This morning, I set up a sequence in the backyard from a Distance Challenge article, by Jane Simmons-Moake, in an old Clean Run issue (March 2009, p. 78, Figure 11). I knew that I wouldn't be able to handle Wall-e from the green line (up to 30 feet), but I was going to try the blue line (up to 10-15 feet). The sequence involved four jumps and a tunnel; I shortened the original sequence for my limited equipment! First, I ran with Wall-e at our usual working distance, which he did really really well and speedily! For the second rep, I handled at the 10-15 feet distance. WOW, he got it right away and I even layered the jump at the end!
I think I'll probably enter him in a couple of Starters Gamblers runs in July. I'll enter him at 10" for the Gamblers, but his next Jumpers runs (likely in September) will be at 16" and that will be his height from then on until he's a veteran.
Showing posts with label distance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label distance. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Saturday, June 20, 2009
My little girl has so much drive!
We just came back from the field not too long ago, and WOW, Mika had so much drive today! We practiced the A-frame with stride regulators, and a distance exercise with a 90 degree on-side weave entry (12 poles). She was zooming through the whole exercise, like really ZOOMING!
I'm feeling very proud of myself now! :) The whole time we trained today, I never unintentionally told Mika that she was wrong, not once! When we practiced the A-frame (two reps) I sent her into a tunnel before the A-frame to get some speed on the A-frame... She went into the wrong end of the tunnel both times, but I quickly adjusted to get into position to run ahead of the A-frame even though she went in the wrong end. And in the distance/weave exercise (again, 2 reps), she entered at the 2nd pole of the weaves both reps and popped at the 11th pole both reps (because she had a wrong entry), but I threw her food tube for her both times! (They were awesomely fast weaves, by the way) Very happy with myself right now, which doesn't happen often...I sometimes worry that I stress Mika, but today, I didn't do anything to make her stress!! :D
I'm not worried about her wrong weave entry, even though she never did get it today. I stopped after 2 reps even though she never got it right (but she doesn't know that...in her mind, everything she does is right!), sticking to my rule of no more than 2 reps, just like I stuck to my rule of never letting Mika know that she made a mistake. Mika isn't the best at 90 degree on-side entries, because when I trained her weaves two and a half years ago (using hand gestures to direct her through straight poles) I only trained 0 degree, or straight, entries. So when we encounter 90 degree (or more) on-side entries, I try to handle the entry for Mika and push her out to help her get the entry from an easier angle. Today I didn't push her out enough, so that's why she didn't get her entry. Completely my fault! (As it always is)
Wall-e's fun match is tomorrow. In his first run, I'm planning on just training his teeter, since it's a great quality teeter at this venue. In his second run, we'll run the jumps and tunnels on the Standard course, skipping all the other obstacles since I haven't fully trained all his obstacles yet.
~Nat
I'm feeling very proud of myself now! :) The whole time we trained today, I never unintentionally told Mika that she was wrong, not once! When we practiced the A-frame (two reps) I sent her into a tunnel before the A-frame to get some speed on the A-frame... She went into the wrong end of the tunnel both times, but I quickly adjusted to get into position to run ahead of the A-frame even though she went in the wrong end. And in the distance/weave exercise (again, 2 reps), she entered at the 2nd pole of the weaves both reps and popped at the 11th pole both reps (because she had a wrong entry), but I threw her food tube for her both times! (They were awesomely fast weaves, by the way) Very happy with myself right now, which doesn't happen often...I sometimes worry that I stress Mika, but today, I didn't do anything to make her stress!! :D
I'm not worried about her wrong weave entry, even though she never did get it today. I stopped after 2 reps even though she never got it right (but she doesn't know that...in her mind, everything she does is right!), sticking to my rule of no more than 2 reps, just like I stuck to my rule of never letting Mika know that she made a mistake. Mika isn't the best at 90 degree on-side entries, because when I trained her weaves two and a half years ago (using hand gestures to direct her through straight poles) I only trained 0 degree, or straight, entries. So when we encounter 90 degree (or more) on-side entries, I try to handle the entry for Mika and push her out to help her get the entry from an easier angle. Today I didn't push her out enough, so that's why she didn't get her entry. Completely my fault! (As it always is)
Wall-e's fun match is tomorrow. In his first run, I'm planning on just training his teeter, since it's a great quality teeter at this venue. In his second run, we'll run the jumps and tunnels on the Standard course, skipping all the other obstacles since I haven't fully trained all his obstacles yet.
~Nat
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Mika's weaves and distance skills
I'm really looking forward to next year! Lots of trialling with Mika, hopefully even more than this year (where we barely trialled for the first half of the year and then had a whole bunch of trials at the end of the year). In March we'll be competing in Advanced Gamblers -- Mika will have to work away from me at distances of around 15 feet. (In Masters it's 20 feet!!) Mika used to be a "Velcro dog", that is, she didn't like to work away from me. That changed this summer, when she started to be able to work more independently, and she Q'd in Starters Gamblers the first time we tried it (that was in September). She wasn't ready for the Advanced Gamblers distance at the time, but we've been doing quite a bit of distance work lately. I try to include distance in all the agility obstacle training we're doing in the backyard and basement. There's no room for sequencing, so we have to practice individual obstacles.
Lately Mika's weaves have been falling apart. The problem started at the CKC trial in October. There was a set of 6 poles after a 12" jump (Mika jumps 12" in CKC). Mika took the jump and then entered the poles at the second pole. I did a half-circle and took her back to the poles again. This time, she entered from the left side of the first pole (but that was a bit of my fault, because I was crowding her). So again, I did a half-circle and helped her get the entry a bit, and that time she got it.
The next time I knew there was a problem was in the November AAC trial. This was Mika's first time in Specials (10" jumps). She took the 10" before the weaves and entered correctly, with lots of speed through the poles, and then saw a 10" jump in front of her (the next obstacle on course after the weaves) and couldn't control herself to finish the last pole in the set of weaves -- she wanted to fly over that fun, low jump! I called her back from the jump and brought her around again to the weaves (although I should have just continued...) and told her to weave again. She entered at the left side of the first pole. So, I brought her back again, and this time she got it.
Last year, the popping and skipping problem was caused because I practiced 12 poles in the snow, which gave Mika a negative connection to the weaves because the snow was so cold on her pads. My reasoning for why we're having problems this year is because of how much more drive Mika has. The lower jumps at the trials increased her drive even more, and put her into what I sometimes call "GO mode" -- where she doesn't think and just wants to GO GO GO! That's exactly the drive I want, but it still caused the weave problem. I'm hoping that it's just temporary, and that once Mika gets used to being in Specials she'll get control over her "GO mode," but still keep her speed. And during trial season, I'll practice weaves EVERY day!
These weave problems happen every winter. Two years ago when I was teaching Mika weaves, they were stressing Mika because I wasn't training properly. Last winter it was popping out and skipping poles. This winter it's popping and ENTRIES! Yes, weave entries, I can't believe it. Mika, the weave entry expert! To fix this entry problem, a few weeks ago (before all the snow was here) I put three stick-in-the-ground poles in the backyard. Every day, whenever Mika goes outside to go to the bathroom, I send her through the three poles. It was the funniest thing, the first time Mika went through them; she's never worked only three poles before, and she hopped left, hopped right, and then hopped LEFT again, expecting more poles to be in front of her! She stopped for a split second, looking completely baffled, then in a smooth, flowing motion turned left and hopped through the poles in the opposite direction. What a silly little girl!
Up until now I've mostly been working on sending through these three poles, but we're going to start working on lateral distance.
What about the popping problem, you may ask? The thing is, there's no room to work 12 poles in our house (she doesn't pop out of 6 poles), and last winter when I tried to fix the popping problem in the backyard with the stick-in-the-ground poles in the snow (I didn't know then that the snow had caused the problem in the first place), I only made it worse because the snow was so cold on Mika's feet. So we'll wait until we can rent an arena to start working on the popping problem. I'm going to wait until spring, when the snow is melted and the field is open again, to seriously work on it. Although it should be better by then...after all, weave problems seem to be an off-season, winter thing!
Wow...sorry for my ramble...I didn't mean to make this post this long!!
~Nat
Lately Mika's weaves have been falling apart. The problem started at the CKC trial in October. There was a set of 6 poles after a 12" jump (Mika jumps 12" in CKC). Mika took the jump and then entered the poles at the second pole. I did a half-circle and took her back to the poles again. This time, she entered from the left side of the first pole (but that was a bit of my fault, because I was crowding her). So again, I did a half-circle and helped her get the entry a bit, and that time she got it.
The next time I knew there was a problem was in the November AAC trial. This was Mika's first time in Specials (10" jumps). She took the 10" before the weaves and entered correctly, with lots of speed through the poles, and then saw a 10" jump in front of her (the next obstacle on course after the weaves) and couldn't control herself to finish the last pole in the set of weaves -- she wanted to fly over that fun, low jump! I called her back from the jump and brought her around again to the weaves (although I should have just continued...) and told her to weave again. She entered at the left side of the first pole. So, I brought her back again, and this time she got it.
Last year, the popping and skipping problem was caused because I practiced 12 poles in the snow, which gave Mika a negative connection to the weaves because the snow was so cold on her pads. My reasoning for why we're having problems this year is because of how much more drive Mika has. The lower jumps at the trials increased her drive even more, and put her into what I sometimes call "GO mode" -- where she doesn't think and just wants to GO GO GO! That's exactly the drive I want, but it still caused the weave problem. I'm hoping that it's just temporary, and that once Mika gets used to being in Specials she'll get control over her "GO mode," but still keep her speed. And during trial season, I'll practice weaves EVERY day!
These weave problems happen every winter. Two years ago when I was teaching Mika weaves, they were stressing Mika because I wasn't training properly. Last winter it was popping out and skipping poles. This winter it's popping and ENTRIES! Yes, weave entries, I can't believe it. Mika, the weave entry expert! To fix this entry problem, a few weeks ago (before all the snow was here) I put three stick-in-the-ground poles in the backyard. Every day, whenever Mika goes outside to go to the bathroom, I send her through the three poles. It was the funniest thing, the first time Mika went through them; she's never worked only three poles before, and she hopped left, hopped right, and then hopped LEFT again, expecting more poles to be in front of her! She stopped for a split second, looking completely baffled, then in a smooth, flowing motion turned left and hopped through the poles in the opposite direction. What a silly little girl!
Up until now I've mostly been working on sending through these three poles, but we're going to start working on lateral distance.
What about the popping problem, you may ask? The thing is, there's no room to work 12 poles in our house (she doesn't pop out of 6 poles), and last winter when I tried to fix the popping problem in the backyard with the stick-in-the-ground poles in the snow (I didn't know then that the snow had caused the problem in the first place), I only made it worse because the snow was so cold on Mika's feet. So we'll wait until we can rent an arena to start working on the popping problem. I'm going to wait until spring, when the snow is melted and the field is open again, to seriously work on it. Although it should be better by then...after all, weave problems seem to be an off-season, winter thing!
Wow...sorry for my ramble...I didn't mean to make this post this long!!
~Nat
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