Friday, Sat & Sun work

Friday, it rained so much we could not work outside.  Cade did get to play in the mud and he got all dirty and got the house all dirty!
Saturday - Cade got to go to Canon's group practice.  He had a big time running chasing a ball and also running through portions of the course.  He did a great job, taking what we learned this week and making it better.  He did a nice job.

Sunday - I am cleaning house, cooking treats and getting ready for the next week.  We will work our regimine again.  It may rain us out on Monday, but we will work something inside.

Thurs. - Table work

WARNING!!!!!  Video shows exactly how fat I got over the winter.  It has inspired me to quit eating and get to working out!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe3uhWLtzTI

Today I introduced Cade to the table and we played some table games.  He enjoyed it and did very well making progress with the game.  At first he did not jump onto the table (16").  He would lean over to grab the treat.  I was able to lure him to jump up on the table.  By the end of our session, I was throwing a treat off to the side and he would happily jump onto the table.  I did have him go down so he as a clue that we will be going there with the game.  It was a short session today because I was trying to get some work in before work and also between rain showers.  Tomorrow we will work on tunnels if it is not too muddy.

WED. work with Cade - Beginnings of Handler Focus/Object Focus

OK, not sure if what I am doing is the ultimate thing, but I'm working it out.  Cade sure is a great learner too.  I put the jumps in a large J shape and started with him on my right.  I held out a treat and ran along next to the jumps.  It took a few times of getting him to not run around the jumps, but in the end we put it all together.  I think he learned something and will be stronger on this next week.  I then tried to work the beginning of letting him jump away from me and get a toy.  I had him sit behind the jump.  It was hard for him to sit next to me.  He does not like to be too close to me.  I grabbed his collar and pulled his behind in to my leg and held him there while I threw the toy, then released him to go get it.  He did ok for the first time to do this.  We will both get better.  He had lots of fun.
The best part of our training today was that he went over the Dog Walk all the way.  He had to work up the nerve, but I put a trail of treats over the top and he soon figured out it was ok to walk up there.  He conquered a great fear for him today.  We will keep working on putting that fear long behind us.
I think the daily training is really something Cade likes.  When I first let him out this morning, he just stood at the bottom of the steps as if to say:  "Are you coming to play with me?"  I had to have my coffee first and then we went to play.  He does not ever want to stop.  I will post video as soon as I cut out the dead time.  Tomorrow we work on: Cues, stays, table work.

Feb. 22 - training shaping up

Trained Cade today on his jumping skills.  I had him doing beginning jumping while I sat beside the jump.  I wanted to get him to stay rounded as he jumped over and to begin to work on him learning "The bars stay up".  He did very well.  He worked with me and tried to understand what I was trying to do.  We also worked on forward sends around the jump.  He did pretty well with that also.
After jumping, we worked on his DW - 2o2o some.  He is afraid of going up the DW right now, so I worked with him to get him to climb up the dogwalk to rescue some steak up on the flat part.  It took some work and I had to pick him up to turn him around to exit.  I got a nice big plank and propped it up on the dogwalk stand and it is quite a bit lower than the DW.  he was happy to jump all over that and to run up and down.  I am going to have to work with him on something lower for a while.  He will get through this!  I'll post video later.
I have decided to try and work through skills every day to get them all in.
Monday - straight jump chute work, DW & AF
Tuesday - jumping skills with one jump
Wed - running with me (handler focus) over obstacles & running on own (obstacle focus)
Thurs - cues, stays, table work
Friday - tunnels, chutes, teeter
Sat. - weave work 2x2, crate games

I may opt to take a different day off besides Sunday, but we will see.  Hopefully this will be a great training regimen for us both.

Cade DW Training Feb. 21

I worked with Cade on his down contact on the DW today.  We are working on him running to the end of the plank and putting his feet off the DW.  I placed him up the down ramp and released him to a treat at the end.  He did fine until I tried to put him on the flat part of the DW.  He was all tensed up and afraid of the DW at that point.  I moved him back down and worked some on having him put his feet on the DW and getting him to walk up the ramp some.  As I was finishing editing the video clip, I went to check on him in the yard and he was at the top of the AFrame investigating everything below him.  Hum.  I think the DW must be a bit scary due to the fact that it is smaller maybe.  We are going to work from a board on the ground for a while along with what we are doing here. 

Cade Training Jump Chute

I worked on the jump chute with Cade today.  His first run is the best.  He was running to a ball placed at the end of the chute.  The last run through, I messed him up with my release.  Notice how he really extends on the last jump when he is getting close to the ball.  We will work this a couple of times a week.

Cade - First training on Crate Games

I started Crate Games today with Cade.  I had to wait until I had at least an hour of time to begin.  I think we did ok.  Kim and Susan, give your comments if you see something I can do better.

Stage1: open door without movement, treat high in back, build value for crate
Stage2: help Cade learn not to come out of the crate until asked to by building time with door open and movement.  Also proofing with leash
Stage3: Teach Cade to come out of the crate when given permission with release word "OK" and build value by rewarding for him going back in the crate.

We made progress and need to keep working on the release, building value and building consistency on the door opening.

I made a video after we had worked for about an hour.  The video is unedited, so you see it all.  It is a quick review of the stages.  I spared you the pain of the first hour of CG.  We are going to work other things on this beautiful Sat.

Vaccine today!!!!! Yikes

So far so good for Cade.  He did very well and passed the tests for immediate reactions.  We will now be watching and waiting for about 45 days to see how he does.  Main indications are:  endurance while training, energy level, disposition changes.

Hoping for the best, prepared if anything happens to jump on it.

Wild Ass - Jump Chute

I took Cade out to do a jump chute in the yard.  First discovery, I don't have jumps that will go to 8".  Mine go to 12" and up from there.  So I had to improvise and use jumps turned sideways and jump cups below the 12" bar.  It makes it hard to see in the video, but it is not that bad for the pup.  It actually makes a real chute to jump through.
Then I discovered that Cade had so much energy that he had been saving for the first sunny day that he was so wild I could not do much with him.  He finally settled down a little and worked with me.  My brother-in-law helped a little, but he is not used to dog training so he was mostly building drive in Cade.
This is two runs through the jump chute, the first run and the last one.  The first one, he does a really nice job with his feet.  Only problem is that I had the jumps too close together and he jumped two.  You can really see it in SloMo.  The last one I changed from going from person to person to going from me placing a toy out from the last jump and releasing him to the toy.  He could only do that after running through the jump chute several times so that he knew what I wanted.

We have a lot of work to do.  He is so wild and so fast!  Here we go.  I am hoping the weather will hold out.

First Post - Cade's Life

I am starting a blog today to document Cade's agility training and to keep up with what we are doing! Today it snowed 4 inches, so Cade got to play in the snow and run all over the yard. I worked most of the day, so that was his day. I am starting to plan for his daily training and playing because next week, it will be in the mid 60's, so we can get out and play.

I will be working these things:

running with full speed

jump chute
jump circle
jump hub
one jump - Mecklinberg

Dog Walk/ramp

wrapping poles