THURSDAY AUGUST 20th
Jinks and Shane came to work. We tested three different
dogs for the adoption floor. Dunn and I took an extended outing at lunch and farted around down by a
dock. She happily jumped off the dock several times, took an off-leash meander
down the beach and we putzed around the little town and ate an ice cream
together -well mostly I had the ice cream and she had the cone cause I don’t
like cones. The best part of having a dog (or a child for that matter) is you can usually pawn off what you don't want to eat.
Jinks
Approx 10 minute training session (divided into two mini
sessions)
-fronts with go-through leg resets. First time training
go-through leg resets. Became quite fluid, needs more proofing.
-FENZI TEAM Level 2 Exercise 6: individual pieces of
behavior chain and then putting together for behavior chain: Left Finish, Wait,
Toy Toss, Eye Contact 2 seconds, Mark 2 seconds, send. Left finish is rusty,
strong wait, lovely eye contact, mark needs a lot of work, broke down as soon
as it entered the chain.
*Realized the next morning that I have the sequence
incorrect and there is no toy/food toss, instead it is a wait, go place treat,
come back, start exercise.
Shane
Approx 15 minute training session (divided into three mini
sessions)
-fronts with platform and go-through leg resets. First time
training go-through leg resets. Became quite fluid, needs further proofing.
-find heel position with platform and backwards cookie reset
w/light angles near end. Coming along well. Able to hold his sit without
slopping for approx. 2-3 seconds! (YAY!)
-Pivots on a food bowl. Making progress towards a 180 turn,
though needing to treat frequently
-FENZI TEAM Level 2 Exercise 6: (Left Finish, Wait, Toy
Toss, Eye Contact 2 seconds, Mark 2 seconds, send.) Need to work on the left
finish completely separately -wants to spin into the finish-, need to work on
the mark -loses toy after eye contact-. Keeps shifting bum when asking for eye
contact -likely asking for too much time on the sit and it’s going sloppy
(Shane has ALWAYS had a sloppy sit). Lovely waits, lovely sends. Just need to
train and proof the individual pieces he’s lacking
Pip
Approx 20 minute training session (divided into two much too
big sessions -cause it’s Pip and he’s nearly impossible to get to quit working
before I do. Plus he tends to get frustrated with the short stuff and feel he did something poorly to end it that fast)
-find heel with platform. Can excellently reset from front,
side and rear. Excellent bouncy, tight left finishes from front. Crisp and
precise. Moving towards auto-sit at heel. Auto sit is excellent with food,
disappears with toy reward. Monkeyed around with toy reward placement -behind,
take, drop in front, ahead, side, between legs- to see if forward focus was our
main enemy. No obvious changes. Will experiment with toy off body behind us in
a later session and graduate up to toy in hand. That said, takes verbal cue to
sit easily when holding toy, so workable on verbal cue at present. Will need to
weigh if it’s worth the training time to train all the cues with the huge ask
of a toy in hand. Benefit: if he can do it with a toy in my hand there’s pretty
much no greater distraction. Con: may eat up a lot of time.
-find front with platform. Need to work from scratch
(haven’t worked true front with this dog in years). Comes to front as if it’s a
flyball line-up -both him and I facing the same way-. Very crooked even with
prop. Might need a different prop, or more props to aid muscle memory.
Definitely needs more through-leg resets to keep him nice and close to body in
front position. Won’t worry too much about precision at this point and will
systematically weed out the worst 20% or so each session.
-FENZI TEAM Level 2 Exercise 6: (Left Finish, Wait, Toy
Toss, Eye Contact 2 seconds, Mark 2 seconds, send.) Worked on pairing physical
and verbal cue for “Up” (look up to me). Was able to take the physical cue
(light touch to shoulder) out and move to verbal. 80% success rate on
first-time verbal. Easily and beautifully moves from Focus to Mark. Will
practice further duration on the focus and mark behaviors to proof for the full
skill. With also polish that “Up” cue on its own a few times before sending it
back into chain. Otherwise skill is mostly hot to trot.
Dunn
-Bumbled around with AJ (1 year old human) and played ball
with him (bringing ball to me which I hand back to him) for about five or ten
minutes. Otherwise laid on my lap.
Total Exercise Time: Dunn
-45 minutes
Total Training Time: Jinks
10 min, Shane 15 min, Pip 20 min, Dunn 5 min
Total Handler Time
Investment: 1 hour 35 minutes
-Dunn inter-dog tested two dogs at work for me (about 20
minutes a dog). We played some disc (rollers), did some restrains to dead ball
and worked focus work in the presence of some hyped up canines. She
begrudgingly posed for pictures as I worked a half-baked stay in my office
chair.
Then took the collies for half an hour to a friend’s agility
equipment over lunch. All three worked teeter -good progress on all three from
both sides despite not being rubberized. Was able to put the teeter into a
small sequence with all three dogs. No fly-offs! Need to proof both Pip and
Jinks to ensure they aren’t turning back on the fulcrum if I’m further behind
or stationary. Need to figure out my old cue system for the teeter for Shane. It’s been over a year since he’s been on a teeter and I know he doesn’t have
the same cue system as either Jinks (Teeter, Easy) or Pip (EASY!!!) ), so need
to figure that out for next time or create something new. Also need to proof a
slight wait on the end of the teeter for Shane even just to ensure his weight is on
the back legs to stop the teeter and hit position. He hit his contact every
time today but I think that was more luck and being slightly more cautious on
the new surface than anything thoughtful.
Worked a 5-6 chain on each of them. Pip worked choosing at
static handler over a tunnel, tight wraps and finally started a rear cross (I
need to figure my shit out on this one -must revisit some online material).
Jinks worked flow and kept herself in the game for about ten minutes
effortlessly (YAY JINKS!). Shane worked on the same choosing a static handler
over a tunnel exercise (it was very hard but I was a smart human and started
small) and tunnel into serpentine. I’m all kinds of agility rusty, so will need
to get back into handling shape. Dogs did awesome considering my rust, their
rust, the equipment and the considerable heat.
All the dogs also got a small 1 minute mini session on six
metal weave poles. Shane has forgotten them from the right side (again, over a
year off now), Pip is having a hard time as he can’t bash through them like the
ones from class -good!- and Jinks’ six weaves look the same as they did a year
ago when she did them. Though she takes awhile to learn something, when its
there it rarely backslides -good for me! Will definitely be working our weaves
up to 12, at least from the left side in hopes of running some standard
starters courses in the not-too-distant future.
-All dogs went swimming after agility. We did a combination
of swimming and hill sprints for approximately an hour. No training, just
having a good time. Fried puppies didn’t move all night.
Total Exercise Time: Everyone
together for an hour
Total Training Time: Jinks,
Shane and Pip split 30 minutes agility
Total Handler Time
Investment: 1.5 hours
Saturday August 22nd
-Work all day/trained five classes, company is over. No one gets anything.
Backyard lounge day. Pet some dogs in the morning before work, pet them again
when I got home for an hour, then bedtime.
Total Exercise Time: None
Total Training Time: None
Total Handler Time
Investment: None
-Went out to the dock for an hour. Everybody including Jinks
jumped off (YAY BRAVE JINKS). Had planned to do some fronts and finishes tonight,
but dogs (minus Pip) are wiped and it’s hot out. Plus company is still in town.
Total Exercise Time:
Everybody: 1 hour
Total Training Time:
None
Total Handler Time
Investment: 1 hour + the drive out and back to the dock
Monday August 24th
Took Dunn and Jinks for an off-leash bumble while AJ
toddled around on the trail. Took a ball without a chuck-it, but didn’t use it
much. Very light distance down/down stay work when the odd leashed dog happened
by, but otherwise left to their own devices for the hour. Did a couple reps of
trading Dunn a kibble for the ball, as she is prone to wanting everyone to
chase her with it, which ends up in a lost ball if Shane isn’t around to search
it out (Jinks does not care that hard)
Individual Training Tonight. Dug out the old scent stuff (I
have new stuff coming this week). We haven’t trained scent for well over a year
and a half now, I think it was the winter of 2015 to be honest. I ditched it
because our working group muddled up enough that she was hitting containers for
the sake of hitting containers and with good weather came the ability to hit
the outdoors again. But between having a kid on a regular sleep schedule,
having most of our training inside now, needing odor for FENZI Team elements
and needing to find some things I could train without class/working
group/direct feedback, I figured it made a lot of “Scents” (Yarhar) to get back
into it.
Jinks
30 minutes scent work.
Normally I NEVER go beyond twenty minutes (most times much
under 10), but this was the happiest I have seen Jinks to work for a very, very
long time. She remembered that stupid smelly tin as if it were yesterday.
Within two small resets I was able to move into actual hides and we spent a
good 30 minutes playing around with different hides in the basement. Under
things, height finds, beside toys, beside the food bin. Though there were a few
I wasn’t certain she’d get, she continued to work them and got all but one.
I worked with my tin in the container without a lid -not the
greatest in terms of cross-contamination, but with weak scent over a year and a
half old and needing to ensure I didn’t go back to teaching her just to hit
containers, it was a good compromise, other than the fact that if I wasn’t
quick enough on calling and clicking the find that she would attempt to fetch
me the tin from the container! I bought a couple of clean tins to ensure I
proof her for smell over tin, but with the way she was working tonight I don’t
think -now that I know a lot more- that I’ll have too much problem dealing with
introducing identical containers
5 minutes obedience work (separate session)
We worked stands @ side out of both down and sit. Typically
I would cue it with verbal and left high target hand signal, but I tried the
right hand pull for the stand and it flows quite a lot nicer (most likely
because the motion mimics you getting up and leaving heel position yourself)
and doesn’t give the backlash of sometimes getting a new auto-sit once the hand
targets stops moving and/or leaves. Will switch the hand signal for clarity.
Worked two little TEAM exercises
First Exercise 2-4 “Stand”, “Sit” and “Down” in heel position with handler marching in
place
Handler starts by “marching” in place and then cues a “stand”, “sit” and “down” in any order.
Handler starts by “marching” in place and then cues a “stand”, “sit” and “down” in any order.
This is coming along really well. Sits
and downs are nice and fluid -no moving-, stand I’m still alternating between
using a lure and not (much easier when the right hand is only being used for
the stand), but she is able to put it into the flow of me marching. Will proof
by mixing order of behaviors and training for up to five position changes
before rewarding.
Second Exercise Level 1 Exercise 10:
“Stay” under distraction with handler close by. Dog holds a “stay” while facing
a food or toy distraction placed approximately 5-10 ft (1.5 – 3 m) away then moves
when given a “release” cue.
Sneaky fidgety bum for the first couple of repetitions.
Proofed it some with feeding first then sending, then tossing back, asking for
heel and then sending. Mostly this is good, but given it’s the last item in a
long sequence I want to pay special attention to proofing this particular item
to a high level.
*Note, Heel Position is very slightly wide (or it might just
be that I am used to Pip who is pretty much glued to my side. Talk to
someone/take video, to ensure that the position is indeed adequate -she is
still very easy to touch.
Shane
10 minutes scent
Introduced to scent (I believe he may have had one or two
sessions previously, but I don’t remember and he didn’t seem to either).
Jackpotting on scent, resetting, driving away to scent, starting elevated scent
and then just started scent around the body. Has a hard time when he can’t see
the container, however was starting to use his nose quite well by the end of
the session.
Too mentally tired to work another session.
Pip
20 minutes scent
Introduced Pip to scent for the first time. Jackpotting on
scent, holding nose to scent, driving away to scent. Session 2 (maybe a three
minute break) he dove himself into hides. He was too fast on a reset cookie to
actually hide anything, so put him at the top of the basement stairs and gave
him hides. Obviously using his nose and very keen, though very rushed (it’s
Pip, everything needs to be completed at MACH5). We’ll need to go back to build
up his commitment to stay at scent and develop an alert, but I am pleasantly
surprised that he is so machine -ike for something that isn’t fast-paced.
Despite the speed somehow he is still thinking (how he can both think and do at
light speed I have no idea).
5 minutes FENZI Obedience Games
We worked the same three exercises as Jinks. First I needed
to figure out a different luring/signalling system for Pip to get his sit/down
to not end up in forward creep (he doesn’t want to fold-back from the side even
though he has never been taught anything but a fold-back down). Left arm over
body, left hand at nose, bend to lure nose to floor with alternating hand feeds
(sometimes left feeds, sometimes right feeds) seems to keep him straight and in
position. Stand from down coming along excellently. Stand from Sit coming well
too, just need to fine tune the precision on it (sometimes back end will get
out of line about 10-15 degrees or so.) Added positions to the exercise where
handler marches in place. Doesn’t make much difference for Pip, other than in
the initial sit to down which should clean up once I can fade the
larger-than-warranted current hand signal.
No problems with the sit, wait, place toy, back, wait, send
exercise to a treat. That skill is good to rumble. As per usual left finish is
beautiful.
Dunn
2 minute scent
Wasn’t too hungry tonight. Chewed the kibble thirty times
before swallowing and slow to offer. Possibly going into heat. Introduced to
scent, was happy to come back and play slowly, but ended early as I don’t want
to train the laisse-fair attitude in. Easily sticks her head in the tin and
started to understand that the container could move left and right.
Total Exercise Time
Dunn: 1 hour
Jinks: 1
hour
Total Training Time
Jinks: 35
min
Shane: 10
min
Pip: 25 min
Dunn: 3 min
Total Owner
Time Investment: 2 hour 13 min
Tuesday July 25th
Company
still over and Jerrad away for work, so no time to get out for a run or swim
tonight. Instead we all did some scent work and Jinks and Pip worked some basic
obedience/rally stuff between scenting.
Jinks -15 minutes
Started
exterior hides tonight. Took awhile to get into it and around minute three I
was going to call it, but after finding her third easier hide she put two and
two together and pulled out ten or so nice exterior hides within the next few
minutes. I left her to a sit/wait while placing the hide, but for the last four
hides I did a minute of obedience work in between so I could be sure she wasn’t
relying on watching (and to mix myself up a little bit too).
For
obedience we worked position changes from front. Stand from sit is quite wonky
from front -gotta monkey around with hand signal/hand target placement I think
(though since I’m only going to really need it from a distance I might see if
adding the distance cleans it up on its own). Worked on the moving stand and
moving down. Both very solid behaviors.
She keeps
trying to retrieve my container for scent if I can’t get there fast enough
-which is pretty much all the time at this juncture. Need to find a way to
either clean that up or make it an impossible option. On the bright side it’s a
pretty damn good indication she found the thing :P
Shane -5 minutes
Moving the
container around the back deck. Started to mostly hide it underneath things,
added a little bit of height. Shane is using his nose more but lacks drive to
keep searching -ironic because when it comes to a tennis ball the dog is a
hunting machine. Tried to push towards ten minutes as I got it yesterday, but
he softened up on me around minute four and started to get wet noodly. Ended it
on an easy hide and allowed him to jump into my arms and kiss my face for good
measure.
Pip -20 minutes
Did a couple
of easy exterior hides (aka, not even a real hide, just hanging out outside a
distance from me) and was able to move to more advanced hides. We did about
fifteen or twenty hides, including elevated, under tarps and in buckets. He
completed each in less than a minute. He has a very obvious cue that he’s found
scent and is naturally developing a want to stay near scent. Although he
tackles scent with the intensity of an army recruit defusing a bomb he is
starting to develop a search pattern. Suffice to say he’s an intensely smart
workaholic. I’ll pull things out to proof better as we go, but for now I’m
going to let him dictate how fast this train can move.
For the last
five to ten hides we did a minute or so of obedience work in between. Mostly we
worked on stands, ensuring we don’t move to auto-sit territory. Worked a bit on
stand-waits too -will hopefully be able to start putting them into handler slow-motion this
week.
Dunn -5 minutes
Moved the
scent container around the back deck with Dunn. Much more engaged tonight.
Wants to move to a digging action to her scent, which for now I’m going to
reward but will move to rewarding exclusively nose or paw/nose combinations.
She’s just starting to actively use her nose and at the end of the session I
did two “mostly hides” where just the end of the container poked out. The first
time I think she found it based on the container, but the final time it seemed
much more she found it by scent.
Total Exercise Time
N/A
Total Training Time
Jinks: 15
min
Shane: 5 min
Pip: 20 min
Dunn: 5 min
Total Owner
Time Investment: 45 min
Wednesday July 26th
Had good
intentions to go swimming today, but my car is configured for company and I was
too lazy to reconfigure it for a dog crate. So I took Pip, Jinks and Dunn out
individually for combination training/exercise time. Being that I strive to be
as lazy as possible while being as effective as possible, I like to combine
mental and physical exercise as much as I can.
Pip -20 min
Brought out
six weaves poles and we started working different entries with speed using pole
wraps, which is typically difficult territory for him as in terms of agility he
is GO FAST, think later. Today he thought a lot and managed to do some really
nice work while maintaining as much speed as he realistically can. This will
always be Pip’s biggest challenge -managing to self-control his speed enough to
be accurate. I toss some 30+ yard discs on the end of his weaves. A) Exercise
and B) get him really driving hard out of those weaves -not that this is a
problem to begin with-. Not necessarily great weave-rewarding technique, but
po-tay-to, po-tah-to really.
We started
some right side entries too, which we had just started a year and some ago and
haven’t put back into the line-up (hey, at this point I would be sufficiently
happy with a Starters Standard Q, so I likely don’t NEED that skill for awhile
anyway. -Yaya, I should, I will, there’s just other fish in the sea at the
moment-)
Jinks -15 min
Same
exercises as Pip, though I brought the poles closer in as Jinks already
overthinks her entrances and I wanted to ensure building skill while not
turning her into a cautious slug. Good from both sides, got a little distance
on her wraps. Drove hard for her discs as a reward (there was a point not so
very long ago that she literally could not pair two things from two sports
together (like an agility jump to a disc or a weave to a disc). Mostly we just
farted around and got good solid weaving and driving. Again, not looking for
Masters or Worlds type weaves here, just consistency and confidence. I almost overdid the session, but managed to
quit before she did. I’m not quite sure what’s been up with Jinks the last
couple of weeks, but she’s REALLY been wanting to work and in a lot of ways is
becoming the most reliable worker in the household. -Who would have guessed!
Dunn -20 min
Walked Dunn
the block and a bit off-leash from the house to my field. That’s right -my JACK
RUSSEL mix- was basically at heel for a block and a half without a leash, with
dogs walking on the street across from us, with traffic going, and did not
leave. She’s developed quite the little skill set, but mostly she actually
cares a great deal what I think. If we manage nothing else in her lifetime,
this is more than enough.
We played
lots of disc with oodles of rollers and some 15-20 yarders. She caught a bunch
both grounders and lots in the air, worked on her out, did some rebounds and leg
vaults and mostly played her wee brain out until I got greedy and she gave me
the finger and told me to go get my damn disc myself. Whoops. That was dumb. Terrier
is not a Pip. Terrier's toy play is all shaped and fake. I really shouldn’t need reminding…
Had
intentions of working Shane, but was sweaty and tired. He’s was hanging out getting
belly rubs from my dad anyway. Eh. He’s really just a lovely glorified
house-pet who loves flyball. I’ll take him out tomorrow to play some
disc, since it’s been awhile since he’s had his own exercise time. Shoot me, it’s
been so hot out lately we pretty much just swim these days, and Shane swims
twice as much as anyone else, so he’s good.
Jinks: 15
min
Shane: N/A
Pip: 20 min
Dunn: 20 min
WEEKLY
BREAKDOWN:
465 minutes (or
7.75 hours) of actively playing/training with my personal dogs. Basically just over an
hour a day, divided between EVERYONE -that’s four dogs. Of course that’s not
including the times we hang out, the times I pick up their poo, the times I
feed them or all the evening snuggles that take place. That all takes time too. But really, those times should take up a lot more time than the training anyway (just don't ask Pip his opinion on the matter).
If you've made it all the way down this page, you truly deserve a cookie! If you'd like to take up the challenge to jot down your training adventures, give me a shout. I would love to know what you're up to!
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