Show and Go-Guilford, VT

Lead out Practice

On Labor Day Dave drove Stewie and I and Cleveland to Guildford, Vermont to Breeze Thru Agility's annual Show and Go. Stewie went several years ago when he was very young and we had a great time. We went this year to work on our weave poles in a trial situation. We did 2 Standard runs and one Jumpers run.
Since the obstacles were awfully close together for us, I did a lot of layering and sending Stewie to obstacles. I did long lead outs on each course too, at least 2 or 3 obstacles and maintaining lateral distance also.
The sequence was the dog walk to a tunnel and then the weave poles. The first run, he ran by the weave poles just like he has been doing in trials. I resent him and he did great poles and I stopped and treated him.
The 2nd regular run he nailed the weave pole entry and kept going and finished the poles. I threw his tug and treat for him with a jackpot in it, just like I do in training. I think this was a good reinforcement for him.

The jumpers run was an easy one with lots of sends. I used it to practice my lead out. I led out 3 jumps and pretty much stayed in that position and sent him around the course. A spectator took some great shots of him too! Thank you Dave Copeland!

Jumpers photos by Dave Copeland, thank you!

Club Practice

Club practice was awesome this week, beautiful weather, and lots of people and dogs. There was a nice USDAA standard course. I got some good distance practice with Stewie. He did great weave poles also! He bailed off of the teeter though, I will have to practice that more if we ever do more USDAA trials.
We had 3 good runs and Stewie was eager to run all of them. He and Tom's JRT Tara were much more calm around each other, so they are getting more used to each other.

Weave hoops

Today we tried weave hoops for the 1st time ever. I wanted to see what Stewie would do when he saw them. I used the 4 hoops that I have and gave it a try. He did really well and seems to get it right away, which is great, since we are still having trouble with the hoop serpentine.

We also did 3 great weavepoles today. The 2nd time I went about 8 feet past the 12th pole and just called him through them, he has either not done them in the past or done them really hesitantly, but today he flew right through them, Yeah Stewie.

Club Practice this week

Here is the course map from this week's club practice. Sorry it is a bad scan. I worked on distance skills with Stewie on this course, trying to stay in the center of the course for the whole thing. Also we did put in a set of 12 weave poles instead of a set of 6. The spot we had trouble with in the beginning was after the A frame. I decided to send him to the two jumps after the A frame and then layer the a frame while he was weaving. This was a difficult move but I am trying to push the distance envelope during practices. It took us 3 tries but we did it and then Stewie got the weave entry and continued weaving like a champ! The rest of the course was pretty easy, after the weaves he continued on no problem to the next two jumps, the tunnel, jump and dog walk to finish. After our 3 run thru with this course, Stewie had it down pact, so we did it backward the next two times and then called it a night.

Weave Video

Here is a video Kim took of Stewie in the weaves tonight.





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv9zjkOECpo

Weaves speed!

Yesterday I had Dave time Stewie while he went through the weaves 3 times.
I had time start at a jump, then a tunnel so he hit the weaves at speed. His first time was 3.37 seconds, the 2nd time was 3.57, and the last time was 3.05 seconds.

More good weaves

Stewie and I had a great weave pole practice today. We went out to train before dinner, and I used a tug and treat from Clean Run with some of his wet food in it. We did some big sends to tunnels before the weaves so he would be traveling at a good rate of speed, and he nailed his entries and weaved fast all 3 times!

New poles and weaving practice

I bought Stewie some new stick in the ground weave poles from Arf and Running, in NADAC purple of course! I had already bought a weave pole measuring strip from Clean Run. We finally got them set up today and had a short and great practice. We just used a tunnel and sent Stewie to the weaves from various angles. He not only nailed them each time but was weaving with great speed. Oh, I can't wait til he does this on a regular basis at trials! We will keep working on it with high value treats.

Weave, weave, weave!

Here is a nice weave sequence taken by Pete Greer at Addicted to Agility's May Wretham MA trial.

Get outs and weaves

We had a good practice Tuesday night. We worked on get outs to jumps and tunnels, with about 20 feet of lateral distance. Stewie was doing great with that. Then we put it into a short sequence that included 12 weave poles from different directions. He was smoking! He likes to weave so much more now and is much faster and more confident! A great short practice session.

12 Poles Today

Today we went back to 12 poles at once. The first 3 reps were beautiful, very fast. The 4th rep, he popped out at the 10th pole, but we went back and he nailed it. We did two more reps from different entry positions and from both sides of the poles. Very good!

Some fun agility today

Finally Stewie and I did some agility today. We did about 8 repetitions on our 2 sets of 6 weave poles, and Stewie did really well. We also practiced some stays, and some sends and go on's to the table which was about 100 plus feet away. Stewie did really well!

Weave Work Day 8

Today I added two poles to the far ends of my set up. So now Stewie will be weaving 6 poles, with a second set of 6 poles about 15 feet away. I set up the tunnel again to get him building up some speed and set the exit of the tunnel at about 8:30 on the clock. Stewie missed the first 2 tries, but still wanted to keep working, and he made the next two tries. He had to work hard to make it and not enter at the 2nd pole.
Then we changed to the other side. This time it was a jump at about 8:00 into the weaves. He missed the first try and then went on and nailed the next two tries. We went back to the tunnel entry and he got it and we ended on a positive note.
Great job Stewie!

Weave Work Day 7

We didn't do any agility work on Sunday since it was raining and we had a full day of agility training on Saturday. We ran out and did a few fast weaves today between raindrops. We started with a curved tunnel at about an 8:00 position and sent him to the tunnel from about 20 feet away, so that he would approach the weaves at speed. He got the entry and went on to weave both sets of poles very well!
I varied the side he was working off of and used a jump also before the weaves. He did 90% success rate, we did 9 or 10 repetitions and he only missed one,and nailed it the next time.
Good job Stewie, Elite Weavers here we come in May at Northeast Agility's May 2-3 trial in Greenfield, MA.

Also, we had a great time and learned alot at the workshop Saturday, I will try to get that post out tomorrow.

Weave Work Day 6

We worked on weaves for a very short period today about 8 repetitions. I left the set up at 4 poles, 15 feet, and 4 poles. We are still working entries at speed coming from a jump placed at different spots around the clock. This time I also added a double jump before the poles, since Stewie doesn't see double jumps very often. He nailed 7 out of 8 entries, and he is weaving fast and exiting well.
We went to a handling workshop today, we didn't do any weave pole work, but have had enough agility for the day, so we will do some more weave work tomorrow, Sunday

Weave Work Day 5

We worked again today on 2 sets of 4 poles each. The first time I treated Stewie after the 1st set of 4 weaves. The next several times I had him do both sets before treating. We worked on both sides of the poles at 8:00-9:00. We did about 8 repetitions in all, with Stewie only missing one entry.
His weaves are speedy and he is exiting well and driving to his food pouch.

Weave Work Day 4

Today I set up another set of 4 poles about 15 feet away. I sent him through the 1st set, and stopped to reward him as Susan Garrett recommends. Then I set him through both sets and then rewarded him. Then a put a jump about 12 feet away at about 9:00 and send him through both sets. He is weaving very well.
Then I started him in the opposite direction so the new 2nd set of poles was at the beginning and he ran by that set and went to the 2nd set. I just told him to try again and he got it right the second time.
We did about 8 repetitions tonight and I was very pleased. Stewie is weaving confidently and very fast, and driving to his pouch with a high value treat inside.
It was a good day 4.

Weave work Day 3

Stewie and I had a really short session today, since he was more interested in sniffing around the yard, and we had already taken a pretty long hike.
We started back at 9:00, where we had left off yesterday and he got his first entry, missed the 2nd and got the third. After I let him play for a bit, we started on the other side of the arc, at about 4:00. He got the 1st one, missed the 2nd, and I thought he was going to miss the 3rd try but he really worked hard to get it. It was great, and we ended the session with a jackpot.
I thought this was great progress, since Susan Garrett, says it is good to fail sometimes so the dogs learn what we want them to do.

Weave Work day 2

Stewie and I worked on a set of 4 weave poles again today. We did more round the clock training, up to 9:00 and Stewie nailed every one! We ended on a good note and I let him spend the rest of the time exploring the yard looking for moles, one of his favorite things next to agility.
Hopefully by the time we trial in early May, his weaves will be fast and furious. We need to get one more Elite Weavers Q to get his Weaves Title.

It's Spring, time to train agility

Happy Spring! I celebrated by getting some equipment out in the backyard today. First we worked on some weave pole training. I'd gotten Susan Garrett's Excellence in Weave Pole Training
this winter and finally got started on it. I started Stewie on 4 poles and started right in on working the entries around the clock and I did quite well with throwing his bait pouch at the end of the weaves. Stewie was very enthusiastic about weaving and we did a few reps and ended on a great note. We will spend some more time on it tomorrow.
After dinner we went back out to the yard and did some work on directionals again. Today we worked on lefts again and he got 9 out of 10 correct.