agility league

I got into the agility league, and am very excited for our first match on Saturday.

They provide the course maps ahead of time! How cool is that?

It is especially helpful for the "games" run, which is not a typical game you see in a trial. Now, I can study the rules/map for a few days.

In our standard course there is no table (yea!), but there is a chute. We've never had to do a chute in a trial setting, since all our trials have been outdoors. I think judges tend to leave them out, since it could be a windy day, and chutes can be disastrous in windy conditions.

I pulled our chute out to practice for a few days, since we hardly ever do! Oreo loves the chute. At least at home. I'm hoping he loves it Saturday. Don't think he'll have as much fun as he did in this video. No wonder why my neighbors don't talk to me. They must think I'm nuts! But hey, you only grow old when you stop playing. I'm sure my neighbor's dog wishes he could come hang out with me for a day.

What I didn't realize about joining a league was how many emails would start piling up in my inbox! Oh my goodness!!!! I can't tell you how many emails I have gotten through the yahoo group. Wow. It is a lot to sort through.

I am looking forward to getting started, and seeing how Oreo does at his first new indoor environment.

Now the question is....Should I run like it's a trial or give him treats during our run?

Happy Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day to all who have served and are currently serving. I always feel bad that I have the day off, and Jeff, the true veteran, has to go to work.

(Jeff doesn't smoke anymore. So funny to see him with a cigarette in his mouth. Does the US Army really allow 12 year olds to join? LOL.)

I heard this week from one of my former students who graduated in June. He finished his basic and AIT training, and is about to be deployed to Afghanistan. He seems like such a baby to me, but I guess he is the same age as Jeff in this photo.

Wonder if he'll be writing his girlfriend letters, or just sending texts and emails? Won't be the same....they won't be covered in sand.

_______________________________________

I set up the course Lian had posted the other day. At least to the best of my ability.

Oreo had some trouble with it, especially the jumps out of the tunnel. I wasn't sure how to best handle them. Therefore, I kept making the same mistake over and over. At least I was consistent.

So, I got out my other dog, ya know, Misty, and tried it with her. Poor thing, got treated like a guinea pig.

I had time to think while running Misty and tried something new! Misty did the whole thing with no problem. I didn't even have a treat to reward her! Of course, she moves much slower.

Hmmm.

I finally got Oreo to do it successfully once, then we stopped to play ball, and Oreo spent some time rummaging in the dog garden.

I was going to set up the "shorties" sequence that Diana and other people have been doing, but I feel like we've been doing a lot of agility lately. I don't want to overdo it. Trying to keep it a game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59x8VaUJ4TM

Early in the morning, the dogs were chasing each other, and it was really fun to see Misty charging through the tunnel to try and cut off Oreo. I remember a day when she was terrified of the tunnel. Now it's playground equipment.

tricky t-day- take a bow

OK, so this isn't an entirely new trick, or the one I had planned for this week.

However, my new tricks aren't video ready yet. The time change has resulted in less trick training time. We're walking instead of training tricks in the morning.

I was inspired by some video footage I caught of Oreo in the yard, and thought I'd show an update of our "bow" trick. This has been a very hard trick to fade the treat lure. In fact, I'm learning that any trick I've taught by a lure is hard to fade. So, I'm trying to use treat luring less and less, now that I am more trick training savvy. LOL.

Anyhow, Oreo will now bow if the treat is in my lap. Still somewhat of a lure, but at least I don't have to hold the treat at his nose anymore.

Hopefully we'll have time to work on some of our new tricks this week and show one next Tuesday.

For today, this is what you get (sorry the lighting wasn't the greatest for this video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prx6BgtfH14

monday morning

"Please Mom, go to school already. Weekends with you exhaust me."

"Sigh....How long is this photo shoot gonna last? "

"A dog needs his rest."

"I'm too tired to make it the 3 feet to my nice, comfy, squishy, monogrammed bed."

"On second thought..."

fun in the sun

Went to another agility class on Saturday. We were lucky enough to be able to play outside! I haven't been on an outdoor course since the end of September. It was really great.

We broke the course into two parts, and then put it all together at the end.

Oreo did super. I had some trouble with the obstacle discrimination. He was supposed to take the dogwalk, but my body language kept sending him to the tunnel.

On our first run Oreo was super confident. He ran past a bunch of people, and did the teeter without even a glance toward them.

With each subsequent run, his sideways glances seemed to increase. Not sure what the difference was. Maybe he was getting tired. Maybe the people were moving more. Maybe he was reaching his stress limit. Overall though, he seemed pretty happy. He was barking in his pen, and even tried to jump out at one point.

Once we had to wait on the start line, while my teacher was giving some "homework" tips to another classmate. I had Oreo do some dance tricks, and I was surprised at how receptive he was to performing in such close proximity to other people.

Here is a video of our final run. We had one flub at the jump before the obstacle discrimination. Not sure what happened there. Perhaps the area was stressful, because we had revisited that jump several times in an attempt to handle the discrimination correctly. In our previous run, I just kept going after he went in the tunnel instead of doing the dogwalk, but after our run, we worked the jump/dogwalk in isolation. Maybe I should have just waited until our next turn, and tried again.

Also, Oreo did have quite a long stop on the teeter. His longest of the day. If I had been on the opposite side of the teeter, that may have been avoided.

Other than that though, we got our discrimination, and I was happy with our run. I'm always happy with Oreo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZUwNCCuobU

It was such a fun class, and great to spend the day outside in the sunshine, avoiding cleaning the house and yardwork!

Hoping to hear soon that I got into the agility league....if so, our first match is next Saturday.

put it in the jar

I try and keep Fridays mellow in my resource room. I'm tired. The kids are tired. However, I still want to keep order, somewhat of an academic environment, and encourage appropriate social skills.

Typically, we do an activity for half the period, then play a game together, and if they have done well that week (i.e. not driven me crazy), I give them snacks/candy.

This Friday, one student, "Matt", came into class a bit cranky. Whining. Saying, "It's Friday, why do we have to do anything? Can't we just watch a movie?"

Then, Matt proceeded to flop his head down on the table.

Having spent the past two months getting to know Mr. Moody-Pa-Toody, I decided to try a new tactic with him.

I got out my "complaint jar", and handed Matt a pile of blank "complaint slips".

I said, "Here write down your complaints, put them in the jar, and I'll read them later."

Well, Matt perked right up!

He stayed quiet, wrote out his complaints, and even engaged in my "stupid" activity.

Some of the other students were curious, and wanted to add some complaints to the jar as well.

"Sure, write down as many as you want!"

During my prep period, I opened the jar, and started reading....one slip at a time. This is always an amusing occasion. I looked forward to it all day.

Here are a sample of today's complaints:

-I hate doing work on Fridays.
-I want to sleep.
-I'm tired of doing work.
-I'm mad.
-I'm bored.
-This school smells like a garbage dump. (we are having a septic issue)
-Louie is bothering me.
-You should get a new jar.
-We should watch TV on Friday.
-More selection of candy (This I don't understand, I had over 10 different kinds of candy in my bowl today! Surely, there was something he liked?)
-Junior Scholastics (the magazine we were reading) are not fun. Just because they pay for books, doesn't mean we have to read them.
-This complaint jar needs to be bigger, because I can complain all day. (No kidding)

And then my favorite student put in a slip that read:

-Matt has 2 many complaints.

Oh, but then how would I amuse myself on a Friday afternoon? I'd have nothing good to read.