Boxless Dogwalk Sucess!

I decided to try starting out with no box today. The dogwalk worked great! He nailed the first one, and then missed the second one which I accidentally clicked...oops. Then he got the rest. The dogwalk second from the end, he did get a foot down right at the end. I didn't see it real time but saw the dogwalk bounce in the video. I had to watch the video like 5 times to see it for sure so I wouldn't really expect a judge to see that. The last two I did some gentle turns at the end by moving his jump standard over a few feet. That's probably why they weren't quite as good.



The boxless aframe didn't work quite as well. The first one he one strided and missed. The second one was two strides but a little high so I put the box back and he did better. I even did one at the end with me moving away laterally.

Decent Practice Today

That first dogwalk looks like he actually got but just barely got his front feet in at the bottom. I thought so but wasn't sure until I watched the video. I didn't mark it as wrong but didn't reward either. All of his misses today were ones where he didn't put that second stride in which seems better than him putting in two strides but not getting down far enough in my mind since the one stride should be easier to fix than trying to get him to sometimes add a 3rd stride. He may need to sometimes though. We'll have to see.

He also did much better with his aframes today. No misses. The video didn't work but I did an extra one at the end to get the video and stuck it at the end of the dogwalk videos.

Last Practice before the rain

It's supposed to rain from today through Tuesday but I managed to sneak in a quick practice session right as the rain was starting. Got Jeff to video so I didn't have to mess with the camera.

I did a few reps on the dogwalk and all looked good so I left it at that and moved over to the aframe. I'm beginning to get a little worried about how I'm going to handle this though!



His aframe performance backslid a little today. I put the box back and he did ok. I'm going to need to move the tunnel back next time to give him a better approach and hopefully that helps. Next time probably won't be until Thursday or Friday though!

Aframe and Dogwalk Video

I haven't video'd any aframes for a while because I've just been doing a couple here and there. He had been doing really good on them but of course missed a bunch for the video! I know why though. I moved the tunnel from the end of the aframe and put it at the end of the dogwalk so coming down in that direction he's coming down into the wall. he has enough room but it's making him shorten up his strides. You can see that he does good going in the other direction.



I will probably have to avoid going in the direction toward the wall without the tunnel there, at least for now.

His dogwalk session looks pretty similar to other recent sessions. Missing some but doing really good on others.

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.