So here is the game plan: back to foundation skills, with very minimal distractions to begin with.
Today we began with shadow handling with one judge/ring crew (mucho, mucho gracias Emily!) in the lobby. For an added bonus, there was a puppy and two other adults nearby but not involved with us. We had ZERO trouble here, doing stays and recalls, loose heel work, direction changes, crosses and etc. Emily was both standing and sitting. At the end, did some controlled premack on leash where she was allowed to sniff and lick hands of the ring crew, but had to keep all four feet on the ground. This was hard for her initially but she got the rules by the 2nd or 3rd try.
Next we moved to one jump, with Emily sitting about four feet away parallel with jump. Again, we had no trouble. Worked both sides, drop and runs, stays with and without lead outs. Soph didn't blink, not a missed step. Premack again, to finish, and less attempting to jump.
Put her away for a half hour while we had tea.
Second round, identical process.
Shadow handling - she was a little high and a little less focussed this time, but no outright attempts to mug (just shooting glances at Em. and occasionally stepping towards her - my timing of the click was crucial in keeping her on track I believe. ) After about 5 minutes she was back in the game.
One jump - again, slightly distracted and I did lose her once but managed to grab her before she made contact. Not an ideal solution but I was then able to reset her and continue on without any further trouble. Finished with a few sets of weaves - this was less successful. No trouble weaving away from ring crew but weaving toward was too difficult - I had to body block her the first time, and block her with an outstretched hand for the 2nd and third times. Clearly that was too difficult, and I should have angled the weaves perpindicular initially instead. Duly noted for next time. Again, finished with a few premack's, and by the third "go say hi", sophie approached but immediately returned to me for her final cookie. We wrapped it up at that point. Good good dog!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
And on the mental management end of things
appropriately, was flipping through a borrowed Clean Run last night and came across a great article by Lance Bassham (Olympic Medallist and mental management-expert) - entitled "Handling Disappointment"
Some highlights:
"The first step in dealing with disappointment is that things are not always what they seem.... Let's look at disappointing events and see if we can learn other valuable things from the experience."
"What should we do when we are disappointed? I have three suggestions. First determine if you are responsible for the disappointment. If so, accept responsibility for your actions. Ask what you need to change about yourself to get through this and to reduce the chance that it will happen again.Then let the worry and concern over the damage that this has caused to your journey toward your goals be replaced by a renewed effort toward rehabilitation. Protect your self-image by thing and talking about what you need to do, not about what you did wrong. "
"Second, protect your attitude...contentment tends to make a person successful before long. You can't keep a good man down because he gets up quickly and moves on toward his goal."
"Finally, see if you can find any benefit in the situation before you determine that your life is no longer worth living. Remember, people value things in direct proportion to the p;rice paid for them, so maybe you will value success much more if you fail a bit in the process. "
So... Our first AAC trial was a mixed blessing. Our first class (jumpers) was a complete train wreck from start to (a very fast) finish. I was a little scattered in our start line routine, and Soph wasn't at all connected with me from the get go - and soon as she was released and over one jump she was like a cannon zooming around mugging every ring crew and the judge over and over and over again. Brat. So finally snagged her on the third zoom past and retired from the course. Time to regroup and rethink things. I did have a lovely course planned and visualised, but Soph wasn't on the same page... onward and upward.
Next was a steeplechase course - a nice flowing course that curved into the middle of the ring - great, away from the ring crew along the sides! Good, that gave us the opportunity to start off with a solid 3 obstacle sequence (jump, jump, aframe) that we were able to successfully complete. Bit of a hairy moment as she posed on top of the aframe, gazing down at the judge and I could see her contemplating "Should I jump on her head or would it be better to mug her from the solid ground?" Thankfully she decided to bail off halfway down (missed contact) but I was able to get her back after one jump on the judge and over the next jump. Unfortunately, I was flustered and kept going forward to jump 10, instead of doing the hard turn back towards jump 5. Tried to get her back to the correct jump which was a mistake - we did manage to get back onto the 6-7-8 line of jumps but had run out of time at that point. S'okay, we managed to keep things sorta-together and worked as a team.
Time for lunch, a massage for Soph and a break for us both... soph in her crate and me as ring crew for masters snooker. Enjoyed watching our classmates having much success in the ring.
Final course was our standard run. Again, this course began in the middle of the ring, with a jump-frame-3 jump sequence in a fairly straight line, away from the crew. Soph required a lot of coaxing down the frame, and she did drift off in the middle of the following three jumps, but I got her back on course turning her onto teeter #6 (held contact, YAY!) and turn onto the table (quick down, YAY! held her down and didn't bark, double YAY!). Then 6 weaves - she missed her entry and I had a heartstopping moment moving her back - will she bolt or can I get her back in the weaves? YES I can get her through them on the 2nd try .. now we can super-charge down the side in a straight sequence - tunnel, tire, jump, turn past the gate jump back to the centre chute, curve into the tunnel and wrap back over the dog walk and a jump to finish and we FINISH THE COURSE. And it's not pretty and we're way overtime but we held it together and DID IT.
SCT is 64 seconds, our time 112.58, 83.55 faults and a first place in 16inch specials ..
Video to follow. :)
Some highlights:
"The first step in dealing with disappointment is that things are not always what they seem.... Let's look at disappointing events and see if we can learn other valuable things from the experience."
"What should we do when we are disappointed? I have three suggestions. First determine if you are responsible for the disappointment. If so, accept responsibility for your actions. Ask what you need to change about yourself to get through this and to reduce the chance that it will happen again.Then let the worry and concern over the damage that this has caused to your journey toward your goals be replaced by a renewed effort toward rehabilitation. Protect your self-image by thing and talking about what you need to do, not about what you did wrong. "
"Second, protect your attitude...contentment tends to make a person successful before long. You can't keep a good man down because he gets up quickly and moves on toward his goal."
"Finally, see if you can find any benefit in the situation before you determine that your life is no longer worth living. Remember, people value things in direct proportion to the p;rice paid for them, so maybe you will value success much more if you fail a bit in the process. "
So... Our first AAC trial was a mixed blessing. Our first class (jumpers) was a complete train wreck from start to (a very fast) finish. I was a little scattered in our start line routine, and Soph wasn't at all connected with me from the get go - and soon as she was released and over one jump she was like a cannon zooming around mugging every ring crew and the judge over and over and over again. Brat. So finally snagged her on the third zoom past and retired from the course. Time to regroup and rethink things. I did have a lovely course planned and visualised, but Soph wasn't on the same page... onward and upward.
Next was a steeplechase course - a nice flowing course that curved into the middle of the ring - great, away from the ring crew along the sides! Good, that gave us the opportunity to start off with a solid 3 obstacle sequence (jump, jump, aframe) that we were able to successfully complete. Bit of a hairy moment as she posed on top of the aframe, gazing down at the judge and I could see her contemplating "Should I jump on her head or would it be better to mug her from the solid ground?" Thankfully she decided to bail off halfway down (missed contact) but I was able to get her back after one jump on the judge and over the next jump. Unfortunately, I was flustered and kept going forward to jump 10, instead of doing the hard turn back towards jump 5. Tried to get her back to the correct jump which was a mistake - we did manage to get back onto the 6-7-8 line of jumps but had run out of time at that point. S'okay, we managed to keep things sorta-together and worked as a team.
Time for lunch, a massage for Soph and a break for us both... soph in her crate and me as ring crew for masters snooker. Enjoyed watching our classmates having much success in the ring.
Final course was our standard run. Again, this course began in the middle of the ring, with a jump-frame-3 jump sequence in a fairly straight line, away from the crew. Soph required a lot of coaxing down the frame, and she did drift off in the middle of the following three jumps, but I got her back on course turning her onto teeter #6 (held contact, YAY!) and turn onto the table (quick down, YAY! held her down and didn't bark, double YAY!). Then 6 weaves - she missed her entry and I had a heartstopping moment moving her back - will she bolt or can I get her back in the weaves? YES I can get her through them on the 2nd try .. now we can super-charge down the side in a straight sequence - tunnel, tire, jump, turn past the gate jump back to the centre chute, curve into the tunnel and wrap back over the dog walk and a jump to finish and we FINISH THE COURSE. And it's not pretty and we're way overtime but we held it together and DID IT.
SCT is 64 seconds, our time 112.58, 83.55 faults and a first place in 16inch specials ..
Video to follow. :)
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Our goals for saturday's debut
a brief summary:
-remember our Webb lessons
-during the walkthroughs, break the course into achievable segments, memorising and visualising each segment and the course as a whole.
-take the time to connect and play with soph before running.. remember our warmup rituals.
-run with intent and focus, providing a constant flow of enthusiastic, consistent information on what and where I want soph to be doing.
and of course, have fun!
the rest will be gravy. :)
-remember our Webb lessons
-during the walkthroughs, break the course into achievable segments, memorising and visualising each segment and the course as a whole.
-take the time to connect and play with soph before running.. remember our warmup rituals.
-run with intent and focus, providing a constant flow of enthusiastic, consistent information on what and where I want soph to be doing.
and of course, have fun!
the rest will be gravy. :)
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Tis the season for reflecting and planning
for the year ahead. In 5 days, we'll be making our Ontario AAC debut at Acton Agility on January 1st. We've entered three classes - jumpers, standard and steeplechase. Our goals for the day are:
-to have fun (that's a given!)
-to break down the courses into manageable sequences of 4-6 obstacles, and memorise and visualise these sequences
-to maintain focuss and drive during those sequences
-and to bring chocolates and cookies to placate the judges and ring crew if Sophie decides that mugging is more fun than running.
Longterm goals for the year:
I'd like to get some more level 1 q's in CPE - I do still love that venue and the games.
Aiming for the regionals and nationals in Barrie - if nothing more than the steeplechase, the nationals are an experience and with some more trial miles under our belt, we'll enjoy it a lot more.
Working with Cassie - my goal with her is a little less ambitious but no less important. I would love to get her into a group class of some kind by the end of year.. probably rally o, at least to start with. Right now we're setting up some folks to do some parallel walks with, and working hard on our CU skills.
Professionally, I need to do a ton more self promotion - never my strongest point.
-to have fun (that's a given!)
-to break down the courses into manageable sequences of 4-6 obstacles, and memorise and visualise these sequences
-to maintain focuss and drive during those sequences
-and to bring chocolates and cookies to placate the judges and ring crew if Sophie decides that mugging is more fun than running.
Longterm goals for the year:
I'd like to get some more level 1 q's in CPE - I do still love that venue and the games.
Aiming for the regionals and nationals in Barrie - if nothing more than the steeplechase, the nationals are an experience and with some more trial miles under our belt, we'll enjoy it a lot more.
Working with Cassie - my goal with her is a little less ambitious but no less important. I would love to get her into a group class of some kind by the end of year.. probably rally o, at least to start with. Right now we're setting up some folks to do some parallel walks with, and working hard on our CU skills.
Professionally, I need to do a ton more self promotion - never my strongest point.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
House League
was a hoot! Started out with a speed game, snakes and ladders, which involved a down and back course of jumps, frame, walk and weaves - four columns - and 60 seconds to get as far as you could. If you reached the end and still had time, you would start back tracking. Points were given - 1 jump, 2 tunnel, 3 tire, 4 aframe, 5 dogwalk, 7 weaves - and no faults for refusals or retakes, just loss of time. Sophie was HOT, finishing the first go-round and getting about 3/4 of the way through the loop back. We ended up with 57 points and 3rd place for this game. Most importantly, she was driven and focused on the course and my direction and didn't blink at the ring crew or the judge.
Next up was steeplechase, and we back slid a bit - tired? a bit lost? maybe. She drifted off a few times and I ended up calling it a training run and rewarding her three times, and finished the course.
Standard was the third run - a twisty complicated course which actually worked very well for us. Took a long time breaking the course down during the walk through, doing the visualisation, the two walkthroughs (one for soph, one for me) and then breaking the course into manageable chunks. And that really seemed to work - I kept communicating with soph throughout, calling her well in advance, keeping on top of her turns and giving enough time for her to find the path successfully. We finished with 5 faults and a time of 1:24:03, ending up in 10th place.
So at the end of the day what was learned:
- the revving up and tugging at the start is really helping - we will need to work on her out and leave it.
-communicate throughout - she has amazing obstacle discrimination and we need to use that more. Call out the turns well in advance.
- really, really take lots of time to memorize the course and my strategy. Walk it for soph and then for me, twice if time permits, and then visualize each section. Don't rush this! Webb's suggestion of chanting the course (jump jump frame front cross to tunnel) as you visualise really helped me during the standard run.
and have fun!
At the end of the day, Soph and I were proud to be awarded the "Most Improved" prize and we will certainly enjoy our festive red/green tennis ball!
Next up was steeplechase, and we back slid a bit - tired? a bit lost? maybe. She drifted off a few times and I ended up calling it a training run and rewarding her three times, and finished the course.
Standard was the third run - a twisty complicated course which actually worked very well for us. Took a long time breaking the course down during the walk through, doing the visualisation, the two walkthroughs (one for soph, one for me) and then breaking the course into manageable chunks. And that really seemed to work - I kept communicating with soph throughout, calling her well in advance, keeping on top of her turns and giving enough time for her to find the path successfully. We finished with 5 faults and a time of 1:24:03, ending up in 10th place.
So at the end of the day what was learned:
- the revving up and tugging at the start is really helping - we will need to work on her out and leave it.
-communicate throughout - she has amazing obstacle discrimination and we need to use that more. Call out the turns well in advance.
- really, really take lots of time to memorize the course and my strategy. Walk it for soph and then for me, twice if time permits, and then visualize each section. Don't rush this! Webb's suggestion of chanting the course (jump jump frame front cross to tunnel) as you visualise really helped me during the standard run.
and have fun!
At the end of the day, Soph and I were proud to be awarded the "Most Improved" prize and we will certainly enjoy our festive red/green tennis ball!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Super practice evening!
Some lessons learned tonight:
Be careful about over-drilling and wearing Soph out. She can't keep herself high working straight through 60 minutes - frequent breaks and short practices during station work, mean we can get two full courses and maintain drive at the end of the night.
Forget about start line stays for now.. rev her up before we get to the start line. Pushing games, spins, bounce-touches and slap-da-dawg are all good at getting her ready to work.
Direction changes or when 'dangerous' judge/ring crew is in sight - call before she reaches it. Worked BEAUTIFULLY on a straight ahead run past two of her fav. folks, was still able to get her to turn away to the next two obstacles.
and RUN RUN RUN!
Be careful about over-drilling and wearing Soph out. She can't keep herself high working straight through 60 minutes - frequent breaks and short practices during station work, mean we can get two full courses and maintain drive at the end of the night.
Forget about start line stays for now.. rev her up before we get to the start line. Pushing games, spins, bounce-touches and slap-da-dawg are all good at getting her ready to work.
Direction changes or when 'dangerous' judge/ring crew is in sight - call before she reaches it. Worked BEAUTIFULLY on a straight ahead run past two of her fav. folks, was still able to get her to turn away to the next two obstacles.
and RUN RUN RUN!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Summer and Fall update
Well lots to report on - sadly, I lost my grand old girl on August 26, probably to a stroke. Kaylie was likely 16 years old - in the last year she had been growing increasing frail and cautious. On August 25th I came home to a confused, distressed dog keening her discomfort - she was unable to walk without being held up and assisted at each step. By morning she was unable to stand at all, and it was clear that it was time to say farewell. She went gently on ahead - many thanks to my compassionate vet and her staff for getting us through such a difficult time.
Spruce Meadows was a lot of fun for Sophie and I - unfortunately, she had stomach issues (water? food? mountain air?) beginning the first night we arrived. She was fine once we got home, so it was something location specific. Sadly, that did mean that she wasn't running her best - but we did manage to put on a decent showing in the steeplechase class. We also had an enjoyable day hiking in the Rockies - found a great new picnic spot. (We won't talk about the fact that the trail was closed the next week because of a grizzly bear family - Sophie swears she didn't call them!)
Our fall training regimen is progressing nicely - we have class once a week and i drop in on Saturday afternoons for a casual practice session. We joined a House League which offers a trial-like atmosphere and a taste of competitive team-spirit, all in fun of course. Our first session clearly demonstrated that we are far from ready to enter a trial - Sophie was completely disconnected and I just couldn't get her on my team. We'll have another league day coming up this Sunday, and we've been working hard on distraction proofing, so hopefully we will see an improvement in her focus.
Really would like to get her in a trial before she turns 10. :)
Spruce Meadows was a lot of fun for Sophie and I - unfortunately, she had stomach issues (water? food? mountain air?) beginning the first night we arrived. She was fine once we got home, so it was something location specific. Sadly, that did mean that she wasn't running her best - but we did manage to put on a decent showing in the steeplechase class. We also had an enjoyable day hiking in the Rockies - found a great new picnic spot. (We won't talk about the fact that the trail was closed the next week because of a grizzly bear family - Sophie swears she didn't call them!)
Our fall training regimen is progressing nicely - we have class once a week and i drop in on Saturday afternoons for a casual practice session. We joined a House League which offers a trial-like atmosphere and a taste of competitive team-spirit, all in fun of course. Our first session clearly demonstrated that we are far from ready to enter a trial - Sophie was completely disconnected and I just couldn't get her on my team. We'll have another league day coming up this Sunday, and we've been working hard on distraction proofing, so hopefully we will see an improvement in her focus.
Really would like to get her in a trial before she turns 10. :)
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