Crosses Groundwork

Life continues to interfere with our training recently.  Disappointing when the temps are cooler and winter is approaching.  But life is what life is. 

Nothing new in our training of late.  The little I've done has just been reminding Shasta of the things she already knows.

A week ago or so Kris did film a small piece of the crosses groundwork I am doing.  It includes front crosses, a blind cross, a rear cross, a couple of rear crosses on the flat.  And what I think is some pretty good lateral distance as well.

First sequence includes a Front cross, Blind cross, Rear on the Flat, Front and Front cross.

Second sequence has a Front cross and a standard Rear cross.

Third sequence is a Rear on the Flat and a Front cross.

I'm pleased with her speed and skills at this point.  She does a great job of reading my body and the cues.  Sequence-wise there already is not much that she can't do, in the comfy confines of our back yard.

A Whole Lotta Nothing

It's been three weeks since I've posted anything and it's fitting because there has been a whole lotta nothing going on.  Between three day show weekends, work, weather, mom and general malaise on my part, I have not done much training with her the last few weeks.

The one thing of progress is that I have moved Shasta on to the full height teeter.  I had gone so slowly and incrementally with the puppy teeter, bringing it almost to the same height as the full size, I expected moving to the full size teeter to be no big deal.  That was not quite right.  It was not incremental to Shasta to go from a wood, sanded teeter to an aluminum, rubber teeter.  I think the vibration was different for her.

Her first couple she got off as soon as it tipped.  Then she refused going up.  A teeny bit of gentle pressure got her back up the teeter but she didn't want to stay on it.  It took about 10-12 tries over two nights before she finally was comfortable enough with it to stick the bottom.  Now, it's all systems go.

Her dogwalk is now great, no apprehension at all.  Somehow, my "break" command got more confusing during our lack of training.  I have some work to do there.

Dogwalk Transition

Shasta is eight months old today!  I can't believe she is already eight months and I can't believe she is only eight months.  If that makes any sense.

About a week ago I decided to make the transition from the puppy dogwalk that we have to the "regular" dogwalk which for us is the old small size AKC dogwalk. 

It's tough to know exactly when to make these changes.  She was very confident on the puppy dogwalk, approaching it with good speed.  She was able to navigate slightly crooked entries.  She had lost her balance a few times on the puppy dogwalk and she jumped off the dogwalk every time, never just fell off.  Exactly what I was looking for.  So I felt like we were ready.

I was a bit surprised by how different she was initially on the higher dogwalk.  To me it didn't look like that much of an increase in slope.  Clearly Shasta didn't agree with my assessment!

I spent the first few days debating if she had become too tentative and if I should go back to the puppy dogwalk.  But I guessed that it wasn't that she isn't ready for the higher walk but that it was a transition we would have to work through regardless of when we moved up in size.  So we continued to work on it.

As of tonight, I felt like I saw a big improvement.  She is still approaching it with what looks like great concentration, a bit slow.  But she looks very relaxed and comfortable to me now when going up and over it.  I think the speed is going to pick up soon.  As I've mentioned a couple of times in this blog, I continue to be convinced that for her more than the most dogs, speed will go with confidence.

Sequencing Video

A quick 45 second video of Shasta doing a little jump sequencing.  The first half has two front crosses and a serpentine.  The second half has two rear crosses.  And a wrong course!

Good speed, good skills.  I am very happy where we are at.

Cik/Cap, Zig/Zag

Training continues to go well right now.  We are working on some really nice sequences of jumps (bars on the ground).  She is now happier about doing "just jumps".  Previously she knew the rewards came fast and furiously on the teeter and dog walk so anything else was understandably second-rate to her.   I am really happy with the sequencing.  I'm already quite comfortable with most front crosses, blind crosses, rear crosses, wraps, 180s.  It's going really well.

We watched Sylvia Trkman's Cik/Cap video.  It's her way of teaching collection and tight turns.  It's basically doing the cone work that I've already done with the dogs but with a few tweaks and a slightly more detailed process.  I watched it for Sonic and am going to try it with Sonic (at least for a while).  But while I'm doing it with Sonic I figured I might as well do it with Shasta too.  We'll see how it goes.

Sylvia uses the commands Cik (pronounced like "sick") and Cap (pronounced like "sap").  I wasn't sure I could use those without confusing myself so I decided to use Zig and Zag.  If it does work out, I'm sure the commands will be confusing to others watching us!

Patience, Clark, Patience

Nothing much new in the process this week.  I raised the teeter a couple of links and it made no difference in the performance that I could tell.  I've been doing slightly longer sequences with the mini jumps and the few other obstacles we do and it's going very well. 

Now we are at that point.  That point where I know I need to show a little patience.  She is progressing very nicely.  It's that point where I am wanting to train the things that she is not physically ready for.

I don't think it's impatience with progress.  I'm not in a hurry that way.  I think it's mostly from wanting to know.  Wanting to know if dropping bars will be an issue.  Wanting to know if she will have the great weaves that Roxy and Sonic have had or not. 

There is also wanting to avoid trouble.  Our back yard is filled with full height obstacles for the other dogs.  I am looking forward to the time when Shasta is doing those obstacles so I don't have to worry about her taking one without my intention and without being prepared for that step. 

And, quite frankly, it would be convenient.  To be able to use the same teeter, the same dog walk (we have the old AKC short height walk), leave jumps at 20 inches and put the puppy stuff away.

Patience.  I've heard it's a virtue.  Hopefully I can be virtuous for a while.

Shasta - This is a Great Dog

This has nothing to do with training but I want to write again, Shasta is a great, great puppy.  Yesterday I was finally cleaning my closet and 5 minutes into it, there is Shasta, literally lying in the closet.  Love how she finds herself close to me all the time without being shy or lacking confidence.  I don't know what the future holds in the ring but she is an awesome companion.

I know it's the "Roxy factor" but I am already worrying about how short of a life she will have.  Hopefully I can get over that to a certain extent, at least not worry about it consciously as I do now.

We've been training some over the last week but it's hard to do much when it continues to be HOT.  Or more accurately, HUMID.  What a stretch.  Dewpoints 65-75 for over a week.  Maybe over two weeks. 

But the little I've done has continued to go well.  She fell/jumped off the mini-dog walk once.  That's a good thing, I want her to learn how to fall off while it's low.  She might not be a mudder.  That is, if we show outside in the rain, I don't think she is going to be a willing participant.  She really hates the rain at this point.  But she might be a good... what...  heater?  ;-)  Shasta is showing me that she can work focused and with normal drive in the heat.

A post or two ago I mentioned how fast she does this short little sequence that she is comfortable with because we've done it a number of times.  Here is a 20 second video of it.