Sunday, March 8, 2009

Wow-o-wow-o-wow!

Ok, so I didn't post yesterday, but i did do some training.

I started yesterday (Saturday) by going over to my friend Annie's with bungee and dempsey and practicing agility. Both dogs did really well, we seem to have hit on a way for Dempsey to have a running a-frame, which I think is important to save his shoulders from wear and tear. In addition, Annie has a set of 6 slanted weave poles, so we took them out and let Dempsey practice his new behavior in her yard. Once he figured out that yes, in fact there is such a thing as weaving in places other than our own backyard, he did fantastic. He even demo'd his leap-n-wiggle thru the last 4 poles behavior for Annie, and she thought it was darn funny :).

When I got home, I got out the red perch and worked with Peepers some more on it. I decided he needed to touch the red part to get clicked, and within a really short time he was touching away. He was still nervous, but he's so willing to try things that each rep makes him more brave in the face of scary things. I only had a few minutes, so Sparky only got a few reps of stepping up for almond pieces before I needed to leave. But it was a really good day. Oh, and video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slNMj2HiHRs and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI6WvZzpZvo

Today was also a big training day. We started by taking Bungee, Dempsey and Sidney over to a flyball practice. Bungee and Sid have done it before, but Dempsey's only even seen flyball from a distance once in his life. Bungee was his usual rockstar self - he went out there and played the game like he had been doing it every weekend for the past 2 years, when in fact he hasn't even seen any of the equipment for 2 years. His turn on the box didn't detriorate at all, and he still is passing into other dogs like he always has. Dempsey really impressed me - he did recalls in his lane while another dog was running down the other lane, and he just thought that was easy as pie. And he's fast. They both really impressed the team, and we were asked to join them this next weekend for a tournament in California. I haven't decided yet, but it would be fun for Bungee to get in the lanes again. Sidney got to have a turn, and showed everyone that the old man still has it. Man, I love playing with that dog.

So I came home and built a ramp that looks like the front of a flyball box for Dempsey to learn how to turn. I'll be taping these sessions, and posting them, so hopefully he'll progress at least somewhat well. After that is was back to training Peepers and the perch.

He was a superstar!!! Today I thought I could get Peepers to touch the perch with his foot. it turns out he thought that was an ok plan, too, and for his last rep he even started to put some weight on the perch. It was totally awesome. The change in his demeanor from tape #1 to #3 is just ridiculous, he's almost totally calm now around the perch. I suppose if nothing goes horribly wrong he'll be standing on it tomorrow. Video:

While I was playing with Peepers, Sparky suddenly decided she wanted to start doing recalls again for the first time in something like 4 years. So that was super exciting. I guess once the ball starts rolling, we really gain momentum LOL.

I'm almost done for the day, I may train Dempsey in the weaves, and may or may not start the box turn. The parrots will get to do some recalls for fun before they go to bed. Tomorrow is cleaning day, so they may or may not get to play tomorrow, but I'm pretty excited about the progress everyone is making, so I may just have to figure out some time to see what happend tomorrow.

EDIT: Youtube is giving me fits trying to post my videos. I'm still working on dowloading the 2 videos of Peepers - they been rejected because they're a little too long. So I am either finding a new home for them or learning how to use the video editing software I have. Either way I hope to have it done by the end of today (3/9/09)

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