Tuesday at the Barn - February 21st, 2012

Good session for both boys tonight (and a night off teaching for me!) Teller's session in light circles and Kippie's in the dark circles.

Tuesday at the Barn - February 14th, 2012

Quiet night at the barn tonight, just one private lesson and then I worked my two boys. We're back to spring-like weather again here in Vermont. I can't explain it, but I won't complain!

And for Kippie:

Wednesday at the Barn - February 1st, 2012

I had another private lesson tonight, the student requested emphasis on weave entries and a-frame contacts. This dog is solidly running at the AKC excellent level but with so many repetitions on the weave poles I broke the set into two sets of six, MUCH easier on the dog's body.

Tuesday at the Barn - January 31st, 2012

Another "June-uary" day here in Vermont with temps in the mid-thirties today, rising overnight and super-awesome 45 degrees tomorrow. We had a great session at the barn for both Kipling and Teller. Here's what we worked on (light numbered circles for Teller, dark for Kipling):

Kipling working some rear-crosses on the green and blue numbered courses...

On a personal note: my 2012 goal was to get better about taking care of myself - to that end I've given up anything white - no rice, no pasta, no bread, no cereal, no sugar - nothing at all processed. Other than greek yogurt which has become a staple - if I can't cook it in my kitchen I'm not eating it - which makes dining out with me super fun :-) It's been easier than you might imagine - though there have been a couple of days where I've really craved a sandwich and a diet coke! Oh and the day the office had a going-away party for an employee with trays of lasagna and mac and cheese and a giant red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting (I ate my salad like a good girl).  Frozen sauce-less veggies have been my salvation along with super lean proteins (in large part from my favorite butcher shop The Meat House) in handy dandy vacuum sealed packages. 

I've also been walking or running at least two miles at a time, five or six nights a week. In the back of my mind I'm eyeing the Disney Half-Marathon next January (2013) - BUT thirteen point one is a whole lot more than two miles though!  It's nice to finally use that super expensive treadmill I bought a few years ago! 

And here's the point of this personal note. This morning knowing today had a high probability of being CRAZY, I got up extra early this morning to run 4 miles on the treadmill, went to work - put in a 7 hour day in the office before I left to drive home, pick up Teller and Kipling and head to the barn. I taught a 30 minute private lesson, worked my own dogs for an hour, drove home, put Teller and Kipling in the house, leashed up Murphy and out for a walk - I was planning to do a pretty relaxed 1.5 mile walk (two laps around the neighborhood) as I was about to start the second lap I was feeling pretty good and Murphy wasn't having any 'cold feet' issues with the salt on the road and sidewalk so I decided to take a detour around the village finishing with a 3.5 mile walk. My pedometer reports an impressive 19,258 steps (as of 8pm) which is a little over 9.5 miles for the day. Go me, go me, go, go go me!

Friday at the Barn...January 27th, 2012

It was another obedience night for Teller at the barn this afternoon - Of course I left the camera at home tonight because both boys had sessions I would have liked to watched...Teller is so brilliant, he's heeling like I've actually worked obedience with him recently - just right there where I want him to be. Fronts are great, drops are fast and clean and his up attitude is just perfect!

Decided that Kipling should do some speed circles and variants of speed circles - something he hasn't done yet. I mention to folks that he's a pretty clean slate - he's got some fundamentals on-board, but he hasn't gotten a lot of formal agility training, my philosophy is that there is still so much time to do that when he's more physically and mentally mature.

Nevertheless, one of the next things I want to help him with is looking for the next obstacle. He's at the stage where he has his favorite things 'to do', the things he's gotten a lot of reinforcement for doing (the dogwalk, tunnels, etc) and he's at the stage in his understanding where he's offering equipment a lot. That's great Kippie, but I haven't introduced you to the whole a-frame, kindly get your furry bottom off it please :-) On the one hand you applaud the enthusiasm, but you need to interject a bit of control into the situation.

So when I setup said circle I delibrately put jumps near the dogwalk ramps, tunnels and a-frames. I broke down the initial speed circle into about four pieces, clicking and treating for working WITH me. Tough lesson Kippie! In typical Kippie fashion he figured out the new game pretty quickly and had some nice sequences - I'm particularly impressed with his ability to SEE the tire in a pinwheel. In the process I also introduced some baby-rear crosses (you want me to do what while you almost run me over?) and a few blind crosses as well. No biggie says Kippie.

Here's what we worked today:

Tuesday at the Barn - January 24th, 2012

A light agility day for Teller at the barn today - it's been months since he's worked any formal heelwork (or any of the open/utility exercises for that matter). If my goal is to get that CDX this year I need to train a bit of obedience here and there. So here is a very rusty Teller-Woo pretending to be an obedience dog. He loves to play the game - any game...this dog is such a huge piece of my soul.



He did get to play a bit of agility after all that 'work':

Kipling got off easy tonight - no obedience for Kippie, but probably the hardest sequences he's seen to date. He was particularly amazing in the baby sends to the jump #1 while I moved away for crosses. Don't quite remember teaching him that trick :-)

And Kippie the video:

Sunday at the Barn - January 22nd, 2012

Teller had the last week off after the SAAC trial, but today after a week of not so much exercise Teller (and Kippie too) needed to work. So, just a simple setup before launching into a busy week of working and teaching.

Tuesday at the Barn - January 10th, 2012

Not a lot for Teller (light colored circles) tonight, he had a great weekend last weekend so I just wanted to work some speed  (modified speed circle in blue) and some contact/weave reps. Kipling's skill sessions in the dark colored circles:

A bit of Teller's session and most of Kippie's session:

Monday at the Barn - January 2nd, 2012

A so-so session for Teller tonight - I think the incoming weather pattern had all the dogs off this afternoon. Anyhow, here's what we worked on:

And here's what the puppy worked tonight:

NOMAD Run-Throughs - December 31st, 2011

Here's the plan for run-throughs tomorrow morning....

Friday at the Barn...December 30th, 2011

Great group out at the barn tonight - some fun sequences for the big dogs :-)

Tuesday at the Barn - December 27th, 2011

Short session for Teller today - just some weave and contact reps...

Monday at the Barn - December 26th, 2011

Ever have one of those sequences that you're SURE your dog will nail, you'd put money on it - setup one of those with Teller today, I was so sure he'd just get it - and instead we struggled with it. Here's ours - the killer was 1-2-3.

In related news, we clearly need to get some reinforcement in on the tunnel/dogwalk discrimination. As I flipped back and forth dogwalk/tunnel/ he clearly favors the dogwalk - even when he was correctly taking the tunnel he was looking really hard at that dogwalk before fully committing to the tunnel. Lots and lots of reinforcement on the dogwalk lately!! Now the tough part, I thought for sure he'd come out of the tunnel - read the 'out' cue and take that wing jump. It was like he didn't even see the jump. Then (in classing Woo form) when I tried to send him under the DW to just the jump he actually looking for the DW support and jumped THAT instead!  Once we got it, it was a beautiful sequence to run!

Kipling's sessions are still really short and obstacle focused. Today he saw his very first tire - which was kind of a non-event - "oh, I go through the round part?" Got it! When I have a baby dog or a pre-novice dog there's a ton of reinforcement and sequences are super short. Sometimes one obstacle, sometimes three - but super short. I don't want to start a pattern when the dog has opportunity or desire to disconnect from his (or her job). I stress to my students to break things down, to make success, to reinforce while things are going well - even if it means they have to stop running a fun sequence to reward. It's hard to do, when they generally get to see the grown-up advanced dogs running at practice - or the older dogs who are products of a lot of very deliberate training over years - and try to run their dog like an excellent or masters dog. 

Here's what Kipling worked on today - all of 10 minutes of work, super short sequences - lots of reinforcement. Party, party, party, play!

Friday at the Barn...December 23rd, 2011

Perhaps the best compliment we've ever had today, pardon a bit of setup as I get to the point...We're at the barn, I worked Kipling first - he was uncharacteristically unfocused - not sure where his head was, but I ended his session after about 8 minutes. One of his lessons right now is that if he doesn't want to play, that's fine, but he goes back in his box. Play the game, make mistakes, try stuff - all good. Put your head down and sniff and your turn is done - no emotion, no cajoling - it's not my job. (grin)

Teller is next up, and as I'm working Teller a mother and toddler (there for a sibling's riding lesson I presume) wander down to our arena to watch us work. Teller always appreciates an audience, doesn't miss a beat and continues to work beautifully. After a nice sequence (ending with nailing - and holding - a dogwalk), I break off training to toss an udder toy for Teller (he goes zipping off after it).The mom turns to me and says "That dog is the happiest worker! It looks like he just LOVES his job!" I grinned like a fool (I'm sure) as Teller comes bounding back to me with the udder inflation for either another throw or another sequence. Teller does love his job of course, but the secret is that he loves playing the game with me - any game would probably do...

Here's what we worked today - 15 minute session.

Sunday at the Barn - December 4th, 2011

Another lovely late fall aftenoon - windy as all get-out but it ended up being a nice day to get out and train. Here's what I setup for folks today:

NOMAD Run-Throughs - December 3rd, 2011

So off we went to run-throughs this morning, I'm still not feeling great and it shows in my handling today, really can't get the head clear and thrice daily doses of DayQuil isn't helping the cause..
Here's what we ran:

And here's the video - Teller running first at 24" and then at 20" (NOMAD is primarily a USDAA club so the triple was set to 22" for both runs) the runs were about 10 minutes apart. 

Run-Throughs at the barn - November 26th, 2011

Obligations kept us elsewhere today, but I did design a couple of courses for the club run-throughs this morning at the barn. Here's what got setup, can't wait to hear how it went!

Tuesday at the Barn - November 15th, 2011

Tuesday at the Barn - November 8th, 2011

Here's what we worked on at the barn today...

Tuesday at the Barn - November 1st, 2011

We moved into the barn last week, but today was the first day I've had time to go out and really work my dogs (just Kipling and Teller today). Here's what got setup and what I worked on. Teller continued his theme of  being (as my friend Ann says)"Full of Beans". He was fast, he was accurate and he was hitting his contacts and weave entries beautifully. He got a little stuck on the a-frame/tunnel discrimination forcing me to go deeper into the tunnel to get the tunnel instead of the a-frame. I think next week when I work him I'll drop the a-frame and work verbal discriminations without physical cues. He's got a lot of reinforcement for contacts lately so obviously that's what he's favoring.

Kipling worked some sit and down stays with some good distractions (the goings-on at the barn are all new to him - Teller is all about work - Kipling is all about the entire world!). After he settled in a bit we worked some 'yellows'- just the bottom of the dogwalk ramps - up on the side above the yellow (3/4 up the ramp) and then move down into his 2o2o. He bounced through the contacts a couple of times - which is good (make mistakes, fix it and try not to make them again) and also good because he was starting to really move somewhat aggressively on the board. He's clearly willing to make mistakes and he's consistently willing to go back and try again. I only did about a dozen reps on each side, adding in some pressure on the leash to break (hold your position) and also adding in some front and blind crosses at the bottom.