The boys and I headed south for a weekend of Agility a couple of hours away. Da Vipe was entered in everything while I was a bit more particular with Blade and only entered him in Steeplechase, the Master Challenge classes and a few classes to close in on his ADCH-Silver.
Game plan for the weekend was simple: Criteria.
I'm revisiting a stopped contact (on the dogwalk) with BOTH Blade AND Viper. Blade REALLY fought me on this for the majority of the weekend. Since I didn't enter him in everything I had limited opportunities to re-enforce what we've been training for months. Managing a "moving" contact (as it's not much more then a few stuttering steps before he lets himself leave the contact) is not my idea of fun and hasn't been for a while.
Blade may have won a few battles but I won the war ;) the final few runs of the weekend Blade gave me (not perfect) but 2o2o contacts that met all of my criteria :) Blade 8,325 Kim 1. It's a start.
Da Vipe on the other hand let me know loud and clear that the criteria for his dogwalk was extremely grey. I haven't posted much about it, but at the last two trials Viper powered up and across the dogwalk and then immediately stopped at the 2nd or 3rd slat on the last third of the dogwalk and stared at me. And STARED at me. He did this the first class of the weekend which just happened to be Master Gamblers so I simply marked the behavior and brought him back to the jump before the dogwalk and let him re-attempt the obstacle. Where he proceeded to run the dogwalk when I asked him for his stopped behavior. Dogs...
Grand Prix and Standard were more of the same but instead of simply "moving on" and managing the contacts I made sure that I marked the behavior with "Cheetah Cheetah" which is his cue that lets him know he needs to try something else because that wasn't correct. I REALLY don't like pulling him from the course as I really am focusing on criteria AND building his confidence. So we marked it and waited a beat before me moved forward.
We even attempted the Master Challenge Standard course where Viper proceeded to stop 3/4 of the way through the dogwalk, then tip toe down to the end and release himself from the end position and attempt to move towards the next obstacle. It just so happened that I was able to step in front of him and scoop him up and take him off the course :(. Although I'm probably making Saturday sound like a total bust, it really wasn't. In the classes where Vipe and I didn't have to worry about the dogwalk he gave me some really BRILLIANT stuff.
Sunday, he proceeded to give me even MORE brilliant stuff. Like in Master Standard. Where he proceeded to run across the dogwalk and offer me an end behavior that met 80% of criteria. It was nice enough that I let him know what a good man he was. I know, I know, dog training is all about DOing and NOT TRYing, but I could tell Viper was looking to me for feedback and the way he exploded towards the next obstacle solidified the fact that he NEEDED that reinforcement from me. It made that moment all the sweeter when Viper and I got through the course for our very first Master Standard Q :)
We had to wait until the end of the day to have a go at Masters Gamblers again, and lucky me the dogwalk was positioned so I could make it the VERY first obstacle. Viper made it through 7/8's of the obstacle before he slammed on the brakes literally with his front feet in the yellow and the back in the red. It didn't meet criteria so I marked the behavior and we went back to the beginning of the dogwalk and re-attempted the whole thing from the start. Insert BRILLIANCE here. Da Vipe not only barreled across the dogwalk but ran into his 2o2o position! I ate up at least 5 seconds letting him know what a good boy he was! I could tell it put another notch in his confidence belt which was probably the biggest highlight from the weekend for me! Gamblers by no means is Viper's strong suit as I've worked incredibly hard to build MORE value for coming in to the momma then going away from me, and although we didn't have enough points Da Vipe smoked the gamble portion of the run too!
Our Q rate was no where near 50% but this weekend was a HUGE win-win for me and da boys. I took a lot away from it and even realized that Da Vipe is starting to put some serious miles on in the maturity department. With each run I can feel us jiving more and more as a team and I can feel him taking the reigns a bit more. Which is some brilliant stuff in itself.
Blade may have won a few battles but I won the war ;) the final few runs of the weekend Blade gave me (not perfect) but 2o2o contacts that met all of my criteria :) Blade 8,325 Kim 1. It's a start.
Da Vipe on the other hand let me know loud and clear that the criteria for his dogwalk was extremely grey. I haven't posted much about it, but at the last two trials Viper powered up and across the dogwalk and then immediately stopped at the 2nd or 3rd slat on the last third of the dogwalk and stared at me. And STARED at me. He did this the first class of the weekend which just happened to be Master Gamblers so I simply marked the behavior and brought him back to the jump before the dogwalk and let him re-attempt the obstacle. Where he proceeded to run the dogwalk when I asked him for his stopped behavior. Dogs...
Grand Prix and Standard were more of the same but instead of simply "moving on" and managing the contacts I made sure that I marked the behavior with "Cheetah Cheetah" which is his cue that lets him know he needs to try something else because that wasn't correct. I REALLY don't like pulling him from the course as I really am focusing on criteria AND building his confidence. So we marked it and waited a beat before me moved forward.
We even attempted the Master Challenge Standard course where Viper proceeded to stop 3/4 of the way through the dogwalk, then tip toe down to the end and release himself from the end position and attempt to move towards the next obstacle. It just so happened that I was able to step in front of him and scoop him up and take him off the course :(. Although I'm probably making Saturday sound like a total bust, it really wasn't. In the classes where Vipe and I didn't have to worry about the dogwalk he gave me some really BRILLIANT stuff.
Sunday, he proceeded to give me even MORE brilliant stuff. Like in Master Standard. Where he proceeded to run across the dogwalk and offer me an end behavior that met 80% of criteria. It was nice enough that I let him know what a good man he was. I know, I know, dog training is all about DOing and NOT TRYing, but I could tell Viper was looking to me for feedback and the way he exploded towards the next obstacle solidified the fact that he NEEDED that reinforcement from me. It made that moment all the sweeter when Viper and I got through the course for our very first Master Standard Q :)
We had to wait until the end of the day to have a go at Masters Gamblers again, and lucky me the dogwalk was positioned so I could make it the VERY first obstacle. Viper made it through 7/8's of the obstacle before he slammed on the brakes literally with his front feet in the yellow and the back in the red. It didn't meet criteria so I marked the behavior and we went back to the beginning of the dogwalk and re-attempted the whole thing from the start. Insert BRILLIANCE here. Da Vipe not only barreled across the dogwalk but ran into his 2o2o position! I ate up at least 5 seconds letting him know what a good boy he was! I could tell it put another notch in his confidence belt which was probably the biggest highlight from the weekend for me! Gamblers by no means is Viper's strong suit as I've worked incredibly hard to build MORE value for coming in to the momma then going away from me, and although we didn't have enough points Da Vipe smoked the gamble portion of the run too!
Our Q rate was no where near 50% but this weekend was a HUGE win-win for me and da boys. I took a lot away from it and even realized that Da Vipe is starting to put some serious miles on in the maturity department. With each run I can feel us jiving more and more as a team and I can feel him taking the reigns a bit more. Which is some brilliant stuff in itself.
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