07 March 2008

Last Day berore Crufts. Did more pratice with Dora. Increased the length of the heelowrk pattern to probably twice the elngth that the actual round will be. She is working well very attentive. Starting off well. I am still running off on the starts sometimes and rewarding very quickly for good starts. Plenty of rewards after the heelwork food circuits ot long play with a toy.

Agility with Ruby. I put 8 jumps up in a circle at half height and quickly ran her round them. We did both directions she is jumpiong them well

Put the weaves up at the end ogf the garden and the tunnel at the side making a right angle. Ran her through the weaves and on into the tunnel

Ruby was able to do the weaves and then go right into weaves but she found it very difficult to go from the tunnel turn left to the weaves and get the weave entry correct.



Ruby

06 March 2008

I did more practice for Dora on our walk this morning. We did heelwork on the carpark. It was not frosty this morning so we could get on quite well. I did lots of food circuits and also ball circuits. Dora is working well. The lady with Sadie the Terv and Storm the GSD puppy arrived while we were working and Ruby and Casey barked at them as they wanted to go say hello. I thought Dora would be distracted but she kept with me until Storm came up to see what we were doing. I let her say hello and then we went back to working.

Did stick circuits with Ruby but she is very particular about which stick she will have . I had 2 sticks Actually one large stick that had broken in half, She would run and fetch one and would chase the other one but would not bring it back.did some nice right circles to a hand touch. When i bring her in she has a nice consistent position Sh is keeping her position much more on static left turns. she rarely drops back. Right turns are still a bit wide.

Went to mums to do agility put jumps up in squares and put the weaves up 1/2 inch off set. Started with Ruby and ran her as fast as I could over several jumps and did the weaves several times. Running her very quickly did increase her enthusiasm and drive. Will try short sharp bursts of activity. She did get very distracted by the dog next door barking constantly and ran off to bark at it. she was not as switched on once I got her back. tied her uup and got Dora out. did heelwork around the jumps. I was using liver for treats and Dora REALLY likes that. She was noticiably mor enthusiastic and worked really nicely.

ran Saffy over the jumps on the ground again still practicing steering her left and right. ALso did food circuits with Liver and cheese. She managed to see those treats ok


Casey

05 March 2008

More crufts practice on the morning walk. I am trying to extend Dora's work using praise and play rather than titbits so she will keep going in the ring. Very icy out so could not do much on the carpark at the lake as it was too slippy.

Went to Middlewich to traain later on. I did lots of food circuits with Dora and used people arriving and getting out of their cars as distractions while doing heelwork. Dora does tend to look at them but quickly looks back at me. Of course nothing replicates the Crufts environment. Also played with her teddy and practised setting off.
When Chris came we did stays. As i was talking to Chris I kept rewarding Dora for staying.

Did food circuits and played with Saffy. did circles with a hand touch held low to get drive.

04 march 2008

no agility this morning but diid some obedience on our walk.
Working on starting off with Dora again in preparation for Crufts. again I played with the toy for a few seconds, then asked her to release it and set her yup for heelwork. did a few steps of good attentive heelwork and then give her the toy back.

At agility tonight with Ruby She did very well. she jumps all the jumps and is getting better at responding to directional cues. She did the weaves well. The firdt time she missed the second to last pole but did them all the second time speed is increasing.

In between runs we practice turns, heelwork, stays etc.

after Agilty I went to Danesford where they were having a pre-crufts party for everyone.

They presented me with a photo of dora in an inscribed frame and loads of good luck cards.

03 March 2008

Did some training on our walk this morning. Again concentrating on building excitement and attitude. Did food circuits with Dora on the field with the occasional ball throw. did several throws and then into heelwork. The ball worked better as the treats were hard to spot in the grass in the half light.When doing circles I am trying not to look at Dora much but become aware of her position by feel. I also want to move away from making eye contact with her as this brings her a bit too far forward. I am shifting the emphasis onto her following my hand. I am particularly looking for her changing her position as I move my hand when changing from right hand to left hand circles.

With Ruby I used digging in a mole hill for her reward as that is what she wanted most. It work better than a stick as she can't run off with a molehill! I encourage Ruby to dig in the mole hill, then ask her to leave it, cue a behaviour. When she does the behaviour correctly I click and then send her back to the molehill. and get her to dig again. This worked very well. I need to keep the rate of reinforcement high with Ruby or she loses enthusiasm so I only ask for one or two behaviours then reward. I am gradually extending the duration of heelwork, being careful to keep the attitude I want. I also played with a stick. We played tuggy with it again using my voice and quick movements to encourage her. I did food circuits and then threw the ball for her to pick up. She did run after the ball but wasn't keen to bring it back. I then switched to the stick and played eith that, did a couple of trows, then threw the ball and asked Ruby to bring me the ball to get the stick back again. that worked better than the food. will keep at it

We did some agility at mums agian this morning. I set up the weaves offset by an inch and Ruby ran them well.

i set up all the jumps in one long zig zag to practise sending Ruby on ahead of me but she has not really got the idea yet. She runs well alongside me or to catch up with me but does not continue ahead very well. I need to work out how to get her to carry on ahead.
i did more playing with Saffy round the jumps getting control. Tugging then asking her to release and rewarding the release with the toy. did some running through the uprights. She is not sure about running to the toy when doing this she tends to expect food but I want to move on to toys as she has problems seeing the food quite often.

This evening I took Saffy and Dora to training and after the class again worked on speeding up food circuits. With Saffy I did several circuits, then into a circle and clicked for her catching up and touching my hand. Throwing the tidbit ahead. I also did a few food circuits and then threw the dumbell for her to bring back. She did stop and look when she realised it wasn't food but picked it up and brought it back to me.

With Dora I did more food circuits, alternating with the ball or a toy and into circles. also did set ups for Crufts.

02 March 2008

Met at Joy's for a final training session before Crufts. The Good Citizens team was running through their demonstration of the bronze award for Crufts.

once they had finished I got Dor a out to practice. We did the gate a few times. She can do that without a problem.

I got the toy and did the same as the show yesterday, played, gave the toy to the steward (Gwyneth) and set her up for the heelwork. She was much more distracted than yesterday I found it more difficult to get her mind on working with me.

Gwyneth suggested doing some food circuits both with food and occaisionally with the ball. We really got her working well. Gwyneth showed me that I ned to put a lot of effort in to really get Dora running about. Dora does like it and her heelwork really improved, she bounced along with her eyes shining. People are always impressed with how happy she looks when she is working well. I must remember to keep the fun in the training and not get too hung up on the technicality's. This will help all the dogs as I like the dogs to look happy and enthusiastic when working.

Did a training session this evening with each dog this evening concentrating on keeping the energy high, plenty of reinforcements running aftwer treats and playing. Ruby is playing with me much more happily these days and if I can get her playing well she will respond to cues with enthusiasm. I need to keep her energy level hight to get the attitude I want.

With Saffi at first she didn't really want to play, she was looking for food but I want to get her wotrking for the toy so iI brought her in, tried to get her to play and if she wouldn't I put her out again and brought another dog in and trained that for a few minutes. On the third time of trying Saffi started playing well with her toy. I worked on playing then asking her to leave it and then getting it again when told, keeping the excitement high. I also did some tranistioning from playing with the toy to working for food and back again.

With Ruby I used food working on getting enthusiasm for running for the treat. I could really use a larger area for training as the living room is not really big enough. I concentrated on building Rubys enthusiasm for the treat by moving it round fast before throwing it a little way and pretending to throw it.

01 March 2008

We went to Reedyford Obedience Show near Preston. Dora was entered in Beginners and Novice. II decided to use both rounds as training rounds as this is the last show for Crufts. I took a toy into the ring and played with Dora then handed the toy to the steward who set us up to do some heelwork. this is the part that is most problematic for us. Once the toy has gone Dora tends to switch off and often does not start off when I do in heelwork. It can take anything up to half the round for her to get back to working. The last few days I ahve been setting up as normal and then setting off quickly to try to catch her out a bit I think she is taking more notice of what I am doing.

We did the set up 3 times in Novice. The first time she was quite hard to set up and didn't set off with me. The ring was right by the door so there was a lot to look at, the second and third times she set up much quicker without switching off.

In our beginner round we did the same and Dora set up well and set off with me doing some really nice heelwork.

Ruby was entered in beginners. I also did a training round with her. We did our round right at the end of the day. My only criteria was for her to play in the ring and not stress out. We had been in and out of the building several times during the day and she had been playing with a stuffed toy outside the ring in short bursts. I still need to keep a close eye on Ruby if other dogs come to close to us as she will nip them or react but the reactions now tend to be only one woof, She recovers very quickly.

We went into the ring with the toy and I set off straight into heelwotrk. The Steward was wandering about the ring. Ruby kept an eye on her but was not unduly worried. We did a circle of heelwork. Not really close but Ruby was paying attention to me most of the time. After a few steps of nice heeklowrk I clicked and produced the toy. She was able to play with it enthusiastically. I then did a very short recall, just the leads length into a present. No finish but she was able to do that and then had another play. no retrieve as I didn't want ot push her too hard. We talked to the judge afterwards and she was quite happy to let the judge stroke her head and ears. her eyes were nice and soft and her tail was not tucked. I was very pleased.

Steve was stewarding at the show and at lunchtime he went over Ruby. Ruby stod well for him. Steve took it very slowly and gradually worked up to running his hands right down her back. Her eyes were soft and her tail not tucked. HEr spine was straight. she only curved away from him once briefly. I left her harness on and of course the environment was different from a breed show.


Ann came to the show with Saffys brother it was lovely to see him again. Saffy had a really good time chasing round wuith him. Kobra was on a long line as he is not always reliable at coming back.They ran round and round us.