My 2nd USDAA Trial - this weekend

[k9kreationz]

Instead of going in towards the pinwheel, keep moving laterally or farther down the line (depending on where you're going). You don't have to stop and wait or anything, get on with your job and let Koji do his! Honestly, it's rare that you should be waiting or stopped on course, I think.

PMing you now...

Yup. I am thinking of the LM dvd that we just got. In one of the early exercises, she's like, why are you running in a U? You can run out, pivot, and come back. No need to run in a circle. And I walk it that way too. I even run it real quick that way. But when it's time to do it in trial, nope, I'm the U-shape runner. Augh!

I once recall I was very athletic. Maybe I need to focus on THAT for a bit. Re-train Koji's contacts and distance. And lose weight and find that athleticism that I've since lost.

 

[corbinam]

I understand what you're saying about the barking, but I think he's barking because you're not really using your hands to cue what obstacle to go to. He's looking at you for direction and your hands just aren't showing him where to go. Not to critique the run, but as an example, in that gamblers run, when you want him to go to the tunnel, you're not pointing out the tunnel and your shoulders are moving away from the tunnel.

No no. No using gamblers as an example because I'll be 100% honest, I wasn't trying and I didn't care. However, I'll go look at my body language to see what I am doing wrong, cuz that's always helpful.

Like you and Ashley have said. I run by things, wait for him to take it, and move on. Versus, I can run by it, support it and move onto the next thing while he's taking the object back there somewhere. Dangit! LOL. Sometimes I hate this sport. It's too technical, like golf. Augh!

This is a semi-related thought, that pretty much blew my mind when I heard it last year. Someone who trains very closely with Stuart came off of a gamblers course where she hadn't Q'd. I didn't see it, so I asked her how she did. She was ecstatic. She said that her dog had a perfect opening, and she was quite proud of her plan and how she had set him up.

I had always considered gamblers openings like this: "run around and do what's near you/easiest and try to set yourself up to be in the right place when the buzzer goes off". Yes, I created a plan and walked it...but I never thought about what state of mind my opening created.

I'm still guilty of not planning accordingly (I'm not "smart" enough when it comes to the sport, yet), but it really does make a difference. I watched your gamblers run and you're running around with Koji in 100% handler focus. (I know, you really only ran for 25 seconds before you had to mark his dogwalk behavior) But watch what happens before you send him to the gamble. He is jumping around barking at your feet and herding you (handler handler handler focus--Bentley does this a lot when he doesn't know what is next, as Heather mentioned this is typical). And then you try to send him out. Not gonna happen.

And I know I'm picking on a run that you had sort of thrown out because of the dogwalk, but I just wanted to point that out. The ONE time that Bentley got a Masters Gamblers Q he was in obstacle focus for the entire run pretty much. That is very rare for him, and obviously an exaggeration of what is necessary, but it goes to show the mental state that it can put a dog in. If you watch this video, you'll see that he is driving ahead of DH the whole time, and almost looks like he is choosing the obstacles, and not DH (though that's not the case). I know, a bit off topic, but what Heather was saying sort of reminded me of that.

 

[corbinam]

I once recall I was very athletic. Maybe I need to focus on THAT for a bit. Re-train Koji's contacts and distance. And lose weight and find that athleticism that I've since lost.

I actually run LESS yards with Lexi than with Bentley. Because she goes on and does a sequence and I'm able to set up for the transition for the next.

 

[k9kreationz]

I watched your gamblers run and you're running around with Koji in 100% handler focus. (I know, you really only ran for 25 seconds before you had to mark his dogwalk behavior) But watch what happens before you send him to the gamble. He is jumping around barking at your feet and herding you (handler handler handler focus--Bentley does this a lot when he doesn't know what is next, as Heather mentioned this is typical). And then you try to send him out. Not gonna happen.

Just to clear this out. I wasn't throwing out the run because of his DW, I was throwing it out because I gave up overall from his take-off. I knew it was going to be a bad run before the run even started.

You see, Koji was crazy outside of the ring. He was crazy all morning long. When we got ready to go in, he started barking like a mad dog. At that point, I knew it was over before it had even begun. So, what I should have done was picked him up after he broke his stay and walked off. But the gamble was just too tempting because it was possible. It would have been, IF he wasn't Mr. Crazy Boy.

This is a semi-related thought, that pretty much blew my mind when I heard it last year. Someone who trains very closely with Stuart came off of a gamblers course where she hadn't Q'd. I didn't see it, so I asked her how she did. She was ecstatic. She said that her dog had a perfect opening, and she was quite proud of her plan and how she had set him up.


I had always considered gamblers openings like this: "run around and do what's near you/easiest and try to set yourself up to be in the right place when the buzzer goes off". Yes, I created a plan and walked it...but I never thought about what state of mind my opening created.

I'm still guilty of not planning accordingly (I'm not "smart" enough when it comes to the sport, yet), but it really does make a difference.

I don't run these enough to know Koji's obstacles per second. I plan, but I'm usually ahead of the clock and then I just panic. "Oh gawd, can't hang out here, but don't' want to go too far away. Oh no, where's the buzzer!!!!" But usually, I plan it pretty well. Like I said, that's why this gamblers is a horrible choice to critique.

And I know I'm picking on a run that you had sort of thrown out because of the dogwalk, but I just wanted to point that out. The ONE time that Bentley got a Masters Gamblers Q he was in obstacle focus for the entire run pretty much. That is very rare for him, and obviously an exaggeration of what is necessary, but it goes to show the mental state that it can put a dog in. If you watch this video, you'll see that he is driving ahead of DH the whole time, and almost looks like he is choosing the obstacles, and not DH (though that's not the case). I know, a bit off topic, but what Heather was saying sort of reminded me of that.[/QUOTE]

What I know about Koji is this.....if he doesn't understand, he barks at me and goes into handler focus. If I don't give the right command, he goes into handler focus. If I mess up something myself and dangit, I'm confused, he goes into handler focus. I need to figure out how to break that, because let's be real, I am NOT going to be 100% perfect all the time, lol. Well, I can only hope.

Let me find some better examples.

 

[k9kreationz]

A great training night that was this post related. So, there was an exercise where I had to do jump to a U-tunnel (about 15 feet from jump) but the next jump was even further away, which meant I needed to send him. I was sending him from almost behind the jump and he'd take it. But, he was also very obstacle focused tonight for some reason and although barky, not stuck on me too much. It was great!

So, obviously, he CAN do it, I just need to figure out how to get him unglued when he's in crazy mode.

On another upside, a local trainer is offering a short course on Send. I think I may take the class. She'll teach foundation work and drills. I think that'll be good for us.

 

[ortegah]

Sounds like a good night!

 

[corbinam]

A great training night that was this post related. So, there was an exercise where I had to do jump to a U-tunnel (about 15 feet from jump) but the next jump was even further away, which meant I needed to send him. I was sending him from almost behind the jump and he'd take it. But, he was also very obstacle focused tonight for some reason and although barky, not stuck on me too much. It was great!

So, obviously, he CAN do it, I just need to figure out how to get him unglued when he's in crazy mode.

On another upside, a local trainer is offering a short course on Send. I think I may take the class. She'll teach foundation work and drills. I think that'll be good for us.

Hooray Koji! I think he knew we were giving you a hard time about it I think the sends class sounds awesome!

 

[k9kreationz]

I think so too. He said, "i'm going to show those two I CAN go out away from my mommy.....even if it's uber scary.....and I don't like it....can we cuddle now?"

lol. seriously though, he can be awesome on some nights. Actually, last night, he was being VERY naughty. In a semi-good way though.

First, I ran this one part that was like 3 jumps heading straight back to where we were sitting. I thought he was going for all the jumps. Stupid me. He was going for the bone I had let him have before we ran, but it wasn't there. So instead, he put his head into his bag and helped himself to some Zuke's. And when a friend went to grab him, he pulled out, but OMG, the bag was on his head/face. It was soooo funny!

Another time, he just ran off and took the teeter by himself. Another time, he did the weaves. I was like, WTH is going on. But then I remembered what Stuart said about allowing velcro dogs like Koji and Bentley to be naughty. So I just allowed it and was like, "yay" when he came back.

It's like, all that I was thinking about...as in training, he just did. It was hilarious!

My friend who's the trainer for that class, also set up some difficult courses with back jumping, hard entries to the weaves, etc. OMG, I loved it! It was so fun. Hard, but fun.

It really was a good class. And yes, I think Koji knew he needed to prove himself. Now, if I can only get him to be like that at a trial.