Summer Project!?

Well Cheetah and I are continuing to deal with her rebooting and it's going well in practice, we will see how things go in the next few weeks when we start trialing again. In the meantime, I have decided to take on a special summer project. I really liked Susan Garrett's 2x2 weave dvd and would really like to train them. The problem is Cheetah already knows them, and while I could tweak her entrances - I am really not prepared to screw that up. So - I am taking my brothers 8 yo Golden, Max and seeing if I can get him to weave with this method. I tried it today for the first time, and we had two sessions. Let me start be saying if he gets this either Susan or I are geniuses because he doesn't have an operant bone in his body. But he lives on the same property so, I have easy access to him.

I finally got a couple of tenative passes through the weave poles, but it was a bit contrived on my part ( leaning - having the leash in front of him through the poles, I even lured him a couple of times!)I know that is not correct proceedure, and I love freeshaping, and tell my students that they must be paitent and wait it out - but even I can only stand to watch a dog sit there and stare at me for so long before I do SOMETHING to clue him in that he is to move in this direction!

I will keep you posted on our progress - I may even tape some if I get him doing anything at all.

I think I need to power up the clicker with him and try some sort of shaping in general ( box lid - cone - something - ANYTHING ) maybe I can get a few synapses firing that way!

Wish me luck

RECALCULATING!!

Well, between our performances at Nationals and WT Tryouts it became pretty obvious that we need to reboot her contacts! I was talking to Webb at tryouts about her teeter refusal issue and he asked if I had changed her criteria! Well of course...going from a 2o/2o to a running on the a-frame was bleeding into her DW and Teeter performances...DUH!! I could have maaayybee gotten her to stop on the teeter w/o the other two, but she used to stop on all, and now was trying to run on all! I think it was scaring her sometimes, but she just couldn't bear to do it any slower.



So after returning home from tryouts, I gave her her hop-up command...she did it like a charm. I repeated 3x. C/T each rep, then I put her on the whole thing. She stopped like she'd been doing it all along. ( whew) I trained it that week, using mostly hop-ups not too many full frames. I went to class, she stopped. I went to the trial this weekend, and while she didn't stop, she got her contacts and was much better on her DW and teeter. We were 4/4 and she got 2 blues and a 2nd and a 3rd.



I have a new plan to rework my old plan! ( I am all about recycling!) I will have to proof her some more and try to get her all amped up like at trails. I will miss the dream of having a running contact with her, but her 2o/2o is fast and I really think that this is what she needs for her teeter performance to improve.

Sorry I've been so quiet!

I have been so busy lately that I can't even seem to think about posting, much less doing it. I am still working on Cheetah's running contacts, I think they are comming along pretty well. We went to Lebenon, PA on Easter weekend and she had good A-frames there. I have started using a target about 10 feet out and saying touch. She seems to be understanding it pretty well. I need to work on her DW and see what is up with her teeter ( she is coming off way too soon sometimes - othertimes she does fine.)

I will have to upload some sessions and post the itinerary for the spring. This week is Lynchburg and then its off to WT Tryouts.

tonight's contact training

I left the height of the a-frame at 4'11" for one more session. My eye was off a bit, and she was moving strangely?? I kept thinking that she was taking extra strides, and she did severak times, but I kept seeing it even when she was doing it right.

I was on the off side
I was throwing her bait bag and not her chuck-it ball. I believe this was the biggest contributor to the issue. I need to switch up WHAT I throw for her more. I will put this on the grid tommorrow and see what I get.

11 reps:

1. sit - she skitters in to position
2. tunnel - she barely touches the box - but I thought it looked off?
3. tunnel - 3 feet in. one front foot is above the box and the others end up in.
4. tunnel & I switch to the heel side (hoping to get her to do it right) - she has a clean hit - but there is a small half stride extra
5. tunnel - off side again - good striding this time!(PERFECT)
6. sit - off side - PERFECT
7. sit - heel side - 3 in (her right "lead leg" does not go into the box on the second hit - this causes me to bring the box back up ( it was in position - from last session)
8. sit - off side - she still only puts 3 feet in.
9. tunnel -heel side - good !
10. tunnel - off side - I think all four feet were in, the lead leg was high. Whenever she separates her front feet it is not as good.
11. sit - off side - was really quiet. took three strides but ended up with all four feet in the box.

running a-frame 2-21-09

The a-frame is still at 4'11" ( day 2)
She is running on heel side
box is up a bit to start..then I move it down
9 reps
throwing the chuck -it ball

Most of these are actually starting at a sit infront of the the tunnel. If she is taking the tunnel, then I have the send to the tunnel in it.

1. good job - touches the yellow a little high but within the box!
2. good job!
3. good job! (moving the box down)
4. misses the box - no reward
5. send to the tunnel - PERFECT!!!!!
6. great job!
7. send to the tunnel - PERFECT!!!
8. Send to the tunnel - PERFECT!!! moved down into position
9. PERFECT!


I was very happy with this session!

Cheetah's A-frame Training 2/17 /2009

Tues - I put the a-frame up to 4'11" and I also put the box up on the a-frame a bit. In this session, she did 10 reps on the off side.
Throwing her chuck-it ball

1. good job - was high in the yellow but well within the box (sit in front of the tunnel)
2. better - was deeper in the yellow ( sit infront of the tunnel)
3. send to the tunnel - good job!
4. sit in front of the tunnel - great job!
5. send to the tunnel - hit the top of the box
6. sit - great -nice and deep
7. send to the tunnel - high hit the box
8. send to the tunnel - PERFECT!
9. Perfect ( moved the box down)
10. using decelleration - good job!

Cheetah's A-frame Training 2/16 /2009

I just posted Cheetah's video from the two trainning sessions we had this week. On Monday, I had the a-frame at 4'9" ( this was the second day of that height)

She did reps: ( all in Heel side) - all me throwing the chuck-it ball

1. hit the top of the box ( no reward)
2. good - all four in the box - threw ball
3. perfect - all four in the box even deeper she hit the sweet spot - threw ball
4. perfect - sweet spot - threw ball
5. bad - her feet separated and she hit the top of the box with her front paw and came off
6.perfect !
7. not good - separated her feet and hit one foot in the yellow but left after that - no reward
8. Good girl - she fixed her self!
9. Not good - she hit too high barely got in the box ( only three got in - she floated one front leg)
10.only three in the box

I will post Tuesday's session information later!