Best Laid Plans

Well all my training plans were put on H O L D for the month of May. I had my shoulder surgery on April 30 and I had no idea how debilitating it would be. I also taught a class every night during May and that coupled with being totally preoccupied with my shoulder and my sling (not to mention the GCOC Obedience trial)there was nothing left for Ms. Morgan.

However, I have tried to rectify these past transgressions already. I am out of the sling as of yesterday and that really helps but I still do not have full function (in any way shape or form) of both arms. Last weekend we started her on her swimming lessons and we went again yesterday to work on that. She is less afraid of the water which is great but still will only go in up to her shoulders.

Today, we did obedience for the first time. I spent 15 minutes and we did a little heeling in a circle, some recall exercises and sit and down stay. The recall continues to be an issue with anticipation. I think she has settled the difference between the sit exercise and recall but she just won't stay until I call her and if she does, she is soooo slow. So we have to work on that.

I will set up some jumps and the A-frame grid tonight and hope to practice agility a little tomorrow morning. If it is cool enough tonight, we'll do a little tonight. Anyway, I intend to back up my plan by one month and get started on my plans right now. I have 11 weeks to work on stuff this summer and I intend to get the most out of it.

Agility Training Plan

I found doing the agility training plan to be a little more difficult. I really don't know how quickly Morgan is going to learn the agility skills. I know I have more time to devote to training in the summer but it is hot as can be and she really wilts in the heat. We'll see what we can get done. However, I still have her competing for titles this year. I hope I am not being overly optimistic :). But we learned today that plans need to be flexible. I need to be flexible because of puppies as well.

I want to get as much foundation stuff done as I can before I bring a new puppy into the mix. I will be getting a puppy next spring or summer so I would like to have my working relationship with Morgan solidified by then. Well, here is the Agility Plan.

Morgan’s Agility Training Plan

May

Focus:
Reliable recall
CU training
Weave poles – do 12 poles in 6 weeks 
Jump Chutes
Rear Cross
2o2o
A-frame
Watch Salo video
Read CU again June

Focus:
2o2o
Teeter
Weave poles-12
Jump chutes
A-frame progression
Work on attention building
Exercise with Morgan
Continue focus work
Read Clothier book

July

Focus:
2o2o
Serpentine
Threadles
Continue attention and control exercises
A-frame progression
Stay exercises
Watch Garrett jump video
Continue exercise w and w/o Morgan

August
Focus:
2o2o
Weave poles
Sequences with rear crosses
Stay exercises
Work on ring nerves
Watch Garrett –go the distance video

September
Focus:
Go to show n goes, if not,
do some JWW’s in GCOC’s fall trial.
Do More distance work
Continue A-frame, DW, Teeter
Training -- proofing

October
Focus:
Go to two show n goes
Enter JWW in Charlotte’s trial (another trial run )
Continue A-frame, DW, Teeter Training -- proofing

November
Focus:
Enter first real competition in JWW
Continue training and maintaining A-frame, DW, Teeter
Show n goes if possible

December
Focus:
Continue competing in JWW
Continue training and maintaining A-frame, DW
Show n goes if possible

January
Focus:
Continue competing in JWW
Continue training and maintaining A-frame, DW,
Show n goes

February
Focus:
Begin competing in FAST and JWW

March
Continue competing in FAST and JWW
Continue training and maintaining A-frame, DW
Show n goes if possible April
Continue competing in FAST and JWW
Continue training and maintaining A-frame, DW
Show n goes if possible

I went to the training plans seminar given by one of our club members and I came away psyched. I worked on my obedience training plan at the seminar because it is the one that I have truly neglected. I'm posting it here just to remind myself. I'm feeling very confident about what I will be able to do with Miss Thing. I went to my garage and tried out a few things with her (fronts, heel position, finishes) and she was very good at it. I feel so much more confident about her training -- even with the layoff she will have when the puppies come (if there are puppies) I want to finish her first AKC novice title in April next year, the Open title in May and the Utility title by the end of next year. I think it is doable.

Morgan’s Obedience Training Plan

May
Focus:
Teach heel position while moving
Teach turns in heeling
Work on relationship
Focus
Control Unleashed behavior
Perfect the hold
Me: Lose weight, practice visualization
Read Jane Savoi

June

Focus:
Introduce forced fetch
Teach right about turn and about U-turn.
Teach change of pace
Perfect finishes
Work on fronts
Work on attention building
Exercise with Morgan
Continue focus and attention exercises—Dog Games for attention

July
Focus:
Teach pivots
Fronts with more distance
Teach back up in front
Teach back up in heel position
Perfect finishes
Continue attention and control exercises
Continue retrieve exercises
Stay exercises
Continue exercise w and w/o Morgan

August
Focus:
Formal obedience recall with front.
Proofing for heeling, fronts and finishes
Continue retrieve exercises with proofing
Stay exercises
Teach Go Out
Maintain attention and control unleashed.
Work on ring nerves

September
Focus:
Attend at least two show n goes
Continue proofing all exercises
Go out with full distance
Proof exercises from May June and July in different places

October
Focus:
Teach directed retrieve
Proofing for go outs
Maintenance exercises for heel, front, finish.
Teach directed jumping
Teach broad jump
Teach DOR
Enter trials for wild card Novice
Go to two show n goes

November
Focus:
Proofing for directed retrieve, broad jump, and directed jumping and DOR.
Maintenance of heeling, fronts, finishes, and retrieves
Enter Wild card Novice and Beginner Novice if available

December
Focus:
Maintenance on all Novice exercises!
Proofing for all other exercises in a variety of different places
Enter wild card Novice and Beginner Novice if available
Teach scent discrimination

January
Focus:
Proofing on all Novice exercises –aim to complete the beginner novice title.
Proof open exercises – retrieve.
Proof go out, gloves, and directed jumping
Continue working on scent discrimination

February
Focus:
Complete beginner Novice title.
Enter Wild Card Novice
Proof all Novice and Open exercises
Attend at least two Show n goes (or UKC trials)
Continue work on utility exercises

March
Focus:
Complete UKC Novice title
Show n goes for Open and Utility exercises

April
Focus:
Complete AKC Novice title

April 5. A lot has happened since March 25 but I don't have the time or inclination to catch up right now. I have bought a ton of videos and have had bunches of lessons and I think I need to just sit down and think about Morgan's training a little bit. It feels like it is spiraling out of control and I don't know where I am. I feel like I need to go back to foundation work with her. Actually, I feel like I need to be training her 24/7. We have a seminar planned for putting together a training plan but I don't think I can wait. I need to do something about Ms. Thing ASAP. I am feeling more pressure, too because it has already started getting too hot to work during the day and I thought I would have at least until mid May. To put it in a nutshell, we have recall problems, we have toy problems, we have knocking bar problems and we have attention problems. It's very frustrating.

I truly amaze myself that I haven't written in almost a month. But I have been training and I have been sharing some stuff on the poodle agility list. Next month I will be going to a session planning out my dog's training program. I have so much in mind to do and have so little time and/or motivation to get it done. I'm thinking this planning session will go a long way toward improving that.

I've spent a bundle on lessons and we are improving but every improvement we make, the more I see that we have to learn. Also, it is getting warmer and I know that our training days are limited. I'm hoping it will get too hot before Morgan comes into season. If it is too hot when she comes in, I won't mind missing the training. I have to get busy, though, for the next 6 weeks and do as much as I can because, I'm pretty sure she will come in season by the end of May.

I will catch up later.

Good training

Morgan and I have had some good training sessions. We worked the Monday after our lesson at Tom's, we worked again at home on Tuesday, Thursday, and today.

Morgan has had some trouble with the 12ft. jump chute. She either runs around the first jump or she breaks her stay and takes all the jumps knocking several down on the way. I tried to fix the first problem by moving up closer (in front of the last jump). That worked fine until I moved behind the last jump. Same problem. Then I did a kind of reverse back chain where I stood in front of the second jump, then in front of the third jump, then in front of the fourth jump, and finally behind the fourth jump and it worked like a charm. I asked her to sit so I could send her in the opposite direction and before I could get halfway there, she had broken her stay. Now she was raring to go. So I worked on the stay problem by coming back and treating her for staying as I walked away and when I turned and faced her. I finally got two lines of 4 12ft jumps with a start-line stay AND all four jumps. We quit after that.

Interestingly, my low rep dog has turned into a high rep dog when it comes to jumping. She loves it.

We are working on doing the weave poles from both sides with a jump. She is having trouble with the off side weave entry. After about a gazillion reps (which she didn't seem to mind) she was doing the correct entry and the jump without hesitation.

We also worked on the jump, jump, box (running contact stuff). Today, she was doing it like a real champ. She acted as if she knew she was supposed to get four feet in the box. I think we will practice just the box tomorrow to reinforce that all four feet should go in there.

The last thing we worked on today was the threadle and serpentine just to see if I could still remember how to do them :-)

Tomorrow, no jumping --more weave poles, some more plank work, practice on front and rear crosses w/o equipment. Won't have much time between the conference and the bb game but we will get some time in before we have to go to our lesson on Sunday. I'm encouraged with her progress.

Today's Lesson

Morgan and I went for our first lesson in 17 days. I decided to skip a week to have extra time to practice and then we had this monster snow storm last weekend in South Carolina, no less, and I didn't get any extra training in any way. I had planned to go to our lesson on Thursday anyway but it was cancelled because our instructor was sick. Luckily we were able to make up our lesson today. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and it would have been fun to have our lesson outside.

Anyway, we had a good lesson and Meagan is great, she just takes us from where we are. Today we started out with having Morgan do a jump chute with 5 jumps, 12 feet apart. Of course we backchain everything. The trick is that Meagan put the jumps at full height so Morgan had to jump 26 inches. I don't think I have ever asked her to jump 26 inches. We did the last jump first. She refused to jump. I put her further back behind the jump and I went further away on the other side of the jump facing her. I called her over the jump again, she came but she knocked a bar. Progress but no cigar. The third time was the charm. Then, she did the last two jumps without a problem. I set her up for three jumps, went beyond the last jump to call her and she ran around the jumps to get to me. This happened twice. So I came in closer and stood in front of the last jump and had her try the second and third jumps. She still refused the same jump. Finally we just had her do the jump she kept refusing and she got it. We did the backchaining sequence with the three jumps one more time and she got it again and we quit there. She was obviously unhappy with having me so far away from her to do the jumps. We'll work on it this week.

Next we did the weave poles. She is still in the two weave poles and I am trying to not beat myself up for seeming like a retarded trainer. Everyone else seems to learn so quickly about how to train 2X2 weave poles. I guess I should have bought the videotape because I don't seem to be getting it. Morgan, however, is doing what I ask :-) Today we were supposed to do front crosses in front of the tunnel going in both directions (on the left and on the right). Morgan did beautifully entering from the right, but we had a problem with entering from the left. Meagan said that with the 2X2 method that dogs have the opposite problem dogs trained the traditional way have in that right entries are breeze, left entries are more problematic. So our task is to work on left entries 3X as often as we do right entries.

We went from there to running contact which Morgan is pretty much getting. I didn't have much opportunity to work the 2-jump - box grid with her in the past week and a half but she did quite well with it at our lesson today. I just have to get better at throwing the food :-). Meagan says that I can delay food if I have to think about whether or not she actually put 4 feet in the box. Morgan REALLY likes this game. I hope that she will love her box so much that we can stick to a running contact and not have to go to a 2o2o.

Finally, we looked at her progress on the down side of the dog walk. She is definitely reaching back with her rear feet to touch the bottom. However, still having trouble with the width of the boards. She wants to get both back feet on but she won't bring her legs together enough (hussy) to get them both on at the same time. We will continue to work on that. Meagan also wants me to get her to put all four feet on the board and bring her forward for the 2o2o position.

It was a good lesson and we will be going back next Sunday. I hope the weather stays pretty nice so we can do some work outside. Gotta go, Merlin and Morgan are asking to come back inside. I don't know why, it is so gorgeous out there (70 degrees). I actually saw a dandelion. We had 8 inches of snow last week! Amazing!