Saturday July 29th
Long day of
work. Took Shane, Pip and Dunn out to play some disc for about 15 minutes a
piece.
Shane -15 min- we went off leash the
block and a bit to the park, working on heeling with side sits. These were
looking pretty good for Shane, especially as his legs weren’t wonky. He tends
to sit a bit more forward than he should (his wanted position is sitting on my
feet), but that’s okay. I will separate the placement out from the side sit.
Right now I’m just looking for mostly sit parallel two-front position. I’ll get
a leash out later and help a little with leash pressure, or work on positions
with platforms if my session is more about precise placement. Once at the worked
the better part of his session bringing the disc to hand without any verbal cue
before I would throw another. The first several throws of any session Shane
likes to do a lot of regripping and will sometimes stop short of a full return.
We also did some monkeying around with disc placement, continuing on to a
straight second disc without turn back (he tracks it really well but there’s a
load of spinning). We also fuddled with a three-disc pattern for an UpDog game
called Time Warp.
Pip -15 min-. We played similar disc
games and patterns as Pip. We worked two discs up, and then worked a disc from
about 30 yards to a disc at about 20 yards. I’m working different patterns for
a game called TimeWarp in UpDog, where the dog needs to catch a 30 yard, a 20
yard and a 10 yard in the fastest amount of time. Unlike Shane who tracks and
waits very well (aka saves my ass a lot), Pip has a lot more difficulty on the
far toss to close toss and has a habit of grossly overrunning. I think with him
we’ll focus on the zigzag and herding circle 10, 20, 30 approach, but will keep
practicing the other.
Dunn -20 min-. Didn’t realize I overdid
the time until I got home. Dunn went off-leash on the walk and worked both
pre-mack and activation on the way. Basically what this means is whenever I stop
-usually because she is slightly far ahead-, I stop. She needs to choose to lie
down (if there’s grass) to get me to continue on my way -behavior to life
reward-, or choose to come back into heel (another behavior to life reward).
She is exceptional at this. Although I was concerned about taking a one year
old terrier on the streets unleashed, she is an exceptional little walker. Once
we got to the field we played with 215s tonight and she was catching them at
10-20 like MAD! (I can also throw them decently unlike her Atoms, so that helps
a buttload). I’m not exactly sure how I feel with a not quite 14” dog and that
big of disc, as her landings sometimes have the disc smash the ground and then
smash her face, but I will play with them further to see if she just needs time
to figure out an altered jump muscle memory for the bigger disc. She is still
figuring that out with the small disc, so as long as she is keen and there is
no bloody tongue bites, we’ll play with these larger discs for awhile. Dunn is hilarious
the way she brings a disc back right to my hands -which means she has to jump a
good ways to get the disc there-. Then she just hangs on. Her favorite is being
swung around. She enjoys tug now -enough to use as a motivator-, but that
swinging is where the real reward is for her. She knows how to hang on tight,
so although it’s not my favorite reward in the book, it’s the one I’m going to
use as it makes her the happiest.
Too tired to
take Jinks out. She doesn’t seem to mind anyway. Despite the fact the last few
months she has been really keyed into training, I do have to make a solid
effort to give her at least two -if not closer to four- days a week where she
does absolutely nothing. She has mental spoons to keep hold of.
Exercise/Training
-today it’s pretty much one and the same.
Shane -15
min
Pip -15 min
Dunn -20 min
Handler Investment: 55 min
Sunday July 30th
Shane’s 4th
Birthday Today! It is also hotter than the hubs of Hades, so I’m pretty darn
happy I choose to have a rare “do nothing” day and skip the UpDog disc trial in
town. Before it got so hot that we all needed to go pant away inside with the
fans on, I took everyone out to play some disc.
Dunn -5 min-. Dunn didn’t last long before
I got the terrier finger of “yeah frigging right”. Most likely just too much disc
in too short a time period. Even though her drive looks beautiful a lot of the
time now, I have to keep reminding myself I’ve put 95% of it there. We spent
more time getting back and forth to the park than we did doing disc. No
worries. I have enough dogs to work, it’s not like it affects me much if a
player wants to sit on the bench for the day.
Shane -15 min-. Worked on that heeling
to the park like yesterday. When we got there I just threw discs until he
decided on his own time that he was tired. Basically as soon as my dogs don’t
bring to hand I know they are toasted. So did maybe fifteen or twenty long (30
ish) throws. He would still have gone more, but after a minute of a disc not
coming to a hand I know tired is tired.
Jinks -25 min-. Jinks and I had
disagreements on how far away she was allowed to be on a city street. When I
street walk I except them to be no more than six or so feet ahead of me -the
length of a standard leash-. It took Jinks and I awhile to get to the damn park
as she kept wanting to be 10+ feet away, going on her merry Jinks way. Often
Jinks likes to forget that rules apply to Jinks. It would have been easier just
to do the leash, but I’m lazy and I’d really like to get the one and a half
blocks each way without needing a leash -ironically everyone except Jinks walks
better without the leash anyway-. Next time I’ll decide if it’s worth the
training session in and of itself. Once at the field I threw discs until she
decided it was time. Same as Shane, she got maybe fifteen or twenty long (30
ish) throws. Mostly happy she didn’t quit on me as it was starting to get quite
warm.
Pip -10 min-. Same as the other two
collies, except I made Pip quit. Even though he’s a little more mature these
days and will now pace himself, he won’t retire himself from the game. It was
getting up there in heat, so we ended throws at about ten long throws and then
worked on back up. He’s getting a pretty good distance now, we just need to
work on straightness and continuity. Also need to re-create a smaller-distance
one without the disc-in-hand cue.
We also
headed to flyball. It was stupid hot with no air-conditioning, so only Dunn
(still in training) and Shane (birthday) came. Shane did about five minutes of
work and barked for some other dogs -because he is a good barking helper dog-.
Dunn had two sessions -one close up box stuff and the other building from one
jump to lane work-. She surprised the shit out of me and played for a tug
today. I think she will eventually play for a tug in competition too (which
would be AWESOME), but I will need to dial back the tug helicoptering/swinging
-which is unfortunately Dunn’s favorite part of the whole thing-. She wants her
feet off the ground and dangling as she thrashes. There are some dogs out there
playing that also do this -just to a smaller extent- so I think I will just
need to wean down swinging to an acceptable level. But overall YAY DUNN!
Since there’s
so much running in both sports, classifying all exercise today as
Exercise/Training hybrids.
Jinks –25 min
Shane –20
min
Pip –10 min
Dunn -15 min
Handler Investment: 1 hour, 10 minutes
(direct time). We were at flyball practice for two hours.
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