Monday, June 27, 2011

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 :)

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

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!!!!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

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!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

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 :)