Friday, January 28, 2011

Putting my nerdy glasses on, got my notebook and pencil, and ready to write..

Tomorrow is my first auditing session with Silvia Trkman :) The excitement I am feeling inside is basically uncontainable :D :D :D (thought I would express my excitement with some smiley faces :)

Auditing tomorrow is basically ALL for AMP..okay it IS all for AMP. It is about foundation training which AMP is a bit beyond, but I am sure I will still be able to take away stuff from it. The biggest thing I am looking at is the teeter. As you all know AMP hit a bit of a road block with her teeter and I have sorta ran out of ideas for what to try and just needed to leave it alone. Which I am doing pretty good on at this point (crappy MN weather helps of course). I have an idea of what I am going to try next, but will be nice to see what I might be able to learn more about tomorrow :) This is my first agility seminar EVER! weird....I know! Monday is a day with Jinx and then an evening of writing and learning more for AMP's running dogwalk. She had been doing really good on it and I haven't trained it in awhile due to time and stuff, but I am sure I will still be able to learn some more with Silvia.

I will be sure to share my learnings with everyone :D

Friday, January 21, 2011

Just keep swimming swimming...

It is more like running in AMP's case :) We keep working away at her running dogwalk training.

We are still at a wide and shorter then regulation board. She doesn't quite have the footwork down yet, to move it up. We are getting there though and even though she isn't hitting perfect I feel that she is understand what she is suppose to be doing better then what it was before( and I feel better about what I am looking for too) . I felt like before I was sorta just "winging" it! Winging running contacts in a sense doesn't really work so well :/ Granted they are definitely a "play by year" and go with the flow using trial error you do have to KNOW what you are looking for and WANT! Not this then that and then this and then maybe that. C-o-n-s-i-s-t-n-c-e-y is key here...along with lots of repetition of course!

Since the last time I posted I talked to Silvia some more and I was throwing the toy too close before causing her to collect up before the end and to sort of "fake" the contact zone. She has no choice but to hit the zone because of the toy placement, which is not what I want. I want her to be running completely through the board and off, not to collect up. So, I modified that a bit and she, as is expected, did start getting more misses, but it is okay just part of the learning process :D She is definitely still making progress and heading in the right direction. Once we get the proper foot work going on we will raise the board a bit (OoooOOOoooo scary!) and then when that is solid as stone move to a longer board :) That is thee game plan at this point! Still VERY happy with where we are going with this!!! LOVE having Silvia to be able to talk to first hand about where to go or any problems, I thank her VERY much for taking time to answer mine along with a lot of other people's questions :) It has been GREAT help!

Notes on the video

Attempted #2 was good and the last attempted was also very good!!! Those are what I am looking for! I was bad and did reward #3 and #4 and should not have :( In these two reps she is hitting, but only with ONE foot! That is not the proper striding and doesn't fall into the category of running down the plank! This is what I *think* might of lead #5 and #6 to being leaps!! But I tried and will just have to watch better next time!! It is a learning process for both her and ME!!

Enjoy the video



Running contacts are kinda of like a dance...once you learn the steps you just have to keep practicing them until they are memorized and come natural!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

A-MAZING :)

OH-MY-GOSH!!! I am seriously on cloud 9 right now with AMP's contacts :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Did the session tonight and she "missed" ONE yes ONE time that is it!!!!! The rest were wonderful, lovely, beautiful!!

I say "missed" because i am not looking at where she is hitting (besides it is only a 7' board, so technically she is missing all the time) is ALL about her form! She is actually running and not leaping at the end :) I still think that she can run faster actually i KNOW she can run faster, but with the limited space we have that is the mist speed i can get her! I am going to keep going with this board for a bit longer, but the next step will be a longer board, but still wide and thin!

Gosh I am so happy with this :) :) Hoping to keep going forward with this....

*****notice....the first one got deleted by accident and it was the "miss" all the ones in the video are good!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Are we getting it...just maybe?

I think that we are making small progress :)

I did one session with her this am and i was alone do i held her at one end of the board threw the toy and then let her go. It didn't work out too well :( Got a few good ones, but not what i am looking for!

So we did another session tonight and i had mom hold her again except this time held her further away from the board. It worked :D She still leaped from a few (which is expected) but has a few REALLY nice ones! Only focusing on getting a good running form down right now and then worrying about where she hits on the board.

The last three i was REALLY REALLY happy with :) That is what i am looking for!
Hope it keeps going good!

To run or not to run?

I say RUN :)

AMP has started her running dogwalk training! We started about 3 weeks ago on this, but have currently changed from what i started doing (of course i was doing it wrong, figures..lol) and more less starting at square one! I am feeling really good about starting over (even tho it isn't really over..never got that far in the first place). I found this cool place to look at and get TONS upon TONS of information from other people's experiences and hearing from Silvia herself :D This is going to probably be my best friend for the whole journey!

Anyway on to what we have going down with AMP....

For a quick background surveillance we started out by using the normal DW plank (1.5' x 12') she didn't like staying on the board and didn't really understand the concept (which is pretty common), so i used wings from jumps all the way down the plank on both sides to encourage her to stay on the board. This worked. I would have mom hold her a few feet before the board and then i would stay out in front of the board with the toy and have her run to meet as fast as possible! This worked pretty well at first and she was getting a nice run :) YAY! Although then i started to get leaping at the end and got all paranoid, plus couldn't get the guides away without her coming off the plank..i am starting to learn that some things NEED TIME! Yeah i am by no means a very patient person, it takes a lot for me to control my erg to want things to happen now now now. Of course with that said i stopped doing that and being what i thought as a genius (re-thinking that thought now) tried something new...dumb dumb dumb..beating head against wall! So i tried that new little special power robot man Manner Minner (also known as Roger). Although Roger is a nice friend and make me feel like i have special powers and can control the world with one little remote (ok so only control a treat) he taught me one thing about AMP......she don't like treats! Yeah the women will eat treats, but would much rather just play with a toy :/ Roger also got kinda abused in the process since if the treat didn't come out AMP would give him a whack like "give me the fricken treat Roger!!"...poor Roger! So after trying one session ( i know again i didn't give it time, but it was pretty clear that it was NOT going to work with this method) i decided no this isn't that magic potion to turn frogs into princes or make the rabbit jump out of the hat.

I then went to the good ol' internet :) I went on the hunt to find ANYWHERE that i could get feed back or look at videos from people who "really did" the Trkman method. In my search i found THE golden ticket! I was SOO happy when i found it i sadly spent about 2 hours reading through people's problems, successes, and Silvia's comments! It was great to actually see that people were also having my problem and i could relate, but also got help in getting a solution.

The two key points i learned is
1) You want the dog to RUNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!! Full speed across the board. As Silvia stated "if they are really running they are not able to leap!" Which is true, since when they slow up that creates the leap.

2) NO foot work from the start....see rule #1! Rule #1 is the main focus and once you have that the foot work should fall into place better!

I love this since at this point it is 2 basic guidelines that i am able to follow, i can do that!

With the plank i have come across a new thing too...went to a much wider board (about 2') and a shorter board (about 7') and thinner (about 1/2").

With this said we have done 2 days of this new renovation and so far i am liking the results better then what i was getting :) :D I am really going to stick with this way and keep those 2 rules in mind and go from there!!!! There will be plenty of video to come and if it isn't on here then you can visit my Youtube at...

http://www.youtube.com/user/stickitBC?feature=mhum

enjoy the short video!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Isty Bitsy Tiny Winy

AMPie doodle :)

Well I think it's official AMP is going to have no problem making it into the 22" and 20" class :) She is a whole whopping get ready for this 18.75" tall! Apparently I fed her shrinking pills or something and they WORKED :) haha! ok i didn't really, but i think all my psycho obsessive "don't be a giant vibes worked" almost a little too well! I wouldn't have minded her a little taller BUT i am NO way complaining for a second. I will take this and she will ROCK it AMP style!

Her jumping is getting better and she is much more comfortable! :) sweetness! now we just have to re-think the teeter! Haven't done a lot with it and she is by NO means doing the full teeter at all, but she is already a not giving me what i am looking for so going to have to work on that! trying not to obsess over it or the opposite by avoiding, just going to experiment is what i am going to call it. Got some ideas from my dictionary this weekend and her elder dictionary, so going to start with that.

Also taking the leap into MM world which equals Manner Minnor world! I thought i could running contacts(RC) without it, but i tried it out and think it will work better this way and AMP gets it! YIPPEY plus DW plank is bought just needs to be painted and placed in the basement for take off to begin!

Going to slowly start adding some more stuff in there, but just going with the flow for now :) There is no rush :D The girls got it!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

BrEaK ThRoUGH bABy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is exactly what we had tonight in AMP's jump training :) :) :) :) :) :):):):)

Jump training started out like a minor earthquake with a few shakes here and there..kinda like being in California!

Of course me being me I had a tiny (alright fine a BIG) panic attack yeah that's kinda what i do..bad :( SO i consulted my good friend right away and she is like my dictionary when i don't know the answer :D Love having friends like that! She told me just do LOTS of one jump type stuff and highly reward the doodle...So for AMP's percpective take the jump have a Thanksgiving feast, take a jump have a Christmas dinner..you get the pattern! It worked wonders :) :) She almost instantly became more confident...(which was task number 1) check plus ;) Next task to have confidence and also get the height to be raised along with ease of jumping! (check plus 2 was accomplished)

Me being who i am which is another bad thing (hey we can't all be perfect) i like to just dwell on the things that are going GOOD! i guess i am a do'er you could call it....do what is rewarding..yup works for me..got it! So i was a bit skeptical to try a jump grid tonight that we earlier had issues on.

But i sucked it up buttercup and tried it. It was scary at first...one should always be cautious when naming a dog AMP..yeah...that is exactly what you get..hahaha...funny! I LOVE the speed until we come to the whole compression in jumping thing. Those two are like dark enemies...like snakes and gophers....bleach and clothes...or water and the wicked witch of the west...you get the hint...they just DON'T fit :(

I at first did not know how to get rid of the speed without losing the drive and just have her understand that she needs to do this thing called THINK about what your doin :) :) Apparently the AMP species doesn't believe in thinking lets just go crazy and do do do at 100mph....haha come back to reality girlfriend ;)

SO what is the golden ticket you ask?!?!? To use that nice startline that you taught ;) At first i was having mom hold her just so i wouldn't have to worry about the startline that she tends to be a bit scoochy on (brat) just focus on jumping. Well it didn't do that...instead in AMP'd brain i am pretty sure it was the que for "haul @$$ and run to mama as fast as possible like we do in recalls, dogwalk plank, and tunnels". Can't say i blame the girl. after trying a couple reps with mom holding her we tried just using the startline and WALA it was like a rabbit coming out of a magicians hat, it worked :) Beautiful compression, nice lift off, landing...was nice and kept getting better ;) I didn't want to test fate so i only went up the 2nd jump being 12" and then back down!

I was sooo proud of her for coming through this :) it isn't huge, but it wasn't easy for her and i knew she could do it will just a bit of time ;) that's what i LOVE about her (besides that she is the coolest dog in the world and everything else that comes with that title)

Wuv you lots noodle bug ;)

"Mom i have always been BRILLIANT i don't know what you were worried about" :)