its is not all about the Q

We will say that AFTER we get a trophy in Flyball at CanAM :mad:

Just kidding, I will be so happy if Spitfire ever gets a clean run at a tournament. For a dog that is greased lightning and loves jumps he has been very difficult as he is a bit insane. Glad to hear Ember had a post birthday success.
 
Congrates and good for you sticking with her, Ember sound very similar in Character and personality to Cosmo, He also is very methodical and afraid of making a mistake of any kind on the course, he also doesn't like to be touched and any quick movement towards him will have him cowering like you are going to beat him, Its almost embarrassing at times ,because I don't think he 's ever even been really scolded let along smacked in anyway.

Maybe there hope for the pokey man yet, as you said I have been trying a lot of different stuff with him too, maybe you noticed me Clapping my hands a lot in the video I posted, I discovered a few weeks ago that it seems to get him going a bit better for some strange reason don't know Why but it seem to work as well as cheering him on a bit, Kinda make me feel a bit silly
out there but you can see a difference, Strange beasts they are:winkgrin:
 
I can so relate to your post. My Pyper has been a challenge in agility. She's slow and deliberate and always a little afraid that she might do something wrong. Lately, her confidence has been building along with her speed. We were at an agility show n go Sunday. After about 4 jumps and the weaves, she suddenly went nuts! Running around doing her figure 8 zoomies, jumping jumps, zipping thru tunnels.... I just stood there watching with the biggest smile on my face. She was having so much fun!! I know I should be concerned that she just blew me off and went rogue, but seeing her throw caution to the wind and just be a dog was a big victory in my book.
 
dmeyer123 said:
I can so relate to your post. My Pyper has been a challenge in agility. She's slow and deliberate and always a little afraid that she might do something wrong. Lately, her confidence has been building along with her speed. We were at an agility show n go Sunday. After about 4 jumps and the weaves, she suddenly went nuts! Running around doing her figure 8 zoomies, jumping jumps, zipping thru tunnels.... I just stood there watching with the biggest smile on my face. She was having so much fun!! I know I should be concerned that she just blew me off and went rogue, but seeing her throw caution to the wind and just be a dog was a big victory in my book.
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Oh, good girl Pyper! :lol:
 
I can definitely relate to you as well.

When we first started agility, Bailey was incredibly stressed and fearful of every equipment. She seemed miserable in class. She would run off our agility field with her tail between her legs. There was a point when I would bring her to class, get her to do something positive like jump over one jump and then leave so she has a positive experience. After lots of positive experiences, she became more confident and started to love agility, but became very reactive and at times out of control. In the middle of the course, she would run off to bark at a dog, make up her own course. Lots of challenges with her.

So, just being able to run a course and keep her focused despite everything going on outside the ring and the fact that she is in love with agility, is an accomplishment to me. She now cries when she sees the agility equipment because she wants to run. What difference!

This is from a thread I posted in October 2010
There were times in class yesterday, she didn't even seem like was was having fun. She seemed a little stressed. At what point should I suck it up and realize Bailey is not interested in agility, she's not having fun and maybe we should consider throwing in the towel?
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We have come so far! I never thought we would be competing in AKC and doing so well for such a green team.
 
Hurtseverywhere said:
Congrates and good for you sticking with her, Ember sound very similar in Character and personality to Cosmo, He also is very methodical and afraid of making a mistake of any kind on the course, he also doesn't like to be touched and any quick movement towards him will have him cowering like you are going to beat him, Its almost embarrassing at times ,because I don't think he 's ever even been really scolded let along smacked in anyway.

Maybe there hope for the pokey man yet, as you said I have been trying a lot of different stuff with him too, maybe you noticed me Clapping my hands a lot in the video I posted, I discovered a few weeks ago that it seems to get him going a bit better for some strange reason don't know Why but it seem to work as well as cheering him on a bit, Kinda make me feel a bit silly
out there but you can see a difference, Strange beasts they are:winkgrin:
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They are strange.

For me , I actually at first had to run slower. I mean really slow in practice and I had to work on sending Ember ahead of me and distance. Always pushing her to go ahead, I would never let her be behind me. You know all those recall drills and chase drills that we do to motive well turns out Ember hates that. I can not touch her or have someone else touch her to jazz her up when we are working because she will scream. All my other dogs love that type of interaction. I had to target. No throwing allowed, food or treats, because if I threw something she would hit the ground like she was shot. I know embarassing because I have never hit Ember in any way.

I avoided doing front crosses if I could help it. Oh and I learned Ember hates lead outs. Something about running towards me. She always pushes better than she pulls. She loves to run away from me. Weird not sure how that makes me look.:lol:

Ember has 3 MX legs, 1 MX leg(always NQ because of time) and in 5 days of showing since we switched to prefered has 4 MXP legs and 3 MJP legs and not 1 time did she NQ because of time but fun mistakes like weave poles or she sucked into an off course tunnel:smile2: something she would have never thought to do on her own even a year ago.
 
So true! I used to just think about the Qs and titles and get really tense from the pressure, which of course affected the dogs!

Now I get really happy (well up inside with pride sort of happy) when my dogs execute something we've been working on really well, or we just generally ran better together than I expected, even if we don't Q, which was how I got hooked into agility the first place.
 
Oh so very true. Ember is definitely one very special girl.

If you have read my threads, you know I have struggled with Koji because he doesn't like to learn the "normal" way. Don't get me wrong, he's nowhere near as picky as Ember, but so many things, I had to figure out on my own because he just wasn't getting it. And once I started to understand how he learns and how he learns differently, I was amazed at how fast he does learn.

BTW, Koji loves Jumpers too. Mostly because he can just run and fly and jump. I know he hates "stopping" on course. So, we excel at Jumpers. I'll gladly take an MXJ (dangit, I wonder how many more I need. Wait wait. ddn't we just say it's not all about the Q? LOL)

Lastly, I'll say this. I remember when Koji would NQ but we'd get this or that perfectly and I'd be so happy. Or he'd have the most awesomest run ever, but NQ'd. It didn't matter. When we are connected and we run together, it's the best feeling ever.

All the Ember's in the world, teach us that we're not all the same, so don't treat us the same. :)

(Obviously, you KNOW I get the transition from Justice to Ember - mine just wasn't quite as bad).

So, congrats to you for learning to stop shoving Ember in that round hole and realize she loves being a square. And congrats for going so far with her and doing things "wrong". lol.
 
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Shelli, I got chills reading about Ember's fast and fun run. That is awesome.

I know many of us can relate. While Bentley is a bit different from Ember, I also believe that he has autistic tendencies and learns very differently from the majority of dogs out there. There are definite challenges, but the rewards are that much sweeter!

Much like Randi, it's a nice reminder to look back to where we once were, and see how far we've come. I remember teaching Bentley target plates in my garage and the idea is to do a restrain, and then have them RUN to the target plate. I would do the restrain, and Bentley would just stand there staring at the target plate full of cheese/hotdog/peanut butter. His thoughts? "You held me back so I know I can't have it" :lol:
 
What a lovely post Dr Shelli, I'm so pleased for you with your success with Ember because it is a success irrespective of getting a Q to have a great training outcome. :smile2:
 
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