Naturally Jumping continues with week 3, exactly the same as the first week. I'm anxious to hurry up and move along to the problem-solving weeks, but Auggie is having fun right now and that's the point.
A few dropped bars this week and even a few popped jumps (apparently he's feelin' groovy!) as he cruises along through the week. The last jump on the third day he drops the first bar because I sent him into the chute at a very severe angle, but at this point I'm sort of playing with him and trying some different things at the start. He is still stutter-stepping up to the first jump sometimes because he hasn't truly learned how to judge the distance or feel confident in his judgment of that distance.
Showing posts with label videos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label videos. Show all posts
July 16, 2010
July 9, 2010
Return to Natural Jumping - Round 2, Week 2
Since we never truly completed the Natural Jumping program before, and now that we have Auggie in preferred where he's locked at the 12" jump height, I have gone back to Clothier's Natural Jumping program. So I went back, back, way back to week 2 (which is the first week for dogs used to jumping several jumps in a row) and started through the program like we'd never done it before.
Of course, we HAD done it before, and Auggie remembered that we did it before... so he was delighted to go back to this kind of jump training. Auggie just loves the jump chute and if I leave it up in the backyard, he'll go play and put himself through the jumps; and if the chute isn't up, he'll go stand around back there and whine and cry that there are no jumps for him to play with!
The first few days had some struggling as he sought out the rhythm again, but by the third day, he had the rhythm down and was having lots of fun flying through the chute! He still wants to run along the side of the jump rather than running and jumping in the middle of the jumps, and I still can't figure out why he does that, or how to get him to run straight through the middle. I'm still leaning towards it not being a huge problem. I guess we'll find out!
Of course, we HAD done it before, and Auggie remembered that we did it before... so he was delighted to go back to this kind of jump training. Auggie just loves the jump chute and if I leave it up in the backyard, he'll go play and put himself through the jumps; and if the chute isn't up, he'll go stand around back there and whine and cry that there are no jumps for him to play with!
The first few days had some struggling as he sought out the rhythm again, but by the third day, he had the rhythm down and was having lots of fun flying through the chute! He still wants to run along the side of the jump rather than running and jumping in the middle of the jumps, and I still can't figure out why he does that, or how to get him to run straight through the middle. I'm still leaning towards it not being a huge problem. I guess we'll find out!
April 10, 2010
Susan Salo Jumping 5
Today was our first day with the equal-distance grid with height. This means that our jumps are all still 4' apart, but a few of the jumps are actual jumps and the others are not jumps but stride regulators. I had to check my notes over and over again to make sure I had the right jumps as jumps and the right jumps as stride regulators... it just doesn't seem totally right. I think I'm going to watch the video again even though I can't figure out why or how I might have written it down wrong, so it must be right.
Anyway, we began with the jumps at 8" which is where we were last week, and the stride regulators for small dogs should be at 4". The first time through, he dropped the bar on the second jump. The second time through, he dropped the bar on the FIRST jump. So, since we're not supposed to rehearse failure, I took away one part of the equation and lowered the jumps to 6" instead. Height is supposedly the easiest part of the equation for a dog, though we believe Auggie's problem with jumping came as a direct result of not being confident about the height... either way, dropping the jumps to 6" did the trick. The only weird thing is that I've noticed he's sort of hopping the last bar as though it's a jump rather than just running straight over it. He doesn't have that problem with the first and third jumps (stride regulators) but that last one there is a little different. Obviously it doesn't seem to be a problem so much as it just struck me as odd.
Video is here:
I noticed while watching these and then watching back through my Clothier jumping videos that in the early weeks of Clothier's chutes, Auggie was still stutter-stepping a LOT. Even in the later weeks when he was successful at the first four jumps, he would stutter-step up to the fifth jump. Those chutes were set for two stride lengths and Salo's chutes are set for only one stride length. Obviously the question of distance as not as big of a question here so there's no real room for stutter-stepping. The real test will be when we enter the next grid, which is where I imagine we'll see Auggie's stutter-stepping return with a vengeance...
We won't be trying those grids for another week or so, so we'll all just have to wait and see how things develop.
Anyway, we began with the jumps at 8" which is where we were last week, and the stride regulators for small dogs should be at 4". The first time through, he dropped the bar on the second jump. The second time through, he dropped the bar on the FIRST jump. So, since we're not supposed to rehearse failure, I took away one part of the equation and lowered the jumps to 6" instead. Height is supposedly the easiest part of the equation for a dog, though we believe Auggie's problem with jumping came as a direct result of not being confident about the height... either way, dropping the jumps to 6" did the trick. The only weird thing is that I've noticed he's sort of hopping the last bar as though it's a jump rather than just running straight over it. He doesn't have that problem with the first and third jumps (stride regulators) but that last one there is a little different. Obviously it doesn't seem to be a problem so much as it just struck me as odd.
Video is here:
I noticed while watching these and then watching back through my Clothier jumping videos that in the early weeks of Clothier's chutes, Auggie was still stutter-stepping a LOT. Even in the later weeks when he was successful at the first four jumps, he would stutter-step up to the fifth jump. Those chutes were set for two stride lengths and Salo's chutes are set for only one stride length. Obviously the question of distance as not as big of a question here so there's no real room for stutter-stepping. The real test will be when we enter the next grid, which is where I imagine we'll see Auggie's stutter-stepping return with a vengeance...
We won't be trying those grids for another week or so, so we'll all just have to wait and see how things develop.
Susan Salo Jumping 4
Our fourth day. This day I had the bars at 8" the entire time, spacing at 4'. He looks really good this day and seems like he totally has a rhythm down, and is jumping nice and pretty. Not surprising, since we did so much rhythm work in the Clothier program... it's not a new concept to him at all.
Video here:
Since he's had success at 8" twice in a row, I decided to move on to the equal-distance with height grid next. The plan is to do those for a few days and if he's successful, alternate back and forth between the equal-distance grid and the equal-distance grid with height.
Video here:
Since he's had success at 8" twice in a row, I decided to move on to the equal-distance with height grid next. The plan is to do those for a few days and if he's successful, alternate back and forth between the equal-distance grid and the equal-distance grid with height.
March 29, 2010
Susan Salo Jumping 2
So the plan today was to set the bars at 4" and see what he did. The very first attempt, he took an extra stride on the third jump again. I took a good look at the jumps and thought, okay... maybe 5' distances is too much for him to bounce. The DVD was pretty clear that you shouldn't practice failure so I had to change something else besides the height in order for Auggie to succeed.
The difficulty here is that I have no idea if Auggie should be considered a "small dog" or a "medium dog." I don't consider him a small dog - I think he's medium. But that's MY scale. For the program, small dogs had distances of 4' to 5', and for medium dogs 5' to 6'. So I thought I'd be safe settling at 5' - right there on the cusp of small and medium. But obviously that wasn't working out for Auggie.
So I took a shot and moved the distances to 4'. And ta-da! Lovely bounces.
Looking back at Clothier's Natural Jumping book (which has you measure your dog's height and body length, determine their body proportions, and then look on a chart to determine distances for bounces, 1-stride, and 2-stride lengths) Auggie's calculated bounce distance there was 30". I guess I should have looked at that earlier; I would have realized that 5', or 60", was not appropriate.
So Auggie must be a "small dog" for Susan Salo's program. Which is sort of confusing, because in the DVD Susan works her JRT, and says his jump height is 12" (Auggie's height) but yet she runs him at the 5' distances. Or maybe we should be able to, and should try to, work UP to 5' bounce distances?
I really don't know what I'm supposed to do here. It was much easier to have a chart rather than trying to blindly dump him into a category of "small" or "medium." Again, I feel like I've been given a box of tools, but I'm supposed to go build a house now without really knowing how to use any of them.
So I'll just hope for the best, I guess. So much for measure twice, cut once.
Video here:
The difficulty here is that I have no idea if Auggie should be considered a "small dog" or a "medium dog." I don't consider him a small dog - I think he's medium. But that's MY scale. For the program, small dogs had distances of 4' to 5', and for medium dogs 5' to 6'. So I thought I'd be safe settling at 5' - right there on the cusp of small and medium. But obviously that wasn't working out for Auggie.
So I took a shot and moved the distances to 4'. And ta-da! Lovely bounces.
Looking back at Clothier's Natural Jumping book (which has you measure your dog's height and body length, determine their body proportions, and then look on a chart to determine distances for bounces, 1-stride, and 2-stride lengths) Auggie's calculated bounce distance there was 30". I guess I should have looked at that earlier; I would have realized that 5', or 60", was not appropriate.
So Auggie must be a "small dog" for Susan Salo's program. Which is sort of confusing, because in the DVD Susan works her JRT, and says his jump height is 12" (Auggie's height) but yet she runs him at the 5' distances. Or maybe we should be able to, and should try to, work UP to 5' bounce distances?
I really don't know what I'm supposed to do here. It was much easier to have a chart rather than trying to blindly dump him into a category of "small" or "medium." Again, I feel like I've been given a box of tools, but I'm supposed to go build a house now without really knowing how to use any of them.
So I'll just hope for the best, I guess. So much for measure twice, cut once.
Video here:
March 27, 2010
Susan Salo Jumping 1
I haven't totally abandoned all thought of the Natural Jumping program, but I got both the beginning and advanced jumping DVD's by Susan Salo for Christmas. So right now I'm learning another method and exploring it. So far I can say that the Natural Jumping program is a very clear regiment of "do this on this day; do this on that day," and so on and so forth. Susan Salo gives you the tools for your toolbox and you are sort of left to decide which tool you should use when. The disadvantage of this is that somebody who doesn't know (like me) could easily end up using the screwdriver when they should still be drilling holes.
Obviously there are probably people who would prefer just being given the tools and left to their own devices; personally I liked being able to look at the book and know exactly what to work on with my dog and which point. My plan is to actually try and write up a schedule for myself to try to keep us on track.
Today is the first day I have begun to put into practice training with Susan Salo's methods (not counting the set-point exercises I've been doing since last week and do not have video of.) Today I set up a straight line equal distance grid and worked Auggie through it a few times. It consists of five jumps, set 5' apart, with the bars at 8". It went... well... it went I guess.
Here's video:
Watching these, I think I'm setting him up way too close to the jump. He's supposed to take one step and then jump... I'm setting him up so close that he's basically popping out of his sit and over the jump. Ouch. So that is my fault. I'm pretty sure his one-stride on the second and third runs there is a result of that. Not really sure what happened towards the end there where he strides on jump three.
I took a LOT of notes while watching the Beginning Jumping DVD and I need to go back to them to remind myself about troubleshooting and see what I might do here. I think the first thing to do is to drop the bars down to 4" and work him for a few days at that height... see how he reacts.
Obviously Auggie has major jumping problems and it's going to take a ton of work to help him one way or another.
I will say that Auggie was REALLY EXCITED to see a jump chute set up again. He kept blowing his sit-stays because he was so super excited to get through these. I don't know. It's weird. His confidence isn't 100% even in the jump chutes but he seems to LOVE jumping. My mom would tell me about times last year when he would go to the back of the yard where I set up the jump chutes and he'd pace around crying and whining at her, because he wanted her to set up the chute so he could go work it.
Obviously there are probably people who would prefer just being given the tools and left to their own devices; personally I liked being able to look at the book and know exactly what to work on with my dog and which point. My plan is to actually try and write up a schedule for myself to try to keep us on track.
Today is the first day I have begun to put into practice training with Susan Salo's methods (not counting the set-point exercises I've been doing since last week and do not have video of.) Today I set up a straight line equal distance grid and worked Auggie through it a few times. It consists of five jumps, set 5' apart, with the bars at 8". It went... well... it went I guess.
Here's video:
Watching these, I think I'm setting him up way too close to the jump. He's supposed to take one step and then jump... I'm setting him up so close that he's basically popping out of his sit and over the jump. Ouch. So that is my fault. I'm pretty sure his one-stride on the second and third runs there is a result of that. Not really sure what happened towards the end there where he strides on jump three.
I took a LOT of notes while watching the Beginning Jumping DVD and I need to go back to them to remind myself about troubleshooting and see what I might do here. I think the first thing to do is to drop the bars down to 4" and work him for a few days at that height... see how he reacts.
Obviously Auggie has major jumping problems and it's going to take a ton of work to help him one way or another.
I will say that Auggie was REALLY EXCITED to see a jump chute set up again. He kept blowing his sit-stays because he was so super excited to get through these. I don't know. It's weird. His confidence isn't 100% even in the jump chutes but he seems to LOVE jumping. My mom would tell me about times last year when he would go to the back of the yard where I set up the jump chutes and he'd pace around crying and whining at her, because he wanted her to set up the chute so he could go work it.
January 26, 2010
Natural Jumping Method - Week 10
Week 10 is the beginning of the Problem Solving stage of the jumping program. This stage introduces one stride lengths, bounce distances, long and short strides, and higher verticals and bigger oxers throughout the different weeks. This is where a dog really starts to learn to look ahead and THINK about what is ahead of him rather than just rely on muscle memory to jump the same way every time. During the problem solving weeks, the setup changes each lesson whereas previously all three lessons in a week were the same. However, Clothier doesn't want you to move on until a dog has basically mastered each lesson. Some dogs might need additional practice rather than just one day/series of six jumps to master a lesson. Auggie needed more practice on lesson 3 in this series... unfortunately, I forgot and moved on to week 11 without really allowing him to master that lesson.
This video shows lesson one, lesson two, and lesson three of week 10. The patterns are different every day and can be found in the book. Week 10 is about teaching one stride lengths, which for Auggie is 45 inches. You'll see there are still oxers and verticals mixed in, and that jump distances change between two stride lengths and one stride lengths.
As you can see, day three (I should have changed my terminology to lesson three - sorry) is a hot mess more than once. The good news is that Auggie seems to be getting a real kick out of the jumping program anyway, even though the distances between jumps keep changing! And having fun is what it's all about.
This video shows lesson one, lesson two, and lesson three of week 10. The patterns are different every day and can be found in the book. Week 10 is about teaching one stride lengths, which for Auggie is 45 inches. You'll see there are still oxers and verticals mixed in, and that jump distances change between two stride lengths and one stride lengths.
As you can see, day three (I should have changed my terminology to lesson three - sorry) is a hot mess more than once. The good news is that Auggie seems to be getting a real kick out of the jumping program anyway, even though the distances between jumps keep changing! And having fun is what it's all about.
Natural Jumping Method - Week 9
So week 9 is five oxers. No more single bar jumps... every jump in the chute is an oxer.
He does really well navigating smoothly over all five oxers, getting a nice arc over them. Unfortunately he also keeps up with that pattern of stutter-stepping the last jump a majority of the time. Still not sure why he does that. I experimented some with putting a target after the last jump, hoping it might drive him over the jump and remove that stutter-step... didn't work. So I'm still not sure on the "why" of how he reacts with that final jump.
He does really well navigating smoothly over all five oxers, getting a nice arc over them. Unfortunately he also keeps up with that pattern of stutter-stepping the last jump a majority of the time. Still not sure why he does that. I experimented some with putting a target after the last jump, hoping it might drive him over the jump and remove that stutter-step... didn't work. So I'm still not sure on the "why" of how he reacts with that final jump.
April 20, 2009
Natural Jumping Method - Week 8
For week 8, we move up to four oxers. The pattern is vertical, oxer, oxer, oxer, oxer. Jump heights are still set at 10 inches and distances are still 90 inches for Auggie's two-stride length per the calculations in the book.
He learns a lot faster in this video than he has in previous weeks. By the last jump in day 1 he's running smooth and fast - save the last jump, which he still stuttersteps up to. On day 2 he drops a few bars, but notably, during jump 5 he actually doesn't stutterstep up to the last jump! I have no idea what the difference is, because he goes back to doing it in the next jump and during all of day 3. WEIRD DOG.
Hopefully time will even out the issue here. I'm the kind of person who likes to know the "why" behind stuff though so I'd really like to know WHY he is still stutterstepping the final jump and only the final jump. I may never know, but I would LIKE to know, haha.
He learns a lot faster in this video than he has in previous weeks. By the last jump in day 1 he's running smooth and fast - save the last jump, which he still stuttersteps up to. On day 2 he drops a few bars, but notably, during jump 5 he actually doesn't stutterstep up to the last jump! I have no idea what the difference is, because he goes back to doing it in the next jump and during all of day 3. WEIRD DOG.
Hopefully time will even out the issue here. I'm the kind of person who likes to know the "why" behind stuff though so I'd really like to know WHY he is still stutterstepping the final jump and only the final jump. I may never know, but I would LIKE to know, haha.
April 8, 2009
Natural Jumping Method - Weeks 7
Week 7 is a series of five jumps with three oxers. The pattern is vertical, oxer, oxer, vertical, oxer.
LOTS of stutter-stepping as he tries to navigate this series. About halfway through day 2 he starts to even out as he figures out how to adjust, though during his fifth run he ends up stutterstepping WAY too close up to the bar and has to pop up over it... and if you pause it at just the right moment he's making a hilarious face as a result. Day 3 goes pretty well, but I notice that he's consistently stutterstepping up the last bar. I'm not really sure why that is - if it's a matter of him not seeing another obstacle beyond the final jump, so he makes some kind of weird adjustment for some reason? I honestly can't figure out why he would do this. It's interesting, anyway.
LOTS of stutter-stepping as he tries to navigate this series. About halfway through day 2 he starts to even out as he figures out how to adjust, though during his fifth run he ends up stutterstepping WAY too close up to the bar and has to pop up over it... and if you pause it at just the right moment he's making a hilarious face as a result. Day 3 goes pretty well, but I notice that he's consistently stutterstepping up the last bar. I'm not really sure why that is - if it's a matter of him not seeing another obstacle beyond the final jump, so he makes some kind of weird adjustment for some reason? I honestly can't figure out why he would do this. It's interesting, anyway.
March 21, 2009
Natural Jumping Method - Week 6
In week 6, you add another oxer. The pattern is jump, jump, oxer, jump, oxer. Since I had the pattern as jump, jump, oxer, jump, jump during week 5, I simple added my second oxer to the end of the chute. Hopefully that means my pattern during week 5 was correct!
Hey, check it out! My new fencing is up!
Let me explain exactly what is occurring during day one - the jumps are secondary to the other lesson that is going on here. Earlier that day, I learned some bad news and ended up having an anxiety attack (in the middle of work, to boot!) I came home that evening practically in pieces, stressed out, not sure how to deal with the situation I'd been handed.
I didn't think about this when we went out to do our jumps.
Auggie completely and totally picked up on me being an emotional mess, and did not want to disconnect and go jump out away from me. I had to make a change in my emotional state to get him to go ahead (it helped that it was pretty funny that he pulled off the jumps like that to come back to me...) Clothier has you do two sets of three jumps with a fifteen minute break in the middle, so after the first three jumps and out break, I basically had to pull myself together and knock it off, or it was going to affect my dog and his performance.
This video really shows something about the relationship we have with our dogs, and how they can pick up on things and it changes their demeanor, their performance. Imagine if this were at an agility trial and we were working on a full course instead of just through a jump chute... he would NOT have been a happy Auggie if I were trying to put any kind of distance between us!
I ran out of SD card space on day 3 again so another clip is missing. During day 2 and 3, we have what looks like a serious setback here, because Auggie's back to stutterstepping - a LOT. But at this point in my working relationship with Auggie, I know what's going on here: the rules have changed so he has to figure it out again, and when the rules change, Auggie decides it's better to resort to stutterstepping. That's how we got to this problem in the first place.
I'm running with him or constantly moving in just about all of these runs because I'm watching his footing really closely. If you watch the day 2 video, you can see how his jumping changes even within the one video, within six runs. It's kind of impressive, but again, I'm really hoping this is just a part of the learning process rather than being something where he's not going to actually have confidence when it actually comes to an agility course where all you have is one shot to get it right. This is only week 6, we still have lots to learn, so no sense worrying about it yet.
(Oh yeah, and check out all my newly striped jumps in the day 3 video! I spent all Saturday afternoon with several rolls of multi-coloured tape, striping my standards and jump bars.)
Week 7 is three oxers. Ai yi!
Hey, check it out! My new fencing is up!
Let me explain exactly what is occurring during day one - the jumps are secondary to the other lesson that is going on here. Earlier that day, I learned some bad news and ended up having an anxiety attack (in the middle of work, to boot!) I came home that evening practically in pieces, stressed out, not sure how to deal with the situation I'd been handed.
I didn't think about this when we went out to do our jumps.
Auggie completely and totally picked up on me being an emotional mess, and did not want to disconnect and go jump out away from me. I had to make a change in my emotional state to get him to go ahead (it helped that it was pretty funny that he pulled off the jumps like that to come back to me...) Clothier has you do two sets of three jumps with a fifteen minute break in the middle, so after the first three jumps and out break, I basically had to pull myself together and knock it off, or it was going to affect my dog and his performance.
This video really shows something about the relationship we have with our dogs, and how they can pick up on things and it changes their demeanor, their performance. Imagine if this were at an agility trial and we were working on a full course instead of just through a jump chute... he would NOT have been a happy Auggie if I were trying to put any kind of distance between us!
I ran out of SD card space on day 3 again so another clip is missing. During day 2 and 3, we have what looks like a serious setback here, because Auggie's back to stutterstepping - a LOT. But at this point in my working relationship with Auggie, I know what's going on here: the rules have changed so he has to figure it out again, and when the rules change, Auggie decides it's better to resort to stutterstepping. That's how we got to this problem in the first place.
I'm running with him or constantly moving in just about all of these runs because I'm watching his footing really closely. If you watch the day 2 video, you can see how his jumping changes even within the one video, within six runs. It's kind of impressive, but again, I'm really hoping this is just a part of the learning process rather than being something where he's not going to actually have confidence when it actually comes to an agility course where all you have is one shot to get it right. This is only week 6, we still have lots to learn, so no sense worrying about it yet.
(Oh yeah, and check out all my newly striped jumps in the day 3 video! I spent all Saturday afternoon with several rolls of multi-coloured tape, striping my standards and jump bars.)
Week 7 is three oxers. Ai yi!
March 14, 2009
Naturally Jumping Method - Week 5
Week 5 is the first week with oxers. An oxer is as wide as it is tall - in Auggie's case, since we are still using 10 inch jump heights, this means I have two 10 inch jumps that span 10 inches. The book doesn't tell you where to put the first oxer, so I guessed and put it as the third jump. All of the jumps are still spaced 90 inches apart; in this instance, jump 2 is 90 inches to the first bar for jump 3, there's the 10 inch spacing between jump 3's bars, and then from the second bar of jump 3 to jump 4 it's another 90 inches. For the oxer stage of the program, that 90 inch spacing will stay constant.
It's a bit hard for him to nagivate that oxer at first. I started putting our broad jump/spread jump word to it ("big jump") after the first crash into it and he did better after that. This might be cheating because it requires me to be there cueing him to adjust for a larger jump, so he's not really learning to look at the jump and just adjust on his own. But it makes sense for agility to me - competitors I know all use a word like "big jump" or "go big" for spread jumps, doubles, and triples to cue the dog "There's a longer than usual jump coming up - adjust!"
During the second day, he crashes into the oxer the first time, but on jumps 2-6 he doesn't make the same mistake again.
I don't have day 3 videos because I screwed up with the camera. As the video says, the day went pretty much the same as the other two videos here, though.
It's a bit hard for him to nagivate that oxer at first. I started putting our broad jump/spread jump word to it ("big jump") after the first crash into it and he did better after that. This might be cheating because it requires me to be there cueing him to adjust for a larger jump, so he's not really learning to look at the jump and just adjust on his own. But it makes sense for agility to me - competitors I know all use a word like "big jump" or "go big" for spread jumps, doubles, and triples to cue the dog "There's a longer than usual jump coming up - adjust!"
During the second day, he crashes into the oxer the first time, but on jumps 2-6 he doesn't make the same mistake again.
I don't have day 3 videos because I screwed up with the camera. As the video says, the day went pretty much the same as the other two videos here, though.
March 9, 2009
Naturally Jumping Method - Week 4
Week 4 went pretty good! Moving the jump heights up to 10 inches didn't seem to throw Auggie off much at all, so I'm glad. All of the jumps are still set at 90 inches apart.
During day 1, I ran with him on all of the jumps. Every now and then he does knock a bar... but Clothier says not to worry about dropped bars. She says it is a natural part of the process of re-learning how to jump and that every time they knock a bar it helps them think stuff over. I'm not sure why I don't have all 6 jumps recorded - I must have had another issue with my memory card.
Day 2 was REALLY windy - apologies for my camera wrist strap blowing into the shot during one jump! I was worried the wind might throw Auggie off a little, but he did fine.
For day three... there is a reason I only have five jumps shown here and it's not a memory card problem. But I'll talk about the video itself first! My mom was operating the camera and she made a few observations. Auggie still stutter-steps up to the very first jump before he gets into the rhythm of the last four jumps. The first jump is the bar he usually knocks, as well - probably because of the inefficient jumping.
I tried a few other things with these jumps, including sending him ahead (wasn't sure if he'd do that, but he did!) and standing right at the end to call him through. Usually when I call him through I'm standing back several feet and sometimes even run backwards as he approaches to build up his drive, so that was a little different for him - but he's pretty much unphased by it, which is great!
Another thing I've been noticing is that he hugs the standard pretty tight. Clothier wants the dogs to run and jump in the middle of the jump, but because Auggie has done agility training for so long he has learned how to hug the standards and try to make things a little more efficient when it comes to turning, crossing, and so on. When I run with him or am behind him, he always takes the last jump right over the middle because he's in the process of turning to me - if I'm right ahead of him, he doesn't make that change and stays to the side, hugging the standard. I'm not exactly sure if I should be concerned with this or not. My instinct is to not be worried about it...
NOW... why there are only five jumps shown in the third day. My mom was working the camera for me that day because it was raining - just a light drizzle, but still raining, so I asked her if she would come out and stand over the camera with an umbrella so my camera wouldn't get wet.
Right before we did our sixth jump, it started POURING down rain. I'm standing there going "Oh holy crap - hurry Auggie, hurry, go through the jumps!" I'm flailing around with training treats in my hand, trying to get him back into the channel to run through the chute, and for a split second Auggie stands there, tries to blink the rain out of his eyes... gives me a Look, and proceeds to run back to the house - leaving me standing out in the pouring (did I mention it was COLD RAIN?!) rain, yelling "YOU GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE BRAT AND DO THOSE JUMPS!!!"
Thus, there are only five jumps in the video... because Auggie was standing up on the deck wanting to go inside and refused to come out and jump one last time.
Here, have a picture of my dog, after I came in and toweled off my hair and had to change my clothes because I was soaked through.
Look how proud he is of himself. Brat brat brat BRAT! He later asked to go outside, and when I opened the door and informed him it was still raining, he proceeded to go out in the still pouring rain and prance around going "La la la, I'm playing in the rain, la la la~" BRAAAAAAT!
Oh yeah - I bought a ton of PVC and spent a good portion of Saturday afternoon in the garage, listening to it thunderstorm outside and cutting pipes down. The two jumps at the beginning are my "Junior AKC" jumps from Toys R Us, and are now four feet wide, so they match the rest of my jumps (finally!) and I am now all set to add additional bar jumps to create an oxer for the coming weeks of the jumping series. I need to break out my coloured tape and start striping stuff again!
Sadly, it is quite cold again today. The beautiful spring weather has been replaced by... well, icky spring weather.
During day 1, I ran with him on all of the jumps. Every now and then he does knock a bar... but Clothier says not to worry about dropped bars. She says it is a natural part of the process of re-learning how to jump and that every time they knock a bar it helps them think stuff over. I'm not sure why I don't have all 6 jumps recorded - I must have had another issue with my memory card.
Day 2 was REALLY windy - apologies for my camera wrist strap blowing into the shot during one jump! I was worried the wind might throw Auggie off a little, but he did fine.
For day three... there is a reason I only have five jumps shown here and it's not a memory card problem. But I'll talk about the video itself first! My mom was operating the camera and she made a few observations. Auggie still stutter-steps up to the very first jump before he gets into the rhythm of the last four jumps. The first jump is the bar he usually knocks, as well - probably because of the inefficient jumping.
I tried a few other things with these jumps, including sending him ahead (wasn't sure if he'd do that, but he did!) and standing right at the end to call him through. Usually when I call him through I'm standing back several feet and sometimes even run backwards as he approaches to build up his drive, so that was a little different for him - but he's pretty much unphased by it, which is great!
Another thing I've been noticing is that he hugs the standard pretty tight. Clothier wants the dogs to run and jump in the middle of the jump, but because Auggie has done agility training for so long he has learned how to hug the standards and try to make things a little more efficient when it comes to turning, crossing, and so on. When I run with him or am behind him, he always takes the last jump right over the middle because he's in the process of turning to me - if I'm right ahead of him, he doesn't make that change and stays to the side, hugging the standard. I'm not exactly sure if I should be concerned with this or not. My instinct is to not be worried about it...
NOW... why there are only five jumps shown in the third day. My mom was working the camera for me that day because it was raining - just a light drizzle, but still raining, so I asked her if she would come out and stand over the camera with an umbrella so my camera wouldn't get wet.
Right before we did our sixth jump, it started POURING down rain. I'm standing there going "Oh holy crap - hurry Auggie, hurry, go through the jumps!" I'm flailing around with training treats in my hand, trying to get him back into the channel to run through the chute, and for a split second Auggie stands there, tries to blink the rain out of his eyes... gives me a Look, and proceeds to run back to the house - leaving me standing out in the pouring (did I mention it was COLD RAIN?!) rain, yelling "YOU GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE BRAT AND DO THOSE JUMPS!!!"
Thus, there are only five jumps in the video... because Auggie was standing up on the deck wanting to go inside and refused to come out and jump one last time.
Here, have a picture of my dog, after I came in and toweled off my hair and had to change my clothes because I was soaked through.
Look how proud he is of himself. Brat brat brat BRAT! He later asked to go outside, and when I opened the door and informed him it was still raining, he proceeded to go out in the still pouring rain and prance around going "La la la, I'm playing in the rain, la la la~" BRAAAAAAT!
Oh yeah - I bought a ton of PVC and spent a good portion of Saturday afternoon in the garage, listening to it thunderstorm outside and cutting pipes down. The two jumps at the beginning are my "Junior AKC" jumps from Toys R Us, and are now four feet wide, so they match the rest of my jumps (finally!) and I am now all set to add additional bar jumps to create an oxer for the coming weeks of the jumping series. I need to break out my coloured tape and start striping stuff again!
Sadly, it is quite cold again today. The beautiful spring weather has been replaced by... well, icky spring weather.
March 1, 2009
Naturally Jumping Method - Week 3
We're into week 3 now, which leaves the jump heights the same, so we're still at 8 inch jump heights.
He does VERY well the first day! Jump 5 is gorgeous! I'm starting to see real improvement. During day 2, I realized I forgot to put my memory card in, so I didn't catch every jump we did. I also decided to try running with him to see what that did... I'm running funny because I'm in my snow boots and they aren't exactly the best thing to run in, so it seemed to throw him off just slightly at the beginning. Then he kind of decided to ignore me and focus on the jump, and he did a lot better! During day 3, I started just running with him to watch his strides more than really running to run with him, so I'm getting a really good look at just how his strides are. Runs 5 and 6 are really great!
During Week 4, we will move the jump heights up. My jump cups for the two jumps I built (the final two you see in the chute) only go every two inches, so I'm going to have to move up to 10 inches instead of gradually moving to 9, then 10... I hope it's not going to throw things off too much.
Next week is also the final week in our 8-week long agility classes, and I think I will stop for just a bit... give Auggie a few weeks to work on his jumping and nothing else. Once he starts to improve and the weather warms up, we'll pick up again, probably going to private lessons back out at his breeder's place! Gotta work on those contacts, too.
He does VERY well the first day! Jump 5 is gorgeous! I'm starting to see real improvement. During day 2, I realized I forgot to put my memory card in, so I didn't catch every jump we did. I also decided to try running with him to see what that did... I'm running funny because I'm in my snow boots and they aren't exactly the best thing to run in, so it seemed to throw him off just slightly at the beginning. Then he kind of decided to ignore me and focus on the jump, and he did a lot better! During day 3, I started just running with him to watch his strides more than really running to run with him, so I'm getting a really good look at just how his strides are. Runs 5 and 6 are really great!
During Week 4, we will move the jump heights up. My jump cups for the two jumps I built (the final two you see in the chute) only go every two inches, so I'm going to have to move up to 10 inches instead of gradually moving to 9, then 10... I hope it's not going to throw things off too much.
Next week is also the final week in our 8-week long agility classes, and I think I will stop for just a bit... give Auggie a few weeks to work on his jumping and nothing else. Once he starts to improve and the weather warms up, we'll pick up again, probably going to private lessons back out at his breeder's place! Gotta work on those contacts, too.
February 16, 2009
Natural Jumping Method - Round 1
I meant to start last week but things kept coming up. So as of yesterday we are in week 2. Week 1 is getting dogs used to jumps/jumping multiple jumps; Clothier gives people who have dogs used to that sort of thing, IE flyball, permission to go straight to week 2. We don't do flyball but Auggie IS used to jumping a ton of jumps in a row, so I went ahead and skipped to week 2.
Please forgive my very ghetto jump chute... I am in the process of trying to decide on some kind of fencing to build the other side, and until then I'm using my two ex-pens and the plastic playpen I've had since Auggie was a wee puppy. Also please forgive some of the camera angles... I know it's hard to see a lot of the jumps. I was still trying to figure out the best way to shoot the videos.
Some details: per the measurements and formula in the book, our distance between jumps is 90 inches. I had a lot of trouble deciding on what height to start working at, and ultimately I decided to start at 10 inches (Auggie normally jumps 12), and if it seemed that was too high to move down to 8. The jump heights were all set at 10 inches during day 1. During day 2, I went ahead and moved the jump heights down to 8 inches after the third jump. They will remain at 8 inches for a while.
During day one, he basically stutter-steps the ENTIRE length of the chute. I apologize for not having all six jumps filmed, but my mom was helping me and by "helping" I mean she was putting her terrible camerawork to use. Only four of the videos she shot were any good, so those are the four jumps I show.
By the sixth jump on day 2, he actually appears to run the length between the jumps (it's supposed to be two stride lengths) instead of stutter-stepping the entire length between jumps. He's still not taking normal stride-lengths; he still stutter-stepped just about the whole length of the chute. But he is smoothing out a little.
Day 3 gives us some better results and he really begins to smooth out more. There were multiple times that I could count the two strides between jumps. Day three was encouraging to start seeing progress already!
Please forgive my very ghetto jump chute... I am in the process of trying to decide on some kind of fencing to build the other side, and until then I'm using my two ex-pens and the plastic playpen I've had since Auggie was a wee puppy. Also please forgive some of the camera angles... I know it's hard to see a lot of the jumps. I was still trying to figure out the best way to shoot the videos.
Some details: per the measurements and formula in the book, our distance between jumps is 90 inches. I had a lot of trouble deciding on what height to start working at, and ultimately I decided to start at 10 inches (Auggie normally jumps 12), and if it seemed that was too high to move down to 8. The jump heights were all set at 10 inches during day 1. During day 2, I went ahead and moved the jump heights down to 8 inches after the third jump. They will remain at 8 inches for a while.
During day one, he basically stutter-steps the ENTIRE length of the chute. I apologize for not having all six jumps filmed, but my mom was helping me and by "helping" I mean she was putting her terrible camerawork to use. Only four of the videos she shot were any good, so those are the four jumps I show.
By the sixth jump on day 2, he actually appears to run the length between the jumps (it's supposed to be two stride lengths) instead of stutter-stepping the entire length between jumps. He's still not taking normal stride-lengths; he still stutter-stepped just about the whole length of the chute. But he is smoothing out a little.
Day 3 gives us some better results and he really begins to smooth out more. There were multiple times that I could count the two strides between jumps. Day three was encouraging to start seeing progress already!
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