A big bull!!

And he had one thing on his tiny brain. Poor old girl. Goodness! It's like robbing the nursing home for crying out loud!!!!

They say the maples won't have much color this year. I think this section of woods will be OK and look pretty in a few days.

Here is another video of Spur's "experimenting". 80% which isn't so bad. And I REALLY like some of his hits. Deeper than ever.

Today we had two sessions. First one was about 70%, lots of experimenting. Second session was 100%, but I can tell he was tired. It was after our first session and after a long farm walk and after his dinner. About an hour after his dinner, but still I think he was tired. However, he was thoughtful and had some interesting hits. Experimenting.

Tomorrow and AKC trial. Damn it, supposed to rain. I am really getting sick of bad weather for outdoor trials. I mean, shit, this is fall in New England and supposed to be the ultimate in good weather. SHIT!

Spur's running contacts! YAY!

Silvia said....."your project is finished". So, we haven't done any more training on it. What I have had to do is some teeter work. Not having a teeter to do every single day really hurt. He refused it several times at class and trials. I finally painted a new plank and put it together and he now does it every day on our way out for our farm walks. It is helping, a LOT!!

This video is from a match yesterday. He wasn't super fast like in training, but pretty fast for being nervous at a trial-like setting. And good contacts every time. Very deep in two of them. And look at that fairly confident teeter. And that is a LOUD, scary teeter!!! Good little Monkey Pants!!



We have had several trials since stopping the training work and he has not missed a contact. It sure seems to be a very solid behavior for him. He really is brilliant and tries so hard for me! I love the little guy! He is really starting to enjoy the work without worry.

Spur's latest running session

This was our first time with 100% success rate!! Been waiting for that to happen!! GOOD LITTLE MONKEY PANTS!!!! Silvia was SO right. No surprise there. I can't wait to send her some stuff to critique and see what she says.




I know the idea is to eventually reward only running and not jumping and technically he has many "jumps" here. True running is when back feet are seperated and he does have many hits here with back feet together. Now, that said I have videoed him on the flat and he isn't a dog that runs with feet very much seperated, but they are seperated. You can see in the slow motion how when his feet are together his body has a more humped form. Feet seperated and he is more in a straight body form. It is SO subtle and REALLY hard to tell in real time, thus my use of the hit it boards, but I am getting better at seeing it. My biggest trouble is tossing the ball. I may try using my chuck-it next time. You would not think tossing a ball was so hard, but there are times when it launches high and it really needs to be tossed low along the ground. You can see his head up on the top ramp and I think those are times when the ball has been tossed too high. I would like his head lower along the top ramp, ultimately, but that's all being way too picky at this stage.

I am very pleased with this session. To have no misses is really a nice feeling. All other sessions have been around 80% success.

We have a ROCK STAR!!

Or maybe I should call him a Trial Junkie? He SO loves a busy, loud, nutty trial!! It fuels him! His contacts were all great! I got more comments about them!! Good little guy had his Monkey Pants on, for sure!!! He isn't as fast, yet, as he is when we practice, but almost! Our practice lately has been in a place he is a bit uncomfortable and so these runs are nearly as fast. I need to figure out how to time the runs. I guess maybe just get a stop watch and time the video?



I wish I had his jumpers run, but for some reason it is all blurry. That does happen if the camera doesn't "lock" on to something at the start. It was a REALLY nice jumpers run!!!

Roscoe was out of sorts. Just not himself, for sure. Strange, because he has always like this place. I think the crate room was cold. He hated to have to wear his coat all day in the crate. I had a snuggle safe disk warmed for him, but just wearing his coat is a bummer to him. Not his favorite deal, but it was too cold without it. He did fine, though, he's such a pro.

Spur FREAKIN' ROCKED!!!

I know this sounds a little snooty, but it's true........CPE isn't the most competitive venue, but I still enjoy it and the people there. It was a nice show, but I have to admit there wasn't the most intense competition there. Spur won every class, beating all dogs in all levels in each class except one. He is in level 3, but I compared to all levels just for fun. The one standard class two other dogs beat him by fractions of a second, but he did refuse the teeter. No refusals in CPE, so it was a "clean" run and he was still just fractions of a second slower than the two other dogs with faster times.

He FREAKIN' ROCKED!!! This video is Fullhouse and was his first class. You basically gather as many points as possible before the buzzer then run to the table to stop the clock. Nice first class that you can design your own course. He starts off a little slow, but then quickly picks up speed. Watch his second dog walk!! YAY Spur Man!!! That was a NICE dog walk.



I got his standard run, but that's all for video. Today I'll try to get more, if possible. I didn't stay for his jumpers score, but he was SMOKIN' and if he didn't run faster than all the other dogs I would be surprised. He was ON FIRE!! Definitely has his groove back!!!!

Running dog walk session yesterday.

Decided to raise it to full height. At the trial Saturday he refused it twice and I really think it was because it looked like a teeter. Since our work the last three weeks has been on a lowered dog walk? Although one refusal could have been simply a tunnel choice, always a given. Something we do work on, but in a trial he will almost always chose a tunnel if that is a descrimination. The other one I don't know, he just went all the way around it. It was strange. There wasn't an off course option. Anyway, I thought it would be good to put it back to full height and check it out. So, here he is from yesterday. I LOVE how he DRIVES forward on his very first run!!! And how we have lots of good ones before a jump. That's cool! And the jumps I think have a lot to do with ball toss. Although there was one lobbed toss and he still got it. He SHOULD still get it no matter how the ball is tossed, but really that's asking a LOT at this point. The last one is a jump, but we didn't try again because he had a major meltdown when the ball his the bulletin board and the erasor dropped in front of him. Oi! No use trying to go again, especially with so many good ones.

I LOVE his run at 45 seconds or there abouts. LOVE that one!!! He looks relaxed and fast. He is still adjusting his stride a fair amount, but what I see happening here in this session are more runs where his body is lower. That's the posture I want, not so much that I am watching stride, but a lowered head/posture means faster more consistent striding. When his body humps up a little on the down is when he is adjusting and having to add a stride to get the contact. That's GOOD (to get the contact), but ultimately I want a more relaxed run. He's a good little guy!!! I do think he enjoys it, although the first jump with a no reward (I didn't mark it at all verbally this time), produced a very down expression. Not sure why, but he was a bit bummed. Maybe because previously he had been SO rewarded? I don't know. He seemed to recover, but there is a run where you will see his ears go back and a tiny slow down. That was because the up ramp bounced. In the next run you will see I added a support there. (Kind of wish I had added boob support, as I got so hot I flung off my sweater and forgot that this would be on youtube = public. Whatevahhhhhh..........)

Spur's running session from Sunday

You might want to turn down the volume. Douce is barking in the background. We used that to help Spur. He had a bad meltdown coming into the building this time. Not sure what got him, but he was all down and wierd. I wasn't sure we were going to get anything out of him, so I am very pleased with this session. I see more success early on. Still too many jumps, but some fairly good speed for being in a bit of a funk. Apparently this work is rewarding enough that he snaps out of it. I really wanted to see more speed and confidence this time, but I am VERY happy he worked through his funk. :D

Last session was definitely improved speed with several 7 strided DW's. Ultimately, I know his comfort zone would be 6 strides, but 7 is pretty good. When he runs it with 8 strides I see him really work to adjust to hit the contact, 7 strides looks easier. 6 strides looks relaxed, fast and comfortable, so ultimately I think that may be our goal. However, I really don't care much about strides, so long as he is confident and happy. At the trial last weekend I think he had about 10 strides because his up and top part were slow, but he had good speed coming down and there was a 45 degree turn and he ran all the way through the contact even with me pulling off a little, so that's just FABU!!!

There is a yahoo group discussing running DW's and they got on to the difference between rotary gallop and transverse gallop. Um........WHAT??? OK, I DO know the difference, but guys, I study Spur's stride a LOT and I can tell you I have no idea when he runs his DW what form he takes. He definitely has his back feet closer together than is ultimate. A rotary gallop allows for the feet to hit the ground in more places with back feet seperated and therefore no jumping, but HELLOOOOOOOOOO Muffin Heads.............WTF???? I just can't see what's going on when I am running, when Spur is running, when I am tossing the ball, it's all just a bit of a blur. Thus the hit-it boards. I need that sound to tell me when he hits it. Plain and simple, I just can't see it. Some say they can hear their dogs in a rotary gallop vs a transverse gallope. OK, your dogs must have heavier foot falls than mine. ME, I have too heavy a foot fall, so I can't hear wee Spur's foot fall. OMFREAKINGOD!!!! The mind starts to spin.

Lots of discussion going on lately and it's odd, just odd.

Odd discussions. Counting dead birds or strides on the dog walk. What? Actually, it seems like there should be MORE discussion about dead birds, but I haven't seen any. Why are all those birds dying?? And fish?? We saw birds at the beach today. I didn't count them.

Spur's strides are interesting to count. A this new place his striding is very different. I think ultimately I want a six stride dog walk. I think that's an attainable goal. I have seen him do that. Two strides up is pretty common. At HT's every time he was two strides up. Then on the top he would be either two or three. On the down I think we only had one that was two strides.

At FF, the new place? He wasn't that fast on the up or the top. I think maybe the jump was too close, too worrisome, perhaps I should have started him with a tunnel? Whatever, he did increase speed as we did reps. His strides down were three each time, but they were faster.



Slo mo -



Any ideas about the birds? I mean, seriously, Muffin Heads, dead birds are falling from the sky!!! It's just not right!!!!

Strides on the dog walk. Do you think that could be the title of a book?

Torture tags? Or license tags? Or some sort of joke, like how funny is that dog with the bullseye!!

It's like nearly 1/4 the size of his collar, for crying out loud!He might end up like the dog on the Grinch. Tipping over and walking on his front legs. It's a JOKE!!!
We never use tags. I can't stand clanking, dangling, clinking, obnoxious "jewelry" on my dogs. If I were a dog, PLEASE do not load me down with tags. Especially a 9lb dog!! Put a name plate on my collar, so I can live in peace. I know dogs get used to it, the sound of metal to metal, the whapping of their necks as the tags bang around, but seriously Muffin Heads.........Would YOU want that flopping around as you navigated life, every single minute you moved? Clanking and banging and whapping you in the neck? I think not. But, you - know it is the law. Technically the law. I keep my tags in my purse and have lovely little name plates with the dog's name and our phone number on them. To me, if I were a dog, that's what I would want. Sorry law.

Yesterday we did more running contacts at a new place. I have video, but I figured out how to capture stills from video. I am getting SO techno geeky!!!! Stills from video aren't that great, but he does LOOK fast, A?
We had moments of brilliance, but being this is a fairly new place - he has been here a few times before and been on this dog walk twice before - he was a bit slower and had more stride adjustments. Although, interestingly the stride adjustments occurred on the up and top. Down ramp had more speed and fewer adjustments. The last session at HT's he was two strides up and two/three on top, then stride adjusting on the down. He's an interesting subject, little Spur-minator!!

What made me so sore?

I forget how much exercise this is. OI!
This was two days ago and I am STILL sore! Running on rubber is different. Not sure why, but it is. Maybe I should go out for a run this morning? It helps me SO much, but good GRIEF, I hate it. I shouldn't say I hate it, because I sure do feel better when I am doing it, but I really struggle to do it. It just isn't ME, so let's just say I REALLY don't like running! But, it sure does help me and I sure do like running agility. I suppose I could make one of those New Year's resolutions. -

Run a mile or two, um.......what if I made it really reasonable and lame..........like.........run a mile once/week? Is that just really lame? Yes. But, if I give myself a very, very EASY goal it may be attainable and surpassable. Is surpassable a word? I don't think so, but who says you can't make up words? Something is better than nothing, right? And I do have to start somewhere.

Winter running contact work

I tried some work on the full dog walk, but the snow is deeper out there and very hard to toss the ball. I switched to the frisbee which skims across the top and that worked pretty well except it skimmed into the horse pasture!! It may take some adjustment. I may try raising the practice planks in the dog yard.

Spur's running contacts!

His speed is definitely improving. Now, though, I am seeing some stride adjustment as he looks for me to toss the ball in advance. Way less stride adjustments on the down ramp, but now just as he reaches the top he adjusts and if you look closely on some runs he turns his head ever so slightly to watch me toss the ball. I'll have to ask Silvia about that. I may have to vary more when I toss the ball.

This session had an 80 percent success rate. I'll take that since the two jumps were probably more to do with bad throws. With gloves on the ball was sticking just a little and my throws were horrible. One, you can see, ends up under the dog walk. Doi!! That's the one where he stops dead at the end.

Oh man, that sucked

Long weekend. REALLY long. Thanksgiving was driving 3 hours to CT, dinner there, driving 3 hours home. Ugh. Friday a seminar with Lo Baker. YAY!! One of my favorite trainers!! It was a beginner seminar and I brought Spur. He did AWESOME in the morning. Not super fast, but really awesome contacts, and some other great stuff..........then BAM..........he crashed the double.

O-MY-GOD the world came down upon him. His tailed tucked down, his ears fell, his head hung low.........he melted into a furry mass of worry, worry, worry. Lo is aware this can happen, so she quickly had me do a tunnel and reward. OK, this is all well and good and yes he did that tunnel and got that reward, but that doesn't inflate him again. He deflated and started his paw wringing and I turn into a pile of worried, unthinking mush along with him. We both crumble and melt. We are like a pair of nervous field mice scrambling to escape the sure grip from the circling hawk. It sucks the life out of me and Spur.

It's like my brain goes black. Can that happen? Can you turn your brain a dark color? Maybe not black, there are still some thoughts in there, so maybe a foggy grey? Very foggy.

He seems to recover OK, but just OK. Did a few awesome teeters, where Lo commented on how nice they were. OK, the fog cleared a little. Just a little.

The next day was a USDAA trial. First class........Jumpers. OK, the fog is there and I can't help it. Not his favorite class. Jumps, all jumps. He does just OK. Actually moments of OK, so we are pretty pleased. Each run he does better and his last run was actually pretty OK. No qualifying for him, but moments of pretty OK. I am thinking we are on the road back to inflating and brilliance and color!

The next day was supposed to be Roscoe's Master seminar with Lo. On Friday I told her that and she said she wanted to see Spur back. At least for some of it. I thought and thought, it would have been a BLAST to run Roscoe. But, Roscoe is trained and experienced and Spur needs all the work he can get. I make the decision to bring.........just Spur.

Not sure I have made a worse decision in my life!!!??? I mean, I feel that way now because yesterday was a bad day. I mean, seriously bad. I cried half the way home from the seminar. It was that bad. I felt not only deflated and foggy, but crushed and confused and depressed. That bad, really, THAT bad.

Spur started out OK. I had that flutter of hope. Then, BAM, another burst to our very soft and barely round bubble. I mean this time a TOTAL burst. I stumbled into a jump and knocked it over while he was doing his weaves. He melted into a pile of nervous fur. And at that point I had trouble getting him back. Like a LOT of trouble. He didn't want me to touch him, he didn't want to take a jump, he ran off away from me. It sucked. Seriously sucked. Lo tried to help, tried to get me out of my fog and into SOME sort of positive vibes. Not much worked. We did the best we could to find some glimmer of hope and end on SOMETHING positive each turn. His bubble was burst and there was not much repairing it.

I turned into the handler from hell, reinforcing him when he was slow, or interrupting his speed when it's good, all wrong choices and poor handling and Lo hadn't a clue how to help us other than try some distractions, some restarts, nothing that worked, really. We were spiralling down......... We got the life sucked out of us both yesterday. A big sucking sound around me and Spur...........sqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqquuuuuuuuuuiiiiiiiiiiiii........big SUCKOLA!



I would take him out to potty and he looked lost. The Pin Heads were home, so he didn't even have them to support him when out in the field for potty breaks. I saw that, I saw him seeming lost and worried.

Everyone was so encouraging, but honestly, I think they were just trying to help. I mean, we were a mess. It was not fun at all. I was exhausted, mentally and physically after each turn. I felt beat up and torn apart. I wished I had brough Roscoe.

It was decided I should run another dog in front of him and was offered Ripp, a big strong wicked fast, noisy awesome experienced aussie. I could use Ripp to make Spur jealous. Ripp is a good boy and will work for anyone. Spur watches me work Roscoe and it TOTALLY pumps him up and makes him jealous!! Working Ripp? It WORKED! We got SOME drive, SOME glimmer of hope, my crazy Spur was back!!! He screamed his head off while I worked Rip. Lo just held his leash so he could watch and he screamed and screamed. I then swapped dogs and got a few obstacles out of him! A few. Hey, I took what I could get and we all felt a little better. It wasn't really coaching us in any way, which is ultimately what I need. I need help when I morph into "handler from hell". I need coaching and tips and ideas.

That was pretty much our day, so while we did end up with SOME good stuff, I cried half the way home. I was exhausted. Nothing feels worse than working a dog that looks like he doesn't want to do it and knowing that you turned into HFH for the day (handler from hell). That feels SO bad. I never know what to do with him when he gets into that funk. I don't want to work him if he doesn't want to do it. What sucks so bad is I know he does want to and has had his moments of brilliance!! But, getting through to me and him when we are in that state seems to be an instructors dilemma. We get lost. It's like we are all just lost trying to figure it out.

We may have to take a break. I wish I could have yesterday back. I feel bad I missed that chance to run Roscoe. Roscoe is eleven years old and his time is limited and he would have LOVED that seminar. And I would not have looked like HFH.

I will regroup, make a plan. Perhaps some time off. Work on tricks and small jump skills perhaps. His contacts are as solid as ever, so that is one good thing. He ran his dog walk over a dozen times of the weekend and every single time he hit his contact perfectly. So, there is that. That's pretty big! I even tossed the ball far in advance and he didn't leap. So, there were SOME good things and I will focus and regroup.

I think we are getting some where!

He is sure faster on the flat. So, I will start over with him and also continue full dog walk work.

This plank work video has one jump, the very first one. Oh MY!!! But, then he settles down and gets to his business and stays focused.



I added audio for the first time. Not sure why it cuts out half way? Oh well, still learning about video editing. I am a SLOW learner.



This is the fastest he has run his plank or dog walk since his teeter issue, I think! Good Little Spur-minator!!

More running contacts!

Silvia told me to toss the toy in advance. As early as he can see it!! Well........we were getting a TON of jumping. Darn it. He is just SO stimulated by the toy he doesn't think. And he has to think to hit his contact. Had I trained it right from the start I don't think he would have to think. It would be muscle memory. But, with all the troubles he has had, worries, teeter issues, distrust in me, all the paw wringing, he has to think. It's just his nature. So, with the toy tossed in advance he sure does run faster, but leaps the contact a fair amount. She also suggested going back down to a lower or flat plank. THAT we can do and even with the toy tossed in advance he runs that pretty well. So, we will do a lot of that. Maybe even start over and slowly raise that plank. On the flat our success rate is nearly 100% unless I toss the toy really high, which I did once and he JUMPED off to get it. Doi! I do have to be careful how I toss the toy, dumb ass I am!!! I do like how on the flat he drives ahead of me really fast. He isn't FULL out running, but definitely faster and no stride adjustments! Yay!



Tried to film more on the dog walk, but with the low light the resolution sucks. And I had Lisa zoom in more and that isn't great. I'll have to try again. There is definitely more stride adjustment with the toy tossed after the hit or as he hits than when tossed in advance, but definitely more success. In this film I don't note the jumps, but I think there are two or three. So, percentage in this session is.....um...without counting I think about 80%. This movie is long. Too long and not well edited. If you managed to watch the whole thing note that the sequence is backwards, dumb ass I am. His first runs are last and his last runs are first in the movie. What that shows me is tossing the toy in advance does increase speed, BUT also jumps. Success also increases speed, as too many failures deflates him. There is a balance I need to figure out.



And just for your entertainment purposes.........check out THIS dog!! OMFreakin'G.......this is scary fast! A little too fast for MY liking, but kind of fun to watch. I mean, seriously Muffin Head's is this dog really in control????? A couple of the runs the dog actually glances over at her. YIKES!!!

How fast?

Well, safely fast, but watch this young border collie run his dog walk -



Just a whole different league, A?

Little Spur yesterday. 10 attemps to get more speed, with three jumps. -



The fun thing about teaching running contacts is the dogs seem to enjoy it. I think Spur enjoys it! I enjoy it! My legs feel it after a couple sessions. I am doing it now every day the weather permits because soon enough the weather will not permit. Damn! I have a lot to undo after letting him run it and jump so much after he had his melt down with his teeter crash. Also, don't trust hoops! I did, for a while, but he could easily leap through the hoops and miss the contact. And I don't think it taught him much even when he did get the contact. Note to self on that one........don't let crashes make you do things you shouldn't do. LOL!!

What does a person do when the power is out and there is no internet?

Well, we have a BIG ass generator so I had computer access. I FIGURED OUT SLOW MOTION ON MY VIDEOS!!!!!! You poor people. Now you are going to have to watch these compilations over and over and over until you are SO sick of them!!!!!

HT match yesterday!

The Spur-minator ROCKED!!! I wasn't sure how he would do indoors after his last indoor on rubber trial where he kind of melted down. I didn't linger inside with him for long before his run. There really wasn't any room for that, so we basically got in the building to the start line and ran!! I think he likes that. No cringing hearing a loud, banging teeter as he waits to run, just get in and RUN!
I tried to "test" his contacts by running as fast as I could and trusting him, but I do slow down some. Regardless, he NAILED them four times!! I only have two on film, but he did two before that nearly identical. Good little Spur Man!!



Roscoe, kind of down. Not sure what his deal was, he has always liked running there, but he was a little off.

More Spur's running contacts

He looks a LITTLE faster in these. I wish I could figure out slow motion. I don't think youtube editor has that. I think I need to get some help with my handycam program and start using that. The flip definition is SO crappy.

What I think I see happening is he does a nice, speedy up, then adjusts his stride on the top, slowing a bit to get the right stride down. This is by far the greatest training challenge I have ever had. When I see an awesome running contact I just wonder how the heck did they do it? I mean, I KNOW how Silvia does it. She explains it well, but she makes it sound easy......."just let them run it". OK, she doesn't say JUST that she does explain they need to know when they are wrong and when they are right, but it sure seems to take a lot of time. I do think Spur knows what to do, he just needs to figure out his stride. If I can get THIS speed at a trial I would sure be happy. When I watch these I do see that I am usually a bit ahead. I send into the tunnel and RACE to the end, so I am a bit ahead. In a trial that is hardly ever the case, so I will try that.



Tomorrow I am going to merge some of the trial videos together to compare some of the different handling I use with each dog. I LOVE this new merging ability!! I feel so techogeeky!!!!

You know, I start to squeek and my voice gets higher and more frantic!

Why? Well, yesterday we worked on running dog walks, again. Roscoe, he gets it. Yes, he might jump on occasion when he's really high and running as fast as his little stick legs can move. But, he gets it. No reward for the jump = try again really hard and run the contact. Got it MA!!! Cookies all around, I got it!!!

Spur, not so much. Just when I say something after the last session that went like this....."Hey Rich! I think Spur is finally getting it!!" and then quietly I say also to Rich......"Hmmm, I have said that before haven't I?".......to which Rich quietly mumbles......."hmmm, uh huh".

Yesterday 10 tries - 10 successes. And pretty fast. YAY! 100% success rate!!!! I am all like what a great trainer I am and I even posted my videos on the internet and wow, how cool, great trainer, great dogs, wicked awesome running contacts. YEAH!! We GOT IT GOIN' ON!!

Today - not so much. Like three jumps in a row with Rich watching. He comments about strides and adjustments and speed. Yeah, whatever.................it's basically my crappy training that has prevented the buggar from connecting the dots on the dog walk. Dots connected = HIT THE CONTACT as you run real fast over it. It's THREE FEET LONG!!! Connect the dots, little dude!! OK, I try again and he hits it, lots of cookies, but I am deflated. He knows it, he feels it. I am a crappy trainer.

I'll watch my internet videos over and over and hope that I inflate again. It's how this goes.

I know it's a process. I infate, I deflate. The world goes round and round. Spur wins his PGP and PSJ and then barely manages to hold it together for team. The world goes round and round.

Maybe I will watch my videos again.