More teeter work!

So, last year I spend many hours driving to friend's yards to work on Spur's teeter issues. It took a village to conquer his teeter fears and it worked pretty well. But, as I know these little paw wringers never forget. Yet, what do I do, dumb ass I am? I let it go, not doing much maintenance, working more on his running dog walk and jumps because his teeter was so good. Then we did the indoor on rubber trial. BANG! The teeter issues came up again. It had been coming at some of the outdoor trials, too. Like the one gamble class I decide to do the teeter TWICE in the opening. WTF was I thinking???

So, now that the weather is good for lots of training I am doing a TON of running contacts because........well.......loser I am I let him jump it SO much as a youngster I have all that to "undo". We are getting there, but damn it is slow. I decided I better get that teeter work going again, too.

I brought out his "bang it" game again. Haven't done that since the "crash", so I was nervous about it. Plus, my teeter REALLY needs to be replaced, the grit is nearly gone so it is kind of slippery, and the ends are rotting, but it's what I have for now and it's usable. Come winter I will take it apart and make a new plank for it.

Spur is doing GREAT with his bang it game!!! He is still a wee bit worried, but he seems to be enjoying the game!! You judge -




I am not worried about his release. He is unlikely to come off too early in a trial and when I did start working on a hold and release he started to worry, so I let it go. I want his teeter to be easy and uncomplicated. I think he will be fine!

We are off today for Y-Agility in CT. Indoors on dirt. Roscoe should LOVE it!!! Spur, who knows. He hasn't seen dirt footing in a while and has never competed in a horse barn before, so it could go either way, as always.

I am trying to be creative!!

Spur had a melt down at the last indoor trial on rubber mats. He could hear every little thing and the noises were amplified because of the rubber and the trial being SO small. So, I decided I had to make my teeter noisier. Nailed old license plates to each end. Then I have a cookie sheet on the ground where the end lands, so the metal to metal makes a good bang!! Then as the teeter recoils back up the license plates rattle. I didn't nail them in snug, so they bang around as it hits and returns. It DEFINITELY makes it louder!!! Of course, he will soon get so used to THAT particular sound and each one has a different sound, but by making my one at home as loud as possible I think that should help.
Do you suppose it is a bad thing the license plate has devil numbers on it? :O Someone mentioned they I never had Rich in any of my photos. That's not entirely true. He is in the hiking photos!!
But anyway here he is agin, working piling up our wood!! Most of this is poplar felled during some of those crazy storms we had. It's all good, though, good for next year's wood!!! Feels good to have that there, ready for next year! :D Such a fall work thing to do. Pile up the wood!

And just because........more poo. Remember the corn poo? Well, it's been rained on, stepped on by the horses, but it persists and is still there right on our path every day to see. Someone ELSE pooped on top of it!! Probably fox? So, this poo just piles up and is becoming a station. The dogs pee on it, other animals poop on it. It's a station. A shit station!!!

Silly ducks!

The wildlife is so active right now. Fattening up for winter. Yesterday I did a home check for Blind Dog Rescue. A National group who had no one in this area to check out this home. Lovely retired couple with the most adorable little chi mix, Hattie Mae. They felt they had room for another dog, but didn't want another high energy one like Hattie. So, they "fell in love" with a dog on the internet. Just amazing process! This organization has a group of pilots that fly the dogs around. This dog came from IL!!! Flew here on Sunday. I went over to check things out and finalize the contract. Sweet little blind shih tzu. He seems to be adjusting just fine. He was found originally in TN tied outside, matted, starving, the people had abandoned him when they move. Poor little thing!

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.

Faster, faster, faster!!

OK, so this little video is from yesterday. Our last "horrah" agility training outdoors in Buxton. I tried to get a friend to video Roscoe's running contacts. I have been working hard to get him faster. He was a 2o2o for years, until his dog walk just kept getting slower and slower and sloooooowwwwwwweeeeeeerrrrrr. I went to a running and in NO time he got it. He was THRILLED!!!! For whatever reason, stride? Body length? Speed? He got it easily. Yes, he CAN jump it and does on occasion, but amazingly he has never missed on in competition.

Unfortunately, she didn't set up that well for seeing the contact, but he nailed it every time and I think his speed is improving. He is certainly faster than Spur on this day, but Spur had just had a wee melt down. When I ran Spur I stumbled over a number cone and kicked it while he was running beside me. OH, dear........he started to wring his tiny paws. But, he recovered OK and in this video you see one of his contacts. It started to drizzle, so these are all I got from the day because I put away my camera.

Good little Roscoe does look to be picking up his speed, though, which is making me happy. He is NOT an athletic dog, his jumping style is poor, he isn't fast by nature, he just isn't. But, the little buggar has heart!! So, one place I think I can get more speed on course with him is his dog walk. So, I am pushing for it lately in training and I think it's working. He looks faster, doesn't he?.............

Freakin' freaky fast!!

This is my idol! This dog runs her contact like no other! And what's really cool, this dog just went through chemo for lymphosarcoma!! She ROCKS!!! This is Dylan, Angie Benaquisto's Rat Terrier. I mean, seriously Muffin Heads, check this out!!! -



I finally figured out how to crop and blend videos!! Now I just need to figure out how to put them in slow motion.

Here is my first editing attempt. Spur's running contacts from late spring at a friend's yard. -



Here is my next attempt. Spur's running contact work from early spring in my yard. I tried to put an annotation where there was a jump and it didn't come through? He jumps one time at second 4 -



This one is from today. He jumps at second 12 -



We changed one thing since the work in the spring. I bought another strike plate so the beeps occur in a greater area. We had some set backs for a while when he starting having good hits, but not hitting the 10x12" single plate. I would love him to hit middle contact, but he most often at speed hits higher up, so I put the two plates on the upper 2/3rds of the contact zone.

We are at about 80% good hits right now. I sure would like a better ratio, but it is the hardest thing I have ever had to train, so I am feeling OK about 80% right now. We have had so many set backs. Major teeter issues that transfered to the dog walk and set us back a LOT. My inability to SEE when he had good hits, so rewards were not always great. The addition of the second strike plate is a big help, I think. And I do think he is slowly having a better understanding of his job. He is a slow learner since so often he is worried, so I think this has taken longer than it should with most dogs? I don't know, but we sure have been at this a long time. I do this work with him daily, now that the weather is good. About 8 repetitions. Summer was WAY too hot, so we didn't hardly do anything contact work and he had a break from it. He seems to enjoy doing it, so that's good!

Fall, it makes me smile!

Colby is happy, she finds great big green grasshoppers to hunt and eat!! -

The ducks make us smile as they munch on something under the water. - And then there is poo. OK, so that doesn't make me smile. This is coyote scat after about three weeks. The rain washed away everything except for the hair? Oh MY! -

Roscoe, he has to mark it every time we pass it. It is right in the middle of the farm road.It was a busy week. VERY busy. One day I walked like 11 dogs! OK, some visits had two dogs, but still that was a lot of dog walks. My phone/email has been "off the hook" busy with calls coming in. I am very pleased and very lucky to be so busy and have business coming in right now.

The weather is GREAT for doing running dog walk work. So, every afternoon I run. And RUN and RUN and RUN. I really need to get back to my jogging, I get so out of breath sprinting a few running contacts. Poor Spur does SO well and then I have to stop and gasp for breath. Damn! When I think I am in good shape, reality sets in. But, the sprinting is good exercise and better than nothing. And I think Spur is starting to get it better. It is SUCH a long process. Of course, because I let him jump it so much when he was younger, just trying to get speed and confidence that is hurting us now. It may always hurt us. I just didn't know what else to do with him when he was in that state at the beginning. If you watched any of his old videos, struggling to even trot around the agility course, you know he was not easy to deal with. Now? We are practicing back crosses!!! It's awesome, he's doing SO well. I would like his dog walk to be faster, but I do think he is starting to understand his job and that's a good thing. And even though he isn't running full speed, it is faster than some people's stopped contacts, so that's cool. I settle for what I have and am happy for that! I think the speed will come. I know he can do it. I really do know that!!!

Today I will try to get photos maybe videos of his teeter work. Yesterday he ran to his teeter as we headed out for our walk (I didn't ask for it!!) and slid right off it because it was covered with frost. :O Oh, damn, I thought that might scare him, but NOPE, he jumped right back on and did a bang it game!!!! YAY!!!!