Pixie's training update

Last competition in obedience

Pixie has improved a lot in ob. Her drive in heal work has gone much much better. I have also been able make metal object retrieve better even though she hates the metal dumbbell. It has been just perfect when doing the more moving task but yet again laying down and sitting was just terrible. She just went to Hawaii island and didn't do them in competition. She just dropped down from sitting and took a side way position in lying down. She just simple hates in being in one place and wait. Otherwise Pixie did pretty good last competition in OB. We will stop competing in ob because the next stage would be National team and in Finland we have the world’s best team. I just don’t have the energy work with Pixie in that level. She is little too steady dog to be super obedience dog.

All pictures by Sirpa Saari. Thank you a lot again!! These pics are just super! 

New goal in a tracking trial

Pixie has done tracking since she was a puppy. I have dreamed of going to a working dog trial with her. Her tracking is in pretty good shape. I need a little work on her stick work. Sometimes she runs too fast to notice the marking sticks that she need to find to get all the points. This week I worked on her working dog trial ob. She did her first jumps on 1 m jump with dumbbell. Pixie did pretty well. Her jump was strong and she didn’t hit the jump after a little touch. She also did the trial A-frame which is a 2 meter high and steep climbing obstacle. Pixie did with strong and wise work. She did it with nice speed and good controlled landing. Pixie did it well also with dumbbell. So I just need to get it all ready and I hope to get her a tracking title next spring.

Agility training Jaakko

After going thought the course I had a feeling that it could be done. I had maneuvers planned and I was sure Pixie would work like a charm. The truth was totally different. We started to work out on first four jumps and it felt like a nightmare. I was too fast, I was in a wrong place, I waited too long and sometimes too less. The flow that I had in mind was totally gone. I was feeling overwhelmed again. It felt like we couldn't make it even though it was a pretty simple task.

It took only few obstacles and I was in trouble again. My foot work in forced waltz was wrong and it made Pixie refuse from a jump. It was hard to think my foot work and still keep focus on the next task. I really have hard time to keep my mind and coordination in the same rhythm. Next problem situation was reverse turn that I did in wrong place or too so or even yet again with wrong foot work and body position. At this point I started to be totally whipped. I started to have enough of failing at this point. It really started to feel that I just have two left feet and really badly working concentration.

One error in my training came to action. Pixie read the course and didn't listen to my maneuvers. This is some that I done wrong. I have let her go to obstacles with so on so handling and I haven’t kept strict rules how to respond to my handling maneuvers. It’s not her fault. I just have used sometimes an easy way out of handling situations. I have let her read the course and not to really pay attention to me. I have let her fly with bad handling if it has work in that situation. This has cost me that sometimes she reads the course more than she listens what I say because haven’t kept clear rules what my different movements mean. 

This was a hard training mentally but I can go back and train some more. We still have a goal. Even the road to it seems to be painful and hard from time to time.

That's for now!! 

MLPF

Feeling is getting better.

We have had a long brake from agility competing. We have just trained and try to find our team work. Training hasn't gone well. I have had huge problems to get through a course without mistakes. Pixie has dropped par or two and my handling has been simple horrible. Piece by piece we started to make better and better parts during different courses. Best thing was we started be relaxed again. No hurry, no worries, just time to find ourselves again.

Last weekend we had a competition in Kirkkonummi. First course was super. Pixie only did contact mistake in A-frame but otherwise it was very nice run. Both us were relaxed and I kept in my mind a thought that I was there for Pixie and only for Pixie. This thought really helped me to concentrate to handling and keeping the contact to Pixie. Second run was a little disaster. Pixie did super running A-frame but crashed the jump and we needed to take a little brake. She also dropped also from dogwalk. So we had little cracking in our team work.

The third course was a team jumping course from WC 2014. It was cool to be able to try a course from WC. This was almost perfect run. Few turns went to too long but otherwise we were a team and we had a relaxed feeling. This is how agility should feel. We had so much fun. I so clad we had found our team spirit and right feeling. Just loving agility again.

Freya has been doing herding. We have still a conversation going about does she work for me or have her own fun. She has improved a lot and her herding drive is going higher and higher. Freya is getting better in stops and both of her flanks are opening. She also did her first flank training in a pen. At first she had her weak moment and lost her drive, then she collected her thoughts and she worked really well in tight space. Kaisa a few moments with her and she worked like charm. I have still a lot to learn how to give her commands with my body and voice.

Obedience training with Pixie

We have had our traditional autumn obedience boost. I have had a goal to make Pixie have more drive in her obedience work. We have done super short training and we have done only small parts of the tasks. After this small work we have done whole chains in different places.

Pixie heal work has been improving the whole time. She has got more drive and we got very good tip from Tarja Melakari. We have had a problem of loosing a contact. I have usually just stopped and started again. Tarja suggested that every time Pixie lost contact or walk too hard on the leg, we turn to a left and stop. After she corrects she gets reward. This is like a active way to correct the heal work and dog gets a reward from right work. This really started to pay of. Pixie contact just went better and better and also her position in the side got better. Pixie is a sensitive dog and this was a first good advice that made her drive rise. Thanks a lot Tarja!!!!!!

Second tip from Tarja was to change retrieve return and coming to my side so that Pixie goes from behind me. This really worked like a charm. Her drive went high and her coming to heal position became faster and better. Also this helped her retrieve returns. Although this has been hard to change when we have done competition training. Pixie still need a hand signal to change the way she return with a dumbbell. I hope to make this work because she works much much better this way.

In recall we have had problem with stop that Pixie won't stop in full force. This was solved with little help by rewarding her from behind. This was done with an assistant that had a ball. After I said stop she tossed the ball and I released her to the reward. Only few repeat with this and she had super stop. This work was rewarded us our best score in recall in competition last weekend.

All this work has really improved Pixies attitude and drive. So we had a competition last weekend. She started really nicely but as soon as she went to ring drive went down. She was sloppy and went down while sitting in place. She also missed down position in Z-walk. Pixie wasn't the best she could be at the competition. Only thing that come from our work was super recall stop. Other wise she did everything lower from her usually self. Sometimes it hard to work with a dog that has very small high drive working mode. Pixie does almost everything with canter and so but there is no spirit in her work. I just hope that she will do a bit better in a competition in few weeks.

That's for now... Next we will have some agility news :D :D :D  

Freya update :D

Freya’s herding

We have started to do stop and naming flanks. It has been very hard task for me. She super fast and her herding instinct has grown stronger and stronger which means that it has been harder to put term to her herding work. I have haft to run a lot but in the end it has paid off. Freya has started to be easier and easier to handle and she has starting to also give up on sheep when asked.

Today we worked on our away driving of a herd of sheep. First they ran away one time before we got a right place to balance pull from a big herd. On first try Freya try to make quick on strong rushes but soon she calmed down and started to run the herd in balance.

Our second task was to make a drive in a balanced position. I left Freya on down position and moved behind a herd of sheep. Freya was on a long leash but worked on loose leash the whole time and kept nice balanced place so that the herd didn’t run away. This was first time she worked on really calm and listen what I said. Actually she really sensitive and I had problems to keep myself calm and not give her unwanted commands. Freya also gave up sheep easily and we could walk away with loose leash. Just a super moment! 

Obedience Freya

Freya has been working on positions in healing. I finally found way to make her stop fast. I started to turn right in front of her after a cue. Soon Freya got the idea and started to do fast and accurate stops. I did this for few times every time we trained it and now she stops even if I keep walking on. Time really flies and I had forgotten how I thought this cue to Pixie. Down positions has been improving and it’s almost ready to trials.

We have also improved our healing work by working on in turns. Freya uses her back side really well. Our only problem seems to be that does moves too much and sometimes her bottom is behind my legs. I have just ignored the over turns and we have done it again. She has catch up really fast to hold her right position on my side. I also have made healing work on the right side just make body work both ways and keep her straight.

Freya's retrieve has also improved. I still work on our lift and return from short distance but I have also started to do speed work. In speed work I through a dumbbell to long distance and as soon as she catches the dumbbell I show her toy to make her run super fast back at me. It has worked really well. I still work on the separated pieces of the retrieve but the whole chain is getting better and better.

Freya's agility

I have started to teach Freya handling maneuvers. She has been fast learner and she seems have already a quiet good obstacle focus. Sometimes we do have problems if I keep a toy in my hand. Freya has a habit of changing side to my hand that has the toy. We have done some basic training to change to focus to my handling and it starting pay off. Other wise Freya and I have big tool box to handle different course combinations. Although she has only done maximum of 3-4 obstacle training. Usually I train maneuvers with 1-2 jumps.

Freya has also started to do 2on2off on seesaw. This will be her only obstacle that she will have stopping contacts. I have just shaped the position and teach her that to keep the position before I say "come". She has had her good and bad moments. Hardest thing has been when I have gone behind her. Freya wants to face me so had some difficulty make her give up on my face and focus on the position. Now she has started to do the whole seesaw. It has started to be easier to keep focus to the front with secondary reward a little away from the seesaw. It still a long way from ready but we are getting there.