Woo Hoo!

Many of my friends are busy posting their agility winnings and accomplishments on FaceBook and YouTube. I am very proud of them and feel happy for them that they are all doing so well. Really, I am. I do have Tip to run and she continues to turn in stellar performances, but it is not what is making me bust at the seams right now.



I am going to post a HUGE accomplishment of mine here today. It feels like we just ran a marathon and came in with a personal best time!! Split finished rehab today. His physical therapist is super happy with his progress and doesn't want to see him again (except for maintenance work). This is very much like a marathon for me. It has been 4 months off from our regular routine, 2 months of that with very little activity. Then SLOWLY introducing agility back into our lives for 2 months and we aren't done yet, but we can begin to see our first trial date in sight.


So, when you run your dog and they are healthy and happy, kiss them and thank them for the gift of another great run!

A-Frame performance

I have heard this advice several times and in several different disciplines "Find a great performance and emulate it"

I just started to train Tangles A-Frame and thankfully I have the performance to emulate right in my backyard (literally). Tip has a beautiful A-Frame. Fast, efficient and really consistent. I want Tangle's Aframe to be like hers.

Video comparison


I ran both dogs on the same configuration this morning as a way to evaluate the differences in performance. Let me say immediately I honestly don't believe that I can train Tangle to be just like Tip when it comes to the AFrame. The dogs have different structure, temperament, and drive. But can I get close? Yes, I believe that I can.

I have many observations about the side-by-side performances, but I would love to hear what others have to say before I taint the waters. I have no doubt that others will observe valuable things that I have missed!! Please, comment away!!

Split's rehab helps all the dogs

Training a puppy and rehabing a dog have some commonality!

Split was taken out of agility Mid-January due to a Hip Flexor pull. He was allowed to jog on leash with me, but really not much else. We gave him 8 weeks of rest and then began to work him back really, really slowly. I guess the nature of this injury is that the dog can re-injure it fairly easily.

First I started with really low jumps, about 8 inches, 4 jumps in a row. We would do that 4-5 times and that was the sum total of his agility. Gradually we worked the jumps up higher and added another repetition. I have gradually worked in other equipment as time has gone on. Maybe one rep of the weaves, a couple tunnels, low teeters, low dog walks and now a low AFrame.

Since all the equipment was low for Tangle, it was perfect to work Split and Tip got to come along for the ride.

It has helped Split gain his confidence back (from the injury) and the performance hasn't been a strain on him. I even sort of think that this has helped Tip, but I am not clear why. For our past two trials her contacts have been stellar (it has been a life time challenge). Her teeter has been amazing, her dog walk 2o2o is worlds better. I might play with this concept more because it intrigues me!

Also, I have had the 2 by 2 weaves out working entrances with Tangle. So, I started working those with Split has well. When he was injured he was avoiding the weaves as a part of the injury. The 2 by 2's have helped work on his entrances and get those back in shape, but has kept the strain of doing a full set to a minimum.

I am really liking this synergy between the rehab and puppy training!

I started training Tangle on jumps by doing single jump work. I decided to do this with Split as well. It helps build his muscle in his rear and build back the confidence when nothing hurts!!

This morning Split got his hardest workout since January and his jumping was amazing! He had really nice collection, tight turns, and confidence back. I am thrilled.

I am re-thinking how I keep my adult dogs in shape and well trained. Stay tuned.

As a side note, Split is jumping 18 inches and doing really well with that height!

Puppy license

I have noticed in the last month the changes in Tangle as he progresses from puppyhood to adulthood (at least in growth). In the last several weeks Tangle has lost his puppy license with some other male dogs, his drive is moving to a new level, and he is beginning to show signs of the adult male that he will become!

At the same time my perspective in training him has begun to change. Up until now he has clearly been "the puppy". As such, our training has only included puppy tasks (sort of). Low dog walks, no jumps, just weave entries, no AFrame, etc... Although my criteria for him is solid, somehow it isn't the same as when you know you will have the dog in a competition this weekend!! There is puppy license filtered into the criteria.

I began to realize this weekend that technically he could be competing in 5 months. And although I doubt that I will compete with him that early it dawned on me that we would need to move from all the puppy activities to the "real agility dog" activities.

Is he beginning to loose his puppy license with me as well?

Tangle will be "the puppy" for many more years, but soon he will begin some adult tasks.

Tangle, popcorn and the dog walk tour

The title almost sounds like a band, eh?

Let me start out by saying I don't normally feed my dogs popcorn, I go out of my way to make sure that they don't have corn in their diets at all as a matter of fact. But, popcorn really did make the PERFECT training treat in this case, really! It is kind of like letting your kids eat M&M's for breakfast, you know its not right but perhaps it serves a momentary purpose.

We, my family and I have on occasion been known to teach the dogs how to catch popcorn. Not real often. But, it totally entertains us:) So, Tangle really likes popcorn. This is how I got the idea.

It made the perfect training treat because:
*It is white, high contrast to the grass
*It is light and floats down instead of a fast drop, enabling me to see EXACTLY how well I am delivering the treat timing wise.
*Tangle finds it quickly, it stays on top of the grass
*Tangle can watch it on the way down too (and I wanted his head down).

I started Tangle out jumping, but he wasn't keeping his head down well. Also, the treat that I had been using was really hard to find in the grass. So, I needed a solution.

I think this one worked well!

Tangle jumping for popcorn

Tangle also got to start his dog walk tour this week. Earlier I mentioned that we were going to start a tour to help some training issues 1) he is showing a hesitancy to do a DW on unfamiliar equipment 2) his hit rate goes down dramatically. Friends were gracious enough to set up their dog walk for Tangle, thanks Don and Lori!! Since Tangle has been hesitant on his first run across a "strange" dog walk, I just trotted him across. Then we began our runs. Overall I would say that he did well. You can see that his speed increases the more runs he completes. This is encouraging! Also, his hit rate was right at 80 percent. Great for a unfamiliar place.

Tangle's DW Tour #1

Current Successes

It isn't often that I have an opportunity to write about an awesome trail with one of my dogs. Tip and I had an awesome trial today! We have more and more great runs, but we don't often come together for an entire day!

I will just take a moment to reflect so that I can look back on this day!

Tip and I did a NADAC trial today. We had 6 runs, 5 Q's and all of the placements given were first with one second! But more importantly than statistics is how we felt. We were a team today! We both read each other well, where Tip was unclear she glanced at me for clarity, but most of the time I held up my end of the deal and gave her the information before she needed it. We trusted each other today!

Days like this are even sweeter because of the journey it took to arrive here. When you feel great like this, it feels good to reflect on the tears and frustrations along the way. We both learned from each other and arrived upon today!



Another success this weekend was training with Tangle. You know, really, I always enjoy training with Tangle and we haven't had too many frustrations and all of them have paled in comparison to Tip's and my learning curve.

My husband helped us do restrained recalls on the teeter this weekend. It was just the tool that I needed! I wanted to turn the teeter into a game and this was the ticket! Here is the video of our training. His speed and love for the teeter up until this practice session was equivalent to the first teeter on the film. Not bad at all, but he is thinking too much. Yes, I want a thinking dog, but I do not want a worrier. To my eye, the speed and drive for the toy only increased with each teeter. It is this love and drive that will keep Tangle from thinking too much on the teeter and get into the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx_Qpbz-Nm0

Not to leave Split out of the mix today. He is doing great. Still in rehab for his hip flexor pull, but starting to return to activity. I currently have him doing 6 jumps at 12 inches, a few weaves, a few dog walks and really low A-Frames!

Grand Prix inspired

Tip needs another Grand Prix Q to qualify for Nationals so I decided to work on Grand Prix courses. Here is a course that was inspired by a Frank Holik course. Frank will be the judge at the Rocky Mountain Regionals so why not study up?

The start of the course was actually fairly fun, I started with Tip by standing in between #1 and #3 and then front crossing (FC) #2. The sequence 3-4-5-6 was fairly straight forward. However once the dog comes out of the tunnel you have to make a decision which side of #8 to pick them up. I tried both sides, but ended up liking the inside closest to the tunnel. It was much clearer to cue Tip that she was turning. This does make it a rear cross (RC) over a triple, but Tip handled it great.

The next trouble spot was 15-16-17. This is because the spacing of 16 to 17 was a bounce jump for Tip. Typically I don't set up something that is a bounce jump, but once in a while it is really good to practice different jumping skills. That is, scope out what is coming and what adjustments in the jump style does she have to make in order to not knock the bar.

On the Tangle front, we had a great lesson today. We worked on his teeter. We were working on his speed across the teeter. The suggestion was to do restrained recalls over the teeter. Also, have the toy low to the teeter, about in the middle when released, and run to the end. By the end of his teeter session he was driving faster.

Interesting little factoid was that Tangle had about a 100 percent failure rate during the lesson on the dog walk. Since we are about 100 percent success rate at home it tells me that we need to go on a dog walk tour. That is, visit a lot of dog walks around town and show him that his performance should be the same on all of them.

P.S. I will still probably move his dog walk to a 2o2o