More Dogwalk Practice

My camera's still acting up so I just got the beginning and end of our session. He started out missing again but then settled down. He started getting some good hits that I didn't get on video so I decided to try a couple without the box and he did good!

Today's Dogwalk Session

Today's dogwalk session started out not so good but ended well. After watching the video, I think he was focusing on the toy I was holding and not the box or the jump standard that he was supposed to wrap at the end of the dogwalk. I should have put the toy on the ground. I also tried taking off the 3-way connectors on the end so maybe that was too soon for that. I think next time I'll also put my tunnel at the opposite end so he has something to drive to going that way.

I got a few good dogwalks at the end of our session but my video cut off again so I set it up again and had him do one good one for the camera. I really like that last one!

Running (jumping?) dogwalk training

More video of our dogwalk training with the box. The top bar is off of the box and he doesn't seem to notice. He's more consistantly dong two strides instead of three into the box but that last stride is pretty big. I'm hoping his strides will even out like they did on the aframe and then this may actually work! Keeping my fingers crossed. Either way this is an interesting experiment. I'm quite amazed how similar he looks on the dogwalk and the aframe.

Running Dogwalk Experiment

Enzo's understanding of getting in the box seemed to work so well on the aframe so I am trying it on the dogwalk too. He definitely understands getting in the box on the dogwalk but I don't know if it will hold up without the box.



My video camera was also acting up and stopped recording on it's own both sessions today. Hopefully it just needed to be charged but it was showing half battery...

Enzo's X-mas present to me!

A real running aframe!



He pretty much has this down! I think I pretty much just have to work on handling it and independence now. I don't feel like he is relying on my body position very much so hopefully that will come easily too. I had no idea it would come this easily this time or I would have tried it a lot sooner. I was afraid to try before the Invitational.

I'm leaning towards not trying to work up to the 5'11" aframe for USDAA and just entering him in Perf. from now on. I think this aframe is too good for me to mess with and I don't think he will ever be a consistent 22" jumper anyways. 20" he does pretty good at but 22" is a stretch.

I'm also playing around with the box on the dogwalk but not sure about how that is going to work yet. He understands getting in it when it's on, but without it on, I'm not sure it will be consistent because his striding is not consistent yet. I tried to record that too but apparently didn't hit record!

First Trial with Running Aframe

So far so good! We've only been working the box on the aframe for a week but I was entered in a trial this weekend. I had no idea what he was going to do on the aframe but figured there was really no harm in trying. Saturday he was high but in. Pretty much just right below the line. Forgot my camera on Saturday but got video from Sunday. His aframe on Sunday was perfect! I'm excited that this is going so well so quickly. I plan to keep working with the box on the aframe with him. Neverending rain right now though.

Trying a running aframe again...

When Enzo started agility we tried a running aframe. I tried all kinds of things, stride regulators, foot target, putting jumps close to the end of the aframe. He would always either jump too long over the top and one stride or do two shorter strides and jump off in almost the exact same place as the one stride. We never got much better than 50% success rate so I switched him to 2on/2off.

Earlier in the year I did the groundwork for the box but never put it on the aframe. I didn't really want to change anything before the invitational. I started doing quick releases on the Aframe and Dogwalk and over time lost his stop completely. I can manage his contacts by handling but there is no independence at all so I am now re-evaluating. I've been working the box on the aframe for about a week now and I am excited because it might actually work!

Here's the video from our practice sessions. I didn't record our very first session where I was introducing him to the box on the aframe but all the rest are here.





At Sarah's suggestion I moved the box up since he was stepping on it and it seemed to help a lot. He seems to be evening out his strides and ending up deeper. Thanks Sarah!




He also did really well with the box on the aframe in class last night in full sequences. He probably did better there than at home but I don't have video to check.

So hopefully this will all hold up once the box comes off! Keeping fingers crossed.

Our AKC Invitational Experience

Here's a compilation of all of Enzo's runs for the weekend.



On Friday, we ran the FAST class which was for warmup only and didn't count for anything. They pretty much told us we could use our time to do whatever we wanted so I worked his contacts. He flew off the teeter the first time so I had him do it again and he was good the 2nd time. Then his aframe was close so I decided to keep going and then his dogwalk wasn't so great so I made him do that again too. I was hoping that would all sink in for him for the next days but really had no idea what he would do.

Saturday started out with standard. Luckily they were all turns off the contact so I didn't have to drive ahead on them. Enzo normally does better with me hanging back a little. He was quite amped for his run but his contacts ended up all being awesome. Unfortunately I called "come!" right over the panel before the weaves and that ended up coming down. I was kicking myself for that for a while but I'm over it now :-) Enzo was really fast and had some tight turns. He ended up having the fastest time of the 16" dogs but had the fault.

Round 2 was JWW, pretty tough course with some box work which used to be a huge weakness of ours but I finally figured out how to handle him through boxes. He was flying through this run and I almost lost him to a couple off courses but we made it and ended up winning! The andrenaline was really pumping after this run and my hands were shaking so much that I had trouble buckling his harness!

Sunday was a horribly early day. We had to be there by 5:45 for the general walkthrough and our ring started running at 7. I was not really awake for my runs. First run was JWW. Not a horrible course. Everyone's biggest concern was the turn over the broadjump. Funny thing is that I never saw any dogs have issues with it. I lost enzo right at the beginning to the weave poles. I should have held up there for a moment but I never thought the weaves would have been that much of a draw. Watching the video, I'd say that my motion getting around that winged jump pushed him out there. The we had a bar down where I got in his way on the serpentine and I pulled him off the jump in the corner which you can't see in the video.

Then our last run was the Hybrid round. He didn't hold his startline for as on as I wanted and I was late on the front cross and ended up flinging him out towards the weaves again! I should have rear crossed there. So after that I just thought oh well lets just run fast! He nailed his aframe contact but flew off the teeter and took an off course jump.

I was really happy with how Enzo was running all weekend. He found some extra speed that I wasn't totally prepared for but he was really fun to run. Having to line up in the chute for 5 or 6 dogs ahead was a little tough since he focused on the course so early but he was really good about the dogs being close to him. He's such a good boy and tries really hard. I really hope that we can make it to AKC Nationals next year but we'll see.

Here's our 1st place JWW run again just because:

AKC Invitationals and Tooney

First off, Jenn will surely do a better post on AKC Invitationals including videos, but I thought I'd do a quick post. She and Enzo were awesome. On Saturday, they had the fastest times in both standard and jumpers. Enzo dropped a bar in the standard run but was clean in the jumpers. That means Jenn and Enzo both got their first ever 1st place finish at a national championship! Congrats to both! On Sunday they had a few mistakes so weren't able to finish at the top in either run.

Tooney is also doing really well after several months of recovering from her mysterious left leg injury (still not known exactly what it was). After lots of rehab and love, she is starting to play frisbee again, so that is really exciting. We're taking it super slow with her. It's been about 5 months since we started resting and rehab. She is free to run around with Enzo and isn't wearing a brace anymore. She is currently running down about 7-10 throws in the 10-15 yard range. I've got a good feeling that she will be able to make the 1st frisbee competition of the year in March.

Jenn and I are talking about what to do for agility. Jenn thinks that if Tooney is able to do agility, maybe bring her back just for her last AKC finals (in Virginia). She is already qualified, so she could just do some warm up and practice leading to the competition. It would be a good way to retire her from agility. The thought is that maybe if she retires from agility, she could play frisbee longer. We believe the frisbee play will be less demanding on her body. Maybe she could move down to the 12" jump division in AKC and continue to do some jumpers or fast courses there. We are mostly worried about her A-frame. It's awesome to watch how she lands half way down the down side, but we think it is probably too rough on the front of her body.

To say the least, I'm excited about Tooney's progress. I have a feeling that she is going to be back 100% playing frisbee in a couple of months. It's a big turn around from when we saw no progress for weeks and weeks at a time.