Surviving Canadian Winter

With A Little Help From Our Friends!

Gabby - showing the youngsters how it's done!

I don't know why this picture looks so over-exposed. Straight from iPhoto it looks perfect, uploaded to the blog it's completely changed - weird.

We got these pictures 3 weeks ago when Sarah & I took the dogs for a walk behind Tamsu one day and the DH (dear husband) could come along with his camera. Sarah's dad was already out back with his training buddies doing some field training with their dogs, with the usual stack of dead birds at the line and other birds laying out in the field for the dogs to find & retrieve. We were heading east, where we'd let the dogs have a good run in the open fields as we make our way across into the bush (Canadian woods) for trails not nearly as nice as Finland!

Gabby, unable to resist the bird-doggin' fun off to the north of us, veered off on a fast line disappearing out into the field, only to come running back, clearly happy as a dog can be, holding this big duck, and looking stunning in her purple coat too (!! :-) ...much to the chagrin of the "field people" I'm sure - who had been muttering just loud enough so we could hear them about ALL our dogs in coats, Hah! Clearly this grand Golden lady was showing their youngsters how it's done right!

Vince had come along to take pictures for us, but did so only as far as his long lens would allow him to follow us... :-)) But he managed to get this one of Gabby - what a perfect shot! You can double click on it to enlarge.

Below, Bungee, Guinness & I heading for the trails, with Bungee pretty interested in the "bird work" (field training) going on off to the side. I can guarantee her she doesn't want any part of what they're doing over there.



Below: Sarah, Gabby (purple coat) and her gang


Off in the distance, Gabby's gorgeous son, Cutter, doing what all good bird dogs will do, finds a spot a bird was laying (during earlier training that day) and rolls in it with exuberance!


Here's the whole gang, heading for the trails. See ya' in a few hours.



Surviving Winter - A Mental Reflection
Thank goodness for good friends, warm fires & home theatre! It's turning out to feel like a long season already. It's been 3 years since we have stayed home with no solid plans to get away and enjoy southern latitudes. We both want to but so far things just haven't been right. Clearly, I'm out of practice at this winter bit. Lately I've had a small case of the "winter doldrums", just a combination of things I suppose not the least of which was the news about Gabby, (diagnosed with lymphoma 2 weeks ago), the lack of outdoor warmth, sunshine, or the fact that some of my most favorite training camps & fun trials were going on down in the Florida sunshine without us. Though in my heart I really shouldn't feel that way as I know there are bigger and more important reasons we were meant to stay home. On that note we are both very happy that we are here for those reasons. Still, the last week especially, I've been pretty blue about this grey, blah, winter condition.

Then we had a near-blizzard and death-defying experience to drive 90 km. home in from our running clinic last night, complete with raging winds, walls of snow & white-outs. My goodness we were glad to see our house! Waking up (alive!) to this morning's peaceful landscape, even with a new layer of snow, suddenly seems pretty good!

Meanwhile, as we make our way through this winter, (at times one long day at a time) I'm LOVING the training we're doing, and Bungee's progress! Her contacts are coming along brilliantly and I'm just loving what we're producing now. Thank goodness for families, great coaches, great dogs & good friends!

Today we send out a very special prayer ~ God Bless Gabby!
We love her dearly and send her kisses & kisses & kisses & more meatballs!

Happy Training...It's About Love!

Mid-January Update

Bungee's agility training is going really well. This week we're getting hit with a cold front called an "Alberta Clipper" that's driving temps down in to the -30's all week. Since most of our training takes place in unheated barns, all classes are canceled for the week until this extreme cold passes, I was relieved to hear that! I wasn't going to go in this cold anyway!

We've gotten a lot of training in lately, another reason I didn't mind missing a couple of days. In addition to our regular weekly group & private Tamsu agility classes, we've also enjoyed a series of "running clinics" and "box" workshops with Sarah Mairs on the weekends too. We haven't been keeping up with our obedience training lately, mainly due to agility conflicts, but we'll get back to it as soon as we can.

The "running clinics" are the most interesting to me, also possibly my least favorite, though I'm always glad we went. The "running clinic" courses are set up to emphasize acceleration for driving lines successfully and deceleration to turn accurately (or at all!), and they are also set up at master level and always quite challenging. They really force me to push myself to run better. They highlight my weaknesses in presenting good deceleration to Bungee for turning cues, and they highlight Bungee's inexperience in learning to take & drive lines, but we're both getting better all the time. I can see great teamwork developing between us and we really have a lot of fun. Bungee just loves the work so much, it makes it extra fun. The time of those classes just flies by much too fast.

Weave Poles
Bungee's weaving skills were so strong (perfect) with low level or normal class distractions, that at this point I am pushing Bungee pretty hard to make correct weaving as difficult as possible. Despite her extremely high toy drive, I have worked through toy distractions in & around the poles to the point that I can not create failure through toys. However I'm sure Susan could :-P (my default training question), which tells me I must think harder and perhaps employ a helper to assist with some moving toy distractions I cannot provide alone.

So since we hit a wall with toys, I moved on to the next big distraction I can work on alone: motion. We're doing really well in turning the distraction of motion and rough starts into smooth moves. It was a little surprising to see the effects of handling maneuvers on Bungee's weave pole skills. But it's awfully good information and just what I wanted to see! Much happier to find it out in training than on the trial field. We had a dynamite session on Sunday. We really gained a lot of ground.

That's how it's going with weaves, they just keep getting better and better and they were already great. I just keep challenging the skill, work through any weaknesses, and ultimately strengthening the skills. I guess that's what we do with every aspect of agility if I stop to think about it.

Contacts
Currently focusing on 2o2oNT skills for dog walk & teeter, still not sure what to do with the frame. I think I like Jenny's method for Ogin! wink/wink :-)) Back to nose touches, I backed up a bit at camp to get a stronger nose touch. Now contacts are coming much faster than before and are greatly improved and I like them again :-)

Crosses & Turns
We're still a little weak on rear crosses, and serps if they're quite far apart, but in all honesty she has not worked RC's nearly as much as front crosses, and ditto on the serps. Her 270 & 180 skills are nice.

Overall
Of course everything can be improved on, but I'm very proud of her and the work we've done so far. At 18 months she's running at par or better with almost all of the dogs in her classes & focus clinics, most being around 4 years old. The difference is she is not on the contacts yet, but I'm not worried. She'll be great on equipment once we get her contact picture together the way we want it, and we're working dillegently on that one now.

Stay warm everybody!

Happy Training...It's About Love!

Bungee's New Coat!

Surprise! Surprise!

Here's Bungee, enjoying her new coat!


Bungee in high style!


Santa came around to see Bungee twice this year, once at Christmas and another time this week! (Even though technically it's a new year :'). This time he brought her the most beautiful coat from Finland, custom-made just for her. Made of high-tech sport fabrics for winter weather, designed in Canadian colors, complete with her name embroidered, and decorated with her national flags of Finland & Canada too! Glow in the dark safety stripes as trim and a perfect fit!

As soon as I came in from the mailbox with the parcel, Bungee came up & tried to take the package right out of my hand. Wanting to see what she would do, I let her have it and watched her carry it all around the house a time or two before I helped her open it up! Pretty sure she knew it was for her right away! She could not keep her cold little nose out of it as we opened it either! We weren't prepared to find such a beautiful gift! It's the most beautiful gift one of our dogs has ever received!



Many thanks to Auntie Helena, Uncle Ville & brother One for the fabulous coat! Bungee will be decked out in great winter style from now on!





Happy Training....It's About Love!

Shaping the Ring Toss Game

Here's Bungee, keeping us busy round the clock!

The 1st stage of shaping was teaching Bungee (and Guinness) to pick up the rings. The 2nd stage of shaping was teaching them to place a ring on just the peg. The 3rd stage of shaping (in the video) was teaching them to place the rings, on the game, on the floor. Stage 4 is picking up and stacking all the rings in a steady motion, no matter where the game/rings are. (Which is where we are currently). Stage 5, if we decide to go that far, will be increasing the difficulty of playing the game to strengthen skills. However at that point we might also just prefer a new game! :-)) It is after all, just for fun!

My apologies for the little formatting glitch that is cutting off the right edge of the film.

Click here to go to our YouTube channel and see these and our other videos in their full wide-screen format, (we've added a couple new ones this week!) I also filmed weaves today & handling at the barn tonight, so lots more on the near horizon.



Until the next time, Happy Training...It's About Love!

2009 Contacts & Weaves & Trials

Welcome 2009!
I hope everyone survived their New Year's Eve celebrations without feeling too badly today! I'm starting off 2009 very excited about the prospect of seeing Bungee in trial in a couple of months.

Contacts & Weaves Camp
As you may recall, one of my Christmas presents was attendance for Bungee and I at a Say Yes workshop called: "Contacts & Weaves". The timing on this camp was perfect for us. I was really looking forward to going, and it didn't disappoint. It turned out to be just what we needed. I love it when training opportunities exceed my expectations. I have to admit I loved this camp!

First, each of our skills were evaluated in a number of areas that are necessary for good contacts & weaves. Bungee was on top of the curve with everything, with contacts themselves being our weakest skill, in my opinion. From that point a plan was set in place for each of us to get where we wanted to go with our skills. The rest of the weekend was spent working our buns off with one really fun session after another, reviewing what we just did and working again, with lots of instructor help, mixing up contacts, weaves and the complimentary skills associated with perfecting each. As camps go, this one goes on the list as one my favorites.

Contacts
I was relieved to have Susan's nod of "good" for her initial evaluation of Bungee's contacts. We were not as far off as I thought, always nice to hear. However, though technically "correct", I found then average, lacking drive and boring - definitely not the way any of us would like them to stay, especially me! This is also why I have not had Bungee working full pieces of equipment yet.

The camp information was terrific. What we learned has already improved her contacts a lot and filled in gaps for me too. I'm confident it will be a short road from here to the equipment.

The 1st "Aaaaha" Moment
The target cue should create ACCELERATION (not brakes) to the target! This was a real epiphany for me. I've always used the word "target", for my dog's contact "end-zone" cue, so I'll use that as the example here, but it doesn't matter what cue you use. But the end result should be the same, you give the cue and the dog pushes harder. I've always pictured the opposite, the target cue as brakes on the dog's speed over the contact.

But here it is, when I say the word "target" it should cue the dog to accelerate to the contact!

Upon hearing the cue to "target", the dog should ACCELERATE into the contact!

How did I get such backwards thinking all this time? I suppose I just pictured it that way from the start. Lucky for Bungee she will now be the recipient of my new and improved understanding, which will really help. First giant gap in my knowledge of how to get from what I had to what I wanted closed by camp info! Awesome!

In truth, I had actually backed off training contacts recently. I was not happy with the results I had and not sure how to get the ones I wanted. Meanwhile when I did work them, it seemed I was forever working through various learning curves of my own regarding the many herding & stalking type things that a clever little Border Collie can present to you in training contacts! It's not often one of my dogs will lead the parade in how we use our training time but leave it to Bungee, she was doing just that. To say the least, our contact training time did not seem very efficient!

I am really pleased to come away from camp being able to make short work of Bungee's contacts now, they're already so much better.

Weaves
Bungee's weaves were already just rocking before we went to this camp. I've always been proud of the awesome weave skills I've been able to teach my dogs, using Susan's 2 X 2 weave method. The method has always served us well. But now Susan has expanded the training insights to allow greater proofing and create even stronger skills. So how great is it when you go through a camp and get 2 really big "Aaahaa" moments? The 2nd came in the weaves department, and it is going to help us create even stronger skills.

As for Bungee's weave skills now, she is running 12 poles brilliantly, but we backed up to 4 poles a while back to really push the envelope for entries and find every point of failure we can to train through. Once we work through this stage we will move up to 6 & 12 again and focus on handling.

Unfortunately we're in the middle of winter and coming up on our coldest season. At this point in time our only weave training limitations are brought on by deep snow, super cold temperatures and conditions that require us to wait for barn-time to get some work in on them.

Guinness


Ketch


Bungee


Can you believe a new year is here already?
I'm really getting excited about the prospects of being ready for agility competition in 2009. I believe Bungee could handle a Jumpers or Jumpers with Weaves course now. But I intend to finish working through the new 2 X 2 program we revisited first. We'll also have to see where we're going to be for late-January, February and March trials before we go entering any. Warm beaches, green agility fields and big fish are starting to call our names once again, but at this point, no solid plans yet. With any luck our dollar will start gaining it's strength back as the first week of the New Year gets going.

Click here to see if you can spot Bungee's many appearances in the video clips Susan posted to her blog from camp!



Until the next time, Happy Training! ....It's About Love