The fly over states

I really never knew that they were called the fly over states--I feel sheltered :/

Anyway states, flying... and really nothing of the title have to do with this post :)

I figured I didn't mention all that much that AMP was doing 2o2o now--Surprise! I decided probably 2 weeks ago enough was enough! I was going to be a quitter and that's all that was too it. I had to do some major prep talking to myself to actually convince myself, but I did it. Trust me I have tried to quit things quite a few times--my prep talks are stellar :) Perty persuasive may I add.

After 2 sessions of doing the lame ( yea it is lame now because I could get it to work ) RDW thing and it was fail...fail...fail..... and fail after fail AMP said NO MORE! Literally she did. I couldn't imagine the words coming out of her mouth if she could talk- it's a good thing she can't, she would make a sailor blush. The last rep I did she went down the board, leaped of course, and went to her toy and stopped. I told her to get it and she stared at me. chirp chirp. I tried to tell her to get it again and she sat and just looked at me. Pretty sure she had LOTS of screw you thoughts rolling through her brain. That's when I sighed and said fine we will just give up- naturally she brought the toy back to me--brat :) Really I am not heart broken I am more...relieved? We have something concrete now that she likes, I like, and were all happy :) well when she actually does the 2o2o that is! The reasons TO have it definitely were outweighed by the reasons to NOT have it!

AMP is being a crazy little rockstar and we just continue to work on our start lines and all the other skillz we need :) She gets to trial again in 8 days :D SOO excited! Love running my little mustang!!

V-I-D-E-O!

AMP is a rockstar!! I think she is one rad little dog :) She is running some tricky international courses in this video--so yea..she is just perty awesome! I am very happy about my decision with the no RDW! Jinx's is enough at this point and I feel much more...at peace? idk if that is the right word sounds kinda odd, but I don't regret the decision lets just go with that :)

She is fighting with running on these mats due to just lack of experience-- she'll figure it out in no time I am sure! She likes to dig in and run and these mats she has to think a bit more-mwaaha!

Anyway- she did GREAT and I love her :) Have I mentioned that before?! tee hee

*** oh and and and....I managed to get music with the video! makes it that much more exciting or at least no crickets chirping now!

My creative side :)

The decision was made that it was time to make a pretend lowered DW. Trust me this mornings session screamed need HELP! I did just that :)

after some cement blocks, a table, a teeter, and a step, voila you have yourself a pretty dang good lowered dogwalk, minus a board of course. She did fairly well :) I started like always with a little back chaining and then worked with her at the end of the first board to get the speed into it. I rewarded more than the ones that are in slow motion because I felt she needed her confidence built more than anything about running across the board. It paid off in the end when she had a couple really nice hits :) I think that there might be light at the end of the tunnel for this idea :) I feel sort like Einstein now!! Ok maybe not quite....

Then I added a little bit of weaves at then end :) She is doing left sided weave now!! Hooray :) It was a bit sketchy whether she was actually going to get that side, but she did!! She is still changing up her striding- does a stride of swimming, two step, bouncing, so it will just take time for her to get it figured out :) I am not too worried she gets nice and low and is moving along as a decent speed- it'll come!

I also am trying a new idea with the running A-frame that I think might work, but I don't want to overdose on the RC thing, so you will have to wait for that one :)

Success!

Alright I couldn't resist going out there and doing at least a little bit of the RDW. I really just want to get it trained, so the only way to do that is push through the bad days and keep on going :)

I tried to just keep the session short though and make it very successful :) She did very good and all ended well :) I know that the biggest road block for her is going to be adding the speed in because she is going to want to just run and leap! What AMP does best! Hopefully we can just keep working through it though :)

We all have bad days!

Sadly my computer is being lame and has decided that making a video is just not gunna happen today, so I will try again tomorrow. For now you can just read about it :)

Honestly though you are missing just about nothing! AMP was apparently not feeling the RDW thing. Started with a few up close ones and she was even having a hard time hitting those, but we got a few in, so I went to trying to go a ways back ( I added another bale) and that was worse yet. Went back close and she was just not driving to the toy hardly at all :/ I basically just got 2 good ones and then quit because if she isn't driving to the toy there really is no point in doing it.

I think she has hit the point of burnt out. I understand her feeling. We have done this fairly consistently for the last 19-ish days and that is enough to ware even the most motivated person out. We will take a break for a couple days and then come back to it when it is a bit more fresh :) Breaks are good!!! I will update when we return to our normal programming!!

Up Up and away!!

New height = SUPERB :)

I am really starting to think she gets it..for realz! woo hoo!

She does great when she is close or has 2 feet on the board and she did really good one time running and jumping on the bales to run the plank, but the next time it was a huge leap. It is just to the point on being too high to do the running and jumping on thing :( Which is a problem. I can't just keep doing it with her right next to the board because she needs to learn to hit it coming in with speed as well. Sooo yea not really sure what I am going to do yet. I will think of something though :) Overall I am really happy with how well she did at this height and some of her hits are with four feet which is totally awesome! Most of her misses happened because I was trying to figure out a spot for her to get more of a run at it, which was becoming a major fail.

:D

YAY!

She fell off as you will see so I moved her up to being on the bales again to get a good one to jackpot and end on :) I am sure next session she will be fine!!! Were moving it on up next time :) :)

Shame on me!

10 out of 13! WOW! AMP is just kickin' this heights booty :) She did pretty dang good this morning!!! I did about 3 with her having to jump on the bales and run down the plank. She did fairly good, but was tripping since the bales aren't very stable, so I didn't do very many like that :)

After watching the video I felt I could have held out on rewarding a few and waited for better and deeper hits, but I will try better next time :) If it goes well next session we will be moving on up!!

Doo da doo da :)

Happy dance Happy dance :D

My dog is supa kool :) Second RDW at new height and did an AMAZING job!!!!

Started once again with some back chaining (not as low) and then tried doing a couple reps with her being just slightly off the board and it wasn't going good. Did two with her 2 front feet on and then decided what the heck and tried having her further back. I truly thought that the further back was gunna be a no go, so many naughty options for her to choose, but she rocked it!! :D Had 3 very nice solid hits!! GO AMP :D

I suppose I should highlight on some other things we do. We don't just train RDW...ok well mostly we do ;)

Her weave poles are also coming along nicely. She has lovely entries- she just gets it, I have never really worked them or trained her into understanding she just got it- nice :) However left sided weaves her nearly the enemy. Poles 11 and 12 that is :/ She was pretty convinced that 10 poles was enough on the left side, so after two sessions of pure badness on the left I split the poles into two 6s (not sure why I didn't do this right away- banging head). Did that like 3 times and then pushed them together and ding! She got it :) Now we will just proof our heart out on that side!! As far as her striding goes she is still trying to get that all worked out. I thinking she will single stride without a problem. She already naturally gets low (it's quite cute) and she doesn't want to bounce step, so I think she will start swimming, which is what I would like her to do! I will video tape sometimes so I can really see what she is doing :)

Teeter-oh teeter! AMP= no like bang noise. Great probably the worst thing to not like about the teeter. I watched Wendy Pape's teeter video and took some of her ideas and am mixing them with what will work for AMP and I think we have got a good mojo going :) She drives really nicely to the end of a supported full teeter! She <3 P.butter :) She self taught her 4 on position basically so that we have no issues with :) The bang we are just trying to make less of a monster and more fun! Oh course then last night I was doing teeter practice and then went to do tunnels and she comes out of the tunnel the one time, crosses behind me and runs up the teeter--:O %&#$^#^ Of course THE princess is expecting there to be globs of P.butter and it not to tip well neither of those were true :/ Hopefully the gracious amounts of treats I gave her will make her think it was cool rather than scary :) Crazy dog!

Hmm what else- oh yes jumps :) For a girl who had a pretty shaky jumping start she is sure lovely now!! Her serps and threadles and wraps and back side jumps are marvelous!!! Unlike Jinx she is so willing to jump into me which is great, so I don't have to get the tow truck like I do with Jinx to crank him in ;)

All in all we are making progress and enjoying our lessons learned and fun had :) I guess putting your dog who doesn't know all the equipment on a DAM team and want to go to Nationals with is a good motivator!! :) We will get it all put together some day soon!

Switch-a-Roo :)

Today was the day that......AMP got to do a new height dogwalk :) WOO HOO! Ok it isn't that ooberly exciting minus that I am glad that were done with that last height since it was getting kinda frustrating! ;)

Once you see the video you will notice that we are no longer running and then jumping onto the board, we have upgraded to the new model and are now simulating the real deal :) go us! I have always wanted to go in a rocket ship simulator :) To add to it I went hillbilly style and used hay bales! score :) I raised it a bit more than 6" since the hay bales were the best I could find and they don't really come custom ordered. I figured if it was too much of a jump then I will go on a hunt for a better support, but I don't think that'll be needed :) These are two major changes for one session, but she can handle it!

I started with her closer and she had one good stride, but it wasn't progressing well, so then I tried backing her up more and that wasn't going good either, soooooo then I went to good ole' back chaining :) Voila it worked! Sometimes you just have to kick it old school ;) She did quite well then and we managed to end where we started with being at the top of the board and her having a much better understanding :)

Something tells me she is actually and truly getting this!! Who would of ever thought?!? Not me that's for sure :) But we aren't there yet, so just gunna have to keep plucking away!

And.......

MUST.BE.PATIENT!!!

PATIENCEEEEEEEEE PATIENCEEEEEEEE PATIENCEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Patience is something that doesn't come very easy to me. I really have to work quite hard at it. I know some people don't think so since I have taught AMP so many tricks and re0train RDW, but really I have to tell myself a lot to be patient and it'll come :) AMP just likes to remind me of that right there!

On Monday when I tried to the RDW I seriously wanted to just give up! I was done with trying to get her to figure it out, nothing was working from the last session and session 2 of that day was getting better, but still nothing worth getting too excited about! Then there was yesterday and it got better and now TODAY!! She was an absolute genius :) :) Minus my 2 sucky throws ( really I was a good softball pitcher..haha) and 2 could of been betters she was giving me the best striding that she has at this height yet. I.am.completely.thrilled :)

Of course I should know this by now that with AMP it's all about patience. She is a brilliant dog, but her high drive energy sometimes blocks the way of her thinking juices ;) I wouldn't change it for the world because once we have got things figured out she is going to be SUPERB! So for now I will just wait her out and keep on working at it!

And now the video of the smarty pants herself :)

Are ya bored yet?

You have gotta be bored with RDW videos by now?!?! I know I am!!! I am starting to think that I need to start bribing AMP into just doing it right and that way we can be done :) Hmm. Possibly if I write it on a spread sheet for her with some pictures it would work. Although she would probably crumble it up and throw it at me ;)

Today it went better than yesterday started! Horray for that! The little things guys. She did try doing this new thing- I told you if it was possible AMP would try it- and hit with her front feet a couple times. The first time she tried it, it was just a skip and she didn't put her foot down right, but then she did 2 or 3 after that and she was actually hitting them after I watched the video. I am not sure how much of that I should reward or if at all, but I guess if it is getting her in the contact and she is comfortable doing I don't see it to be a problem. More than likely it will change when she gets ore height. I guess we just keep movin' along!

Maybe I will post a video of her doing all her silly tricks later-that'll be more exciting :)

It's gotta be the lucky boots :)

My fake Uggs are lucky I tell ya :) I wore them on Saturday at an agility trial running Dakota and got a 51 point snooker- and now?? I get a MUCH better RDW session out of AMP!!! It's definitely the boots!!! Can't imagine what the real Uggs have for luck :D

Anyway if you didn't know or couldn't tell by now I am super obsessive! YAY! Me and my border collies get along so well for a reason :) It basically drove me nuts all day how dysfunctional her RDW session went this morning :( I just really wanted to fix it!! Like a helpless little border collie that comes off his 2o2o contact and tries to quickly fix it before the walk of shame. That'd be me! Fortunately for me I am in control to do that :) So I did!

Really it doesn't bother AMP she likes doing anything involving me and toy, so she is always game :)

This session went MUCH better :) :) :) She would jump on and off on some of them, but that was because of my poor ability at throwing that toy right where I want it to be :/ Wish Babe Ruth could of given me some lessons of the whole throwing aim thing, so we just have to make due with my special skillz. I don't expect her to stay on when the toy is off center that will come at a later date, so if she doesn't not a big deal. The point is that the ones she did hit were better! Not nearly as many gaaaahhhhhh moments :) So were on to big and better things now and will continue on. Hopefully work, school, and holidays won't force us to take some much time off from it!

it must have been the turkey

3 days of no RDW training.....yea probably not so good.

It didn't go too bad, more less it was what I expected, so at least it wasn't worst right? :)

I probably should of just quit while I was ahead in this one since we had a couple conflicts through-out but we gotta work through those too!

Not much else to say about it other than we still need work!

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH and I almost forgot it was AMP's Birthday yesterday! Don't tell her I didn't post this yesterday.... Can't believe she is already 2 and I am sure the rest of the world is saying I can't believe she is 2 and hasn't hardly done and shows ;) Psh showing is for dummies :p Being obnoxious outside the ring watching is what the kool kids do :)

And I leave you with a crazy Spider Monkey picture :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Were getting more consistent :) YAY! Still need to work on trying to get some of those reps deeper!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you all!!! Go eat LOTS of Nom Noms :)

If its possible AMP will try it!

I tell ya the girl really wants to just test EVERY scenario ;)

Went out for our RDW session today. Mind you the board has NOT moved the snow had NOT moved ( I really wish that would move), NOTHING has moved! I started her back where she was successful and what does she do? I was thinking maybe a bad rep? Oh no she goes around the board! huh? Must have been a fluke! Oh no she then did it two more times- dork! SO we went up to being on the board and then it all came back to us :) haha She only had to try one go around after that to be sure that wasn't the right option. The rep after that wasn't good because I started her a little further up to just make sure she would go on and then after those we went back to where she is successful and she did GREAT minus the one whoops!!

Overall I am still quite happy with how she is doing! I will stay at this height at least for another session or until she is getting on it from the start at the very least!

Picturessssss!!!!

I know two posts in one day, but this blog is in desperate need of THE Princess pictures :)

So little words and lots of pictures :)

I haz toy I iz awesome!

Dork :)

Wow AMP I am impressed- A normal pose :)

AMP and her peeps!

Uh we might need to get that tongue checked out :/

Du dun du dun du dunnnnnn

Perty :)

And I leave you with a snowy face AMP :)

sNOw Stopping me :)

I am bound and determined to get this RDW and MN and it's crabby little snowing sessions aren't going to take me down :p so there! ha!

As you saw that last session was one I would rather just be forgotten :( I expected that on her first session, so I guess when that one went good I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up too high for it to keep going that way ;) So we took some time off and then it snowed and I wanted to cry, but I decided it wasn't going to stop my training quite yet!

Which brought us to today :)

I started her on the plank since she isn't able to get too crazy from that still of a stand point :) That went good so I moved back a bit and she had good separation, but not deep enough which last time meant we were too close. I didn't tug with her, but I did tell her she was a good girl because she is doing the correct striding. Second move back wasn't quite far enough yet and then the third time we hit it spot on :) YAY! She hit every single one after that good :) I didn't do as long of a session today since I don't want to risk ANYTHING!!!

I am just quite relieved that we only had a small hiccup at this height :)

It's a good thing she is cute :)

GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* clearing throat* Now that I have got that out of my system I shall explain :)

Went to do the plank this morning- Horray--or no :( Remember when I posted before about sharing the bad results clearly I wasn't prepared for what was to come :( Eeks!

We are still at the new height and she really just couldn't hit it at all from the same distance that we had been at. I then went a little closer. Had a few nicer reps and then boing on boing off :( It's sorta like the " clap on clap off light" minus it really isn't that handy. I tried varying with her distance and nothing seemed to be reliably working, so as you will see at the end of the video we went back to 2 feet on the board 2 feet off the board. There I got good results, so we will probably start there in the next session!

Sadly the plank has to be put away :( Apparently Minnesota is going to start acting Minnesota like and have snow..blek! This will not help the RDW stuff, but we will try to over come it :)

Raising the bar..umm..plank

This morning we ventured out into the cold.....er VERY cold MN morning to do our RDW practice. Horray us :) I feel like this RDW stuff has made me a more dedicated person? :)

We moved the plank up a whole 4 inches...wait until you see my awesome way of raising it :)

To say the least I was surprised that she did this well with it. I know to the average person watching they are thinking what a lost cause, but I am after all not the average person, I am rather a person who really wants her dog to have a RDW :) a.k.a trying to look at the bright side of things with determination. :)

THE princess tried some quite creative things in this session which is actually nice to see. Rather than doing the same behavior over and over she was trying to change it up which tells me that she is trying and that she understands that no reward means you need to change. This is good :) So looking at it that way even the bad ones are good ones, but shhhh we don't want to tell her that! No we just do like we did at the last height wait her out and let things get settled in before we make any adjustments.

Aaaaand never to bore you there is video :)



We are now crawled back in the house under blankies away from the bitter cold.

That feeling

People always say they are grinning from ear to ear. I always wanted to know what that feeling was like. I am sure I have felt a variation of that feeling or come close to it and heck even felt it and don't remember. Today it has come back to me :)

I did another session today with AMP and the RDW. Her very last two sessions were good session one was showing a light and session two was looking like we were almost there and today? Today we saw that light :) :) :) She nailed the plank today. She only had one horribly bad one due to the toy placement I would say, but maybe she just didn't stride whatever it was, it was one stinkin' wrong rep out of like 6 totally kick ass reps!!!

I know that to the rest of the world especially the non-running contact people they probably don't understand the reason for the joy, but to see that your dog is finally understanding something that is in their minds probably intensely complicated is just an ear to ear grinning feeling :) I have worked SO hard on AMP and wanted to give up SO many times, but I just felt I had to keep trying. I am sure glad I did. I now have a dog that can run a slightly raised plank which she couldn't even stay on the plank before! WOW! Go Princess :)

The next session the plank with be raised about 4 inches and we will go from there :)

Enjoy the video from today until then!

Not even Columbus discovered things this BIG :)

So maybe he discovered America and stuff and traveled like a million miles doing it and now we all live on this little round green and blue planet. Our home is one of those green splots surrounded by some water. Not really that big of a deal right? especially since he could of choose a different part of the world which was MUCH warmer thank you very much. hmph

I think my discovery of AMP's RDW has truly been quite the work in its self. No traveling needed for this one (yet) it has plenty of its own problems right in my back yard..or it did. I would like to look at me as the counselor to AMP's RDW :) Clearly the little guy was having some problems that he just didn't know how to express :( So dun dun dun counselor Kaitlyn to the rescue..I didn't even need schooling for that ;)

I did TWO session yesterday for AMP's RDW :) Decided I would like to see what happens! The results were fantastic!!!

---->The first session:
My goal was to slowly back chain her to find a spot where she can be successful in having a good stride while having a nice stride in the yellow too :) We started at like 3 feet and just reversed from there. I got to about 7 feet and she was doing pretty good. It was pretty close to the yellow and blue boundary line ( Mexico verses America). I would prefer she was more in American ( obvious reasons) however I figured we were getting nice strides for the most part, so we can stop there :)

-----> Session Two:
Started at 7 feet once again and she did good there for a rep, so I moved her back to about 10 feet and VOILA! That's the winner ding ding ding :) She can hit very nice right at about 10 feet :) Her rear feet separation is beautiful and he stride across looks very nice and we are all happy!!!

The plan is that if she does well today we are going to move it on up :O It is scary, slightly, but I am feeling confident with our success and her understanding :)

Now the video for you all to see for yourselves :)



So now you understand why Columbus isn't even half as good as me :p tee hee!

Even the bad :)

I am even letting you all in on the not so good sessions of our RDW adventures :) lucky you!

Bad probably isn't a good word for it- more like wrinkly clothes. Right now we are like working with wrinkly clothes we just need to slowly iron out the wrinkles one by one :)

In this session I tried moving her back after the rep to about 3 feet. Since when she eventually (crossing fingers) gets to a dogwalk she won't be coming onto the down plank right at the apex it'll be from a couple feet before that. This however caused some issues with her not wanting to drive to the toy completely if she had a few bad reps. She decided that there really wasn't a point in getting there too quick if no rewarded was going to be given in return. Of course AMP you always want to know what's in it for you ;) So we will be working on better long distance sends. Good thing that I saw in this session was the great hind feet separation. She definitely had a lot of that action going on and it was just not in the correct spot due to her not being loaded in a natural spot for all the stars to aline ;) No problem we will get to that wrinkle next. I think if I keep looking at this as a wrinkly shirt I can keep moving along ;) The iron never fails on shirts and I guess if worse comes to worse to the dry cleaners she shall go :)

RDW 2

This session didn't seem to go as well. I think I have figured out though that it first off helps for her to do some " energy wasting" before the plank and second helps if she is rocking back on her rear when I release her. At the end of the session she started doing the best because of those things, so I am going to try them with the next session and see how it goes ;)

I have a decision problem :/

I have come to the conclusion that I lack major skillz in the making a decision department! I could practically be a millionaire if I had a penny for every time I have changed my mind about training the dogs something.

Judging by the current trend I should probably just stick with my first idea and go with it because I somehow always end up back there :) I suppose this isn't the greatest trait to have, but hey at the end of the day..er...year I do eventually get a decision made. This is probably the leading reason for AMP not knowing very much in agility. I just didn't and still haven't decided how I wanted to train some of the obstacles. Thank goodness for the pressure of waiting to actually run the dog before she is like 11 years old to push me along. Who says peer pressure is bad? ok seriously don't always give into pressure though ;)

I am sure by now you are thinking so what have you changed your mind about NOW!?!?

I am trying one last time to get AMP a RDW. Here are my very valuable reasons....

1) I.love.RDWs. Jinx's is SO much fun to have, it brings a new element of excitement to the game and fun :)
2) If I taught a re-train shouldn't I be able to teach a from scratch dog?? Logic says that would be true, so I am going to go with logic--my training abilities are proving otherwise, so I shall ignore them!
3) I think she would enjoy it :) I really think once I get the point of what I want across to her she will really like it and be very good at it!!

So there is my reasons :) They all seem quite valid to me!! So here we are off on our new adventure! We have got the whole winter to get it down and hopefully come out in the summer with a bang!!!

Here is her 2nd session technically. The first one was in the barn with Dictionary there to help. This was my first time being along...it was a bit scary, but we didn't do too shabby! There will be MANY more videos to come, so ya'all best be prepared!

<-------I learn a little about myself ------->

Just when I think I know a lot about myself my dogs prove me different. Each dog I train I learn a little more about training and more about myself too! It is quite astonishing :)

Saturday my mom, me, and a friend ( lets call her Dictionary- you've heard about her on here before I am pretty sure) went out to the arena to play with the doggies :) The baby dogs got to play and the adults were able to do course work--YAY!

Dictionary is like RC extraordinaire :) If there is a problem she helps me repair it! So the problem? AMP's running A-frame and running DW. Yea yea shush I am trying a couple more things with her RDW before I give up all together ( for now).

First came the A-frame and what I thought was going was not :/ Motion was hiding the badness >:/ We slowed it all down a bit, actually stopped it, and went from there. voila success :) I, of course just had to be forced to be patient and let AMP settle into it :) Looks like we have a bright future for her A-frame.

The DW I was very skeptical about. I really have felt like I have tried lots and lots and LOTS and did mention LOTS of things. I came down to the idea that he stride just wasn't ideal for the RDW :( I really hated having to admit this. I want a RDW! I love Jinx's and would like to have the same with AMP. Dictionary had some clever ideas in mind, so we gave 'em a whirl. Had DW on the low table and started with AMP on the table and threw the toy. it went a little something like stride--boing right over the yellow. haha Back chaining it was :) That went well :) We managed to get her all the way back to two feet on the board and two feet on the table! She did 3 good ones in a row :) That is the best I have ever gotten. The theory is that the toy needs to be a longggggggggg ways out, so she isn't changing her stride in anticipation for the toy while on the plank and of course patience once again. I need to just sit through the bad ones and keep working at it rather than assuming it isn't working.

So there is still hope for AMP in the RC world :) All thanks to the dictionary of course :)

I guess I already knew this about myself, but I just need to be reminded that I have to be patient!!!

Conquering the obstacles :)

AMP can WEAVEEEEE :) YAY! It isn't yet perfected, but she has got the basics down to be a weaving maniac!

Right now I am only working on the one side and just doing more straight on entries until I feel she is comfortable and fully understanding of her job :) Right now she is still working on getting her footwork down and being able to speed up without it being too much that she ends up popping out. Once she is more consistent there then we will add the other side and start working around the clock angles :) I know it's the weird way of doing it, but hey it worked for Jinx ;) So here is a video on her doing her thang :)

Britches power

Just in time AMP came into season about a week after nationals..phew! Glad I didn't have to deal with that until after nationals :)

Sadly- don't let AMP know- but this means she is done trial for the rest of this year and possible not the beginning of next year :( bummer. Probably going to be getting her spayed this December/ early January. At one point I was really kind of bummed that I was going to have to get her spayed. She has been quite an amazing dog. She has got a great work ethic, very smart, and a pretty well rounded personality. I truly, as you all know, adore this dog. It will be hard to get my next dog since I love her so much and would like to just clone her. Gotta embrace the new adventures though. right? There are definitely a couple males out there that I thought would be really cool to breed her to, but then there is this. The coming into season 2 times a year, which in return equals not trialing for at least a solid 3 weeks :/ ugh! I mean if I had to keep her intact then fine, but for AMP it really isn't worth it and she is a spay contract. So thank you annoying mother nature of coming into season for showing me I really am happy about having to spay her ;)

Nice thing about this time is at least she doesn't seem to be as mooshy, still her same old bitchy self :)

I figured since we haven't seen many AMPie pictures I would share some with you all :)

" Introducing Super britches :) "

"LMAO" See why I love her??

"Iz so happiez! I getz too wearz bwritches"

:)

"do you see them? Aren't they cute?"

"MINE!"

"ifocus on the ball"

The phrase " Just one more" has some voo doo powers..

Alright, so I think I deserve a bit of a "shoulda had a V8 moment" followed by a applaud of figuring something out.

Explanation: RDW with AMP has basically been a trial and error (mostly error) process. Try something-ernt! Something else- Ernt and another thing---maybe--then ernt! I have been trying to remain hopeful through the process that she will get it. Reading stories from fellow strugglers that survived and made it to that day when POOF dog has epiphany and the RDW works out. So we wait and wait and wait oh and did I mention we wait? Were still waiting slightly. So after running out of ideas I decided that Youtube has to be of some help. After watching a lot of videos on the whole process--warning some videos are scary-- and finding the helpful videos what I saw consistently was dogs haul ass across that dogwalk. Of course I had already known according to Silvia's teachings this was the foundation of the deal, but I am not sure I was actually embracing and following through. After pondering on the thought like Silvia says: Running = No leaping. Makes sense. A dog isn't physically capable of running and leaping- they take two different sets of actions to preform one or the other. Sure a dog can leap fast to make it appear as running, but really folks it is still leaping.

How did I apply this to AMP. I decided that I wasn't getting her moving fast enough. She had too much time to think about and complete the action of leaping. I was previously grafting the plank onto the dogwalk, which I think worked to further proof and reward her for staying on the plank all-the-way-down-the-board! Still though I would get a giant porpoise of a leap :/ pooey, who let her watch those things? In mind I could only think of one way to let her get more speed over the plank, by having plank on an object and her running to the plank and up and down. Cool that's a great idea except our track record on that idea is like 0/20 :( I shouldn't even say on because she wouldn't even go on the board before. Thinking it wouldn't work I decided I really had nothing to lose and hoped I would come out with something learned. To add I also put a jump out beyond the plank about 15 feet without a bar to give her something to drive to. So I set her up close making the obvious choice of taking them plank clear. Threw the toy out beyond the jump and let er' go! VOILA! She ran the plank and on top of them ran it like she was taught to run it :D :D Really there isn't enough smiley faces on the planet to express my excitement! Of course I am me and was skeptical that it would be a short term sweetness. Did a few more reps and still nice. Only had an issue when she started becoming wishy washy about whether she should stay by mom or drive to the toy (gotta love my velcro dog). We got through that and finished on a happy note.

I suppose your wandering where the title has anything to do with this. Well......the other day when I was doing this after a couple reps of her doing great...I said THE words... "Just one more" and I don't know if it causes a shift in the earth or what, but she took 3 more tries before she gave a me a good one after that, so now I will not use that phrase ;) Silly maybe? but it happens.

Along with this new RDW skill we have also figured out the A-frame. Maybe I should add we have figured out a safer way to preform it :) Lowered to about a little 3 feet, put a tunnel out front, and ran her up and over and most of the time she hits it like a champ. Still a couple moments of flying lucinda, but we will get with time :)

AMP will be making her debut in AKC this weekend and has another surprise that I will write about another day!

Walk the course? Nawww....

Wowza :) AMP was on fire this weekend! Kaitlyn was sorta in the clouds apparently.

I seem to not be yet into the groove of running AMP. I know how dare I, but well I am busy ok ;) SO when mom ran into the RV Saturday saying "uh they are running starters snooker and your up in 5 dogs" I went CRAP! Thankfully running in master snooker doesn't make starters look like much of a challenge, but then there is the fact that I am running the crazy one :) Well after watching a couple dogs run I thought I had a decent plan. To my outrageous surprise we were in synch. It was like we had been running for some time- it just plan old felt good :) Of course this was time number 1 that AMP reminded me I better start saving for her chiro appointments she is going to need after she was wrapping a jump and hit her chin 3 times :( Of course "Ms.No self preservation" didn't even notice! We made it through the course nicely though and ran off after the 6 combo since we don't know the A-frame and you all know that it something we don't want to just go out and see what happens :/ eeks!

Then later was Starters Jumpers :) Another beautiful run that I forgot to walk! I am a winner on remembering to walk courses! I can't recall that she even went around a single jump :D What an accomplishment that is in it's very own right :) She dominated with a first place and 19.51 second run :) SO wish I would of gotten it on tape...

Sunday was just jumpers. The course definitely didn't play to our strengths right off the start. With scoochy butt she didn't quite get the jump jump TURN tunnel :) Then once she got into the tunnel she was like a dog with a fire cracker up her butt coming out and blew past the next jump. Brought her back and she was going good around the half circle of jumps and then almost summer salted crashing into a jump :( Being an agile little worm managed to hold herself up and just ended up crashing the jump, which didn't phase her and we continued on to end strong :) Was still ooberly proud of her :) My helpers that watch for me since I am too busy running my butt off said that her jumping is becoming much more settled, which is great to hear along with her concentrating more on her job and less on jumping at me :) :)

This girl has such a bright future ahead of her I can't wait to sit down and hang on for the ride!! Hopefully I can get video next time! PLUS I finally got AMPie's very first agility photo ever :)

A word from the star herself!!

To my fellow followers,

AMP here writing in for my lame owner who doesn't seem to realize that I am after all the most important thing in her life and doesn't update ya'll. So, I decided that I would do it myself then! Things around home have been pretty boring. I am not sure what is up, but my owner use to be home all day and we would enjoy several walks, training, and hangin' around. Now? She gets up at the butt crack of dawn (ruining my beauty sleep by the way) and leaves the house. Then comes home, naps, and leaves again. What is up with these weird human characteristics? Does she have a disease? Is she high? Whatever it is I really wish she would figure her $*%* out and understand that I need to be the center of her world. Anyway she hasn't yet forgotten to feed me or completely ignore me, so no need to call ASCP or whatever it is called. Please watch though for signs that I made need you dedicated people's help :)

Anyway, because of the above situation training doesn't happen much anymore :/ We get to do some though, so I guess it could be worse. Last week mom taught me a new obstacle. It looks like a homeless person's house or a tepee with only two sides. I think she calls it a ramp- whatever. Anyway at first I was like say what? I am suppose to do what with this thing? Then she explained herself a bit better (trust me teaching isn't her calling) and I got the idea of it. What she failed to tell me was how much fricken fun the thing was!!!!!! You can get some great air time over that thing- it practically feels like your flying 8-) SO when she sent me into the tunnel I ran as fast as I possibly could then hit the A-frame and leaped all the way over and hit the bottom of the down plank! YEE HAW! For some reason mom seemed a little concerned with my execution-I think she lacks the fun gene- but she let me try it again anyway :) This time I tried running even faster and got more air and a better launch from one side to the other! IT-WAS-AWESOME!!!!!! Then the crazy beotch said that I couldn't do it anymore! Like what the heck man? She was totally messin' with my jive. We then have been working on some of the poles stuck into the ground. Let me tell ya whoever invented those things had a brain tumor or something. I mean at least they could space them out far enough that you can run faster. I try to do them, but I just can't slow down enough to hit every single one and then mom doesn't give me the flippin' toy and I have to do it again-stupid! She gives me some preach about how I have to do them all---blah blah blah- lame! So I do them and she gives me the toy and yay! :p still stupid. The dumbest of them all is that plank. Ok the thing is seriously like a person walking on a tight rope- except with about a million more rules. I have to run down the plank, stay on the board, and not leap at the end- does she think I am hoodenie? I mean I can stay on the board, but I can't leap? Come on leaping is like my swagger man! So, I said screw the rules and still leap- I am not sure if I will give in to her lame rules, but she is working pretty hard so I will think about it at a later date!

As you know since she managed to update about that, that I have started getting to be a "real" dog :) Man do I love it!!! The excitement is SO awesome there and all my doggie friends get to see me! She says that I am doing really good (which what else would I do) and get to keep doing more trials :) I think I heard her over talking about getting to go again this weekend :) Hopefully! If I do I will try and get you all the video :) But here is the video from my second trial 2 weeks ago :)



Peace out homies :)

The day finally came :)

I know it has been a LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG time since I posted, but we've busy and stuff ;)

Thought though I would post the video of AMP's first agility trial :) Will post more later another day about it!

Like a trailer for a movie..minus the movie ;)

I decided since I saw the Breaking Dawn trailer (BTW I will be in Twilight coma once November hits) I would make a trailer for AMP before her first trial in July :)

We had a training lesson today with the adults and I decided I would do a little with AMP too while we were in a nice matted facility :)

This was her first time jumping all 22" jumps :) I can tell she definitely is tense and not comfortable with it, but that will all come with time...no doubt! Still has come so far to not wanting to jump at all when we first started!

Movement as I expected gets to her as she starts to become more focused on me and racing me than jumping....hahahaha just needs more work ;) Probably over did the circle work stuff...hee hee whoops.

It is all coming together nicely though and can't wait for what is ahead, so enjoy the video :)

No looking back now ;)

Hmmm I figured to make it official I would announce on here that AMP is entered in her first trial! Ahhhhhsome...hahaha

I suppose before I sent in that entry...well handed the entry over...I should of kinda sorta thought about what I was getting myself into :) It is all cool signing up for the classes- except they didn't have jumpers, so we have to settle for snooker and gamblers- and putting her name down and signing the entry, but then there is that thing that you actually have to run her :O Wait what? I have to go out there and run with my obnoxious, biting, scooching, baby dogs? Of course I am sure it will be all fun (hopefully less biting). She is such a goof ball and a freak, but obviously VERY cool!

Then I also forgot that typically it is a good idea to train if you are going to enter a trial :) ha..ha...ha I am really hoping that by the time the trial comes she will know weave poles and a teeter too. Will be easier than trying to do all jumps and tunnels :)

I was very proud of her last night though. Did just some channel weaves and jumping. She was a brilliant jumper :) taking every jump and thinking twice about it. Her jumping appears to be effort-less it was the just getting her to do it at first that was an issue. She is great now though :) crazy that there was a time when she wouldn't jump and scared to do it!! Not more man-- she is full force,most of the time, into it!!! YAY

Also if everyone could send some added good thought to AMP's sister Ice that had a high fever this evening due to her chemo :( Her WBC count is very low! Just some good thought to help Ice fight would be nice!!!!

It is always good to have brakes

You know a car without brakes could be deadly :( Eks the thought is almost just as scary.

Agility sorta works the same way. Of course the caliber of breaks needed are not as great, but not to be ignored.

I have always felt that giving the dogs a break was good. Sure dogs like to do rewarding things and thrive on something rewarding, just as we humans do. Just like us humans though we get bored, burnt out, or annoyed with it at some point, no matter the level of reward we get from it. It starts to feel like more of a chore rather than a fun activity! Once that sets in-it is really hard to come out from it. A break almost becomes required.

Recently I did this with AMP. It wasn't needed,but just something I felt would be good and to see where we were at. Along with life wasn't really allowing any training anyway. I gave her about two weeks of just being a naughty little doodle pants :) She enjoyed it, I enjoyed it, and everybody was happy.

Tonight I decided that I would go out and get back at it again :) I was SO proud, words can hardly describe. We didn't do anything tricky. Did a little pin wheel and even had a jump at 22" and she didn't even care. Biggest break through was the weave poles. We have been working on channels and she was doing well. She wasn't exactly getting that she had to stay in them once they are to the spacing that she has to almost have a weaving rhythm. I decided (after a duh moment) that I would try to just name them. Did it and VOILA she knew what I was talking about. I could even run with her :) sweet. She drove though like a pro, so if that follows through to the next session I will move them in again :)

She did a lead out too :) By a lead out I mean three steps of course, don't fool yourselves ;) Most important fact is she took the jumps in front of her without me being there :) It is the small things right?

Also the table was a success..mostly. She tries dearly to stay on it, but just comes boinging off...haha either way she gets rewarded for effort since one dog with a table hatred is MORE than enough. I am sure she will get it in all due time :)

With AMP and trying a new mentality and seeing how it works. With Jinx if he didn't do something right I didn't reward it and slowed him down to almost force him to get it right. That back fired like one would suspect. He then did everything slow to be perfect :) YAY good boy you listened so well!

With AMP I am not doing that- actually the opposite. If she screws up I still reward it ( I know it sounds weird- bare with me) and then we just do it again. 99% of the time she gets it right the second time or closer to right, but most importantly the speed and drive is still there :) To me that is most important! I am not in it for the Qs, titles, or perfection. I want her to be having fun and trying her hardest and I am confident that the rest will all fall into place :) I already know that the first time we step in the ring I will be laughing at the silly things she does and telling her she is good for every thing that happens!

On that note I am thinking you might be seeing her in the ring soon :) That's all I am going to say at this point!

Poor Lou Bear :(

After having two, three day trials back to back and then having another two day trial next weekend the last thing I honestly want to do is train agility.

This is all fine and dandy for the adult dogs. They have been trailing and are probably tired them selves and don't really need the training. BUT....

Then there is AMP. She does need the training. wait...I guess need isn't the right word, but more like should be getting the training. I would like to debut her in at least something this fall or possibly late spring. At this point she could probably handle a jumpers course no problem. Would she go out and own the course? No way. Heck she probably wouldn't even hold her startline, take every jump, and probably look like a complete freak :D Just the way I like her! She has LOTS to learn. She isn't running Master courses, actually she has never ran a course...hahaha :) I am looking forward to getting her out there because she is SO much fun and just an all around cute little freak!

Jumpers and possibly snooker and maybe gamblers are all she could probably be in at this point. I know that standard is going to be a long ways off in our future since the only contact she somewhat knows right now is the teeter. Still working on getting the materials for the running contact stuff. However we are...er...were making progress on the weave poles, so they could potentially be trained too :)

Soooo...yeah...I should get out there and train her :) BUT...I am sure it won't happen today possibly not tomorrow :p I sure do enjoy her though. She makes life quite entertaining :)

to lead out or not to lead out?

Uh....well....AMP would say NOT!

Apparently leading out isn't much fun or too much or maybe it is secretly overrated :)

AMP just really doesn't want to take jumps when I lead out, she would just rather run around the jumps and get to me the faster way...ha...ha..haaaaaa...not funny AMP :) I really do love you, but darling no stay and lead out is going to kill me :)

She is slowly getting it, but I am thinking it is definitely going to be no lead outs at the first couple of trials- since 1) she isn't going to probably stay long enough with all the energy around 2) *if* she does stay the chances she will take the jumps at the point is probably pretty slim :) BUT...alas she is AMP and I still love her :) She always makes things a challenge :) soooo BRING IT ON!!!!!!!

Missing out?!

I suppose you feel as if you are missing out on something. Or perhaps you are thankful that there are no more damn running contact videos :) I understand.

Well truthfully I haven't done them the last two days :/ whoops! Real life (ya know that thing that doesn't involve dogs? weird.) well it has decided to intervene a bit. dang.

However the plan is still intact from our last session (which also I don't think made it on here), I will be moving the board up again. After using some sort of small intelligent ability that I have, hey I have my diploma that gives me some credit right? realized that raising the board like 4" really isn't going to be a whole heck of a lot. It is like a mouse to a coyote or a crackers to a giant. You get my point right? In case you didn't, she doesn't probably really notice the difference all that much. I am going to move it up more now- can't really say how much, but probably try and make it enough to be noticeable :)

I have also decided-whether it is right or not I do not know- but I am not going to spend a lot of time at one height. If we are having some huge issues then I will spend some more time there and once we get more height I will take more time, but as long as things are moving smoothly I am going to be trudging along. I just don't feel that stay at one spot when she is doing well, to just further verify it really isn't helping me. Again who really knows if it will work?

I am not entirely sure that I will even keep them. I am liking the challenge though :) mostly. Yes there are days that I want to just throw in the towel and call it quits. About the time that I feel that way though the next day she is giving me better strides and showing me that maybe this is working and I just have to keep going. I am pretty determined to get them, but not enough that she could spend 5 years training before she gets to show in agility. Not gonna happen. To me that isn't really worth it when she can have a 2o2o and it isn't like the girl is going to be slow or anything. I will definitely try for the A-frame as I see that being pretty possible :) Still going to focus on the dogwalk though!!

Besides that training she is going REALLY good with jumping :D It was like a light switch. She didn't know what to think of it and didn't want to go to jumps on her own. Now? She will commit to jumps and even take them if I am not telling her :o I am SO proud of the girl! She is definitely maturing and getting into the swing of things of agility. It really goes to show you that with time and patients some things will just settle into place :)

We still continue to do tricks of course :) We are adding a few more to our bag as the weeks go on and am looking at other people for ideas!! This by far is still my favorite thing to do with her. She just gets to, well...AMP'D up for tricks :) Basically anything gets her excited, but shaping is her things. She was raised on it and almost knew nothing besides it for learning!! Her enthusiasm in anything is enough to bring a small to my face- of course we couldn't forget her goofy faces, silly personality, and the things she does too!!!

I am still going to continue and work harder on getting her and ALL the dogs (plus me) more physically fit! After hearing from a friends after her dog went to an eval it really made me see that conditioning, strengthening, and stretching is most important, so that will be just what I am going to try and achieve :-)

So we are off to our healthier life style!!

Oh session 6...maybe

Today was session 6 I think..right?

Made a step forward with raising the board :) Yippeey!! Only raised the board about 4 inches to start with and I think she did well! Had only about 2 bad ones and 5 goods and one "eh". I also even rewarded them correctly too! That is probably the more amazing part. I had mom help, suppose I should add that :) Going to do the same thing tomorrow and hope we get the same or better results. If that is the case then I will go up on the following session :) Just going to keep going with the pattern since staying in one spot too long doesn't seem to work well for us!

Having a drink now to celebrate our success :)

Enjoy the video...

Troublesome road

Another session of RDW and not very impressed :/

it seem like since the first couple of sessions she is doing all these weird stride things! I don't know if she just doesn't know exactly what to do yet (I am sure that is part of it) or if she just tries new things because she is a shape aholic?! But I am going to raise the board. I am hoping that this will cause her to try a better stride. We will see I guess! There seems to be a consensus that keeping it low too long doesn't really do any good, so maybe that is our only problem.

Still not sure I am a fan of this running contact stuff though ;)

Session 4 brings good things :)

yesterday we did a RDW session and she had 5 not so great hits :/ bummer! My first reaction was to get down about it and then I wanted to get mad. However, I decided to ignore that first and second reaction to just blow it off! Bad session happen and will happen- tomorrow is another day.

Well today was another day and we had better results :D YAY!

She is doing something odd with her stride- she does a big leap-ish/extended stride in the middle of the plank, but then it is almost like she knows she has isn't suppose to leap, so she puts in a stride at the very end of the plank?! Weird. I rewarded it because she is trying and that is what counts. she definitely had some REALLY nice ones though :)

see for yourself :)

Also did some jump collection drills that my private trainer suggested I try with her. At an earlier date she would of never been able to do these. She would of viewed it as too much at one time. Now? She did AWESOME :) She is getting it more and more everyday :)

PROGESSing inTWO

Session two of AMP's RDW were superb :) I couldn't of been more proud!!! She missed 2/7 (I accidentally deleted one that was bad while editing, but it was similar to the first one). I am still ecstatic!! This is the BEST results we have had in all our RDW training! If her next session goes similar to this one I might trying moving it up a smidge. I can always go back down!!

Man is she flying over that plank though..whew--LOL



Enjoy the video

Of ALL days to get it...

AMP would get her running dogwalk plank on the last 2 days before the world ends :) I guess this is my world ending gift..LOL!

Did more running dogwalk plank with her today and actually got video! AFTER arguing and bickering with Youtube it decided we were worthy enough to get our video passed OR it decided this was my last video and would caught me a break! Whatever it is thanks :)

Used the guides again-of course and still a huge success :) I am liking it and I don't care what anyone says :)

AMP gets and she runs. end.of.story :) At this stage I don't have to worry about her staying on the board, my bad throws, or anything else- just let er' run :)

Granted yes the boards are giving her no other option but to stay on and they won't be there in competition- I have thought about all that. The plan looking into the future (if the world doesn't end) as I raise the board first I hope it becomes obvious to stay on rather than jump off and second as the board raises the guides will become less and less noticable and it will be a gradual fade :) Problem solved-in my brain!

In regards to the video- I rewarded every single one. Were they are perfect nope- really only the last 2 were, but I just want her to like running the board. The last two were also better because I started moving her back further allowing her to get more speed onto the board as well! I am going about this more Silvia's method with the run full speed rather than more Daisy's slow and learn then get faster with confidence just because it seems to work more with AMP's style. We shall see though :) Enjoy the video and you will be seeing RDW videos for the rest of your life until you can't handle it no longer!!

Doing what everyone else does, doesn't garauntee it's right!

I tried again to do AMP's plank work- thought I should probably get going on that if I want to show her in standard someday :)

Everyone said don't do guides- reward the plank, build value and get that first. I say NO! AMP didn't get, she still doesn't get it, and I am not sure she ever will. It doesn't work to her strengths and her understanding I guess!

So I did it- I made a plank chute. Plank in the middle with these wooden garden gates on the sides. I thought what the heck do I have to lose?!?! nothing!

I set her up in the middle tonight threw the ball released her and she got it. Brought her to the start of the board thew ball. released. She ran the board and went and got it :) Cool. Slowly worked her back and she ran the board with no issue or hesitation EVERY.SINGLE. TIME :) Even if I threw the ball off to the side she would STILL go and get the ball after running the plank :) Sweet!

Will this bite me in the butt down the road? Maybe. Does it matter? Nope because what I was doing wasn't working at all! This is working so far! If it does kick me in the butt later on..fine, I will deal with it then and only then. Daisy says "Make a decision and deal with the consequences later" that is what I am doing....I think.

Hoping that it plays out that I just keep raising the board inside the guides and eventually they will be too low and won't guide her to stay on, bit only as the board raises. This in its self will be fading out the guides :) Saying that once the board gets to that height it should be pretty obvious to stay on the board. If she can't then I am going to assume that it isn't going to work and if that happens, we will just do a 2o2o :) Not a big deal!

We will see what the road ahead brings, bit for now I am living by the saying:

"If your friends jumped would you?" my answer is NO :)

I *think* Einstein has risen from the dead...

I think he could have possibly done so. I never met the man (obviously), but judging by the pictures and all the talk about him I have a pretty good idea. So, here he is except there is one hitch- he came back as a girl? I Can't explain that one....


Here it is......

Einstein- the Original

Einstein back from the dead!

I can clearly see the resemblance- Tongue hanging out, lots of hair on the head, big ears, and a mixture of white hair too :) Yup clearly he well or she has!

AMP says it is no big deal or anything she just happens to be a look alike and basically just AS smart! Probably do to her just be generally awesome :) No biggie.

Today I decided that it was time to go and do some training with AMP :) I have heard that the only way they learn agility is to train..weird right? Kinda like the only way to Q is to enter- not that you are guaranteed anything :)

So I gave into the thought and acted on it. I have been changing some things with the way I was training her, for example:

Jumping- I started with working her on being tight and wrapping, serps, threadles and collection. Which I am sure AMP could explain all that with one word BORING! I realized this at the Daisy seminar. I changed that and now we just work on her liking jumping and driving over the jump, even if it isn't tight- don't care and getting her to drive good out of the turns ;) It is working like a charm :) She is really starting to enjoy jumping and drives MUCH faster over the jumps as well :D LOVELY- besides the girl has a natural jump to her anyway! no worries. Still have a few issues with her thinking that going around is FAR faster and easier than jumping..ha It is becoming less frequent though, so a plus there. Also have been working on teaching her a back side command since it is becoming more popular! She gets it :)

Everything else is really falling into place nice as well :) I like her work ethic and she puts such a great deal of drive, fun, enthusiasm into it, it makes it hard to not enjoy it :D best thing is the women is bomb proof when working. Doesn't matter what is going on she is working and that is it.

Haven't worked her running contacts...why? Haven't really cared to. Would like to have them. Do I HAVE to have them? no. I am going to try, but honestly if they don't work they don't work- it doesn't give you an automatic win and it is more for me, the challenge of getting them. If I can get them cool- means I have done something which has definitely been a challenge, but I am still capable of teaching a 2o2o too :) Love having options though!

AMP also feel awesome since she got her new K-9 Julius Power harness and we LOVE it :) Click HERE to check them out and get one for your pup too :)

Teeter ;)

Don't get all excited for anything, but I would like to bring attention to the fact that I am updating this blog TWO days in a row!! gasp :)

Anyway THE princess will be mad if I talk about anyone else besides her too much on here.

Did agility with her tonight- wait let me re-phrase that we goofed around in the agility arena and managed to get a few things accomplished..hee hee :) We have a hard time focusing on agility since running around and being total nerds is just THAT much more fun :D

Figured that I would try working on her teeter again, since who know how long it's been? first few reps just running to the end like always then added a small-micro drop in after she was to the end- no problems there :) Then added a larger drop and no problems again! Lastly added a even bigger drop and not a problem there either :D Very proud of her since she wasn't all that "into" the teeter thing at the beginning. Oh did I forget to mention that the biggest drop was about 4 inches max..HEE HEE- it is the thought that counts!

I think that they should also invent an agility class at trials for young dogs with only a table, tunnels, small jumps, and a teeter that only drops a few inches ;) AMP agrees!!

AMP also gets to go to World Team tryouts this weekend to just hang with the "big shots" :) We are very excited and she gets to meet her long distance friends too!

Gone with the winddddddd

Apparently my want or motive to train THE princess has been blown away in all this wind we have been having!

It doesn't have to do with the lack of skill THE princess has because she is definitely a great little worker, but I think from what I have gathered after thinking about it is that I just like her as a companion SO much ;)

Everyday she makes me laugh with her crazy faces , the things she does, or the even the naughtiness she comes up with! She's definitely one of those dogs that I could just sit and watch all day long do whatever she does and be perfectly content!

However, she would probably not agree with me so much on no agility! She likes agility now and thinks it is a lot of fun! She loves tunnels, thinks it is super funny to scoot and break her startline, and to run around jumps because it is the fastest way :D

I have truly been in ZERO rush to get her started. I mean honestly at this point the girl can do a jump maybe two in a row without going around, tunnels, and a table successfully :) She has just started weave pole training, and still only does a teeter raised on one end, and I haven't worked her running contact training in months! Sure she is turning 18 months at the end of May and would AGE wise be able to compete, but everything concerning she isn't ready! I am sure she will make a debut this year at some point, it will probably be in jumpers because then I don't have to teach her as many things..lol..lazy I know! I really don't have any worries though of her being different at a trial- AMP has been to SOO many trials and cares so little about really anything but me that I don't see it being an issue! I am sure she will as most dogs do have issues with new equipment, but so what the only way that will be cured is with time and experience- starting her now or later isn't going to really change such things!

I also have changed my training ideas I have had with her a bit since the Daisy Peel seminar. I was getting so caught up in her wrapping and being tight like Jinx is now. I forget that Jinx started out wide and orbitie and THEN I started to tighten things up. SO instead of wrapping I let her wing out and take the jump wide I would rather at this point she be putting in as much drive and focus on just jumping before I am asking her to jump, turn, and wrap too! I want jumping the jump to become natural and subconscious for her first ;)

I guess I should maybe do some stuff with her then and move past just teaching the good ball a bunch of tricks :) I am thinking that a circus is going to be calling us soon wanting AMP as one of their acts :D

Notice her ear hair make an upside down heart in the middle :D

That's just how we roll....

AMP is I like to call figuring out her swagger :)

She is starting to get that thing we call jumping and heck she is just SO good that she can do it out of a tunnel....POW!

Plus she can do weave poles, yes you herd it peeps she can rock those weaves ;) Alright when they are spread apart, but it is the thought that counts :) Besides her general awesome-ness makes it all good :) No big deal or anything!

" That's how I roll" :)

Do I even have to say anything?

I really don't think any words are needed for this- the expression says it all. However if you are somehow missing it-- she is clearly a true princess with her new crate pad that my mother bought her. As if she wasn't already spoiled......

A first!!

AMP has changed lately. She came out of her first heat a little less then a month ago and as most people have said and warned me about she would go through a personality change and probably act different along with other stuff. They were very much correct! Imagine that ;)

She didn't do anything like CRAZY odd, but since I spend a lot of time with my dogs, training, walking, relaxing with them, I pick up on any changes quickly! When she WAS in heat she wasn't bad, but a little less intense and "ohhh other dogs"

Now that she out of heat she is a bit more soft. Not super soft that she can't handle correction or something, maybe a better word would be squishy? ( I love that word..lol) Lately her new thing was that when we tugged she would all of a sudden get this " I am sad"/"I am sorry"/ "poor me" attitude and quit tugging and didn't really have interesting it after that, she just became submissive. weird.

When something goes wrong I go through stages of....AHHHH...then I MUST fix....No I will ignore it and see if it cures it's self....to experimenting....all within a short period of time! Sometimes ignoring cures it, but usually experimenting helps if all else fails- as you would expect.

When this problem occurred...I tried just pretending it didn't happen and get her to join back in-fail, then totally ending the session and walk away and try again later-fail, and then I totally quit and brainstormed-SUCCESS ;)

Today was my first attempt at something new :) I decided to try and be really quiet and to not look at her while I was tugging. I just whispered and looked at the ground while I tapped her around like I always did and she had no issues ;D She actually did GREAT!!! Even got her to do 4 straight jumps in a row :)

For now I am going to run with this idea! I am actually perfectly fine with the idea since it saves my voice and breath :) We will see how it changes once she gets spayed in a couple of weeks!

"Best buds"

Here is AMP with her boyfriend Viper ;) They are best pals and can't wait to go on their tour starting Tuesday!!

The Rockstar

So as I have said before AMP has a doggie boyfriend :)

He is black and white and handsome AND he is a Rockstar :) yea your jealous now aren't you?! Don't believe me? Here is stud muffin himself :)

They are going to be going on tour together...for 6 days, 4 states, and 6 sold-out events!!!

It is going to be ROCKIN' :)

B-R-E-A-K T-H-R-O-U-G-H

Today was the day, the day to try the Susan Salo set-point grid again :)

When we had our first encounter with it, the results were not good and the reaction was fearful...or was it "going around is OBVIOUSLY faster than going over"......

Today I decided I would try again, since we have been doing jumping and she has been having no issues with going wraps, serps, threadles ect ect...

Wouldn't you know it, she did the grid just fine :) not once, not twice, but like 10 times alternating heights :)

Yesterday I re-updated her on driving to the end of the teeter and she did great on that too :) We will soon be going to letting it drop a tiny bit! Also just rewarded her for walking on the dogwalk back and forth, so when we start running a lowered dogwalk, hopefully it won't be scary or anything of the sort.

The sight of dog panting is always a sign of warmer weather :D

Stuck

I have realized that I get stuck or sorta tunnel vision when it comes to training my dogs, but mostly AMP.

It first started with the running contacts. I was only training them-nothing else and would train them at least once every day :/ Then I quit doing them and started to do some jump work- some turned into ALL and before I know it I am only doing jump work.

This isn't the worst thing on planet, but really I don't need to be doing it and truthfully it probably doesn't help me in the end.

I start the obsession like I have said previously when things aren't going right. So, her plank work was causing issues and rather then just doing a bit here and there I started focusing on it and only wanting to do it hoping that it would get fixed and start running smoothly. Jump stuff was the same way- we were hitting a few walls and rather then just letting it go and coming back to it here and there I started to only do it, again with the same thought process as before.

I don't want to do this and really it isn't fun for AMP either. AMP is a thinker, she likes to be given hard challenges and figure them out. She doesn't want to do something over and over again once she has got it because it no longer take work for her to do. I made her this way- I made her to ENJOY and THRIVE off of the challenges rather then shut down because of them :D I am ok with this, but I have to remember that this is how she operates and work with it.

I might start writing down a plan or schedule of what I want to work on each training session or set goals in various areas to not allow myself to get in a rut. Besides if I get in a rut then she will never get trained and we DEFINITELY don't want that :) The Doodle wants to get out there and play too, like her brother and friends doooo!

After taking a seminar with Jinx this past weekend I have come up with LOTS of ideas and things to train AMP which I love ;) I like being able to know these things now rather than like in Jinx's case learning them later on ;)

And since I haven't posted pics of her in awhile here are some new ones....