New Blog.

I'm making a new blog right now. I've imported all the posts from this one. But there might be missing some videos, I'll check up on that later. I will probably keep this one anyway, but I will start writing in the other one from tonight. So you can change your bookmarks or bloglists!


http://vazyaila.wordpress.com/

The update from tonights training will be there instead!

Searching and agility

Today I went to meet Jessi at the club in Kista to train a bit before the agility-group practice.
It went well with the object search. I had 5 different objects this time, out to about 40 meters I think. She got them all. But a bit tired from the really warm weather.. I also tried the sending to the square with Vazy. And she does go forward, but like to stay near the cones... We'll just have to work more on that.

Then I practiced some more slalom with Aila, and some heelwalking. She's getting better at the slalom and can go just a bit faster..

After that the TG training started. It was fun as usual and I got to try the new stuff I learnt. It worked well. But on the movie I'm using another "technique" (I tried two different things there, 2nd jump after the slalom).. too bad she missed the entrance of the slalom!

When everyone had finished, I tried the track with Aila, and she was amazing! I was shocked, she had gained some speed and managed the whole slalom and all. Super good! Then I practiced some on the flat tunnel, and a girl from the group helped me. That was nice!

Here you've got the clip...

I suck!

Haha!
Today I got up early, after a night out 'til 1 (eventhough I didn't drink. I can tell you I was tired after having been up since 4am). I was heading for Aila's agility course. When I got there it was empty. I went for a walk. When I came back it was empty. 9.55, 10.00.. No one showed up! So I phoned Sofia with the Kelpie Ester, and I found out that it's next weekend!
So when I was already there, I decided to do some training.
I started going to the big field for a walk and then I did some object search, since I've decided to start all training (I can) with that. Today I made a 20 x 25 (or 30?) m square (zig zag) and had 4 objects. I took an empty toilet roll as well, for her to understand that she's supposed to get all kinds of objects. So she still loves it and she's good at it! She just has to practice holding and giving the objects to me, 'cause she rather throws it on the ground in front of me, ready to go out again. Today I didn't have to repeat the search command (but I still say it again after every object, so that she understands that there are more out there). First time she brought in the 3 toys, but didn't understand that she was supposed to get the toilet roll. So I followed her out, and when she found it and took it in her mouth I clicked. So next time I put out the 4 objects, she got them all straight away. So good! I filmed a small part of it... Sorry for the quality, it was with my mobile phone. For a bigger version; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxPxpFiG8uw


Then I went to do some agility training. First I was teaching Aila to go into the slalom from all directions (shaping). She gets frustrated and "barky" when I do shaping with her. But I just ignore it, cause I know it will go away as soon as she knows what to do. She managed to take the slalom from all directions. And she could make the whole slalom eventhough I was one meter from it, at least. Good girl!

Then I did some crazy combinations with Vazy. I'm going to draw them. I tried to figure out more about the "threadle". And I'm not sure I do it right. But I managed to get her to go perfectly on all kinds of different combinations. She had really tight turns around the jumps, and managed to go into the slalom when jumping from the right. See drawing.. I've only drawn some combinations, because I can't remember everything I did...
I was working on the same jumps with Aila. But mostly to try to get her to take the jumps without having me 2 cm from her side. So I put a bowl in the middle first. Then one after two jumps in a row. Then after two jumps with a turn.. It worked out pretty well...

I'm happy about my training.

I think I'm going to train more tonight with Jessi. First I have to sleep for a bit! The funny thing with Vazy is that the more we train, the more she wants to train. She never seems to get tired of it...

Oh, I'll just add one more combination that I really liked (starting on the top).. I'm really happy to be able to steer her like this now. Because usually she's just going straight on the closest jump. But now I think I've figured out a bit more how to handle her. We'll see if it gives results at training tomorrow..

I'm proud of Aila!

We came in 8th place (of 18 I think...)!
She got a 7/10 on everything. Some was a bit of barking that pulled it down. But she made all the things, eventhough she had only done the jump on thursday for the first time (jump-sit-jump)

Inkallning 25 m - 7p
Läggande - 7p
Apport - 7p
Fritt följ - 7p
Hopp-sitt-hopp - 7p

I'm really proud of her. She kept a good contact all the time, and she was walking super well on heel.
It was all done in a weird order (look above) and that changed my plans a bit. If they would have started with the heelwalk (fritt följ) she would have calmed down and not barked at the come (inkallning) and probably got a 10. But she was super good! I'm planning on starting her in class I this fall, or as soon as she knows the "stand".

Then Jessi was training all the three dogs at once. It was so funny! Vazy was the one that wanted to do the most.. She never tires of training. She just loves it!

I'll put some pictures from that here. A friend of Jessi filmed us, so maybe I will put that up later, but I'm not sure. You'll see...

Waiting for Jessi at ten to five in the morning.

Well. Here I am. Waiting for Jessi early in the morning. The sun is soon coming up!
Wish us good luck for today!

Gävle, here we come!

Sometimes training makes me forget...

..that I'm acctually sick.. Or even if I'm feeling depressed, it all goes away when I'm training the dogs. That's great. But now I feel really tired.....

Today went quite alright.
The square was not the best with Vazy. She'd forgotten all about it and only wanted to go to the cones. I have to train it more often!! But I should, because she really likes it. She's crazy about training. When me and Jessi were talking, she just ran to the square.. She always tries different stuff.
I did the object search again. And it went just as well today.. It's fun though!

With Aila I have some problems with the fetch and jump. Haven't practiced it enough, so she might not make that on the competition. But we're gonna meet up again tomorrow to see if we can do something more about it...

It's funny. She's great at walking on heel now, and she does nothing but! 70-80% of the walks she's coming up next to me, wanting to walk on heel.. Ofcourse she gets rewards for her efforts. So the heelwalk was looking really good today! The "down" is good too.. We'll see if she remembers tomorrow, what we've done today.
It's hard with her sometimes, cause differently from Vazy, she's a bit scared of doing wrong. So sometimes she kind of "blocks" when she doesn't get her reward often enough. Maybe it's her age too. But I can still see a difference. And then she gets much more frustrated when she doesn't know what to do, that's when she starts barking.. I can't see that in Vazy to the same degree. Speaking of barking.. She was much better today! I guess she wasn't as excited, since we were training agility for hours yesterday night. Good!

More updates tomorrow.... I'm not hoping for great results at the competition, but we're gonna manage some stuff anyway! She's still so young, that I don't have to feel any pressure, and I'm not putting any pressure on her either. We're just gonna have some fun!

Agility and "object" search

Back from the club.
It was fun!! But I'm so tired now!
I went a bit early to have time to take a walk and do something with Vazy. So I did, for the first time, a search for objects. Vazy LOVED it!! I haven't seen her so happy to do something for a while. I love that she works so hard and never gives up. She managed to bring in three objects, 3 times. First I made a zig zag pattern, inspired by Jessi and the course I had last week. Maybe 10-15 meters out. I put the objects far back to get her to run out. She remembered where I put the last object (a ball), and ran straight out to get it. Cause now in the beginning I'm letting her see when I put the objects out. And then she had a hard time understanding that she was supposed to get more objects. So she just looked around me. But then I went out with her for a bit, and clicked a few times when she got the object. So next time around, I made the same thing, but a few meters further back. Then she easily got all 3 objects! Third time around, I did it just because she thought it was so much fun. Then I made it even further, and I've must have been at 20 meters or maybe 25. She ran straight out and got the ball, then the other object. But the third that was futher back, took a bit more time. The wind was blowing towards her, so it was easy. That was a really good start. Gonna continue this.

Aila was really good at the agility. She seems to think it's really fun. We did some slalom, some "box exercises" and a small and easy track. She managed everything. She needs to get more distance from me though, she's staying too close. But she really understood the whole staying on the right, if I have my right hand out. I can't say that's working with Vazy. She always wanna come in on the left, no matter what. Have to train more right handling with her.
We also did the flat tunnel, which she's never tried before. She's such a wuss! As soon as it touched her back, she got all weird and didn't wanna do it again. But still, she did it quite a few times, and I guess it's just like with the A etc. She just needs time..

Tomorrow I'm gonna train with Jessi for the competition.

Oh yeah, there's a nice girl with a kelpie at the course. She's also training obedience, maybe we'll get another member to out "training group" that would be cool! 3