Thank you Andrew and Katie for your lovely comments after my last post :-)
Sorry that I beat myself up a bit but sometimes a little set back is what I need to make me more focused!!
After watching these snippets of video I'm much more confident about our progress.....normal service resumed.
Reno is working so well in training and I'm convinced if I can be a bit more consistent in competition great things are just around the corner :-)
I've decided to stray slightly from Susan Garrett's 2 x 2 as I feel that Reno now understands how to weave 12 poles and get an entry but our particular problem lies in putting them into a course. Because of this I am going to concentrate on putting the weaves into short sequences at the moment then go onto do days 11 and 12 in a few weeks time.
I've got quite an exciting weekend coming up.
On Saturday we are going to Belvoir Steam Festival. There is an Agility Competition there but, depending on how things go, I may not compete. The whole point of going is so that Ann, Mark, Ade and Myself can have a nice day out together.
On Sunday it's back to Bakewell again, this time for Dog Vegas. Pen's judging the Team Dash (and 2 other classes that I'm in I think) so it should be fun. We're looking forward to running with Reno's brothers and sister again :-)
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Monday, 16 May 2011
The Weakest Link
At the moment Agility with Reno seems to be full of surprises - some good and some bad!!
Although I didn't manage to do any weave practice with Jo on Monday night we did a lot of work on start lines. Jo wanted to know if Reno understood that handler standing still by a jump is a turning cue. Pleasant surprise number one was that he completely understood and shortened his stride like a pro to turn tight :-)
I set the course up for training on Tuesday night. Pleasant surprise number two - Reno got every weave entry in his class (quite straight forward) and also managed the more difficult entry that I'd set up for Kiros's class.
So on my way to High Peak I was a little nervous but quietly optimistic. Why is it always at that point things start to go wrong?!!
Reno's first run of the day was in jumping and he managed 3 jumps before an elimination, dodging me and obstacles to go into tunnels, but I did manage to get him through 12 weaves (eventually).
Above is his Agility run. He had no intention of stopping on his contacts and, again, went into a tunnel 3 times rather the weaving!!
But the team dash was the biggest humiliation of the day!!! It had been spitting with rain most of the day and by the time we got to run the dash the heavens had opened so Andrew didn’t put any weaves into the course. Reno ran first and worked the tight corner that I was worried about lovely then I relaxed and he took an off course jump getting eliminated. Then Speedy ran – clear, Zippy – clear and then Megan - you’ve guessed it – clear!!!
By this point Ann and I were both soaked and had lost the will to live so we left without attempting his last Agility :-(
Thanks to Jo for posting a video of the dash on her blog as I've been able to analyse my handling in that run and the Agility. My conclusion is that the weakest link is...............Me!!
I could list a number of things that I did inconsistently but the biggest disappointment was the start lines. After all of the training that we did a few days before how could I have thought that Reno would know to turn when I was still moving?
My resolve for next weekend is to run in competition like I do in training.
On a lighter note Ann, Sue and I went to watch the World Agility Open yesterday nr Bristol. It was a very long but incredibly exciting day. The British competitors were literally world class and I was so proud to see Dave and Rusty receive Gold in the Individual Pentathlon and Team events.
To top it all we were treated to Susan Garrett at her finest with what can only be described as a perfect run in the Biathlon Agility.
Although I didn't manage to do any weave practice with Jo on Monday night we did a lot of work on start lines. Jo wanted to know if Reno understood that handler standing still by a jump is a turning cue. Pleasant surprise number one was that he completely understood and shortened his stride like a pro to turn tight :-)
I set the course up for training on Tuesday night. Pleasant surprise number two - Reno got every weave entry in his class (quite straight forward) and also managed the more difficult entry that I'd set up for Kiros's class.
So on my way to High Peak I was a little nervous but quietly optimistic. Why is it always at that point things start to go wrong?!!
Reno's first run of the day was in jumping and he managed 3 jumps before an elimination, dodging me and obstacles to go into tunnels, but I did manage to get him through 12 weaves (eventually).
Above is his Agility run. He had no intention of stopping on his contacts and, again, went into a tunnel 3 times rather the weaving!!
But the team dash was the biggest humiliation of the day!!! It had been spitting with rain most of the day and by the time we got to run the dash the heavens had opened so Andrew didn’t put any weaves into the course. Reno ran first and worked the tight corner that I was worried about lovely then I relaxed and he took an off course jump getting eliminated. Then Speedy ran – clear, Zippy – clear and then Megan - you’ve guessed it – clear!!!
By this point Ann and I were both soaked and had lost the will to live so we left without attempting his last Agility :-(
Thanks to Jo for posting a video of the dash on her blog as I've been able to analyse my handling in that run and the Agility. My conclusion is that the weakest link is...............Me!!
I could list a number of things that I did inconsistently but the biggest disappointment was the start lines. After all of the training that we did a few days before how could I have thought that Reno would know to turn when I was still moving?
My resolve for next weekend is to run in competition like I do in training.
On a lighter note Ann, Sue and I went to watch the World Agility Open yesterday nr Bristol. It was a very long but incredibly exciting day. The British competitors were literally world class and I was so proud to see Dave and Rusty receive Gold in the Individual Pentathlon and Team events.
To top it all we were treated to Susan Garrett at her finest with what can only be described as a perfect run in the Biathlon Agility.
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Day 10.......
is entitled "Building Drive and Footwork" but I'm not sure we achieved either!!
(Sorry about the very dark video in places. I'm not sure what happened)
Reno found this training session quite challenging and really had to think about some of the exercises.
Surprisingly the one that he found hardest was the "send on" which he does easily through the channel. Hopefully this will be easy to work on?
His footwork was also all over the place for the first 6 poles and then he got into a rhythm in the last 6. Again, I'm sure that this is something that can be fixed.
This was the last chance that I'll have to work on the 2 x 2 weaves before Reno's next competition, High Peak on 14th May. I'm hoping that either Jo or Allison will set some weaves up in a course this week so I can try them out.
I suppose I'm going to have to trust that Reno knows what I want him to do. It doesn't matter that he makes a mistake in the weaves, just that he makes an attempt at them.
Reno's See-saw (at the end of the video) is improving nicely. He's looking so much more confident with it :-)
Fingers crossed for High Peak!! At least Reno can have fun in the Team Dash with his brothers and sister.
(Sorry about the very dark video in places. I'm not sure what happened)
Reno found this training session quite challenging and really had to think about some of the exercises.
Surprisingly the one that he found hardest was the "send on" which he does easily through the channel. Hopefully this will be easy to work on?
His footwork was also all over the place for the first 6 poles and then he got into a rhythm in the last 6. Again, I'm sure that this is something that can be fixed.
This was the last chance that I'll have to work on the 2 x 2 weaves before Reno's next competition, High Peak on 14th May. I'm hoping that either Jo or Allison will set some weaves up in a course this week so I can try them out.
I suppose I'm going to have to trust that Reno knows what I want him to do. It doesn't matter that he makes a mistake in the weaves, just that he makes an attempt at them.
Reno's See-saw (at the end of the video) is improving nicely. He's looking so much more confident with it :-)
Fingers crossed for High Peak!! At least Reno can have fun in the Team Dash with his brothers and sister.
Saturday, 7 May 2011
Day 9 - Sorry Susan............
I know this isn't exactly your Day 9 but I needed to know that Reno would pick up fast easy entries!!
I knew that Reno had started to understand the entry to the weaves but everything we had done up to today was so much slower then we would be doing in competition. The entries that Susan has achieved with "Trendi" are certainly impressive but not what we are likely to encounter in Grade 3 (hopefully)!!
I also have to apologise to Susan as I was unable to change habitat and, as you can see, Reno's toy :-)
Much like Trendi, Reno tried to put a gap in the middle of the 12 poles when they came together. In fact, looking at his foot work, I think in his mind he was doing two sets of 6 throughout the whole session - double stepping the first, then single stepping and then double stepping - not being sure what to do in the middle!!
The most pleasing thing about today's session was that from the camera angle (which I think was a lot better today) Reno was obviously looking for the poles.
Tomorrow is day 10 which is entitled "Building Drive and Footwork". I'm looking forward to this :-)
I knew that Reno had started to understand the entry to the weaves but everything we had done up to today was so much slower then we would be doing in competition. The entries that Susan has achieved with "Trendi" are certainly impressive but not what we are likely to encounter in Grade 3 (hopefully)!!
I also have to apologise to Susan as I was unable to change habitat and, as you can see, Reno's toy :-)
Much like Trendi, Reno tried to put a gap in the middle of the 12 poles when they came together. In fact, looking at his foot work, I think in his mind he was doing two sets of 6 throughout the whole session - double stepping the first, then single stepping and then double stepping - not being sure what to do in the middle!!
The most pleasing thing about today's session was that from the camera angle (which I think was a lot better today) Reno was obviously looking for the poles.
Tomorrow is day 10 which is entitled "Building Drive and Footwork". I'm looking forward to this :-)
Friday, 6 May 2011
Different Perspective
Today I was able to get to the paddock to complete day 8 of Reno's weave training.
I wanted to see how his action was developing through the weaves so I positioned the camera in a different place. As you can see I was obviously no better at getting everything in shot. The bar you can see at the top of the screen is the A-frame......I put the camera behind it as I couldn't be bothered to move anything!!!
As I mentioned in my last post I'm continuing to work on stage 9 but after watching Day 8 of the video I've realised that the exercises continue to use the jump.
Today I was much more confident that Reno was trying to get the harder weave entries, working them out quite easily. To put things in perspective I tried a few of the entries with Kiros and he didn't pick them up without help :-)
We're now building up to 12 weaves so I've introduced the 2nd set of six. You cannot see it very well on the video but I'm using two sets with solid basis. The set nearest to the camera is the channel weaves fully closed. These have the support struts every other pole opposite to where the dog steps. The set furthest from the camera are an "Adams" set with the struts that fold out on both sides.
Looking at Reno's action when he was working solely on the first set he was single stepping nicely but when I introduced the second set things changed. He obviously preferred doing the set closest to the camera and he started double stepping and going a lot slower when he had to do the other set. Lets see how he reacts over the next couple of days as I'll have to use the "Adams" weaves when the 2 x 6 are put together.
Thank you to Katie for your encouraging comments about Reno's weaves. I hope I'm not boring people too much (that's if anyone is reading this!!!) but I'm hoping that documenting Reno's progress will help me in the future :-)
Day 9 tomorrow.................weather permitting!!!!
I wanted to see how his action was developing through the weaves so I positioned the camera in a different place. As you can see I was obviously no better at getting everything in shot. The bar you can see at the top of the screen is the A-frame......I put the camera behind it as I couldn't be bothered to move anything!!!
As I mentioned in my last post I'm continuing to work on stage 9 but after watching Day 8 of the video I've realised that the exercises continue to use the jump.
Today I was much more confident that Reno was trying to get the harder weave entries, working them out quite easily. To put things in perspective I tried a few of the entries with Kiros and he didn't pick them up without help :-)
We're now building up to 12 weaves so I've introduced the 2nd set of six. You cannot see it very well on the video but I'm using two sets with solid basis. The set nearest to the camera is the channel weaves fully closed. These have the support struts every other pole opposite to where the dog steps. The set furthest from the camera are an "Adams" set with the struts that fold out on both sides.
Looking at Reno's action when he was working solely on the first set he was single stepping nicely but when I introduced the second set things changed. He obviously preferred doing the set closest to the camera and he started double stepping and going a lot slower when he had to do the other set. Lets see how he reacts over the next couple of days as I'll have to use the "Adams" weaves when the 2 x 6 are put together.
Thank you to Katie for your encouraging comments about Reno's weaves. I hope I'm not boring people too much (that's if anyone is reading this!!!) but I'm hoping that documenting Reno's progress will help me in the future :-)
Day 9 tomorrow.................weather permitting!!!!
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Day 7
A bit backwards as Susan Garrett adds the Jump to 4 straight weaves and then uses various combinations of 2 x 2's to get the weaves up to 6.
Again, probably a little impatiently, I knew that Reno could easily weave 6 so straightened the weaves up, put him through them a few times and then added the Jump. Only once did he come out of the weaves and that was when I confused him.
Looking at the video I think the training session went a bit better then it felt. I'm obviously beginning to expect a bit more from Reno but he didn't seem to be trying as hard to get the entry after taking the jump.
Having said that his success rate was still reasonable and I decided to finish the session earlier then I wanted to as the bangs (which you can just hear on the video) were beginning to distract him.
We completed day 7 on Monday and I haven't been able to do anything else with him since then which is a shame because I think he is a bit of a "latent learner". Every time I introduce a new challenge he slows down and thinks about it and then the next day it seems to sink in!!
From what I can see in the work book days 8 and 9 concentrate on taking the number of poles up to 12.
What I'm planning to do is keep repeating day 6 at the same time as this as I need to get Reno thinking a bit more about his entry after an obstacle.
Yesterday we had Ray training us at NADTC. He very kindly worked out separate exercises for me without using the weave and Reno was amazing - naughty but amazing :-)
He jumped the Wall for the first time and didn't bat an eyelid. I'm pretty certain that his contacts are now almost as fast as Kiros's but the naughty bit is that he isn't consistently stopping or not stopping for as long as I want him to. I have always believed that a truly driven dog will know how to do things correctly but want to do them wrong because they know it's quicker.......I guess I've got that with Reno ;-)
Again, probably a little impatiently, I knew that Reno could easily weave 6 so straightened the weaves up, put him through them a few times and then added the Jump. Only once did he come out of the weaves and that was when I confused him.
Looking at the video I think the training session went a bit better then it felt. I'm obviously beginning to expect a bit more from Reno but he didn't seem to be trying as hard to get the entry after taking the jump.
Having said that his success rate was still reasonable and I decided to finish the session earlier then I wanted to as the bangs (which you can just hear on the video) were beginning to distract him.
We completed day 7 on Monday and I haven't been able to do anything else with him since then which is a shame because I think he is a bit of a "latent learner". Every time I introduce a new challenge he slows down and thinks about it and then the next day it seems to sink in!!
From what I can see in the work book days 8 and 9 concentrate on taking the number of poles up to 12.
What I'm planning to do is keep repeating day 6 at the same time as this as I need to get Reno thinking a bit more about his entry after an obstacle.
Yesterday we had Ray training us at NADTC. He very kindly worked out separate exercises for me without using the weave and Reno was amazing - naughty but amazing :-)
He jumped the Wall for the first time and didn't bat an eyelid. I'm pretty certain that his contacts are now almost as fast as Kiros's but the naughty bit is that he isn't consistently stopping or not stopping for as long as I want him to. I have always believed that a truly driven dog will know how to do things correctly but want to do them wrong because they know it's quicker.......I guess I've got that with Reno ;-)
Monday, 2 May 2011
A little impatient :-)
Having a very long Bank Holiday weekend and no Agility Show to go to has certainly given me plenty of time to spend with the Dogs and continue with Reno's weave training.
Since my last post I've been giving a lot of thought to how I can adapt Susan Garrett's method so Reno can understand it better. Maybe I am being a little impatient or maybe I just know what is best for my Dog? ;-)
Throughout the week I've been working with just two poles in my Garden but using the Clicker as I think that it is a marker that Reno understands well.
I have redone Day 5 although I didn't video it as Ann came and watched. I used 4 Channel weaves again, set at about 1"apart, but this time used my Clicker to mark the correct entries. Again Reno was great in the low challenge area but made more mistakes in the essential entry area. Ann pointed out that I was increasing Reno's challenge too quickly so we placed the numbers around the arc so I didn't accidently push him too much.
This is a Video of what we did yesterday. (I obviously didn't set the camera up too well so we are out of shot most of the time and Reno knocked it at the end to make it worse!! My videoing rivals my photography!)
This is where I've been a little impatient as I've increased the poles to 6 already. I felt it would be ok for Reno as I know he can weave 6 poles and he seemed to drive through them better when there were 6.
Although you can't see from the video they were still slightly apart. I had planned to close them later on but Reno was getting tired so I gave it a miss.
Again you can't see very well in the video but Reno has a much better success rate now, only needing to repeat the harder entries and then getting them right quite quickly. The difference I can see is that he's now altering his pace as he enters the weaves rather than blasting into them.
After giving him a bit of a rest I worked on a jumping sequence which finished near the weaves. To my surprise, instead of chasing the ball I'd thrown as his reward, he took himself into the weaves and completed them :-)
I'm really optimistic about today - the plan is to close the 6 poles completely and add a jump to work the arc. Hopefully I'll set the video better so I can see a real change in Reno's approach to the weaves.
Since my last post I've been giving a lot of thought to how I can adapt Susan Garrett's method so Reno can understand it better. Maybe I am being a little impatient or maybe I just know what is best for my Dog? ;-)
Throughout the week I've been working with just two poles in my Garden but using the Clicker as I think that it is a marker that Reno understands well.
I have redone Day 5 although I didn't video it as Ann came and watched. I used 4 Channel weaves again, set at about 1"apart, but this time used my Clicker to mark the correct entries. Again Reno was great in the low challenge area but made more mistakes in the essential entry area. Ann pointed out that I was increasing Reno's challenge too quickly so we placed the numbers around the arc so I didn't accidently push him too much.
This is a Video of what we did yesterday. (I obviously didn't set the camera up too well so we are out of shot most of the time and Reno knocked it at the end to make it worse!! My videoing rivals my photography!)
This is where I've been a little impatient as I've increased the poles to 6 already. I felt it would be ok for Reno as I know he can weave 6 poles and he seemed to drive through them better when there were 6.
Although you can't see from the video they were still slightly apart. I had planned to close them later on but Reno was getting tired so I gave it a miss.
Again you can't see very well in the video but Reno has a much better success rate now, only needing to repeat the harder entries and then getting them right quite quickly. The difference I can see is that he's now altering his pace as he enters the weaves rather than blasting into them.
After giving him a bit of a rest I worked on a jumping sequence which finished near the weaves. To my surprise, instead of chasing the ball I'd thrown as his reward, he took himself into the weaves and completed them :-)
I'm really optimistic about today - the plan is to close the 6 poles completely and add a jump to work the arc. Hopefully I'll set the video better so I can see a real change in Reno's approach to the weaves.
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