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. 

Living room ob and search work at fake ruins

I got a autumn flu last week. So I needed get dogs some activity without wearing me out. So we got a change go to fake ruins to train search. This was Freyas 2nd time at this place. She had two persons that in the hiding at the first round. First person was pretty easy. She was hidden in a concrete tunnel. Freya needed to enter it from a little hatch. She did just brilliant.

Second person was hidden in a wooden maze on a open field. First she got a scent but couldn't find a right pile. When she located the right pile she needed to find right route to target person. It took a while but didn't give up and found a way in from the roof the maze. Freya has really got a talent to searching. I have really started warm up to a idea that this would be one our sports. She loves to run and find people.

After this training I really got sick and I needed to do even more quiet training. So it was time to enter our living room to a special carpet training. Big pile of treats and clicker only thing you need to make dogs days super as ever. My plan was to teach some basic stuff. I ended up training more one thing together.

Freya trained her sit, down and stay while healing. I can only say that she was super good. I got finally stop fast and accurate. I did this with turning strait back at her few times and after that she got the idea. I did find out that she got little depend on the hand movement so needed also train healing while my arm was moving in different directions. But in the end we got it all together. Now I just have take this all to different places and make it work as well it did at home.



Second thing Freya work on was backing up a figure 8 between my legs. It took only one little finger target help to make her go backwards and rest just went like a charm. Circle round my right leg was much easier than the circle round my left leg. We are now at a point that she can make the whole figure 8 with few rewards. It will take just a little bit more training and we will have it. I o'boy she does it fast!! :D

Third thing we worked on was object retrieve. I used gloves, phone cover and wooden stick. I wanted Freya to learn to return any item I wanted. This is one part for SAR work where she need to find object left by humans and bring them to me from marked area. She has done already research part but our retrieve hasn't been good enough that Freya would return the items to me straight away.

Pixie worked on a working dog trial recall and retrieve. The difference from ob is that she need to come in front of first before she goes to healing position. This actually worked really well. I did first just position in front of me and then I did recall from few meters. Retrieve training I started from the front position and gave her the dumbbell and moved few cm just to make come to me again. After few of these session I did the whole retrieve chain and to my surprise Pixie just did it right!! Smart girl!! Now we just need to take it to bigger scale and get few more session. I think that will it.

So even when you can do lots of things in your living room. Even if you train for competition level work.

That's for now!!!

MLPF

Agility update and summer feeling

Pixie has been so cool in agility. I have been inspired by the videos from European Open. I noticed the speed and freedom of movement in during the courses. Especially Jenny Damn and Lilly video really impressed me. I could see that I have a brake on all the time in agility. So got really a boost to change a bit of our way of working. We have been training ever since more faster ways move on the course. I have bed habit of staying and waiting Pixie and also to try to make her slow down all the time. I have know tried to make our work faster and more fluent. So far so good!!! I so hope we get to experience one day WC or EO. Pixie is a dog that has all that it takes to be successful in those competitions. We just need to take our work a little bit father again.

I can only just say that our training has really change since these feelings from the videos. I have found the fire to do agility again. Pixie has also grown a lot in a year. As team we have had our very downs and we have had to rise and fight again. But I can see know our goal and route how to get there. I think there still be up and downs but Pixie deserves to get a ticket to conquer the world.

We have a dream. We have a destination, We have a goal. We are ready for the journey.

Freya has been working on jumping technique. She has improved millions miles! She has done basic work out and the rising series. She has been super! Her back legs are starting to work. Still not perfect and still we need physiotherapy but we are getting on a right directions. She has also started to work on the running dog walk. I have just tough her run over a plank. First she just run pass it but soon she got the idea. We will how this project will go on. Start was ok.

We also spend 3 day at my parents summer cottage. Three days of full of swimming and running. Here are some feeling from our little holiday:

More Sheep herding and ob

Sheep herding

I have to start with our sheep herding. Freya went to second training last weekend. First we did some basic moving of sheep. Freya started to have nice tiptoe movement and waited the sheep to move. We started to name her movement straight to sheep to "walk on". I have decided to use English as my cue language. Freya also did some work off leash of finding of flight distance of sheep. She worked really well and Freya has been very light to control. This sport is really taking me to a new place and really like it.

Obedience

Freya has been working on her basics. We started to work on stand and laying down during heal work. I first have started to make stand and laying down separately around me. Now we work on these position while I walk. Next stage is to bring them to real heal work. I haven't still been happy with her stopping speed so we a big project on that.

Also I have started to do staying in a group. This has been a little challenge for us. I think one of the reasons is that Freya thinks she need to offer some thing new while I just stand and wait. So we need to built this behavior from very little pieces so it will calm and stands distractions.

I think our best ob moment so far was training at my friends training field. When we were training two boys came to play soccer at the same field. Freya worked super! She didn't pay any notice to the boys and even work on when they kicked a ball next to us. I can just say- super puppy!!!

Pixie and I have been working on our team spirit. I have done very short training and praising her all the time. My goal is to make us work better together and with higher drive. Our 30 sec training has already done miracles. Pixie still works like charm in the more difficult task. I hope that soon we make everything together and make us work us team even better. Short training has really give us both more energy and the precision has improved a lot. Will I compete in Ob... I don't know, but I see as project to improve my skills as a trainer and improve our team work.

Next time some our agility work!

MLPF

Sheep herding

Last weekend we spend a day in sheep herding school. This was Freya's first time doing sheep herding. I wanted to know how she would work and would herding be something that Freya would like to do. First round was just horrible. Freya just barked and jumped all over in the line. My thought was that this will be a horrible day. Kaisa Hilska ,our trainer, just told me that this is normal with young dogs. It still didn't make feeling any better at this point.

On the second round we started to see will Freya have natural flanks. First she tried to come close and took after that some distance and look away. After a little brake she started to found the flank in both directions. This was really exciting watch when Freya started to use her genetic skills. I was just amazed. At that point I really knew we people get to involved in sheep herding. This is the sport where dog need to have own ideas and skills.

Third round we started to see will she have natural way to find balance in when she controls the sheep. This was pretty wild. Freya kept going on flanks at first and didn't really find the balance point. When she founded the balance point she started come forward right away. This a little problem because Freya didn't have any control commands yet. So this was our homework for the next. We need get "lay down" command better before we can start practicing moving in a balance with the sheep. In the end this day was so super and learned so much about my border collie and I now could tell better why have certain abilities and habits. Super super day!!! Thanks Kaisa!! Herding will be something we will work on in the future.  

Some much more to tell.. Until next time.

MLPF

OB training boost

Agility seasons biggest competitions are over. As usual I get ob training boost. All my girls have been working to improve their ob. It has been nice to train something else than agility even though we have done that also. This has been time to also really take some extra time for Freya.

Freya has been working on her heal work. We have done simple few steps work in different places. She has done super work. I always super treats when we do heal work. I want to make sure Freya does her heal work in maximum drive. It has been working on really well. My plan is also to make all the basic work ready in different places before we start making duration.

Other thing we have been working on is retrieve. I begun the retrieve with shaping of the griping of the dumbbell. First stage was a nose touch of dumbbell and after that Freya started to open her mouth and lifting the dumbbell. Next stages was her gripping the dumbbell when I was holding it in front of her. At this point I started to say "thank you" as soon as she took a hold of the dumbbell. We did this few sessions. Then I wanted Freya to hold it for few seconds. This point it is important to make successful sessions. After few times she started to notice that she needed to hold the dumbbell until I said thank you. 

So now I had the holding and giving up the dumbbell ready. Next stage was to bring this all to my side as this is the right place where she need to give up the dumbbell. First I just give her dumbbell and as soon as she gripped it I said "than you". This I did few short session. Next I started to hold the dumbbell little bit lower so that Freya needed lift the dumbbell up to be in right position. Did this until the dumbbell was on the floor. Next was to put the dumbbell on the floor so far that she needed to lift of from my side and go and retrieve it and come back. This stage I needed few times wait awhile that she offered the right place but soon she got hang of it.

I have still started every training session with short retrieves so that she remember the right place. At this point I have made few throws. Freya has super but I always make sure she is in the right mood and doing basic training every time makes sure that Freya has the right idea. I have also started to work on the speed with separate exercise. Freya also lost a little bit of tight grip. To that I changed for heavier dumbbell and this has been working. If the problem comes back with lighter dumbbells, I just need to do some holding training again.

Pixie has also worked on hear retrieve. I have done 30 s - 1 min training session of her just lifting up the dumbbell. My hope is make her drive rise from lifting the dumbbell. Pixie has nice retrieve but she has little bit slower return than the retrieve speed to the dumbbell. After lifting training we have done retrieves from short distance so that dumbbell is between Pixie and I. My goal is to train the retrieve chains last part stronger than it is. We will see will this improve her whole chain in the retrieve.

That's a little bit of our ob training! Now we need to get going to herding training... Freya will meet sheep for the second time... I'm so excited!!!

MLPF

Here is a video of Freyas training 6 months old:



Here is also video of Pixie in national team tryout: