I had a late start to the morning which is beginning to be a habit during my vacation. Anyway, I did some writing when I got up and then off to do agility training.
We tried the jump chute first. Morgan did it perfectly the first time out. We did it again and it was again good but she dropped a bar on the next to last jump. We tried it again and she dropped the very same bar. We moved the jump because we figured out that it was just a little off. Didn't matter, she still dropped the bar. When we switched sides, she was dropping bars on a couple of jumps. She isn't even up to her full jump height. She is just a lazy jumper, I think. Anyway we ended up with her clearing all the jumps with me running along side her and we quit on that note. I'm not sure what to do about dropping bars. I think what we will do is to stagger the jumps. That probably means that we have to stop trying to get her to bounce and start her to thinking about getting her feet in the air.
On the weave poles, she did more than she ever has before and right after we gave her high praise and lots of cookies, she decided that she should pop out of the poles or just quit doing it. I told Tom that I was thinking about quitting while she was still interested and we probably just went too long with the weave pole. I have to remember to stop on success and we should have stopped with the jackpot. I'm learning how to teach this girl.
On the teeter, she did great but after a couple of tries on each side, she found it really difficult to sit and stay for me to call her to the end. I finally was able to get her to do it once and we quit. It may take us forever to learn anything if I have to quit after one or two tries.
What I probably have to do is to do each obstacle twice and rotate for at least three sets. That may help.
In obedience, we did some more heeling but this time off lead (but with a cookie). She was great but again, after doing one big circle, she started to lag. For now we will do one big circle, have a party, rev her up and do something else. I have to remember to make everything a party or at least interesting to her. She did very well with my 30 second wait after leaving her at 20 feet. Tomorrow, we will move up to 40 seconds. Finally, we did some tugging--not so great but better than before and the broad jump.
I am desperately waiting for her dumbbell and I don't know why. I can do what I need to do with a bumper. I just want to start with the happy, happy retrieve and work up to the FF. I want her to think obedience is a game. Today, while I was putting up equipment, I put her on a down stay and threw hot dog pieces in front of her. She stayed like a champ. However, she was really eager to eat those pieces once I released her. Good Dog!
I may not get to train tomorrow but if I do, I will remember to blog.
Training Morgan, a six year-old standard poodle in obedience, agility, freestyle, and hunting.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
Dual training day
Today, Morgan and I tried to make up for lost time by doing obedience and agility on the same day. It seems I last blogged about 10 days before Christmas. We've had some really rainy weather so we missed some agility lessons but we have done some work that I missed blogging about.
This morning the obedience plan was to work mostly with Merlin because he is entered in the obedience trials that I am the trial chair for in January. He failed miserbly at everything but I hope to whip him into shape before we have to show :-) The plan with Morgan was to see if I could get her to tug, to put the clicker back into our heeling practice, and to make her wait longer on her recall exercise.
Morgan is not an enthusiastic tugger. It takes a lot of work to get her excited about tugging and I need to spend more time training her on it. In one article I read, they said to get a rawhide chew or something to encourage tugging. Well, we got plenty of those for Christmas so we'll see how the tugging training goes. Today, I tried it with Merlin's 2nd favorite tug toy--the stuffed orange gecko. She got in a couple of good tugs but wasn't really "into" the game. We'll try it next with the rawhide.
I had better luck with the clicker. Nobody said she wasn't food motivated. She did beautiful heeling in a circle for me and only once got out of position. I still have her on the pinch collar but when she lagged and it pinched her, it seemed to de-motivate her. I think it is because it usually pinches when she pulls and she wasn't pulling and she didn't quite know what to do to make it stop. She didn't figure out that lagging was the same thing as pulling to the pinch collar. I think she may get it when she figures out that when she is in correct heel position, it will no longer pinch her. A few more tries with it and the clicker and the light bulb should go off.
I started shaping the waits on recalls a bit more. I left her on a sit stay and walked about 20 feet away, waited to the count of 20 and went back to her, praised her, and gave her a treat. Then I went about 30 feet and she was up within 5 seconds. I dropped back to 20 feet and decided that I would hold there for the next week or so and build up time. After I have a minute at 20 feet, I'll move to 30 and so on.
So obedience went okay. I just have to keep reminding myself that I have to have a plan and execute my plan.
In agility, we started with helping Tom and Jake with control exercises. Morgan amazed me. She was there to distract Jake. However, she was awesome. She never lunged at him, she stayed by my side and as long as she did she got praise and cookies. Good girl. We worked the jump chute first. She dropped bars toward the end the first couple of times so we stretched out the last two jumps and that worked better. She would stop and turn to look at me every time I said something to her. Even if I told her to go on. We will need to work on that. For the time being, I'm not saying anything. When I don't speak, she does the entire chute w/o a problem. Once we worked through that, we went to the weave poles. She starts off gung ho and actually got a couple of the straight up weaves--we both cheered and gave her cookies and it was if she said --well that's enough of that, and she didn't do as many when I sent her again. My motto for Morgan is quit with success and quit while she still wants more. However, I get caught up in her successes and forget that. We practice again tomorrow and maybe, I will remember :-) We had the same problem with the teeter. She does it great the first couple of times and, of course, gets bored with it and her performance falls off. I've got to think of a way to keep her engaged so that we can progress to the next level.
I'll try to keep up with my training for the next couple of weeks. It always helps to write it down.
This morning the obedience plan was to work mostly with Merlin because he is entered in the obedience trials that I am the trial chair for in January. He failed miserbly at everything but I hope to whip him into shape before we have to show :-) The plan with Morgan was to see if I could get her to tug, to put the clicker back into our heeling practice, and to make her wait longer on her recall exercise.
Morgan is not an enthusiastic tugger. It takes a lot of work to get her excited about tugging and I need to spend more time training her on it. In one article I read, they said to get a rawhide chew or something to encourage tugging. Well, we got plenty of those for Christmas so we'll see how the tugging training goes. Today, I tried it with Merlin's 2nd favorite tug toy--the stuffed orange gecko. She got in a couple of good tugs but wasn't really "into" the game. We'll try it next with the rawhide.
I had better luck with the clicker. Nobody said she wasn't food motivated. She did beautiful heeling in a circle for me and only once got out of position. I still have her on the pinch collar but when she lagged and it pinched her, it seemed to de-motivate her. I think it is because it usually pinches when she pulls and she wasn't pulling and she didn't quite know what to do to make it stop. She didn't figure out that lagging was the same thing as pulling to the pinch collar. I think she may get it when she figures out that when she is in correct heel position, it will no longer pinch her. A few more tries with it and the clicker and the light bulb should go off.
I started shaping the waits on recalls a bit more. I left her on a sit stay and walked about 20 feet away, waited to the count of 20 and went back to her, praised her, and gave her a treat. Then I went about 30 feet and she was up within 5 seconds. I dropped back to 20 feet and decided that I would hold there for the next week or so and build up time. After I have a minute at 20 feet, I'll move to 30 and so on.
So obedience went okay. I just have to keep reminding myself that I have to have a plan and execute my plan.
In agility, we started with helping Tom and Jake with control exercises. Morgan amazed me. She was there to distract Jake. However, she was awesome. She never lunged at him, she stayed by my side and as long as she did she got praise and cookies. Good girl. We worked the jump chute first. She dropped bars toward the end the first couple of times so we stretched out the last two jumps and that worked better. She would stop and turn to look at me every time I said something to her. Even if I told her to go on. We will need to work on that. For the time being, I'm not saying anything. When I don't speak, she does the entire chute w/o a problem. Once we worked through that, we went to the weave poles. She starts off gung ho and actually got a couple of the straight up weaves--we both cheered and gave her cookies and it was if she said --well that's enough of that, and she didn't do as many when I sent her again. My motto for Morgan is quit with success and quit while she still wants more. However, I get caught up in her successes and forget that. We practice again tomorrow and maybe, I will remember :-) We had the same problem with the teeter. She does it great the first couple of times and, of course, gets bored with it and her performance falls off. I've got to think of a way to keep her engaged so that we can progress to the next level.
I'll try to keep up with my training for the next couple of weeks. It always helps to write it down.
Monday, December 14, 2009
I'm trying to think if I missed reporting some training. I cannot believe that it has been so long since I last blogged. Yes,I did miss reporting my obedience training last Thursday but it was so minuscule that it really wasn't worth mentioning. I trained Morgan a little after my Novice class on Thursday. We did fronts, which she sometimes gets and sometimes doesn't. I really need to put a clicker on that. We also tried some fast moving downs which also should be put on a clicker. There seems to be a theme here. I did a no-no. I started training without a plan and without my equipment. Morgan had a blast but she really didn't learn much during that session. Of course, it was all my fault. The other thing that was all my fault is that I ordered a dumbbell that is too large for her. I ordered the standard size thinking that it would probably be okay. When I got it, the dowel was way too thick and the ends were bigger than I wanted. But we'll train with it and I'll buy another dumbbell that we can really work with. I was disappointed because I am really ready to teach retrieving. I'm tired of having only one retriever in the house :-)
Today we did agility after being rained out on Saturday. The first thing we tried were crosses---remember we didn't know how to train them last time. Well, we were a little smarter today but neither of us had done our homework on learning the proper way to teach it. Anyhow what we did today was to start out with a front cross. After all I said was expert at that. Sure enough, the first time I did it, she got it. Cool. We tried it again and had the same result. No doubt freestyle and rally training helped there. Now for the rear cross. Because she had made that turn with the front cross I thought we would get some speed up so she could get in front of me for the rear cross. Nope. She knew just where to go--that jump on the left but skipped the second jump straight ahead-three times. Okay re-group. We then changed it to a tandem turn with her on my right. She did it perfectly. Tried the rear cross. Nope. Then we put a cookie behind the second jump, she did the jump, got the cookie and then she did a spin to get to the jump on the left. She did that twice. Then we took the cookie away from the second jump and put it behind the third jump--the one on the left. Lo and Behold, she did it! Somehow the light bulb went on and she did it. I don't know what it was that did it but success is sweet. We tried it a second time just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. She nailed it. GREAT!
She also did great on the weave poles. Tom said she went further down the line than she has in the past. My grommet strip thingys came in the mail with the misfit dumbbell so we can set up our own weave poles in the back yard if it ever stops raining.
The last thing we did was the teeter and she is doing so well on the teeter. The problem is that we don't have the 2o2o we need to proceed to the next level. More motivation to get that stupid travel board built so we can practice 2o2o. I think I'm going to buy a couple of heaters for the garage and start working with her in there on these kinds of things.
Anyway, that's the report. We do agility again on Thursday and tomorrow we will do obedience and freestyle.
Today we did agility after being rained out on Saturday. The first thing we tried were crosses---remember we didn't know how to train them last time. Well, we were a little smarter today but neither of us had done our homework on learning the proper way to teach it. Anyhow what we did today was to start out with a front cross. After all I said was expert at that. Sure enough, the first time I did it, she got it. Cool. We tried it again and had the same result. No doubt freestyle and rally training helped there. Now for the rear cross. Because she had made that turn with the front cross I thought we would get some speed up so she could get in front of me for the rear cross. Nope. She knew just where to go--that jump on the left but skipped the second jump straight ahead-three times. Okay re-group. We then changed it to a tandem turn with her on my right. She did it perfectly. Tried the rear cross. Nope. Then we put a cookie behind the second jump, she did the jump, got the cookie and then she did a spin to get to the jump on the left. She did that twice. Then we took the cookie away from the second jump and put it behind the third jump--the one on the left. Lo and Behold, she did it! Somehow the light bulb went on and she did it. I don't know what it was that did it but success is sweet. We tried it a second time just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. She nailed it. GREAT!
She also did great on the weave poles. Tom said she went further down the line than she has in the past. My grommet strip thingys came in the mail with the misfit dumbbell so we can set up our own weave poles in the back yard if it ever stops raining.
The last thing we did was the teeter and she is doing so well on the teeter. The problem is that we don't have the 2o2o we need to proceed to the next level. More motivation to get that stupid travel board built so we can practice 2o2o. I think I'm going to buy a couple of heaters for the garage and start working with her in there on these kinds of things.
Anyway, that's the report. We do agility again on Thursday and tomorrow we will do obedience and freestyle.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Rusty Morgan
I can't believe it has been 9 days since I last posted a blog. I guess it is a testament to how much I have been doing. Unfortunately, it has been raining a lot and I've been very busy. I spent three days writing and not leaving the house for much of anything last week. We did go obedience training one day but since I cannot remember what we did, I guess there were no ah ha moments for Morgan.
We missed training Saturday because I thought it was raining. I can never tell if it is raining unless it is pouring and I hear it in the vents and chimney. Anyway, Morgan and Merlin came in from pottying and they were both wet so I figured it must be drizzling. However, Tom said that it was dry at his house. Anyway, we went to train in his yard this morning--no rain but very overcast.
It was a hard day for Morgan. She didn't do well with the time off. We tried the teeter first and as soon as I started to run beside her, she decided to jump the yellow part. I went back to feeding her a cookie just before the hop. Did that for a couple of times. Then, I slowed down and gradually built up speed until she didn't try to hop the yellow any more.
Next we tried a jump sequence and she did that well. But then we decided to teach a rear cross. A really bad decision because neither Tom nor I really knows how to teach a rear cross. Morgan didn't get it. None of us did :-) We'll read up on it and do better next time. Should have tried the front cross because I'm really good at that one :-)
Finally, we tried the weave poles. Tom has the weave poles set up so that the first five poles are staggered about six inches apart and the sixth to the 12th poles are in a straight line. As long as the poles were six inches apart, Morgan did well going down the middle. At the first pole that was in a straight line, she popped out. We moved the target to right in front of the first straight pole and she got it but when I switched to work her on my right side, it took several tries before she got it again. After a couple of tries with no reward, Morgan still tried to convince Tom to give her treats when she didn't deserve it. She does a really pretty sit with excellent eye contact. Hussy. After she got the sixth pole correctly, we quit.
As I said, a very rough day for Morgan's training. I ordered the grommet strips from Max 200 and they shipped yesterday. I bought the stake thingys from Lowe's on Saturday and I charged up my drill to fix the travel plank on Monday. So as soon as it stops raining, we should be good to go in my backyard for weave poles, 2on2off, and jumps. The backyard has a LOT of ruts so I have to be careful when training that neither one of us steps in one and hurts herself. The plan for the spring is to get someone in to level my back yard and then plant some sod. I could use that second job right about now to pay for my dog training habits.
We're doing obedience tomorrow in the morning and planning Merlin's video entries for freestyle. Unfortunately, Morgan's dumbbell is in the same shipment as the grommet strips so we can't work on that yet in obedience.
We missed training Saturday because I thought it was raining. I can never tell if it is raining unless it is pouring and I hear it in the vents and chimney. Anyway, Morgan and Merlin came in from pottying and they were both wet so I figured it must be drizzling. However, Tom said that it was dry at his house. Anyway, we went to train in his yard this morning--no rain but very overcast.
It was a hard day for Morgan. She didn't do well with the time off. We tried the teeter first and as soon as I started to run beside her, she decided to jump the yellow part. I went back to feeding her a cookie just before the hop. Did that for a couple of times. Then, I slowed down and gradually built up speed until she didn't try to hop the yellow any more.
Next we tried a jump sequence and she did that well. But then we decided to teach a rear cross. A really bad decision because neither Tom nor I really knows how to teach a rear cross. Morgan didn't get it. None of us did :-) We'll read up on it and do better next time. Should have tried the front cross because I'm really good at that one :-)
Finally, we tried the weave poles. Tom has the weave poles set up so that the first five poles are staggered about six inches apart and the sixth to the 12th poles are in a straight line. As long as the poles were six inches apart, Morgan did well going down the middle. At the first pole that was in a straight line, she popped out. We moved the target to right in front of the first straight pole and she got it but when I switched to work her on my right side, it took several tries before she got it again. After a couple of tries with no reward, Morgan still tried to convince Tom to give her treats when she didn't deserve it. She does a really pretty sit with excellent eye contact. Hussy. After she got the sixth pole correctly, we quit.
As I said, a very rough day for Morgan's training. I ordered the grommet strips from Max 200 and they shipped yesterday. I bought the stake thingys from Lowe's on Saturday and I charged up my drill to fix the travel plank on Monday. So as soon as it stops raining, we should be good to go in my backyard for weave poles, 2on2off, and jumps. The backyard has a LOT of ruts so I have to be careful when training that neither one of us steps in one and hurts herself. The plan for the spring is to get someone in to level my back yard and then plant some sod. I could use that second job right about now to pay for my dog training habits.
We're doing obedience tomorrow in the morning and planning Merlin's video entries for freestyle. Unfortunately, Morgan's dumbbell is in the same shipment as the grommet strips so we can't work on that yet in obedience.
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