Back to work on turn cues

Quick post.... Remember when Mika and I were working on turning cues over a jump back in the spring? Well, we've been getting back at it (again, using the Clean Run "It's Your Turn!" article series). This month's turn cue is the push-through; sending the dog to the opposite side of the jump (a.k.a. the back side of the jump). Today, my feet weren't pointing to the path I wanted Mika to take at first, so for the first rep she didn't understand that she had to go AROUND the jump standard to take the back side. The second rep went really nicely, though.

Yeah Mika! (Turn cues)

I just had a training session with Mika about 30 minutes ago. I set up two 10" jumps in a straight line, between 15 to 20 feet apart. I started her with one of our start-line routines; having her on the ground beside me and holding her in front of her stifles (knees), then saying in an excited voice, "Ready...set..." as she tenses and then races off ahead when I say "GO!" The first rep, she back-jumped, probably because she wasn't generalizing. (I guess I progressed a bit too fast from one jump to two jumps and from jumping on an angle to jumping straight-on.) The next rep, I only had her do the second jump, and she was great and didn't back-jump. The third and final rep, we did the original exercise again (both jumps), and she didn't back-jump and I stood off to the side where I was supposed to!

We're both starting to get it. :D

More turning cues with Mika

I never really trained Mika to jump (the old lead-'em-over-with-a-leash "method"). She had to learn the mechanics of jumping on her own and developed her style on her own.

She definitely knows how to jump extended. Looking at pictures of her taking off from a huge distance away from a jump, it seems doubtful that she makes it, yet she very rarely knocks a bar even when she does jump enormously extended.

It's jumping collected that has been her challenge. So this winter I've been training her how to have a nice round jump. I want her to know how to jump extended when cued and how to jump collected when cued. This winter we've only worked on the jumping aspect. Only in the past couple of weeks have I added my motion.

Mika was incredible this afternoon, turning/wrapping so tightly (especially for her) over 10" jumps when I send her over at an angle and give her a lack of motion cue! I increased the starting distance today from our last session. I have yet to send her over a jump from a straight-on angle because I'm sure she'll find that a bit harder. For now, though, she's been doing amazingly and really seems to understand how to wrap the jump wings! That's something I forget to say; we were training on one of my winged jumps today for the first time. She's had trouble with wrapping winged jumps in the past, but only had one back-jump today (out of 3 reps), which of course was my fault because I was standing too much in the middle of the jump. Good girl for watching me!!

Our first training session on GRASS

I'm still psyched about this snow-melting thing!! Enough snow melted yesterday to make a patch of grass big enough for one-jump training, so this morning I trained Mika on grass for the first time this year. We're working through the Clean Run articles on turning cues, and I'm seeing a difference in Mika's collection towards the jump when I give a lack of motion cue. On the first rep she had a great turn. On the second rep she actually pulled off the jump because I cued too early (for once! I often cue late). On the third rep I cued at the right time and she had a perfect turn. Awesome!

Today's training at the field

We went to the field today, again! (Third day in a row...and before that we hadn't been in weeks.)

Mika only did a jump because she just did agility yesterday -- as I always say, I don't like training her a lot because the less I train her, the faster and more driven she runs. I train her once or twice a week. Wall-e's drive has increased a LOT and I find that now I can train him a lot more often without losing any of his speed. Actually, it seems like the more often I train him, the faster he goes...but I still only train him for about 5-10 minutes a day, max.

Wall-e got to try a triple jump for the first time. He jumped it perfectly for all 3 of the reps, good Wallaby! :) It was also his second time training the broad jump today. I started training it on Tuesday, by setting up a 10" jump and putting two of the broad jump boards in front. He jumped it with perfect ease. Today I added a third board in front, and again, no mistakes. Crazy!

~Nat

Collected jumping with Wall-e

Did a bit of collected jumping with Wall-e today. I set a jump at 6" and threw treats over, very close to the jump, so he had to jump very round with an arc. He started to simply step over the jump instead of jumping it, so I ended up changing the height to 10". After that he understood what to do a lot more. By the end of the session he was taking off at the very base of the jump, landing and swinging his rear around in order to grab the treat. Perfect!

Trial tomorrow with Mika, 2 Masters Standard and 1 Masters Jumpers, looking forward to it!!

~Nat

Wall-e's last agility class

Wall-e had his last beginner agility class yesterday -- and he also turned 10 months old yesterday! He's growing up so fast and doesn't look like a puppy anymore. (but still acts like it!!) Here's a sequence that we ran:



He was great! Not as fast as last class because I was rewarding him more so he didn't have a chance to really run, but he was still fast. The PVC poles (stride regulator) and jump bar on top of the lowered A-frame are meant to teach them to jump over the apex of the A-frame to help them learn where to stride. I love Wall-e's A-frame performance :D





Also, almost all of the snow in the backyard is melted! There's enough grass to actually do agility now. Today I practiced rear crosses with a low jump in the backyard with Wall-e. It was his first time training rear crosses with a jump (we've done a lot of work with rear crosses on the flat, with no obstacles). He made the connection between rear crosses on the flat and rear crosses with a jump REALLY quickly, only making one mistake (a spin after the jump)! I gave him one treat for the mistake, to keep his speed and confidence high, but jackpotted when he got it right. He's really such a fun little guy!

~Nat

Success With One Jump

We did quite a bit of Success With One Jump work yesterday. Success With One Jump is a DVD by Susan Garrett. I worked through all of the exercises on Disc 2 with both Mika and Wall-e. Mika has so much drive for jumping. Just to see what she would do, I held her by the collar 10 feet in front of a 10" jump in the basement, with Mika facing the jump. Not saying anything, I let her go and she raced over to the jump and took it, even taking the jump 5 feet in front of it! Good girl!!

Wall-e's really learning how to read my body language, especially if I use my arms. He's getting really good at wrapping tightly around the jump wings, too.

~Nat