OB4 coming together!

New years is getting closer and weather can be very chilly in Finland. So we must train every time it's not too cold. In Mikkeli we don't have warm agility arena. This Friday we head to do some OB. Pixie trained guided retrieve. She done basic work with mark. She has gone round the mark and I have rewarded her, while the dumbbells where on their place.  Then I put her on the marker and send for retrieves to 3 m from maker line. After that I did some with sending to marker. Here is little figure I made how we train. It's made with CLCD3 so jumps are dumbbells and table is marker. 

We also did some heal work with sit, down and standing. Pixie had little lost with standing, but she figure it out after some reminding with clicker work. Mirror was a huge help. With it I can better concentrate on the dogs behavior without looking at it and so on. Pixie did all the moves fast and straight. So that's coming together and so is distance control. We made some from 15 m and it went so well!!!!

Louise did some heal work with sit down and standing. Her problem was speed in standing. Yet again mirror was my best friend! We got some nice repeats with ball reward. Louise also did some distance control. First I really had some trouble to make her start from one command. After few tries Louise made to perfect sets. All together this evening training was just amazing!!

This morning we went to do some agility training and we did some course activity. I had really bad. One of those I shouldn't be training at all. Dogs were just perfect. I lost my temper unnecessary few time ( I have hard time to except failure). I hate to do bad at handling... Dogs were just perfect!! :D So shame on me...
But here's the exercise we did:

Our goal was to train handling after high speed sequence and also do some work with A-frame with Pixie. The surprise was the hard time in long jump. I have tough both dogs do long jump from behind... But I find out that we had new issues to train. Louise had also problem with wave pole entry. We did 10 and 11 to wave pole with rear crosses that might have been little issues for my perro. Pixie had most difficulty with 7-8-9. She kept going to tunnel. I had handle this area pretty " rough" to make Pixie stay in my handling.

In the end both dogs did it pretty well. Pixie also made some nice running A-frames. In the end Louise did nice entries to wave pole and got the idea in the long jump 17-18-19. I had admit that in the end of year my physical training has not that good and it really showed today. I really need to get back to my training program. I can't fail my dogs on agility course.

That's for now...

All the best to you all and happy new year 2013!!!!
Marianne, Louise and Pixie

Christmass training

Finland had shown its best features, -27 C for almost a week. In Mikkeli we don't have warm agility arena so winter really sucks. Oh well we got nice little brake. But on Tuesday before Christmass we had ob training even though it was -19C outside. Pixie and Louise did some heal work with some distractions. Louise was just perfect but Pixie got fooled few times. I had friend yelling commands and luring the dogs with toys. We also did some ob game where other gave missions. We had the hole arena full retrieve objects, "square", jump and mark objects. It was just a big blast even though it didn't always go as planned.

On Christmass eve I did agility work. Pixie worked on running A-frame and Louise worked on with wavepole enteries. Pixie pretty wild so did some very basic repeats. I only changed positions and rewarded nice A-frames. Louise had some trouble taking the right enterance in when was on the otherside of the wave poles. She just kept coming towards me and didn't think about the obstacle. After few changes Louise got a hang of it.   need some work on that area.

On Christmass day we did some contact training. Louise was just perfect! Pixie did some A-frame work with wall and wavepoles. Pixie was so good that I got some training with blind crosses with A-frame. I rewarded her on the ground after blind crosses to prevent her starting to fly again from A-frame. So we had really nice agilitytraining!

We also did some OB4 level "square" work and guided retrieve. Louise and Pixie were just brilliant. Both needed some rewarding on mark object but sending to distance and stop was just perfect. Pixie did some direction work on guided retrieve. I had her standing on mark object and send her to retrieve object that were on the same level as sign. She got it really fast so I could do last repeat that retrieve objects where 3 m from mark object line. Some work before it's ready for competition but we are getting closer!!

That's all for now!
Marianne, Louise and Pixie

A-frame work and tik-cap turning

Last day of vacation so had to do some agility. In the morning I went to do some running A-frame work. Pixie has started to make pretty flying A-frames so I had to do some adjusting to her foot work. I started to be more specific about 4 paws hitting the contact zone and I stopped to use speed pumps. After few tries Pixie got the idea. Today I trained A-frame between two jumps and got some speed to the work. She did really nice repeats so had very shorts training. 100 % success!! 

With Louise I did some obedience work with recall and sit-down-stand. Recall work was just amazing! I used toy change as drive builder. Louise did the best stop she has ever done!! With going down during recall she was bit slow so I did some repeats from standing. Working with one piece at the time makes it more efficient and I get to reward her from a specific part of the recall.

In the evening we made some course work with A-frame. Yet again Pixie started to fly but with unrewarded rounds she got the idea of doing it properly. In the end she made very nice runs on the course and we also worked on with tik-cap turnings. I'm still too slow to use them correctly but we are getting there!

Louise was just a perfect on the course!! She so nice agility dog. So sad to give up her one day to retirement days. 

Here's our training sequence:

Marianne, Louise and Pixie

ID-tracking

Can there be more fascinating than watch dogs do tracking job? Tail waiving and all the focus on the ground. Just something that our dogs where built to do. Pixie and Louise have both made forest and field tracking. It was very interesting to learn about ID-tracking. Major difference is that dog must follow a specific scent. Scent discrimination is also used for example finding bombs and solving crimes.

So we went to get some basic skills from Saara. Pixie started task by learning how smell from a glass jar. Idea is to give scent example for dog to smell from glass jar and she must find the pair from jar line. First the dog has to learn a mechanical skills of smelling from glass jar and then to work on scent jar line. Basic skills are teach with empty jars just learn environment.

Then we introduced neutral smell (steril cloth piece) to Pixie and she had to mark it from the one jar. Idea was teach her work with jars that had something in them. Next phase was to put neutral scet jar on the line with empty jar, so Pixie had to first time find the pair. First rewards where given to her from the good smell of the right one. From this on I just have make task harder and introduce more scents on the line.

It was just brilliant to see how much Pixie's brain just burned from the work. It was really fun to do. Now I just keep making it harder and use scented samples. So don't worry if collect cloth pieces to glass jar from you... I'm teaching Pixie find especial you if needed :D I hope to make this scent discrimination work during winter so that I can teach to tracking part in the spring. So cool to learn something new!! I think both my dogs will just love this job! :D :D

Marianne, Louise and Pixie

Training idea

I have thought always how to make perfect training session. I just read from new Canis-magazine article about it and I have really similar thought. The major problem is really to keep the plan and make a plan to every training session. This is basic structure I plan my trainings:

• Set goal to training session
• in agility for example handling sequence or obstacle training
• in obedience I set goals to each movement I train
• Also I might train just drive 
• I plan every step of training
• I might even make some trouble shooting before hand to make plan if some training errors occur
• I want to make why reward and what I want to gain by rewarding certain behavior
• I check how our training have been going before and plan the exercises according to that
• I vision my training session in my head and try to get picture how it should look
• after training I make summary of the training session
• how did it go
• what we have to improve
• most importantly I write what things went super good!!

In total I plan before and plan after. Training dairy is my best friend. There I find answer more than often to my questions and remember good training exercises. Sometimes I write thought about training and overall what we have done. I also set some long term goals from time to time. I also might analyse some other training methods and make pros and cons list.

After writing this, it feels like I do a lot. Reality is I do this much as I can but sometimes I just train what ever comes to my mind. I have seen, that planing and taking time to really think what I want from my dogs, makes  big difference. I can save time. Make better training results and also give better training to others. Best way to be better trainer for my dog and other handlers is to understand why we do things to way we do. It's never ending story.. And every must write their own!

Marianne, Louise and Pixie

Obedience competition

On Finland's independence we went to obedience competition in Varkaus. Pixie did super well. She got her first 1st prize result from winnerclass (=OB3) and got permission to compete in OB4. It was just perfect although Pixie didn't work as well as she does in training. I have planned to keep long brake before entering OB4. We need work on drive and accuracy on every aspect. I need to get her work in competition as well as she does in training.

Here's the video of our competition:

Louise competed in OB4 and got 2nd prize. Louise froze again in distance control. We have been doing lots on rewarding in that, but still need to do some work to make it work in competition. But healwork was so good!!! Only mistake was when I started running. I was too fast and it didn't look good. Louise has yet again shown some excellent competition head. She just works so nicely. Sometimes I think I can't ever have Spanish waterdog  as good as she is. My perfect perro <3 <3

Here video of Louise's OB4:



That's for now! I have to go to do some training... Then writing about our training.

Marianne, Louise and Pixie