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.
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 17, 2010
Susan Salo Jumping 6
Today we did the straight-line equal distance grid with height again. Halfway through I raised height on one of the jumps... then the other. With two jumps at full height he tapped the bar on the first jump once, then stutter-stepped the second jump. I did it again to see if it was a fluke or if I did too much too quickly, and the second time through he did great! No tapping the bar, no stutter-stepping, just a nice stride and fluid, even jumps.
So we're up to 8" jump heights on our two 'jumps!'
So we're up to 8" jump heights on our two 'jumps!'
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 31, 2010
Susan Salo Jumping 3
No video today; my camera had some kind of error... I'm not sure what because I was working Auggie right before leaving for work so I was sort of in a hurry and didn't realize there was an error message until I'd already turned the camera off and cleared the message. Oops!
Anyway, for the first two runs I kept the bars at 4", and then, since he was jumping nice and smooth still and bouncing the strides, I put them up to 8". He continued to bounce each jump smooth for the next three runs. For lack of any other idea of what to do (like stretching out his bounce to 5') I've decided I'll do this exercise two more days, and if he continues to succeed, I'll begin with the straight-line equal-distance grid with height.
My plan is to see if he succeeds there, and if he does, do that exercise for a couple sessions, then alternate between the two grids for 3-4 sessions until moving on to adding the distance grid into our arsenal. No idea if I'm moving too fast or too slow or if you can do a couple grids a day or what, but we'll make it up as we go along.
Anyway, for the first two runs I kept the bars at 4", and then, since he was jumping nice and smooth still and bouncing the strides, I put them up to 8". He continued to bounce each jump smooth for the next three runs. For lack of any other idea of what to do (like stretching out his bounce to 5') I've decided I'll do this exercise two more days, and if he continues to succeed, I'll begin with the straight-line equal-distance grid with height.
My plan is to see if he succeeds there, and if he does, do that exercise for a couple sessions, then alternate between the two grids for 3-4 sessions until moving on to adding the distance grid into our arsenal. No idea if I'm moving too fast or too slow or if you can do a couple grids a day or what, but we'll make it up as we go along.
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.
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