FINALLY!!!! The videos are back! Over the summer, my tripod I used to take these videos vanished. I have no idea where it went...like it was stashed in a place in this house that it will never see the light of day again. I've looked and looked all over the place and could not find it. I eventually resigned to the fact that it is buried someplace in the basement or maybe got left outside in a place that I just haven't thought of. But, I broke down and got a new one and the tutorials are back in business.
Even though I hadn't been blogging regularly, I had been doing the Train
'Em Tasks Tutorials for rally off and on. This video features signs 5
and 6 which are the left and right turns. Like with the other videos, I
have the sign graphic and exercise description featured at the end of
the video in case you're one of those types of people who need to see a
how to in words too. Enjoy!!
Lars and I went back to the Utility A show ring for the first time after
his 7 month shoulder soft tissue injury rehab stint this past weekend. Both days were so, so
close with us NQing on the very last jump of directed jumping. He worked
so incredibly (this video is from Sunday and was a 197 before
directed jumping) and I'm beyond thrilled with him.
Here was the score break down for us: 1.5 points off in signals, 0 off
1st scent article, .5 point off second scent article, 1 point off
directed retrieve, 0 off moving stand, NQ Directed jumping.
For those of you guys who aren't familiar with Utility. What should have
happened with that directed jumping is Lars should have run away from
me in a straight line and turned and sat directly opposite of me on the
other side of the ring. The judge tells you which jump to go over. Then
you repeat the exercise and the judge tells you to send the dog over the
other jump. Lars is going to the place where he picked up the glove.
Saturday, we had Glove 1 which lives in the opposite corner of the
ring....and Lars went there instead of straight. No biggie...he needs
some more go out mileage and proofing with directed retrieve versus go
outs. It's really only been about 7 or 8 weeks since he's been back to
work after all of that rehab.
We have two legs from this spring...just need one more!! There are a lot
of shows coming up this winter...so we are going to get that last Q and
soon. I just know it! Go Lars!!!!!
A lot
of people ask me how do I get that attention and focus while heeling. I
just got a message about it this
afternoon. I'll share a portion of
what I wrote here:
Instead of drilling heeling as formal
heeling, I would incorporate a lot of play and games with the heeling. I
always tell people you want to be so cool to your dog, they will choose
working with you than looking at what is the distraction.
When they do pay attention to you, reward that...you want the dog to
think they get a bigger payoff by looking at you than the stuff on the
floor or the dog in their peripheral vision. When I taught the guys
heeling...I kept heeling patterns very short, very dynamic, and very
fun. I make a big deal out of heeling with attention with them and make
it feel like they cured cancer with their heeling. LOL I always stopped
working while they wanted to do more. My philosophy is to build the love
for the work first and then polish with the precision. Does that make
sense??
I like to think of this stuff like if I were a teacher.
We've always had those teachers in high school or college who were as
dry as dust....blah, blah, blah...reading from the text book is their
lecture...asking the back row of the class to pay attention. You
couldn't wait to get out of there if you showed up at all. Then we had
the teachers who were so cool and fun....interactive with their lectures
and examples of what they were teaching you. We all loved them and
worked hard and studied hard for their tests...we were present for their
class. We never missed the classes of the cool, hip and fun teachers.
Training dogs is very much like this...what sort of teacher are you??
