site was okay, but the dirt flooring was hard. And the area was tight.

I entered him on 5 runs on Saturday and 6 on Sunday. Trek stressed every run of the weekend. It was sad. On Sunday, in masters snooker, we ran out of time while we were still in the opening. He missed many, many weave entries, even though in training his weaves have been really good. I made him redo them every time he missed. During one run, a dog running in the ring next to us was screaming (normal behavior for the dog), and Trek lost his brain. I actually lost MY brain once in one of our snooker runs. So, all in all, he was running slowly, missing weave entries, running by multiple obstacles in a row, etc. Major bummer. W did get 1 Q in the weekend, which was Advanced Pairs. He was slow, but we had a fast partner.

I ended up leaving early on Sunday and skipped 2 runs. I decided I needed a break. I got home just in time to get a hike in before sunset. Glen and I took Moxie hiking on Turkey Mountain. Hiking was great. Moxie was so happy. So was I. I think she's out of shape though. She only was off leash a little, since there were a bunch of cars in the parking lot. I did fall twice while hiking. Ack. I'm icing my knee now.

So Trek needs 1 advanced standard leg, and 1 advanced gamblers leg to earn his AAD.

Glen said that on Saturday night, Moxie lay down staring at our kitchen door waiting for me to come home. How sad.

I love this weather

2010-03-18T21:21:00.000-04:00

I think it his 70 degrees today. I spent some time cleaning up dog poop in the yard yesterday. After all the snow melts, there tends to be a lot. Yeah, I know its gross. But it was so nice just to spend time outdoors with the dogs. I finally got to get some aframe practice in. Its been weeks I think.

Tonight I didn't have any courses printed out (so busy), so I worked on some exercises from seminars with Jenn. I think they were exercises from the excellent group. He made some mistakes on the first try of some, but after that he was perfect. They are exercises where he has to read your motion to see which of 3 obstacles is next. And I kept varying my motion, and he kept following it. So, he is doing really good about trying something different if he makes a mistake, and not just trying the wrong thing over and over. Yahoo!

We also worked on tunnel->weaves. He made mistakes here too when I made the angles harder, but we worked through it each time, and then he would get it.

I am so pleased with his jumpers skills. We just need to get those contact skills better. We are off to a trial this weekend. 11 runs for the weekend. Hopefully he gets some advanced legs, and is able to move up.

Glen has been hiking every day. Lucky Glen.

Trick are for kids

2010-03-16T21:59:00.000-04:00

Tonight we did more trick training. Moxie loves doing tricks. She's so frickin' smart, and so food motivated nowadays. So, Moxie's weaving between my legs is easy. Her plotz (head on floor in a down) - still needs work with the cue. Today she was offering a rollover into a down with her head on the floor. She's an over-achiever. Her backwards circles are coming along slowly. She can do a half circle in a corner now. I added a new trick to work on. Standing between my legs with her feet on my feet, while I walk forwards. Right now I'm working on her offering putting both of her feet on my feet. She did fabulously for her first session. I think trick training is going to be Moxie's new sport. Its creative enough for me.

Trek worked on his backwards circles (he can do 2/3 of a circle). And we are working on targeting the udder toy in a gradually lowered position (10 clicks within 40 seconds). We are 6" above the ground, and he is doing great.

Glen went hiking this afternoon. Lucky guy. First hike of the season. He said the trail wasn't too muddy, but there were a bunch of trees down from the storms we've had.

More Training

2010-03-15T22:49:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I noticed Trek was having a problem getting his weave entries in a course seqeunce. The sequence had a lot of extension going into the weaves and a moderately hard entry, and he blew by the entry. I backchained, and by the end of the training session he was consistantly rocking back to collect himself to make the entry. This thrilled me! Jenn has noticed that Trek will repeat the same mistakes over and over again (no reward), and will not try something different to see if it earns him a reward. So, this time he worked through it, figured it out himself, and we had a party. Well, several parties. Yeah! When he fails, I still tell him he is good, because I have to keep his motivation up to keep trying. I was just so excited that he figured it out himself. And then consistantly got it right. What an awesome dog. He is progressing really nicely.

At the end of the session we worked on jump jump weaves at various angles (still have to work on posting the video). He did fine with it as an exercise, but I think doing it in a course is harder. The other day we did tunnel weaves as an exercise, and he majorly sucked at this. He again didn't attempt the entry, just blew by the poles. So, next step is to work on tunnel weaves, in order to work on that rocking back to get his entries.

I think I'm going to get an ankle brace before this weekend's trial. I can run, but I get twinges of pain if I twist while running.

Tonight we worked on 4 course sequences, no exercises. He has been really successful on his course sequences recently, but today we had one which just felt too hard for our level:
Chris Vaught course
I set up obstacles 1-9. What I wanted to do was a front cross between 5 and 6, a 270 recall to heel 7-8, so he would be on my left for 9. ACK. I found for some reason I had to support 4 more than I expected or he pulled off and he didn't take it. This made it harder to get that first front cross in. I tried rear crossing behind 6 - this worked the first time, but after that he went 5 to the offcourse tunnel. The good news is that he did surprisingly well for the 270 recall to heel. So, we did this sequence once or twice clean, but in general, it just felt too hard for us. I will set it aside to retry it in a month or two to see if its easier then. It felt the root of the problem was 3 to 4. It just didn't feel smooth. Sometimes he flew over 3 with tons of extension (this made the front cross easier because he was wide), and sometimes he took it with a lot of collection. I tried lots of ways to handle it, and he read them all - i.e. he didn't just pattern.

Have been going to the gym. It feels really good to get in shape again. I like working out, but for me its always a question of prioritizing my time.
Still coughing...damn cold. Glen was just reading that a B12 deficiency can cause a persistant cough after a cold. I'm already taking mega doses of B12, and no longer have a deficiency. I figure its barn dirt clogging my lungs :)

Trek Serpentine Recall to Heels

2010-03-14T22:18:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we reviewed serpentine recalls to heel. Included moving ones.

Linda has announced her summer seminars. I'm not sure if I'll do 2 or 4 days. 2 days sound safer in case Trek stresses, but 4 days would be more interesting.

I twisted my ankle last week at the barn. There was a pebble that rolled under my foot while running. Ack. My ankle is all swollen up, but I can still train. I'm just icing it at night. Since then I have been picking up any small rocks I find in the arena and throwing them in a pile.

Woohoo! Its dark until 7pm now. We didn't get much rain today, but I didn't bother venturing into our yard. I'm hoping to pursuade Glen to go on our first hike of the year this week after work. Last night we tried a relatively new Indian restaurant called Ruchi in the Peekskill/Cortlandt area. We had never been there before. It was actually pretty good. We go to Jaipore a lot, and haven't found many places that we like as much. Ruchi was nice though - the atmosphere wasn't Jaipore, but the food was good. Not too greasy, like you sometimes get at Indian restaurants. Glen likes Jaipore's aloo ghobi better, but everything else was quite good.

Trek Straight Tunnel Turns

2010-03-13T16:01:00.000-05:00

I set up a straight tunnel and we worked on my motion before the tunnel directing his path on exiting the tunnel. I set the video camera up so that you can see his head coming out of the tunnel. Ideally his head should immediately be looking in the direction I cued before he entered the tunnel. He did great.

Our yard is flooded & gross right now....its just a swamp, and the rain keeps coming. We have large puddles where the water is higher than the top of our grass. However, tonight there is a reason to celebrate, because starting tomorrow we will get an extra hour of daylight in the evening. We are going out for Indian food to celebrate spring.

The dogs are super, super bored. I feel bad for them. Last night we worked on tricks some more. Moxie is doing well at her "plotz" and weaving between my legs. So, I was reading an article in Clean Run by Sassie Joiris about having your dog balance on top of a box/container. So, I set up a milk crate and worked on that with Moxie. It took her around 2 seconds to figure that one out. Now I need a smaller container. I did the same thing with Trek. He will put his front feet on and paw at it, but hasn't figured out that I would like 4 feet on yet. I also started introducing backwards circles to both dogs. Trek actually did a little better than Moxie. When Moxie backs up into something, she assumes she is supposed to do a handstand, so she's confused. Trek started to figure out that I wanted him to back up and turn when he hits a corner.

I'm continuing to work on the "Let's Play!" article from Clean Run with Trek and the udder tug. We have finished step 4- Mix it Up. Now we are onto step 5, where we gradually lower the toy to the ground. He's offering the touch behavior very quickly unless I drop a treat on the ground - then he starts sniffing the ground. The one thing I have to look out for is him touching the hand holding the toy, rather than the toy itself. I'm trying to not reward when he touches my hand.

Almost all of our snow has melted from our last snow storm. We had a bunch of tree damage from that storm. As a result, we are having 2 trees cut down next week. One of them is a crabapple tree, which is kind of sad, because its really pretty in the spring. But, on the other hand, its in our agility training area, and its removal will mean even more space in my yard to train!!!!

Trek Recall to Heel

2010-03-13T11:29:00.000-05:00

This is a video from last week - more recall to heel practice. We are continuing to review this, and include moving ones. The ones where I move into them and move out of them I think are really helping with the problems I've had with his pushes. A couple days ago, I took out a couple of courses sequences that he had problems with a couple of months before. They were scenarios where he would go behind me on a front cross and miss the next jump. He was a lot better on these. Still could use a little more work, but much, much better. He has gotten so much more excited about training recently. He is also getting better in training about not shutting down if he makes a mistake. I have been verbally praising him when he makes a mistake, and just usually don't give him a toy as a reward.

Trek Weaves

2010-03-09T22:09:00.000-05:00

I decided a little while ago that Trek's weave entries needed maintenance. So, I pulled out Mary Ellen Barry's 2x2 article, and just started working on all of the exercises with a set of 6 poles. In the beginning progress was slow. I didn't move onto the next set of angles until he was confident on the previous set. His progress picked up considerably, and last week we flew through the last group of exercises with 100% success first time. You could just see everything click in his brain.

I decided to challenge him by doing 2 jumps in a line to a perpendicular weave entry. It took a few tries for him to get it (I broke it down to make it easier for him), but once he got it, he got it. His confidence in the weaves in training is really nice. I also feel like he has strong enough weave skills to do weave gambles. I feel like I've done a really nice job with presenting him all sorts of weave challenges. At trials, I am still supporting/managing the weaves tons, in order to help him, as he can stress/lose focus.

His jumpers work is coming along beautifully too. I have to say, running jumpers with him is so easy. Not that we never mess up, but when I compare it to running jumpers with Moxie - wow - what a difference.

Trick Training

2010-03-09T21:55:00.000-05:00

Moxie is working on 2 tricks. I'm continuing to work on her doing a down with her chin on the ground. She does it best on a mat. Actually she sees the mat as a cue to do the trick. I've started naming it - "plotz". I tend to teach tricks and not name them, which makes Moxie offer a million behaviors. So, this time I'm trying to put it on a proper cue. And not reward unless its cued (that step will come later). The other trick I'm working on is weaving between my legs. This one is pretty easy, but I'm just trying to make it smoother. It doesn't have a verbal cue yet.

Trek has his rolling on his back trick, which I'm naming "belly rub." So, now its just a question of him learning that the cue means I want the behavior. Right now taking out the clicker and having my hands at my side is the cue he is reading.

I'm continuing with Clean Run's March 2010 article "Let's Play." We completed Step 2 - Change the Position. For the past few days we've been working on Step 3 - Keep Changing the Picture. Basically we do 10 reps in one position in under 40 seconds. Then choose a different position and repeat. So we did that for the 200 or so c/ts for touching the udder toy. Today we did Step 4 - Mix it Up. This time we mix up the position for each of the 10 reps. He did it fine the first time under 40 seconds. We'll probably spend a few more sessions at this before continuing on. His confidence and focus were good. I'm doing all of this is in a single location. I'm thinking changing locations would be important too, since location can be a problem for him.

Other stuff...

2010-03-06T23:37:00.000-05:00

We had beautiful weather today. In the 50's, sunny with clear skies. It makes me feel like spring is coming soon. I could almost taste it. A little bit of our yard is now clear of snow, and I think if I move my aframe, we can finally get some aframe practice done tomorrow. Our yard is muddy. Its time to stock up on peat moss.

My company just moved, and now has its own private gym. I haven't been to a gym in 2 years or so. Last year I exercised by walking 4 miles/day, but stopped in November when it got cold out. I decided to join the gym again. I think I have bronchitis (had a cold, now just have chest congestion, and a cough I can't get rid of). Felt bad about joining, and then not showing up to the gym for 4 days already! So, on Friday I went, despite my cough. I managed to do 15 minutes of cardio without passing out. I also did weights, which felt great. Somehow I have to balance gym time and dog training time. I will be competing more this spring than last spring, so I won't have as many weekends free to go hiking this year. We do have a small mountain near our house though, so as it gets lighter and warmer, I do want to go hiking on it on weekday evenings. I want to be fit enough to go bounding up those Swiss alps!!

Trek Recall to Heel

2010-03-06T23:12:00.000-05:00

Trek still needs a lot of recall to heel work. I've noticed that sometimes he'll go behind me on a push. Here is a Carol Mount Course we worked on tonight. I did a lead out push, standing behind or slightly to the side of 2. Trek passed the plane of my body, and I felt like I had to wait a bit for him to make sure he didn't cut behind me. He never did actually switch sides behind me, but this does show a weakness in our training.

Jenn says I do reward too many poor recall to heels. I've been doing a lot of lining him up with the stantion to prevent him from cutting in front of my leg, but when I line him up in the center again, the problem occurs again. So, now I'm working on leaning over the jump to feed him before he jumps. Ideally I can make a decision as he approaches as to whether or not I want to lean in or not. In this training session (a couple days ago) I made the decision ahead of time. We worked on it again tonight, and even though it wasn't always perfect, I could tell when he added the extra stride, which is what I really want.

Trek Forward Motion Front Cross

2010-03-06T22:54:00.000-05:00

After Trek had so hard a time doing the forward motion front cross in one direction only, the next training session, I spread the jumps laterally further away from each other. I started out with an extension recall to heel. Then worked my way to the forward motion front cross. After he was successful, I would move the jumps 1' closer, and repeat. This cleared up the confusion for him.

We practiced it again for one more session, and he did well here too.

Trek - Snooker Practice

2010-03-04T07:54:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about how to come up with good snooker opening strategies. I always feel at a loss when I look at a snooker map. So, I've been pondering, but I haven't come up with a method of making up a good course. Glen thinks it is something that could be programmed, but I don't.

I decided to set up a snooker course last night to practice with Trek. This is the course I set up, minus obstacles 4,5,6.

Snooker course

This is a great course for working on confidence in the weaves. I did all sorts of weave entries. Front crossing into them, rear cross on the flat after them, hanging back while in them, hard rear cross behind the entry, etc.

Since I didn't plan an opening sequence ahead of time, I decided the best thing to practice would be 7's of course. I put Trek at the startline, and just did 1-7. Each time I started with a different 1. I could not get him to do the 1 in the middle of the course without taking a jump on the way, but I agree with Trek on that one. The other three 1's I could do okay to a 7. Then I started working on doing 1-7-1-7. Eventually I worked my way up to doing 1-7-1-7-1-7-1-7. I almost got a reasonable course. But one of the angles I sent him over a jump made him consistantly knock it. He actually worked really hard to not knock bars when I gave him late information. His sends were good too, though the more we practiced, the less confident he became on them. Hmmm.

I didn't practice the closing, that'll have to be another day. Snooker closings feel different than regular courses, so the would be good to practice as well.

There are starting to be little green patches at the edge of my yard. Melt snow, melt.

Clean Run - Let's Play - Step 1

2010-03-02T22:12:00.000-05:00

Got my latest issue yesterday. They have an article - A Fail-safe Plan to Teach Your Dog to Love Toys, Part 1. So, Trek has gotten better about toys, but he doesn't like all toys, nor will he play in all environments.

Trek doesn't like Udder tugs. Both Moxie and my previous aussie loved them. So, let me try this article to see what I can shape with Trek and the udder toy. They are convenient toys - washable.

Step 1: Get the Behavior. Goal - your dog touches the target as soon as you put it in front of him. Test - Your dog gets 10 c/ts in 40 seconds. I did do sessions with 10 treats, and he passed in his second session. The first session he was sniffing on the floor to see if Moxie had left any treats behind.

I had Moxie practice her down with her head on the mat. She knows exactly what I want for position. I didn't attempt to work on duration. Just click as soon as she gets her head down.

Woohoo - we are officially going to Switzerland this year. Plane tickets are purchased. Hiking and chocolate and cheese here we come! I've joined my gym at work, so that I can start getting in shape before its warm enough to walk/hike much outdoors. Unfortunately I still have a cold, so the thought of aerobic exercise is not so fun. At this past weekend's trial, I felt like I couldn't breathe after running. I'm hoping its because my chest is congested, and not because I'm out of shape!!!

Trek Forward Motion Front Cross

2010-03-02T21:23:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I arrived at the barn, and there was a horse in it again. Argh. It was moved. The barn had also flooded (melting snow), so I could only do small exercises, not big sequences. The good news - the temperature was around 35 degrees out, and it felt balmy in the barn :)

I tried this exercise again. I did it in one direction, and was thinking - hey he's doing great. This is no problem. We switched sides, and then it was a problem. He kept cutting behind me to take the jump. He was obviously very confused. I tried breaking it down a bit, and tried different things. The only thing that made a difference, was me offering motion (moving forward past the plane of the jump). Motion obviously makes it clearer, but it would be nice for him to know not to go behind the plane of my body anyways. He was trying hard, but just didn't get it. I rewarded like crazy anytime he did something other than cut behind me. I think I need to spread the 2 jumps further away laterally and gradually move them closer.

Trek's first grand prix

2010-02-28T21:42:00.000-05:00

This weekend we went to the Feel the Rush trial. On Saturday, we only ran in Grand Prix. I was really pleased with Trek's run. He popped out of the weaves, which is due to trial stress, not lack of training! He had nice focus the rest of the run. I do see areas where we could have shaved off time, but I was so, so happy with this run.

The next day, we started off with advanced gamblers. Different dog. He popped out of the weaves really early. Sort of wandered off. I made him re-do them. He was slow, and very unfocused. I changed my gamble opening to account for his slowness. I was then not in a good place to start the gamble. My angle was all wrong, and it would take me too much time to set up the correct angle. And, he didn't want to send for the gamble anyways. One stressed, unfocused dog.

In advanced standard he was a little better, but still stressed. We had weave issues again. I made him re-do them. It was icky.

Last run was advanced jumpers. He did better at this, but knocked a triple coming out of a tunnel - maybe that is a skill we need to work on. He also went around one jump. The jump was in a zigzag line, and he just didn't push out to it. Jenn said Trekker is ready to start the basic zigzag exercise. I just have to wait until I get a snowfree yard. Unfortunately, Skyline is booked every weekend I'm home, and the barn isn't long enough to set up 5 jumps, 18' apart. The snow has melted quite a bit, but not enough to train in yet.

More Snow Photos

2010-02-26T20:09:00.001-05:00

Dude is so handsome.

Let's play!

Here we go:

Tree in the foreground is our crabapple - half of which we lost in the storm.

Snow Day

2010-02-26T19:40:00.001-05:00

We've had around 18" of snow over the last 2 days. I didn't have to work today, so I got to play with the dogs in the snow. When Moxie came in, she looked like she'd developed growths on her rear. I had to spend half an hour de-snowing her.

No training for a while :(

Trek Aframe - fading the box

2010-02-20T23:07:00.001-05:00

I cut out a part of the top section of the box. Aframe is at 5'9". The yard is muddy, so its a little hard for me to run. On his front crosses, he started out with one hit. We did 2 training sessions today.

Trek Forward Motion Front Cross to Back Side of Jump

2010-02-20T15:59:00.000-05:00

This is part of a sequence we worked on in my lesson. We have been doing a lot of Forward Motion Front Crosses in my lessons. For some reason, he did much better at this in my lesson than in practice. Not sure why. Maybe how I set up the 2 jumps? Here he is choosing to go behind my plane, which he shouldn't be doing. Not sure if I'm standing incorrectly. Its an awkward sequence, but I see how it would be helpful in snooker runs.

Trek Weave Entries

2010-02-20T14:24:00.000-05:00

Trek's weave exits have improved a lot. We still need more practice to get consistant independence, but we've come a long way. So, now I'm going to focus his weave exercises on entrances. We are reviewing entrances posted in Mary Ellen's article on weaves. We aren't going back to 2x2's - just using a set of 6 poles to review. We've done this set of entries for a few days, and he's gotten much better. We are continuing to include weaves in training sequences, to make sure we do them with obstacles before/after, and at greater speed.

Trek Aframe class

2010-02-20T13:39:00.000-05:00

I had someone videotape me at Skyline at the end of our class. His aframe there always looks different than it does at home. No box. Aframe was set low I guess for a previous class, and no one had put it back up. He was not doing distinct hits - it looks like he is striding through it, which is not what we are aiming for. This is pretty typical in class. I did do a few earlier in class with the box, and they were perfect. Two hits, both pounces. As soon as the snow melts, we are moving onto the next step of weaning off of the box.

Trek Aframe - Fading Box Step 1

2010-02-15T18:05:00.000-05:00

Watched Rachel Sander's DVD section on fading the box. Step 1 is to replace the 3 way T's with elbows. I figured it was easier just to flip the box over(so the T's are pointing up). The aframe is now back to 5'9". He had 1 miss, otherwise good. I'm ready to move onto the next step.

I had a lesson with Jenn yesterday. She suggested using a pool noodle to adjust his first hit over the apex of the aframe. The idea is that since he is close to 100% with the box, and close to 0% without the box, his first hit is probably the same either way, and then he adjusts his second hit based on whether there is a box there or not (extending more to get the box, not bothering if there is no box). With the pool noodle, he won't know if it'll be there or not ahead of time, so he'll have to always extend enough for his first hit. And then the second hit will be a natural stride away. She also suggested alternating between the box and no box, so he doesn't know if it will be there. And possibly painting the box as a step in fading.

For now I'll do Rachel's fading, and I'll search to see if I still own a pool noodle. Not sure how easy it will be to come by one at this time of year.

Trek Aframe

2010-02-12T22:01:00.000-05:00

Today I pulled aside the tarps I used to cover up the ground. Brushed off the snow. I took the bottom bar off of the aframe box. I did table -> aframe -> jump. He did great. Still 100% success rate.

Unfortunately we had some snow meltage today, which made the snow crusty. His toes were a bit bloody from the short training session :(

Tomorrow we are off to Ohio...

Trek Aframe - Box Again

2010-02-10T12:49:00.000-05:00

I put the box back on:

Now, we are back to 100% success rate. No 1 hit aframes.
Looking at his hit pattern, it is typically:

1st hit - 1 front foot between the 1st and 2nd slat from the top, and 1 front foot between the 2nd and 3rd slat from the top

2nd hit - both front feet between the 2nd and 3rd slat from the bottom

We are getting lots of snow today. Maybe a foot.

Trek Foundation Recall to Heel

2010-02-10T12:18:00.001-05:00

One skill that I see lacking sometimes in the sequences that I practice is a push. I assume he'll take a jump, and he'll cut behind me a bit, and come in too close, and miss the jump. So, this is directly related to foundation recall to heels. Here I am practicing them without motion. I think I need to do a lot more work with doing them with motion, in order to get rid of this issue in sequences.

When doing them statically, he still tries to cut in front of me, so I always have to line him up very close to one of the stantions.

Trek Forward Motion Front Cross, Moving Foundation Recall to Heel

2010-02-08T23:23:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we practiced forward motion front crosses. Most of the video looks like front crosses on the flat. I can't remember if part of the definition of a forward motion front cross is that the outside arm comes up before passing the plane of the jump. I think I only see myself doing this once in the video.

However, I'm happy with this exercise. We worked on forward motion front crosses at my last lesson, and didn't do too well. It was something we also had a problem with (or maybe you would just call it a front cross on the flat) at the BRAG trial. Trek is doing much better at them now.

I also told Jenn that I'm having problems with Trek going behind me on a push (and missing a jump that I intend to push to). She had me work on a basic recall to heel with motion at my lesson. For some reason it really hit home with me today. We were working on a sequence with a 2 jump lead out push (i.e. foundation recall to heel), with motion. A couple of times, he pulled off of the second jump as I moved early. But after that, he took the jump, but less collected, so as I was moving laterally away, he was going behind my plane. Aha! Basically the same thing as when he doesn't take a jump on a push. Guess its a little late, but all of a sudden the lightbulb went off. He needs a better moving foundation recall to heel - and that will fix problems with him missing a jump on a push. Aha. We worked on those tonight.

One more class and one more pracice session before I'm visiting Ohio again for my next lesson.

Trek Aframe in Sequence, no box

2010-02-07T21:07:00.000-05:00

I want my box back :(

Here I am running Trek in a sequence (multiple obstacles before the aframe, multiple obstacles after the aframe). This is to observe if his striding changes when he is running the aframe in a sequence at home. Reward is delayed (not immediately after the aframe, in order to see if the reward is causing the extension). To me it looks the same as when we are doing it not in a sequence. i.e. 1 hit, or 1 foot just over the apex, and then a hit. All too high.

Trek 270 Recall to Heels

2010-02-07T19:41:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday we worked on 270's. Jenn at my last lesson, said that Trek was shaping his approach. She suggested putting up a stantion next to the bar, in order to prevent this. I did notice after watching the video, that he is swinging his rear behind me more than I thought. Maybe next time I'll put a bar on the landing side of the jump in order to prevent this. We progressed to adding a jump before the 270 jump. And then I worked on moving 270's.

Trek Aframe

2010-02-01T21:00:00.000-05:00

I went out and trained Trek tonight even though I've still got a bad cold. He has been soo bored lately, so I figured I owed it to him.

So, you would think I would get better at counting hits after my last practice session - where I observed the video and saw when I incorrectly rewarded him. I didn't do any better today at counting hits. This is embaressing. Maybe it would be easier if my contact zone was painted.

We also went to the barn, and worked on round the clock weave entries (they need a tune up). He made some improvement.

We also did 3 masters level jumpers sequences - first time I've tried him on masters courses. He did pretty well. Some of it was kind of loopy/wide, but I'm sure that was my handling.

We also did some forward motion front cross exercises from my last lesson with Jenn. It was good to see the teaching process broken down at my lesson. Trek improved tremendously at them. The one thing he still has a lot of problems with is your basic recall to heel. He still tries to jump in front of my leg a bit. I have a bandaid for it, but it hasn't solved the problem.

Trek Aframe 5'11"

2010-01-31T17:40:00.000-05:00

I am experimenting with running Trek on a 5'11" aframe (as opposed to 5'9"), with no box.

Unfortunately, without the box, I am having a really hard time determining the number of hits he is doing. So, I ended up rewarding him for 1 hit aframes. Its been recommended to me that at this point I should reward all 2 hit aframes, even if the second hit is high. But in this session, we had a ton of 1 hit aframes. My aframe is painted a solid color, which isn't helping me. It was much easier for me to see if both his front feet and his back feet made it into the box. This is our second training session doing this.

Still Sick, Matting

2010-01-31T14:48:00.000-05:00

Still sick. Its very dull. Sleeping a lot. Plus, its been around 20 degrees outside. I did get some aframe training in yesterday even though our yard is snowy. Trek is super bored - I'm giving him carnage in order to occupy him.

I brought up to Skyline the idea of replacing the matting they have. Some people are resisting, some people love the idea. But first they have to work on the bumps in the floor, which I agree with. Bumps will be dealt with next summer. Yeah! Any input people have on Agiliflex or Crown Matting or other brands? Some people are concerned about durability of new mats. Skyline's mats are very durable, but on the downside, they are hard & rough.

I am signing up for Roxbury Farm again this year, to get another share of veggies. Yeah! I miss really fresh local veggies.

Trialing

2010-01-29T19:00:00.000-05:00

I am entered in an agility trial on Sunday, but have just started to come down with a cold, so I just might be staying home. What a drag.

We got more snow the other day so my contacts are unavailable again. Plus we have 14 degree weather. Yuck.

Moxie is visiting Jenn Crank right now. The house is so much quieter without her. Trek doesn't seem to miss Moxie, though I'm guessing he'll be glad to see her when she comes home.

Trek Aframe with no Box

2010-01-24T17:53:00.000-05:00

Here is Trek doing his aframe at 5'9" with no box. As you can see, he is normally doing 2 hits, but the second hit is not deep enough.

Next experiment is to set the aframe at 5'11" with no box.

Trek Weaving into a Wall

2010-01-23T17:10:00.000-05:00

This is a video from earlier this month...behind on posting videos.

I've had this at trials with Moxie, so I made sure Trek was comfortable with it. I set up the weave poles so he has to weave towards a wall (about 10' away). While he is heading towards the wall, I move laterally. My aim is terrible (I throw like a girl), but he did great.

Trek Aframe Training

2010-01-23T15:49:00.000-05:00

Trek's aframe behavior is inconsistant. Or more likely consistant in different locations.

At trials/class, he doesn't extend enough, and his 2nd hit is above the contact.

At home, I'm more likely to get 1 hit on the downside. We trained a few yesterday evening, and were only getting 1 hit. Yuck. Many 1 hit aframes.

Today, he is better, and did 2 hits every time. It still looks like he needs to extend over the top more. It seems like his first hit on the downside should be lower, because it looks like he really has to stretch out to get that second hit in the box. Maybe I need a noodle over the apex to encourage him to jump the apex more? I can't tell exactly where he's doing a second hit on the ascent of the aframe.

Trek shaping

2010-01-22T21:51:00.000-05:00

Jenn wants me to continue to work on clicker training with Trek to get him so that he offers more behaviors.

In agility, if Trek doesn't get a reward for a behavior, he might continue to offer the same unrewarding behavior over & over, rather than trying something different to see if that gets him a reward.

So, tonight I decided to shape Trek to target Glen's foot. Glen was just sitting down minding his own business. It took a long time, but finally we got there. First I had to get Trek to look/walk away from me. Then walk near Glen's foot. Then look at the foot while he was walking, then touch the foot. That was very hard, but he figured it out, and then would offer it consistantly.

Tomorrow I'll choose something entirely different to shape. I'm figuring variety at this point is better than doing 1 single thing good.

Trek BRAG trial day 2

2010-01-22T21:45:00.000-05:00

Day 2 went a little better. Used toe warmers I forgot I had. Wore long underwear under fleece. Surface was wetted overnight, so it was a little more compact - still not great.

Advanced Jumpers - again, not taking jumps. Not sure what is wrong. Pulled 2 thorns off of him after the run. Was that it? Not sure if they were in his skin or just his fur.

Advanced Standard - jumping normal here. Missed his weave entrance, and his aframe contact (2 hits, 2nd above yellow), but relieved he was running normally.

Advanced Pairs - very happy with this run. We had a perfect pairs partner (calm dog). Trek didn't show interest in the other dog, and ran well, nailed his weave entry. No aframe in our half :)

Advanced Snooker - not particularly pretty, but finished his advanced snooker title. Again, 2 hit aframe with the 2nd hit way too high. At home, I'm more likely to get a 1 hit aframe. At trials/class, he is extending less when going over the apex. Have all weekend free, so guess what we'll be working on.

Trek BRAG trial day 1

2010-01-22T20:50:00.000-05:00

We went to the BRAG trial last weekend on the outskirts of Columbus. The premium said the building was heated, but it was actually very cold. I came underdressed. The surface in the rings was awful too. It was very sandy, and not compacted. Everyone had problems running. It just felt like you were running in slow motion. The dogs were cold too.

On day 1, we weren't successful. We had issues. That didn't help my enjoyment. At the end of the day, I was like, why am I here?

Advanced Gamblers - His dogwalk was slow, and he walked through the contact. Yuck. Jenn said I should have had him repeat the contact immediately, in hopes that I would get a good 2nd one. He missed the last jump in the gamble, which I expected.

Advanced Standard - okay, except he saw a dog in the next ring running, and he took off to the edge of the ring as if to chase it. I yelled, and luckily he came back. He was clean, but over time by a second, because of his excursion.

Advanced Snooker - He was refusing jumps. Very strange. Started out okay, then refused multiple jumps. I was very worried at this point.

Advanced Jumpers - He went around a jump (I didn't fix), but otherwise I was very happy with this run.

BRAG trial

2010-01-18T22:08:00.000-05:00

We were in Ohio this past weekend, attending the BRAG trial. It was an exhausting weekend.

Trek got an Advanced Standard leg (his 2nd) and an Advanced Snooker leg (his 3rd). So, he is now ready for Masters Snooker. Very thankful to Rita for videotaping so many of Trek's runs all weekend.

Moxie is now with Jenn, who is going to work on her jumping issues for a month.

Linda watched a couple of Trek's runs - I'm glad I didn't know, or else I'd be more nervous.

I have jury duty in Manhattan tomorrow. I'm going to be so tired!

Next trial is in 2 weeks.

Lynn

Winter sucks

2010-01-10T22:14:00.000-05:00

I didn't train at all this weekend even though I was home. I just didn't want to leave the house, even though I felt housebound. When I woke up it was around 10 degrees out. The dogs are really antsy. I normally feel the most housebound in February, and its only January. I've got some trials coming up, so even though its cold, hopefully getting out will make me feel less housebound. Maybe I should go on a warm winter vacation rather than a summer vacation some year.

Yesterday was Trek's second birthday. Not very exciting, as I didn't want to do anything fun. I hit tennis balls for them. Trek got and egg & cheese yesterday as a treat, and a meaty bone today.

Good news - this week I'm on call for jury duty - so far, Monday I don't have to go in. Which means I can train on Monday night.

I watched "August Rush" tonight, which I liked - very fantasy like (not believable), but sweet. I relate a lot to movies about musicians I guess. Last year, my favorite movie was "Once." Bought the soundtrack and everything.

The seminar flyer for Jenn Crank's April seminar at Skyline is finally out. Yahoo. I decided to enter Trek in the masters seminar at this point. I figure by then he'll be in masters at least in one class (probably snooker or jumpers).

Trek Weaves - Time to review entries?

2010-01-05T22:44:00.000-05:00

I noticed doing some sequences in this training session, that Trek was having a lot of problems with his weaves. So, I did isolated weave exercises. He was coming out too early, and also not making all of his entries. When I was trying to give him verbal encouragement to continue weaving when he was about to pop out, he would then attempt to back weave, which I tried to put a stop to.

Based on this video, and a future one (not yet posted), I'm thinking its time to review weave entries with 2 poles ideally, or just a set of 6. Round the clock. See if that brings back more confidence.

At trials, he still is having problems with the weaves. This past weekend he:
- once made his entry, but popped out after 3 or 4 poles
- once made incorrect entry (started around 3rd or 4th pole)
- once made both his entry & exit, but I babysat them (walked next to him)

Moxie Panel Jump

2010-01-05T20:25:00.001-05:00

Along with working Moxie on a tire, I figured that working her with a panel jump would be good, as its a very visible jump.

So, we worked on jump offering with the panel jump. Almost all of her jumps were appropriate. The biggest issue came about when I set up both a bottom bar and an upper bar, with nothing in between. She focused on the bottom bar going in one direction only. I remember from Trek's jump training that this is pretty normal for a dog just being introduced to jumping, and its just something that has to be worked through. I quit the first time Moxie jumped over the upper bar in the direction where she had been missing it.

Moxie Tire Practice

2010-01-04T23:38:00.000-05:00

From our previous practice, I decided Moxie is not focusing enough on the bar of a jump. So, I worked on the tire with her, as it is a more visible jump. We did offering jump work, as well as some of the recall to heel positions.

Except for her first offer, where she was offering from speed (I shouldn't have rewarded this), I thought all of her offered jumps were fine. Her extension bothered me the most. Here you can see a little of what happens when we run sequences. Except this is no where near as bad, as I'm not moving. But, you can see her takeoff distance is much greater than her landing distance, and this is what is causing her chest crashing jumps. Her foundation recall to heel was a little sloppy, and I did hear her touch the tire, though I think it might have been her tail? Her directed jumping recall to heel was wide, but I thinks its acceptable for the dog to go a little behind you. And her backy uppy & 270's I thought were fine. I didn't try a serp recall to heel, because the tire legs are too big.

Trek Teeter

2010-01-03T23:27:00.000-05:00

Heres a video from a few days ago of Trek's teeter. Is it ideal? No. Acceptable, sure. He doesn't ride the teeter to the end. I started experimenting with a brick attached to the start end of the teeter, but we've had too much snow in our yard to get much accomplished, and the brick has fallen off (I duct taped it on).

In this training session I practiced:
1. Rewarding him on the teeter, pushing back at him in order to encourage weight shift
2. Occasionally rewarding him off the teeter - more of a quick release

My ultimate goal is to:
1. Have him ride to the end of the teeter
2. Quick release (almost a running teeter)

Trek BARK USDAA trial

2010-01-03T22:05:00.001-05:00

This weekend was Trek's 2nd weekend in Advanced. He earned an Advanced Standard and an Advanced Snooker Q. So, currently he has 1 standard, 1 jumpers, 2 snooker Q's. His NQ runs were all very nice too.

Successes:

Speed is increasing
Behaved appropriately in pairs
Did not lie down on course all weekend
I was supportive to him in the weaves so he would be successful
Some of his dogwalk contacts were stops
He didn't mistake the dogwalk for the teeter.
He made the gamble (just not in time)
I spent a lot of time giving him belly rubs with other dogs walking by
We were able to warm up at a practice jump without him focusing on other dogs
He didn't attempt to chase any dogs

Challenges:

I felt like I had to baby the weaves
He walked through some of his dogwalk contacts
His dogwalk contact needs more speed, especially the middle plank
He didn't get called on his aframe, but it was't nice - maybe 3 hits?
He visited the judge once (I am assuming this behavior will extinguish itself because of lack of reinforcement)
He missed 1 weave entry, and another time, made his entry, but pulled out after the 3rd or 4th pole - needs more confidence
I looped him around to take a jump that he missed - DON'T FIX MISTAKES - FOCUS ON LONGTERM GOALS!!!

He didn't Q in gamblers, but I was really pleased with his gamblers run. I came up with 2 openings. One I felt was too short, and one I felt was too long. I chose the one which was too short. I knew that in order to Q, he would need to have a lot of momentum in order to get the second obstacle, which was a tunnel straight ahead. Yeah, I know its a tunnel, but I wanted him to be confident, so I wanted to not only ensure he had the right angle, but that I could show appropriate forward motion from behind him. So, I finished my opening about a second too soon, so had to add in a loop of 3 jumps before the gamble to reset him up. I did a backy uppy in the gamble. Never thought I would use that in a gamble, but it worked great. Other people were worried about that part. Unfortunately somehow after the backy uppy, something went a little strange (okay, so I was doing a backy uppy behind a jump - not quite normal), so it also added time onto our last jump in the gamble. The buzzer went off while he was in the air for the last jump (manual timing).

On his Saturday's gamblers run, where we did much worse, I actually said the word "out" during his gamble. I had to laugh at myself. Trek has never heard the word "out" and has no clue what it means. Moxie does know this as a verbal cue - so it just came out as a last try measure. Dude must have wondered why I was so frantic.

Trek and Moxie dogwalk

2009-12-31T23:23:00.000-05:00

I have to work on new years eve every year, so this year I'm spending my time creating videos until my batch jobs run...

I'm working on shaping Moxie's dogwalk 2o2o on her dogwalk so that she doesn't peel off to the side. I am almost always behind her, and often laterally not close to her. Her peeling can be extreme...so I decided this would be a winter project to fix. I've been practicing in my living room. The other day I put her on real equipment. Her first one was awful, so I just waited her out. After that she did much better. Before this winter, I never shaped her 2o2o with a clicker, so this is just an experiment. It may or may not work, but that's okay.

Trek still needs a lot of work on his dogwalk in general. We just don't get a lot of training time on it at this time of year. I want him to be more confident on the dogwalk so that he'll be faster. He still looks gangly on it. And its hard to train speed when I ask for a stop, but then again, I don't want to go back to running them for developing speed, since we are trialing now.

Trek Aframe

2009-12-31T22:28:00.000-05:00

Trek is doing well with his aframe when I do straight exits. I sometimes raise the box in order to help him be successful before lowering it. I haven't done a lot of aframe training lately, so I started with it higher than ideal, then worked on lowering it.

We then worked on angles...they didn't go as well...I wasn't very systematic about it either.

Moxie Jumping

2009-12-30T23:27:00.000-05:00

Moxie's jumping is getting worse and worse. At this point, there is no way I will even consider trialing with her. I don't think it is safe.

She is not stutter stepping, but she is taking off early most of the time, and is overjumping in order to compensate. Every time I try to do jump training with her, she crashes chest first into bars. I have had her eyes checked, and they found nothing. So, I decided to go back to step 1 - offering a jump with me sitting. This way there is no motion/distance to distract her.

I set the jump at 20" (Skyline doesn't have 22" jump cups). She was overjumping a bit, but her jumping style was rounded. Since she was overjumping, I wanted her to "notice" the jump more. I set the bar at 8".
This was very disturbing. She was jumping the 8" jump as if it was > 24".
I wish I new what was causing this problem. Later I did it with a tire and then a panel jump, since with these, the jump is more obvious. I don't own a panel jump, but it makes me wonder if working with only a panel jump would help.

And here is a video of a Moxie trick:

Horses

2009-12-28T20:22:00.000-05:00

Tonight I went to the barn to train, and there were two loose horses inside. Yikes. We surprised them, and they surpised us. So, no training tonight - going to find out why they were there, since it was my normal rental time.

Renting indoors over the next 2 days. Woohoo - no ski pants required.

Video Editing Software

2009-12-27T15:17:00.000-05:00

I've been researching video editing software.

Windows Movie Maker in general is good enough for my needs, but the audio is not in synch with the video. When you start trimming video clips, it gets even worse.

I am trying out a trial version of Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9. It doesn't appear to have any "fun" stuff, and the UI is a bit complex. i.e. fancier than I need, and the learning curve is high. But, the audio tracking works correctly.

I also tried Adobe Premiere Elements 8 trial version. It has "fun" stuff, and I assume the UI is simpler than Sony's product. However, it got poor reviews on amazon.com for crashing/hanging. I installed the software, and it tried to install an additional component when I tried to create a movie. That crashed the application. So, I cannot test it, as I can't even get it fully installed. So, I vote no for this one.

On another note, I was visiting my mom for Thanksgiving, and she gave me childhood artwork/poems/etc from when I was much younger. It was funny to see all of the dog pictures I did back then :)

Indoor Voice

2009-12-25T23:16:00.000-05:00

Glen and I had an Indian feast tonight at Jaipore. We spent a lot of the day cleaning getting ready for his siblings visit with us.

The dogs were wicked antsy this morning. I ended up hitting tennis balls for them for 1/2 hour to get the edge off. I did get in some aframe training later in the day. If I am far away laterally from Trek, he will come off the side. Otherwise he did pretty well. Indoors I worked on 2o2o on the dogwalk with both dogs. They are both improving, especially Moxie in that she is getting into a straighter position.

Trek is such an easy dog to live with. Unlike Moxie, he is a very quiet dog, which is a relief, as I don't like barking. He rarely barks at all. If he makes noise indoors, he uses his indoor voice - more like a whispered bark. And he looks kind of horrified when he does it. But, there is one thing that can really get him barking...

Trek - Rear crosses before weaves

2009-12-24T22:17:00.000-05:00

Today we practiced rear crosses before the weaves. He did great.

Happy Winter Solstice

2009-12-21T23:09:00.000-05:00

Its only getting lighter out :)

Tonight, we practiced 4 advanced jumpers sequences. Trek did great on all of them. We haven't reviewed the ones from last week that we had problems with yet. Even though I mostly do USDAA, I'm starting to print out some AKC Open JWW courses, just so that I get some practice in with weaves in sequences, as opposed to just practicing them in drills. I'm looking forward to my next lesson, as I'd like to have my handling looked at, now that we are starting to progress in jumpers. I want to make sure I'm not doing anything crazy :) Sometimes if I handle badly, he loses confidence. When I do the jumpers sequences, I try to come up with the best way for me to handle it ahead of time. Then I sometimes try handling it another way. Sometimes the other way just sucks, and you can see Trek feel confused, which just brings him down, so I do have to be careful.

At the end of our practice I practiced lateral motion while he is in the weaves. i.e. a pull. Looking at the video, I noticed for the left hand turns, I started out with a lot of lateral distance, so I was moving laterally less. Turning to the right I was doing a bit better. So next time, I will focus on starting out closer to him in the weaves, which will make it harder for him. A couple of times he missed his weave entry. We'll be doing some entry drills eventually. He only popped out of the weaves once at the end, which was he focus of this exercise (staying in the poles). I did notice that my hand signals again for the forward send (into a tunnel), were spazztic. Not sure why they look so funny. Maybe I have to work on follow through?

I also had him work the weaves without me, just as another way of developing independence.

His weaves have improved so much in the last few months. In the end of August, he couldn't do 12 poles yet, and now, he is starting to develop decent weave independence at the exits with 12 poles.

Training 2o2o in the Living Room

2009-12-20T17:55:00.000-05:00

This is what I do in the living room with Trek. I figure I can at least work 2o2o, since we can't work on full equipment while we have snow. I set up an 8' plank on our couch and put a foam mat on the floor at the bottom, to prevent the plank from scratching our floor, and the dogs from slipping.

So, I work on two things.

First I stand behind the end of the plank, and I wait for him to get on the plank and offer 2o2o. He has this figured out. I'd like for him not to curl towards me, though I'm not an expert at teaching this (have this problem with Moxie). I might try in the future to use a leash to shape a box area within which his front feet must be in order to get a click. Right now, I'm trying to reward him looking straight. I'm hoping that if he anticipates looking straight, that his feet will naturally follow. I'm not sure if that will work. Currently he looks at me first, because he knows that is where the reward is coming from. To release him, I throw a piece of food in front of him, pause, then release him with a verbal okay. I'd like to reward quickly, in order to encourage him to run quickly to the bottom, as I'd like to speed up his dogwalk performance.

Second, we start together (him on the couch), and I say okay, and we both run. He stops on the plank, and I run past him. This way its very easy for him to be in a straight position. Right now I just click for him staying in position while I run past him. He is fine at this at home, but at trials, where he is less focused, he just tends to walk over the contact (no 2o2o). I'm hoping with frequent training sessions at home, that when he gets to a trial, he'll remember how much rewarding he got at home for stopping.

Playing in the snow

2009-12-20T12:54:00.000-05:00

We didn't get the blizzard that was expected - only 2-3" of snow or so. The dogs and I went out and played with their big red horse balls. It was hard to get any action shots, because they move too quickly, but I did get some still shots of the dogs. They were glad to get out...they have both been antsy lately. The aframe is snow covered again....