This morning we had another checkup with the ophthalmologist. Everything is looking good. He still has blood in his eye (it takes a very long time to reabsorb) but the healing is continuing without any problems. We are cleared to practice the teeter again!! He is no longer taking the Atropine, and the Neopolydex and Cosopt are now only once a day instead of twice. The Prednisone is continuing twice a day. The next checkup is in February.
Tonight was the last night of this agility session -- next week we become an offical Agility Foundations class!
Today was great. Dragon did not try to sniff/explore during the working time at all. His focus was nearly 100%. The only couple of snafus were when I told him to "take a break" out of habit to let him know that an exercise was finished, and he disengaged and wandered off. Whoops! I need to remember to use a different transition when I actually expect him to stay by me. Usually I pick him up or trot with him to a different area to start a different exercise. He was also more comfortable staying on his mat and chewing his bully stick when I had to move closer to the instructor to listen.
We warmed up with more circle work. I've been working specifically on accelerating during both circle work and obedience heeling. We moved on to running to a nose target. I baited the target a couple of times but for most reps it was empty and he still stopped on it as I kept running past. Success! I just need to watch out because I tend to turn my body toward him to check whether he's stopped, and I know that that's a huge cue to him. I now need to practice having him run to the nose target as I do increasingly more distracting things, such as front cross, run in a different direction, do jumping jacks, etc. We also practiced running to the target over a flat plank, and down the weighted side of a teeter that was lowered nearly to the ground.
We practiced running between jumps standards and coming to front if I was stopped, running toward a toy on the ground if I was moving forward, and running to me and continuing on toward a thrown toy if I was moving forward. We're a bit ahead of the rest of the class in this, although I do need to practice it more. Dragon was more confident in discriminating whether to run ahead or come to me compared to last time we practiced. I need to practice running ahead toward a thrown toy the most.
At the end we played the bang game with the teeter. It was only a couple of inches of the ground and it moved very slowly and made almost no noise when Tiny Dog jumped on it, haha. I was super proud that he was comfortable on it, though. Our months of work are really paying off! At the end of class I raised the end to about six inches and practiced having him hop on and ride it down, and it was the perfect level of difficulty -- he didn't jump on smoothly at first but after a handful of reps had no hesitation.
Another wonderful thing is that he tugged with me! After running to his food toy he would pick it up and tug with me for a few seconds, and then I would mark and reward the tugging with the food inside. It's working very well -- a few times he was super into the tugging, pulling backwards with his whole body, and didn't even let go when I clicked. I have my dog back again!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Follow-up on the miniature agility contact equipment
There has been some discussion over whether I should use the miniature contact equipment I made for Tiny Dog. The concern is that he'll learn a particular stride on the tiny equipment and then be confused and lose confidence and drive on the full-sized equipment. After getting advice from a handful of instructors and agility-experienced friends, as well as asking the local small dog agility group, I've decided to go ahead and use the mini equipment.
I feel that the difference between my equipment and full-sized equipment will be so obvious that he won't get confused just due to practicing on the small stuff. It's not like the difference between a ten-foot and a twelve-foot teeter, where the dog might not see the difference in distance and that might actually ruin his performance. In this case, as long as I also practice as much as I can on full-sized equipment, I should be able to get the benefits of having something to practice with at home. It won't transfer fully, but it will be good to have something that works in a similar manner to regular contact equipment on which he can practice driving ahead with speed. I'll also be able to practice sending him up the ramps at different angles, and do obstacle discrimination with tunnel-like objects underneath the mini dog walk and a-frame. In the end I believe that this will make him more confident in agility. The biggest advantage, though, is having a teeter-like object so that I can slowly raise the height as he practices hopping up onto the end and riding it down. Even if I were to never send him across the mini-teeter, this would be a huge benefit.
People also pointed out that it depends on my goals. If I really want to get to the highest levels of competition, the best way is to choose one or two venues and practice only on equipment that fits their requirements. If I just want to have fun, it doesn't matter so much. I would love for us to reach high levels of competition someday, and I am doing my best to train strong foundation behaviors to carry us through many years of competing. However I know that I will make mistakes, since this is my first time training for agility. We're not going to be on the World Team. I'd rather be able to practice at home whenever I want to than hold out for only working with "perfect" equipment.
I feel that the difference between my equipment and full-sized equipment will be so obvious that he won't get confused just due to practicing on the small stuff. It's not like the difference between a ten-foot and a twelve-foot teeter, where the dog might not see the difference in distance and that might actually ruin his performance. In this case, as long as I also practice as much as I can on full-sized equipment, I should be able to get the benefits of having something to practice with at home. It won't transfer fully, but it will be good to have something that works in a similar manner to regular contact equipment on which he can practice driving ahead with speed. I'll also be able to practice sending him up the ramps at different angles, and do obstacle discrimination with tunnel-like objects underneath the mini dog walk and a-frame. In the end I believe that this will make him more confident in agility. The biggest advantage, though, is having a teeter-like object so that I can slowly raise the height as he practices hopping up onto the end and riding it down. Even if I were to never send him across the mini-teeter, this would be a huge benefit.
People also pointed out that it depends on my goals. If I really want to get to the highest levels of competition, the best way is to choose one or two venues and practice only on equipment that fits their requirements. If I just want to have fun, it doesn't matter so much. I would love for us to reach high levels of competition someday, and I am doing my best to train strong foundation behaviors to carry us through many years of competing. However I know that I will make mistakes, since this is my first time training for agility. We're not going to be on the World Team. I'd rather be able to practice at home whenever I want to than hold out for only working with "perfect" equipment.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Focus and Motivation agility class, week 4
Recap of yesterday's lesson!
We warmed up with circle work and running to a nose target. The instructor then brought out a couple of circular wobble boards, a tiny tippy board, and a dog walk plank. The students rotated between the stations. Tiny Dog was excellent on the boards. On the wobble board I was able to slam my foot down on it and he was airborne for a micro-second and he just continued walking over the board and sniffing for treats. Excellent!! All the time I've taken with that has really paid off. On the tippy board he also was not concerned about the movement at all and I had him hop onto the end and ride it down (all of the two inches) just like we'd last been practicing with a mini-teeter.
With the dog walk plank he didn't drive across it as quickly as I'd expected, but I think that that's because he couldn't see his nose target very well. I switched from the gold metal lid I'd been using (which was similar in color with the woodchips at the agility field) to a bright white yogurt container, but he still has a little trouble in the dark. At one point when all the stations were taken I snuck off to a corner of the field and had him run along a folded-up teeter to his nose target for more practice. (I had him run down the end that was resting along the ground; no teetering movement.)
We did sit-stays and recalls, making sure to separate body movement from the release word, and rewarding by throwing a toy ahead. I used the new food-stuffable toy I made. It works great except that I had to replace the original magnetic close with metal snaps, because Dragon had learned to pick it up and shake it to send the treats flying. Also I need to add some weights to the bottom so that I can throw it farther.
We moved on to tunnels. The other dogs in my group also had experience with tunnels, so we used one that was fully extended. I rewarded by throwing the food toy ahead.
We ended by having our dogs sit-stay on one side of a jump (no jump bars, just a support along the ground), tossing a toy on the other side, and releasing our dogs to drive through the stanchions toward the toy. Easy-peasy for Dragon.
He did well staying on the mat, chewing a bully stick, except when I had to stand about ten feet away to be able to hear the instructor better. Even better was that he didn't try to sniff the ground until the end of class when he had to potty again. His focus was wonderful when I remembered to take breaks and cue him to look around. Next week is the last class of this "focus and motivation" session. After that we will move on to the official "foundations" sessions, although obviously these past few weeks have focused on foundation agility stuff as well.
I'm going to poke around the internet and read up more on Derrett's handling system, since that's what Moe had started us on and Jump'n Java is using it, too. I know that I'll be able to train more confidently once I have the bigger picture in my head. We're quite ahead of the class and I don't want to lose momentum!
We warmed up with circle work and running to a nose target. The instructor then brought out a couple of circular wobble boards, a tiny tippy board, and a dog walk plank. The students rotated between the stations. Tiny Dog was excellent on the boards. On the wobble board I was able to slam my foot down on it and he was airborne for a micro-second and he just continued walking over the board and sniffing for treats. Excellent!! All the time I've taken with that has really paid off. On the tippy board he also was not concerned about the movement at all and I had him hop onto the end and ride it down (all of the two inches) just like we'd last been practicing with a mini-teeter.
With the dog walk plank he didn't drive across it as quickly as I'd expected, but I think that that's because he couldn't see his nose target very well. I switched from the gold metal lid I'd been using (which was similar in color with the woodchips at the agility field) to a bright white yogurt container, but he still has a little trouble in the dark. At one point when all the stations were taken I snuck off to a corner of the field and had him run along a folded-up teeter to his nose target for more practice. (I had him run down the end that was resting along the ground; no teetering movement.)
We did sit-stays and recalls, making sure to separate body movement from the release word, and rewarding by throwing a toy ahead. I used the new food-stuffable toy I made. It works great except that I had to replace the original magnetic close with metal snaps, because Dragon had learned to pick it up and shake it to send the treats flying. Also I need to add some weights to the bottom so that I can throw it farther.
We moved on to tunnels. The other dogs in my group also had experience with tunnels, so we used one that was fully extended. I rewarded by throwing the food toy ahead.
We ended by having our dogs sit-stay on one side of a jump (no jump bars, just a support along the ground), tossing a toy on the other side, and releasing our dogs to drive through the stanchions toward the toy. Easy-peasy for Dragon.
He did well staying on the mat, chewing a bully stick, except when I had to stand about ten feet away to be able to hear the instructor better. Even better was that he didn't try to sniff the ground until the end of class when he had to potty again. His focus was wonderful when I remembered to take breaks and cue him to look around. Next week is the last class of this "focus and motivation" session. After that we will move on to the official "foundations" sessions, although obviously these past few weeks have focused on foundation agility stuff as well.
I'm going to poke around the internet and read up more on Derrett's handling system, since that's what Moe had started us on and Jump'n Java is using it, too. I know that I'll be able to train more confidently once I have the bigger picture in my head. We're quite ahead of the class and I don't want to lose momentum!
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
homemade agility equipment
I purchased a lot of PVC, a couple of squares of plywood, door hinges, and a number of second-hand cabinet doors at Urban Ore, a local re-use depot for all kinds of construction and household goods. I got leftover sand and paint from a couple of friends. Add to that some foam insulation tubing and a metal pipe from the hardware store, and you have the supplies for some relatively cheap, small homemade agility equipment. It is all tiny-sized so that it can fit in my apartment. Also, I don't have a large yard to practice in; we have to use the narrow street out front.
Tire jump. He will jump through the middle of the tire about 90% of the time. Occassionally he misjudges the jump and ends up going under.
Table before I painted it. It is TDAA-sized (30" x 30"). The rest of the equipment is even smaller than TDAA. I ended up not using the boards along the sides because they were a bother.
Wobble board, teeter, and table drying after getting painted. Having a mini-teeter on hand will be super handy. He hasn't been on it yet because his teeter training is still on hold for his eye.
Dog walk. I did one session in which I shaped him to climb across it, to get him use to the structure. Then I put it away until I figure out what I want to do with his contacts.
A-frame. Not pictured are the chains on either side to keep it from sliding down, although the 2x4s at the bottom also do a great job.
Tiny dog = tiny, cheap, portable equipment that doesn't need to be as sturdy. Awesome.
So since I have an a-frame I can lower all the way to the ground, I want to do that and then teach him to run across it, driving toward a thrown toy, and slowly raise the height. I don't actually know anything about contacts; that's just my inclination. I think I remember Moe saying that she would have me teach running contacts like Silvia Trkman does if I had access to an a-frame that I could lower, but since I didn't she said to teach a nose target that I could place a bit farther out and that would turn into a running contact. Now I have an adjustable a-frame but I remember her being worried about the dog learning a particular stride on smaller equipment and then failing at trials. I feel like it's worth it to have tiny equipment so that we can get some practice at home, and we'll eventually be practicing on full sized equipment in class. This would be a lot easier if I had more agility experience and could see the big picture. Obedience and rally o is easier for me to train on my own because I know what the overall plan is, and how different training techniques may or may not influence the final picture.
Tire jump. He will jump through the middle of the tire about 90% of the time. Occassionally he misjudges the jump and ends up going under.
Table before I painted it. It is TDAA-sized (30" x 30"). The rest of the equipment is even smaller than TDAA. I ended up not using the boards along the sides because they were a bother.
Wobble board, teeter, and table drying after getting painted. Having a mini-teeter on hand will be super handy. He hasn't been on it yet because his teeter training is still on hold for his eye.
Dog walk. I did one session in which I shaped him to climb across it, to get him use to the structure. Then I put it away until I figure out what I want to do with his contacts.
A-frame. Not pictured are the chains on either side to keep it from sliding down, although the 2x4s at the bottom also do a great job.
Tiny dog = tiny, cheap, portable equipment that doesn't need to be as sturdy. Awesome.
So since I have an a-frame I can lower all the way to the ground, I want to do that and then teach him to run across it, driving toward a thrown toy, and slowly raise the height. I don't actually know anything about contacts; that's just my inclination. I think I remember Moe saying that she would have me teach running contacts like Silvia Trkman does if I had access to an a-frame that I could lower, but since I didn't she said to teach a nose target that I could place a bit farther out and that would turn into a running contact. Now I have an adjustable a-frame but I remember her being worried about the dog learning a particular stride on smaller equipment and then failing at trials. I feel like it's worth it to have tiny equipment so that we can get some practice at home, and we'll eventually be practicing on full sized equipment in class. This would be a lot easier if I had more agility experience and could see the big picture. Obedience and rally o is easier for me to train on my own because I know what the overall plan is, and how different training techniques may or may not influence the final picture.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Cameo by Jasper: begging in kitchen
This video shows some behavior modification I've done with Dragon's brother, Jasper Fforde.
Friday, November 25, 2011
It's playtime!
Last week, Dragon wanted to wrestle with me for the first time in about a month.
Last night and one time last week, he muzzle-punched the cat and tried to get him to play.
This morning after chasing a thrown food-stuffable toy a few times, he grabbed it as I was holding it and started tugging.
My puppy is feeling better!! I am over the moon.
This is the food toy I made, by the way:
It's made of fleece. The flap has a magnetic close.
Last night and one time last week, he muzzle-punched the cat and tried to get him to play.
This morning after chasing a thrown food-stuffable toy a few times, he grabbed it as I was holding it and started tugging.
My puppy is feeling better!! I am over the moon.
This is the food toy I made, by the way:
It's made of fleece. The flap has a magnetic close.
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