Raph & Gitta – 2×2 – Day 4 – Session 5

 2x2, Gitta, Raph, Training, Video  1 Response »
Sep 192009
 

Summary — Session 5 (4 mins for Raph, 3 mins for Gitta): one set of poles at 2 and 8 oclock. Working in a new location with body movement.

What a session! Just watch the videos! There’s not much to say – and the setup is the same – so I’m combining Raph and Gitta’s post. I didn’t work on hard entries this session since I was working in a new location. Plus – once they had a few nice reps, I started adding body motion as well. You can see in these videos that I have my line spray painted on the ground. It’s been there since day 1, though you couldn’t make it out on the video.

Raph:
Raph is doing great! He doesn’t have the drive at distance that Gitta does – but he’s still doing well. Just a little more focused on me and his toy and a little less driven for the poles themselves. I’ll continue to work on that – though I think I should move on in the process and just make sure to keep working distance at all stages of the process.

You can see he fakes me out at least once. Heads for the poles – pulls up – but I’ve already thrown the toy so on he goes.

Gitta:
You can see she just loves those poles. I have no command for her to go to the poles at this point. I usually grab her collar and set her up. But you can see this time that as soon as I get her to out the tug – she’s off for the poles. Body movement didn’t bother her either.

Great great session. I had to cut Gitta’s off early since my 4 yr old was calling from the house. But maybe that was a good thing!

I think both dogs are probably ready for the next stage – adding a second set of two poles about 15 feet out. That will probably be a bit harder for Raph than Gitta – but you have to find that balance between working each stage and pushing for more.

 Posted by at 4:30 pm

Raph – 2×2 – Day 3 – Session 4

 2x2, Raph, Training, Video  2 Responses »
Sep 182009
 

Summary — Session 4 (5 mins): one set of poles at 2 and 8 oclock.

A GREAT session for Raph! He still makes mistakes when he has to drive further to the poles, but I can not believe how resilient he has been to mistakes. Before this process, I would have pegged him as the one to shut down. But so far – Gitta has been more likely to give up on me that Raph is. Watching the video is great because I can see his tail up and wagging the whole time.

I tried to remember to work angles – but at less distance for him. Then towards the end I worked on distance from the ‘easy entries’. You’ll also notice one time when he gets it wrong and immediately goes and gets it right but I do NOT reward. Susan pointed this out as one of the big mistakes she sees on YouTube. If they get it wrong then right and you reward – you are rewarding the whole chain, wrong then right. You might end up with a dog that finds it easier to just try one way – see if they get rewarded – then try the other rather than a dog that KNOWS the correct way to go. So I don’t reward, I get him back to reset him, and when he gets that right he gets the reward (and alot of verbal praise from momma!).

I don’t think he’s ready to move on till he can drive to the poles from a greater distance. I’m not sure how to work on that other than to keep pushing it. I think instead of working more difficult angles – I’ll stick with what we’ve done so far (basically, the 180 degrees from one side of the poles to the other), but continue to push the distance.

 Posted by at 4:30 am

Gitta – 2×2 – Day 3 – Session 4

 2x2, Gitta, Training, Video  No Responses »
Sep 182009
 

Summary — Session 4 (5 mins): one set of poles at 2 and 8 oclock.

Despite having to put her tug on a line (she ran off with it the first two reps) – I thought we had a great session. She’s making harder entries and continues to drive. I focused on the right hand side of the poles (as I face them) since she shut down on a hard left entry yesterday.

However, after some great entrances on the right, I did set her up on a pretty difficult one from the left. It was just a little easier than the one that stumped her yesterday and she got it!

I need to refresh my memory on what comes next – but I think she might be ready for the next stage! I believe it is adding a second set a fair distance out. I’ll need to review to see if we should move on – or if she needs to be able to send from behind the poles (if that makes sense) before I add the next set (so that I can send from between the two sets and have her drive around the first set to make the entry). I’ll review tomorrow and make that decision.

PS. I quickly reviewed the video and I probably need to add body movement (as a distraction) and move the poles to someplace new – THEN we’ll be ready for 2 sets of 2.

 Posted by at 4:15 am

Gitta – 2×2 – Day 2 – Session 3

 2x2, Gitta, Training, Video  1 Response »
Sep 172009
 

Summary — Session 3 (6 mins): one set of poles at 2 and 8 oclock.

Today was a bit frustrating – though looking back over the video did remind me of some nice moments. Actually – she did quite well – until I tried a pretty hard entry that she repeatedly failed at. I was disappointed that after 3 or so mistakes – she just left. Walked off. Then she started ‘stressing high’ doing zoomies around the yard.

I did get her back, and she did finally succeed (I did take one step in while she was in the zoomies). And we did a few more easier ones and quit for the day.

I guess I should be happy that I was able to work without the long line today. She never took off with the toy and always came back for the tug. So that’s a big step up.

It will be interesting to see what she offers tomorrow. I think I’ll try some hardish entries from the other side and let her forget about the stress of today.

And actually – in rewatching the video – it was actually VERY good – except where it was crap ;-) I love her drive to and especially through the poles. With Raph, at a certain distance, it’s like the poles don’t exist anymore. It’s never that way with Gitta. She drives away from me great. She just had a hard time with that one entry where she could see the gap between the poles, but from the wrong side. We’ll work up to that.

 Posted by at 4:03 am

Raph – 2×2 – Day 2 – Session 3

 2x2, Raph, Training, Video  No Responses »
Sep 172009
 

Summary — Session 3: one set of poles at 2 and 8 oclock.

Again you can see that Raph doesn’t always focus on the poles. However, he does a great job of working through mistakes. His tail is wagging, and he’s coming back to me even though I’m not tugging with him after mistakes.

His issues seem to have more to do with distance than angle. And I can usually tell before I let him go whether or not he’s going to make it. You’ll see a couple of times where I don’t let go when he starts running because I can tell his focus is on me and the toy and not forward to the poles.

All in all I thought it was a good session. I’ll evaluated over the next few sessions and see if I need to reduce the distance and try to work angles closer to the poles.

 Posted by at 3:40 am

Raph – 2×2 – Day 1 – Sessions 1 & 2

 2x2, Raph, Training, Video  No Responses »
Sep 162009
 

Summary: Raph on 2×2 over two sessions – both on the building and testing the value stage.

Since I’m doing 2×2 with Gitta, Esteban gave me permission to work with Raph in parallel. Esteban had introduced him to the 2×2′s in the ‘building value’ phase. But when I first took him out to the poles – he didn’t seem to even notice them there. All Esteban’s work had been in another location – and I wasn’t there to see how it was done. So after those first few attempts (you can see a few in the video), I decided to go back to square one.

I switched out the toy for food, and went back to shaping going through the poles. Raph caught on quite quickly, and I soon was able to get a little distance away from the poles.

One of the things I was most impressed with was the fact that he would come back to me so readily after a mistake. Raph can be a bit soft, and has much less shaping experience than Gitta. On top of that – he has that annoying BC (pardon my generalization) habit of not wanting to come to hand. Coming to us usually earns a nice tug, but since I was working on 2×2, I couldn’t tug with him if he had made a mistake. That’s why you’ll hear such effusive praise when he comes back to me.

I also noticed that if his focus was on me – he would generally stay engaged with me when I released him. If I waited for him to focus forward – he would almost always get it right. I don’t know if this is cheating – or just good dog training, to wait until I see him focus forward.

Esteban was manning the camera for about half of the first session, which was a distraction – but Raph would always come back and work with me.

Session 2 was even better. You can see him immediately focus on the poles as soon as we come out. I think he’s probably ready to come right out to 2 and 8 tomorrow.

 Posted by at 2:15 am

Gitta – 2×2 – Day 1 – Sessions 1 & 2

 2x2, Gitta, Training, Video  1 Response »
Sep 162009
 

Summary — Session 1 (4 mins): building and testing the value; Session 2 (2 mins): one set of poles at 2 and 8 oclock.

I’ve finally started 2×2 with Gitta! Officially! She’s had 2 sessions of ‘building the value’ (shaping her to go through the two poles) before today. But I’ll still call this the official day 1. Those other sessions were about 2 months ago and 2 weeks ago. She has the most shaping experience of any of our dogs, so that part went very smoothly. You put just about anything new in her environment – and she immediately starts interacting with it.

I attended ‘Contacts and Weaves’ day at the Susan Garrett seminar in Seattle this past June. Susan really advocates waiting to do 2x2s till 12-14 months old or later. That’s good advice for any dog – but especially good for large breeds. Gitta is now almost 15 months old – and starting agility classes; so I thought it was a good time to start. I’m hoping to have her pretty far along before weaves are introduced in class.

I think she’s driving to the poles quite nicely – and I love how she speeds forward for the tug. I decided to keep the tug on a long line for the first few sessions, though you can see the problems that occasionally causes. Maybe I’ll try it without the line next session and see how she does. She does seem to ‘like the game’ so hopefully she will be good about coming back. She did alot of wandering over to hubby the cameraman. At first I thought she was just destracted by him – though after checking him out once she should have worked for me just fine. Then I noticed that he had come onto my agility field with a rib!!! A RIB! I’m all for adding distraction. But when you are at STAGE ONE, trying to build value for the poles and then test if you’ve succeeded – having a rib on the field is a bit unfair :-) After he left – things went much smoother ;-)

I put her up for just a few minutes between the two sessions while I rotated the poles to 2 and 8 and staked them down. We did a few reps down the middle to make sure she understood her line, then one ‘harder by not too hard’ entry from each side. I decided to quit while I was ahead – she was also slowing down on the tug and looking a little tired.

 Posted by at 1:58 am

Perfect Puppy – Day 2

 Lexi  No Responses »
Sep 152009
 

Ok – I promise I won’t post EVERY day about how Lexi poops, sleeps, and lays quietly in her crate. But I WILL post today about those things ;-)

Lexi was absolutely perfect her first day and night, sleeping all the way through the night. However, I was worried how she’d do being crated while Esteban and I were at work, and then if that would make her uncooperative in the evening. I needn’t have worried!

She started the day with a meal and a poop, making me feel more comfortable about leaving her for the next 3 hours. When the pet sitter came, she dutifully pooped for her as well. Woohoo! (If you’re not a dog person – I apologize for this post. If you are – I know you share my excitement ;-)

The pet sitter came one more time in the early afternoon, and then Esteban and I were home a little early at 5pm. I had agility class with Gitta, so Esteban was going to come with me to show off his pup. Unfortunately, he got a page and had to go deliver a baby. But I took her anyway. She sacked out on the drive up. She dutifully pooped in the potty area at class (hey – this is a big deal! New place, lots of dog smells). Then I put her in her crate during my class. She let out one bark when I walked away to start class. My trusty towel was over her crate in an instant, off a minute later, and she never let out a peep for the rest of class! She wasn’t sleeping, she watched with interest as all the people and dogs rotated through the equipment. I enlisted various folks’ help and had people drop treats in her crate whenever they walked by (assuming she was quiet – and she always was).

She was perfect on the way home, and got some xpen time while I got all the other dogs settled for the night.

At this point – I had a sudden panic attack that maybe she was just too exhausted from the trauma of travel to put up a fuss at bedtime. Maybe tonight would be the horrible night – I thought. But no! She did bark multiple times after being put in her crate while I was brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed. Isaac was an excited helper and would run to put the towel over her when she barked and happily pulled it off when she was quiet. His timing wasn’t quite as good as mine – but she still got the message. Once the lights went out – she was an angel.

And it was not an easy night to relax and sleep through! Esteban had actually come back from the hospital since the labor had a ways to go till delivery. We all went to bed at 10:30pm. At 11:30pm, his phone rings and he had to go to the hospital. He came back at 4am and took all the rest of the dogs out, then came to bed. Even with all this coming in and out, Lexi still remained quiet in her crate. When my alarm went off at 5:30am (an oddity for my schedule), I took her out and then put her BACK in the crate. Esteban was trying to get a few hours sleep before Isaac woke up, and I had to get to work very early. But she obliged us both and went back to sleep – waiting for her daddy to finally wake up. None of our older dogs would ever do that! When they hear us get up – they’re up too. Guess she’s just a go-with-the-flow type of girl.

Anyway – now that I read through – it seems a bit boring ;-) But I have truly been impressed with how easy to live with this little girl is. And still – when you give her some room – boy can she put on a show with the zoomies!!!

She really is all that and a bag of chips!!!

 Posted by at 3:25 pm

Bragging on Relatives

 Gitta, Schutzhund  No Responses »
Sep 142009
 

I just got the news that Gitta’s uncle just placed 2nd in the IFR World Championship. This is a Rottweiler-only, World Championship, Schutzhund competition. The handler is Milla Rantamäki, and the dog is Manouman Pika-Esa – known as Choko. Choko is littermate to Gitta’s mom. The whole Manouman family is crazy excited!

Congrats to Milla and Choko!!!

 Posted by at 8:55 pm

The Next Generation – Pup and Trainer

 Lexi  1 Response »
Sep 142009
 

This morning – Isaac (ALMOST 5 yrs old) was walking by Lexi’s xpen, which she would jump up on. Isaac is quite careful around dogs, and as tiny as she is – he’s still uncomfortable with her jumping against the pen as he passes.

Isaac told her: “Sit. Lexi, Sit”.

I told Isaac: “Oh Isaac, she doesn’t know that yet. She’s a baby and doesn’t know anything yet – we have to teach her”.

Isaac paused and then told her: “Wag your tail. Goooood girrrrlll”.

The hilarious part is that he wasn’t trying to be funny or make a joke! I guess he just decided this was something she could probably do. And when you say pretty much anything to a Golden – the tail does wag :-)

 Posted by at 6:21 pm
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