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June 2016 Training logs

5K views 86 replies 10 participants last post by  Hombrespop 
#1 ·
June 2016 - this year is flying :)

Goals, brags, training thoughts / logs, setups, problems, joys, fun or frustrations anyone would like to share ?
 
#2 ·
I start new Fenzi classes at the bronze level, I have Faelan entered in a few outdoor trials (weather permitting) and will be visiting my Towhee with her pups along with training. Should be a great month!

While my wrist/forearm heal & regain strength & flexibility, I have taken a 'vacation' from agility classes - it is just too hard right now to lug their wire crates and play tug full bore. I have started one armed tugging again :)
 
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#3 ·
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#6 ·
Interesting reading... makes me wonder a little since Bertie gets hot pretty easy which affects performance. Nothing major since I never push my dogs beyond what they can do and I do have tricks to cooling the dogs off....

He's not precisely on a low fat diet, however I do keep him as lean as possible.

I was at a conformation show this past weekend. Every day started with me hosing him down with cold water, and making sure his belly area was as wet as possible. It would take me about 30-40 minutes to get him dry, with me leaving his belly slightly damp until the end. And then he got hosed down again after we showed.

Obedience trials (something coming up this weekend actually), I'm bringing water to spritz on his belly and soak his feet and head in. <= But he will also be showing in conformation, so he will be either spritzed completely wet or hosed down (if available).

Around the house - the dogs are pretty smart about dealing with the heat. They stick to the cold dirt in the shade.
 
#4 ·
Delightful weather this morning! Around 60 degrees with no humidity and clear skies :)

Our sessions were in the backyard with a set of gating set up for Go Outs with Utility jumps and a cone off to the side. The focus was precision combined with heeling games (pop up releases, spins from them followed by left turns/right turns/about turns/run aways, plain run aways etc). Then one Go Out with a jump.Followed by Flys combined with finishes, fronts and drops (Aedan had no drops). A second Go Out with the other jump and we finished with recalls, fronts and finishes.

Interestingly, both Aedan and Brady wanted the bar jump their first few flys - it was set perhaps 10 feet away while I was on a diagonaltowards the center of the 'ring' - it must have looked like their DJ when they rounded the cone but since this morning was also about non-anticipation that was good to work through.

They did very, very well :)
 
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#5 ·
It's a week today since the last training session for a Hombre but vet said I could do some training but no jumps . So out to the street this morning we went after dropping Sadie and Nugget off for a spa day. Heeling considering he hadn't done anything was awesome ( once he settled down ) , we did circle l+r fast slow right and left turns and the fig .8 which was perfect. Then the novice stand and not a muscle twitched. After this we went in the yard for 4 recalls which were very very fast but the fronts need work. This was done in preparation for his third trial on June 11 looking for the third leg and his CD title. Yesterday Nugget worked fairly well but his fronts were onlyabout 50/50. Go outs could have been a little straighter as he was 2-3 feet off center but overall pretty good.
 
#7 ·
Congratulations Palousedogs on the UDX and the new puppy!

This morning was spent with two trips to Lowes and back. One for each dog. Banshee on reminding to walk nicely (without being in specific heel position) on entering the outside garden area and a few times entering the store and back through the automatic doors from garden area. This is a problem until she is in a new area for a few minutes. Entering she acts like she needs to be first to see what's going on and it wasn't pretty the last time we went to a show n go. In fact I was a bit embarrassed... Anyhow, not near as bad today. We spent a lot of time in and out of the store and did lots of short spurts of heeling with a big focus on left turns. And she got to meet a few people all of whom were former or present doberman owners. Over all a good session with her.

Then it was Finley's turn and basically the same. Meet and greet people nicely, and heeling. I did find a couple empty isles so we did a few signal exercises. Her stand and stay were good. The first drop was completely forgotten so I added the verbal. She went down slooowly. The sit following was ok, but slow as well. Recall very good. So after a bit we did some more, but these times I stayed right in front of her without the distance on the down and sit and that seemed to help. Recall was from the whole length of the isle. It was a good opportunity to see where we are in an unfamiliar place full of distraction. Too hot here to do much outside (for me and them). I'll be working this afternoon and night so Finley and I will likely do articles after I get home. I imagine Banshee will stay in bed...
 
#8 ·
This evening after work we worked:

ROF: All dogs. Faelan hit the DB with his front feet so we had some remedial pickups. Brady & Aedan did fine even though both of them had a toss under the pause table which is under the AFrame :)

ROHJ: Beautifully done all 3

Scent Articles: Just Faelan & Brady and they did very well even with horrid neighbor burning trash outside - smelled nasty, like burning rubber.

Appt for surveillance camera installation is the 14th and the owner asked if he could start early like 6am since there is a lot of work -- of course I said SURE -- take that horrid ones!
 
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#10 ·
LOL yep!! I'll probably be setting up property line stakes that day as well with chain link so I can see exactly where to trim things.

This morning we took a hike and I was wishing I had my camera - we were in pretty much waist high grass with tracks where a vehicle went through - at one point there was a perfect picture of 3 golden butts as they raced and played together :)

This morning I set up 3 cones in an almost triangular pattern about 8-10 feet from each other and the broad jumps.

Crazy Figure 8: All dogs did well but Aedan totally rocked it - I held my hand higher and more to my side as I have seen on videos and he responded very well to it -- Faelan & Brady did not respond so well but did vert well once I out my hand in its normal position.

Broad Jump combined with food tosses through my legs for the fronts: Brady & Aedan did very well - Faelan I (purposely) setup at an angle and he failed to clear the first try - 2nd try he straightened himself out and did beautifully.

I finished each dog with Get-It, Get-It, Get-It Come or Drop games again with multiple food tosses through my legs for fronts followed by at least one straight front.
 
#11 ·
Worked articles with both boys twice for each article and I was pleased with both boys who gave good turns in place leaving briskly and most important especially for Hombre finding the correct article each time then returning to me and getting the fronts close to what I'm looking for. Articles still tied down but the whole set of 11 is out there and both are searching till getting the right one without false pickups . Nugget who doesn't like getting an article at 12 o: clock position because he walks thru pile instead of around it sniffing and sometimes scares himself when he steps on one got it from 12 o:clock position twice because I purposely put it there so this little hiccup is getting better. After articles both boys did heeling and fig8 out on the street and both did very well. After the dew dries up we will do some training in the yard doing all exercises in utility and open with Nugget but doing only some with Hombre excluding the jumps-DOR-ROF.
 
#12 ·
Well... last night I learned a couple new things about directed jumping. :)

1) - I guess I can't hold my arm out there. The signal needs to be continuous motion. <= I have a feeling this is something I knew, but blocked from my mind while training.

2) Bertie no longer needs the target (blue binder clip) for go-outs. Or we are well on our way as far as not needing it. :) He's (knock on wood) going straight out after the mark. <= Note, he still does try looking at the jumps when I'm marking him, so suspect we still have a problem in the mix where he might go running out and rub his nose on the high jump instead of going straight out sometimes. But if I get him looking straight ahead with the mark, he will go straight.


Articles last night were... challenging. Bertie did "find" the articles, but I suspect it was him playing hot or cold on me (picking up 1-2 wrong articles before picking up the right one). I need to make a little "cage" thingy (fencing, bends around the bit area of articles, is "poky" if he tries picking them up) to go around the leave-them-alone articles to see how that goes. <= He knows his articles and is very good at working the pile. But every once in a while I see him just playing guessing games or just grabbing anything...

Was not a fan of heeling last night. I had my elbow sticking out which was my bad, but Bertie was laggy. It was hot in the building, so that was probably his problem.

Front practice - learned that even though I'm now controlling my head and feet, I stilll lean (!) unconsciously when he's coming in. *annoyed* So have to stop that. :)
 
#13 ·
Is Bertie all done his CD now? I just entered Mystic for his first leg on Jude 24th. We've been doing some directed jumping with the advanced class, and some articles, but mainly we are not ready for Open. His go outs are solid but the broad jump isn't too pretty.
 
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#14 ·
Bertie has one leg. We had a setback with stays because of him following me on the down stay (his sits are solid). I'm hoping to jump back into finishing his CD in a couple months. But not before the down stays are rock solid. Would figure it's the easiest exercise for the dogs... and that's the frustrating one. And oh yeah, he only does it at shows mainly.

What is Mystic's problem with broad jump? Maybe we all can help brainstorm?
 
#15 ·
Well, this evening I gave my horrid neighbors something else to amuse themselves with :)

After I did marking drills with the boys (Aedan still seems to think part of the exercise is retrieving the plate after eating his treat), I took my shorter agility ladder out to a fairly level area of the yard and, in my work clothes yet, proceeded to start practicing a few agility for speed & quickness drills - just me, no dogs. I kept seeing horrid neighbors pop around their house looking over LOL

Seriously, I have always had very good balance, co-ordination and dexterity but as I am approaching 60, I need to stop taking such things for granted. I bought the ladder over the winter (I think) but am just pulling it out ... that and running drills as well as balance -- the balance exercises are still a piece of cake but best to start thinking of these things and they are easy enough to incorporate into my workouts.
 
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#16 ·
The weather was nice so instead of our usual class we did an Open run through outside. I was very pleased with her ROHJ. She got up from her sit when the judge said "send your dog". We had battled jumping issues for so long, so her almost breaking is a good thing! She is still cautious but she no longer thinks her life is in danger when her toes hit the jump. She's gaining confidence! She is such a scaredy dog, I wonder how many times in her life has she believed that she'd almost died.
 
#17 ·
hmm, the edit window definitely seems to have been shortened, so rather than adding to my previous reply ....

FWIW, as many of you know I am a HUGE fan of Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. I am taking Unbroken, a class which looks at how behaviors 'break' or become less than desired; most of us who work Utility are probably well aware of this concept LOL Anyway, I have been training my dogs since the 1980s and have already picked up many, many insights. I am thinking that I will be saving the forums when the class is over, something I rarely do - I usually only access the lectures. Anyway, for any who might be interested, registration is still open and auditing/bronze level is $65 USD.

As a disclaimer, other than being an FDSA student,I have no affiliation with FDSA - just wanted to throw this out there for anyone else who may occasionally wonder at the whole breaking down/rebuilding process -- yes, heeling is included (gold students pick their topic) but I honestly consider heeling, front & finishes and Go Outs to be forever training exercises :) Never truly 'broken' since they are a constant work in progress.

My dogs have this morning off - it is drizzly and they have had quite a bit of training this week so this is their rest morning, possibly day :)
 
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#18 ·
Worked the boys pretty much as yesterday but today Nugget gave me better go outs and faster finish's but missed the sit signal ( the first time ) when we did the signal exercise. Hombre did very nicely on what we could do because of stitches with taking direction and leaving my side going directly to the correct glove making really nice pickups out of the grass and returning to me and drum roll please giving up 3 beautiful fronts . YES !!! Tomorrow rain in forecast so we may be limited to articles inside as we did this morning which was well done with 2 more untied articles that both boys did well .
 
#19 ·
Just practiced with Hombre who had a hard time settling down and being accurate doing sloppy heeling and poor recalls although they were fast he couldn't find front for the life of him , only thing that was decent was the fig8. Will work articles later today after errands are done with two more loose ones and see how that goes. Then the boys can be dogs til Mon.when we go to club.
 
#20 ·
I am exhausted!!!!!! Well not really but what a session :)

I took Aedan to a clinic for his 5-in-1 one year booster. Seriously do not know if it was worth saving the $130 or so.. well he was at the vets a few weeks ago so did not need a physical, just the booster - probably his last depending on titers etc.

Anyway, I brought 5 things of string cheese figuring I might get some training in & ran out! There were little dogs galore, barking/baying hound dogs (seriously loud), dogs trying to get in his face, one biting his tail feathers, and other assorted misbehaving dogs -- he took quite a while to start offering focus, and then only once he seemed to realize that I was running interference for him!! Well meaning people and dogs I guess but 2 1/2 hours was a bit much!! And we were about 12th in line <sigh> As mentioned nice people who were chatty etc, but I had a hard time focusing on running interference for Aedan and paying attention to what they were saying - as usual, paying attention to my dog came first LOL

Anyway, he did some pocket hands, high jumps, stands, sits, fronts, finishes and a lot of offering focus. He is exhausted too LOL

Then up to visit Towhee & pups with Faelan. Hoping to get some training in today but my brother is doing yardwork so that will depend.
 
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#23 ·
Yesterday when I tried to do articles with the "Challenge " it was just that a challenge and he was in play mode not work mode and so he just screwed EVERYTHING up but this morning although he was still a wild child he settled down enough to do 2 metal and 2 leather articles correctly . Three turns in place were butt out but he left very briskly on my order of " find it " searched till he found the correct ones and returned to me . He tried to front straight and did manage to get two good ones out of four. Never know what training with Hombre will bring at times he is a super star and I think he will be the best of any of my dogs and a top competitor and other days just my " Challenge "
 
#24 ·
This morning everything is soggy so low impact type things :) Grass seed I put down yesterday (pre-germinated) ended up on the sidewalk it poured so much!

So, we worked heeling - Faelan also had signals as did Brady. Brady was swinging wide on right turns so that was dialed back to slow and right turns, which I also did for Aedan. Brady appears to benefit from daily training or at least only 1 day off - he was off on his turns, his signals and his drop! Aedan had heeling, catch me up games and recalls. All dogs had a few heeling & fronting games. Their finishes were with food drops from my right hands over my head to re-enforce heads up sits.

Then Faelan & Brady had 3+ minute OOS sits which they aced. Followed by Faelan, Brady & Aedan all having a 1+ minute in-sight sit stays with multiple returns after I returned to them.

Overall an interesting session; Faelan does better with skipped training days, Brady does not. And Aedan, well to date he is a working dog!! Loving the work, the attention, the need for a balanced precision/games approach and of course the food :)
 
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#25 ·
Worked articles with Hombre this morning and he did get the correct one each of the four sends he would have lost a lot of points for crooked sits on turn in place- dropping article -twice mouthing- and poor f+ f but the exercise he would have qualified each time. Club this afternoon but I'm only taking the " Challenge" to work with in preparation for the trial Sat. Tomorrow both boys go to SCKC for practice and Thurs.Nugget will go by himself again hopefully weather will allow for novice work with Hombre at home.
 
#26 ·
Late day at work so we had our sessions in the twilight so to speak LOL May need to go in early tomorrow too, but I really cannot take time off from training - this whole working thing interferes with living!

But, this evening we worked

> Go Outs with Directed Jumping
> Heeling with signals for Faelan & Brady
> ROF
> ROHJ
 
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#27 ·
Early & quick sessions this morning. All 3 dogs had the same:

> Heeling with spinning & pop up games combined with come fore and finish games.
> Broad Jumps

They did well :) Yes, a few non-perfect type things but they did well.
 
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#28 ·
Had a decent sized class at club and most of the people's dogs are doing well especially with s+ d.

Hombre was a little sloppy in his heeling the first pattern that we did but improved the second time around. Fig8 was nice. We also did gloves and this exercise is coming along very well. Signals he daydreamed and missed the sit signal but a reset was good. The one thing he did that upset me was we were doing go outs and only go outs ( no jumping because of his stitches which come out today ) and he started toward taking the HJ which had all the boards in it 38 inches high but I was able to stop him with a very loud NO !!!
 
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